[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1544-S1545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Racism

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I take no pleasure in coming to the 
floor today. We in the Senate take pride in our decorum and our sense 
of comity with each other, so much so that we often twist ourselves 
into pretzels to avoid saying anything that might be interpreted as a 
criticism of another Senator. Yet there comes a time when these verbal 
gymnastics simply won't do. You are either going to speak the truth or 
fail to do justice to the values you hold dear.
  What one of our colleagues said last week about the events of January 
6 was felt by many to be racist and hurtful--a stain on the office he 
is so fortunate to hold.
  Look, I get that no one likes to be called racist, but sometimes 
there is just no other way to describe the use of bigoted tropes that 
for generations have threatened Black lives by stoking White fear of 
African Americans and Black men in particular.
  On a radio show, our colleague explained that he never feared for his 
safety during the January 6 insurrection of the U.S. Capitol. But make 
no mistake, under different circumstances, he would have been afraid. 
He said:

       Now, had the tables been turned--now, Joe, this will get me 
     in trouble--had the tables been turned and President Trump 
     won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black 
     Lives Matter and antifa protesters, I might have been a 
     little concerned.

  Is that not racism?
  I don't think the Senator is ignorant of the fact that for centuries 
in this country, White supremacy has thrived on using fear to justify 
oppression, discrimination, and violence against people of color. I do, 
however, think my colleague may be ignorant of the pain caused by his 
comments and unaware of how they compound the trauma that so many still 
feel in the wake of the events of January 6.
  Because I do not think I can do justice to that pain, I want to share 
with you an email I received this weekend. It is from one of the most 
devoted public servants I have ever had the pleasure of working with, 
an African-American member of my staff. His name is Keith Roachford. He 
has devoted nearly three and one-half decades to serving the people of 
New Jersey in Congress and his community as a faithful churchgoer and 
Boy Scout leader. It reads:

       Senator,
       I would not normally send you an email like this but I am 
     at a loss of how to express

[[Page S1545]]

     the outrage and hurt I am feeling from the comments made by 
     Senator Johnson that he would have been more afraid on 
     January 6th if the insurrectionists would have been from 
     Black Lives Matter.
       I am blessed to be on your staff and have had the 
     opportunity to serve as a staff member in the NJ delegation 
     for 34 years, but this is the most painful thing I have ever 
     heard being said by a US Senator.
       I could not imagine that the horrible and painful events 
     from [January] 6th could be replicated in a statement from a 
     sitting member of the Senate.
       However, Johnson's comment is worse than the image of the 
     insurrectionists walking through the Capitol building with 
     the confederate flag.
       He is perpetrating the racist trope that the country should 
     fear black people.
       I have experienced what it is like to have a taxi cab pass 
     you by in order to pick up white passengers who are further 
     down the block of where you are standing.
       Nothing can describe the feeling when you have entered a 
     store and having store clerks watch your every step while 
     shopping.
       Sandy--

  That is his wife--

     and I have had the conversations with our sons when they were 
     young about how to enter a store; not look suspicious; keep 
     your hands out of your pockets until you make your purchase; 
     or how to respond and talk to police officers in any 
     interaction.
       I have had the difficult conversation of explaining to a 
     young black scouter in our scout troop why a white campground 
     store clerk accused him of not paying for an item because he 
     was black.
       [This] type of hate speech is [not] new. The hardest part 
     of what he said is that in 2021, a United States Senator 
     would so freely express this type of hate out loud.
       I am so grateful for our officers who endured so many 
     injuries on [January] 6th, and I pray that they will recover 
     physically and mentally.
       They are going through so much right now, I feel guilty 
     that my email to you might sound shallow because of the pain 
     they are trying to overcome.
       I understand that the Senate works best when both sides can 
     find common ground, but how do [you] really reach common 
     ground when [such views can be held]?
       Again, I am sorry for reaching out late on Saturday 
     evening, but I needed to share this with you.
       Keith.

  To read these pained words both broke my heart and boiled my blood. 
Thousands of people of color serve in the U.S. Capitol workforce. They 
are legislative staffers like Keith and Capitol Police officers and 
maintenance workers, cafeteria staff, and so much more. I should not 
have to stand here and remind anyone that many of them feared for their 
lives on January 6. But not Senator Johnson. He felt no fear. He wasn't 
afraid because, and I quote:

       I knew those are people that love this country, that truly 
     respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the 
     law, so I wasn't concerned.

  People who love this country do not desecrate our most sacred 
democratic institutions and display symbols of racial hatred like the 
Confederate flag in the halls of Congress. People who respect law 
enforcement do not assault Capitol Police officers, beat them within 
inches of death, and hurl ugly epithets at officers of color. And 
people who would never do anything to break the law would not try to 
overturn the rule of law, plot to kill elected officials, and stop the 
peaceful transfer of power as instructed by the Constitution of the 
United States.
  Now, I know what some rightwing media pundits and some of my 
Republican colleagues will say. They say it every time they are asked 
to accept some responsibility for perpetuating the lies told by 
President Trump that inspired the violent events of January 6.
  They say: What about Black Lives Matter?
  They say: Well, what about it?
  Well, I say: Well, what about it?
  The violent picture they paint of this movement could not be more 
divorced from reality. At this point, several reputable studies have 
confirmed that the protests launched in the wake of George Floyd's 
chilling murder were overwhelmingly peaceful. I repeat: The Black Lives 
Matter movement is overwhelmingly peaceful. I know many people don't 
care about facts these days, but it is the truth.
  One study out of Harvard University analyzed 7,305 Black Lives Matter 
protests. The conclusion? Allow me to quote Professor Erica Chenoweth. 
She said:

       Only 3.7 percent of the protests involved property damage 
     or [some form of] vandalism. Some portion of these involved 
     neither police nor protesters, but people engaging in 
     vandalism or looting alongside the protests. In short, our 
     data suggest that 96.3 percent of events involved no property 
     damage or police injuries, and in 97.7 percent of events, no 
     injuries were reported among participants, bystanders or 
     police.

  Likewise, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project--an 
organization I might add is partially funded by the U.S. Department of 
State's Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations--examined 7,750 
different Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the Nation last 
summer. They found just 3 percent of those protests associated with any 
violence or property destruction whatsoever. They also concluded that 
police departments ``disproportionately used force while intervening in 
demonstrations associated with the [Black Lives Matter] movement 
relative to other types of demonstrations.''
  Indeed, on January 6, as we waited for hours for backup from the 
National Guard and other law enforcement agencies to come to the aid of 
Congress, I know that I am not the only one who could not help but 
think of the violent, government-sanctioned crackdowns that met Black 
Lives Matter protesters last summer.
  The bottom line is that these lies casting Black Lives Matter as 
violent have already done real damage. They have convinced millions of 
Americans that they should fear those who march under the banner of 
this movement for justice, when really it is the resurgence of violent 
White supremacy that should be Americans' real cause for alarm.
  Indeed, last October, the Department of Homeland Security issued a 
report confirming that White supremacists pose the most lethal domestic 
terror threat to the American people. Research from the Center for 
Strategic and International Studies finds that White supremacists and 
their sympathizers carried out two-thirds of terrorist plots and 
attacks in 2020.
  In the weeks since January 6, we have learned that far-right 
extremist groups that regularly preach White supremacy, such as the 
Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, played a major role in plotting and 
executing the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
  Every Member of this body owes their life to the sacrifices made that 
afternoon by Capitol Police officers, including officers of color. At 
least 100 officers were physically injured in the January 6 attack. One 
officer, a veteran and fellow New Jerseyan named Brian Sicknick, later 
succumbed to the injuries he sustained. Two others subsequently 
committed suicide. Hundreds of officers now carry with them invisible 
scars from the trauma they endured that day--scars that may not fade 
for years or even decades.
  For one of our colleagues to cast those who attacked the Capitol as 
harmless patriots while stroking fear of Black Americans is like 
rubbing salt in an open wound.
  Everybody in this body should know that when you perpetuate such 
racist tropes, you contribute to a culture that gives people permission 
to treat Black Americans as suspicious and their lives as expendable. 
We in the Senate are supposed to hold ourselves to a higher standard. 
We are supposed to advance America's long march toward a more perfect 
Union, not coddle and cater to those who would take us backwards, and 
we are supposed to stand up for the truth. That is what brought me to 
the floor today.
  I hope Members of this body on both sides of the aisle will join me 
in making sure that we do not debase the institution and the people we 
are called to serve--all the people--for whom so much pain has existed 
for years and exists still today.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.