[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 111 (Thursday, August 2, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       WORLD CONFERENCE ON RACISM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DANNY K. DAVIS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, August 1, 2001

  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, as we speak an intensive two week 
effort is underway in Geneva to finalize plans for the World Conference 
against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related 
Intolerance.
  The World Conference, to be held in Durban, South Africa on August 
31st, is expected to be the most important international meeting on 
racism ever held.
  Given America's tragic history of racial oppression, racism and 
inequality and the bloody struggles required to end slavery, lynching, 
Jim Crow, discrimination in employment, education, health care and 
public accommodations one would assume that America would have some 
important lessons to share with the international community.
  Given the heavy price the world has been forced to pay as a result of 
the slave trade one would assume that America would be sensitive and 
responsive to an attempt to clarify that history and examine means of 
redressing the wrongs of slavery and racism.
  Given the ongoing conflicts, and the heritage of conflict, as a 
result of the exploitation of the third world by the U.S. and other 
developed nations largely driven by American slave system, driven by 
the lingering aftereffects of the slave trade one would assume that 
America would be sensitive and responsive to an attempt to clarify that 
history and examine means of
  Given the contradictions arising from the international debt crisis, 
from the process of globalization and trade driven by the great 
inequalities between the rich nations and the poor nations, one would 
assume that America would be sensitive and responsive to an attempt to 
clarify that history and examine means of redressing the wrongs of 
slavery and racism.
  And one would assume that America would feel a powerful sense of 
responsibility to share those experiences, because we understand the 
immense human, social and economic costs associated with the evils of 
racism and discrimination.
  Unfortunately, if one were to make those assumptions, one would be 
wrong . . . our State Department has indicated that the United States 
will not attend the World Conference unless two items are struck from 
the proposed agenda: the characterization of Zionism as racism and the 
issue of reparations for slavery and colonialism.
  In international forums from Ireland to the Mideast, from Southern 
Africa to the Indian sub-continent America has always insisted that 
problems cannot be solved, that differences cannot be narrowed if we 
refuse to discuss them.
  Suddenly America has become the loner in world diplomacy, insisting 
that it is our way or no way.
  The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Germ Warfare Treaty the Kyoto 
Global Warming Treaty and now the World Conference on Racism.
  What kind of super-power are we?
  Are we about democracy, about democratic process, about transparency 
and mutual self interest.
  Or are we about imposing our will on international consultations, 
about insisting on predetermining the outcomes of discussions between 
nations?
  Only those who fear the outcome of fair and open discussion have 
reason to refuse to engage in debate and discussion.
  I believe we have nothing to fear in openly and honestly exploring 
history and repudiating racism.
  It's time to come to grips with racism and the legacy of racism. It's 
in our national interest and our international interest.
  U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has corrected defined the problem: 
we need to ``find way to acknowledge the past without getting lost 
there; and to help heal old wounds without reopening them.''
  If American is serious about its affirmation that racism and 
democracy are fundamentally incompatible, and I think that we are 
serious about it, then America must be at the table in Durban, South 
Africa on August 31st.
  If I might paraphrase the words of Abraham Lincoln: America was 
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men and 
women are created equal. Now, we are being tested as to whether this 
nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
  Mr. Speaker, I am optimistic that America, and the world, are firmly 
on the road to ending racism and resolving the lingering and persistent 
after effects of this great distortion of all human, civil and economic 
rights.
  Mr. Speaker if we are to continue down that road, we must not, we 
cannot fail this great test.
  Mr. Speaker, in the interests of all humankind let us hope and pray 
that America will not turn its back on the World Conference on Racism.