[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 152 (Tuesday, November 4, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H9989-H9990]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE DISMANTLING OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Davis] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my 
extreme disappointment with the Supreme Court's ruling yesterday that 
allows the ban on affirmative action in California to stand. The 
Supreme Court's decision yesterday is consistent with its trend to 
reverse the gains of African-Americans, women, and minorities in this 
country. The Court's unwillingness to take this case and decide it on 
the merits will spur an all-out frontal attack on initiatives that seek 
to ensure that minorities receive equal opportunity and fairness in 
contracting, higher education, employment, and many other areas.
  Campaigns to eliminate preferences based on race and sex are under 
way in several States. Today voters in Houston, the Nation's fourth 
largest city, had an initiative on the ballot to end affirmative action 
in the area of public contracts. Perhaps W.E.B. Dubois was right when 
he said that the problem of the 21st century will be the problem of the 
color line.
  Proponents of dismantling affirmative action have argued that 
discrimination and isolation are no longer barriers to achievement. 
However, the statistics bear out a different result. The U.S. 
Department of Labor's Glass Ceiling Commission report, released March 
16, 1995, shows that while white men are only 43 percent of the Fortune 
2,000 work force, they hold 95 percent of the senior management jobs. 
In addition, this report revealed that women are only 8.6 percent of 
engineers, less than 1 percent of carpenters, 23 percent of practicing 
attorneys, 16 percent of police, and 3.7 percent of firefighters.
  Women and minorities are 66 percent of the population in this 
country, but only 35 percent of physicians, 20 percent of tenured 
professors, and 6 percent of school superintendents. Minority 
enrollments in law school and other graduate programs are plummeting 
for the first time in decades. Women make up 80 percent of the health 
service professionals, but white males dominate the senior management 
positions. It is plain that America is still a society where race and 
sex play major roles in how far you can go.
  The concept of affirmative action encompasses three fundamental 
principles of fairness: First, ensuring that every American has access 
to education; second, ensuring that every American has access to good 
jobs; and the third basic principle of affirmative action for which 
there can be no retreat is ensuring that every American

[[Page H9990]]

has the opportunity to advance as far in their field as their talents 
and hard work will take them.
  Affirmative action is really all about our Nation's economic 
competitiveness. It is about being inclusive and not exclusive. In 
other words, it is about making sure that every American regardless of 
gender or race has an opportunity to live out the American dream. It is 
about trying to make sure that individuals do, in fact, have access to 
equal opportunity.
  The Supreme Court's decision yesterday is a major setback for equal 
opportunity and diversity in this country. However, I urge all citizens 
who want to shatter the infamous glass ceiling, who want to make 
America's Statue of Liberty ring true when she says, I welcome your 
poor, tired, huddled masses of immigrants to our borders, to oppose 
efforts to end Federal affirmative action.
  If we end Federal affirmative action, we are likely to see the gap 
between the haves and the have-nots widen. We are likely to see 
contracting for minorities, women and small businesses severely 
decline. In addition, we are likely to see opportunities for higher 
education continue to be reduced. Therefore, I urge the masses to 
mobilize and defeat those who would take us backwards rather than 
forward. Affirmative action must remain a reality in America.

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