[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 25 (Thursday, February 6, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H859]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ADMINISTRATION'S LACK OF DIVERSITY IN ITS ACTIONS
(Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I am concerned about the lack of diversity,
the lack of care about diversity that this administration shows in its
appointments and its actions.
In the Federal judiciary, the President has appointed approximately
250 judges, 6 of whom are African American. That is a disturbing and
chilling number.
In a Super Bowl ad, he showed Alice Marie Johnson, whom he gave
executive clemency to, a commutation, and said he was trying to help
people who looked like her, an African American woman.
He has given two executive clemencies to African Americans. One was
Jack Johnson, posthumous, dead for 80 years. Only one living African
American has gotten a commutation, and that was when Kim Kardashian
championed her case, as Sylvester Stallone championed that of Jack
Johnson.
During his speech, he talked about the Tuskegee Airman, the woman who
he said would get a scholarship, the young girl. The fact is he just
appointed a TVA Board, Tennessee Valley Board, nine members--no African
Americans, one woman.
The lack of diversity is chilling. America is diverse. It is our
strength. We need to embrace it and not have an all White world.
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