[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 126 (Monday, July 19, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H3659]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ENDING SYSTEMIC RACISM
(Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute.)
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, most of the colleagues of this House
know that I have introduced H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Slavery
and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, which can
be defined as repairing.
I read to my colleagues an assessment of the U.N. Human Rights chief
in a landmark report, launched after the killing of George Floyd in the
United States, urging countries worldwide to do more to help end
discrimination, violence, and systemic racism against people of African
descent and to make amends to them, including repair, reparations.
That word strikes fear in most people's hearts and minds because they
don't take a moment to understand what ending systemic racism and
institutional racism is or what repairing is. Repairing is a global
concept. It means that if you have been harmed or there is something
broken, you fix it.
When you think about racism in the United States, it is something
broken. There are many ways to address it: dealing with education and
healthcare, dealing with the economy of people who have an enormous
wealth gap, but breaching the gap and bringing people together.
I ask my colleagues for us to move forward on H.R. 40 because it is
healing legislation, and it will bring Americans together.
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