[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16512-16513]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     U.N. CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I attended the conference in 
Durbin on racism with the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee). The 
Congressional Black Caucus had seven members there, and I think we were 
the ones that gave credibility to the United States, because I really 
feel that we missed an opportunity.
  So I would like to read to this body my statement that was delivered 
while we were there in Durbin, South Africa, at the United Nations 
Conference on Racism, Xenophobia, and Other Intolerance, because I 
think it states the point.
  ``It is a distinct honor to participate with representatives from 
around the world who are joined in one common concern, and that is the 
elimination of the scourge of racism. No nobler intent can there be to 
express our support for eradicating this menace that has permeated our 
halls of justice, our halls and places of power, our board rooms, our 
schoolrooms, and our main streets.
  I use as a frame of reference my own place of birth, the United 
States of America, which has failed to send a high-level delegation. So 
I have to say, shame, shame on America. You have

[[Page 16513]]

demonstrated your reluctance to sit at the table of nations to discuss 
past policies that have contaminated our relations between the majority 
and the minority in our own country. So deep are the wounds that 
healing appears to be unattainable and the political will evasive.
  The legacy of slavery not only has broken the spirit of many African 
Americans in the Diaspora, but also left generations to come without 
the hope to look ahead with clarity. We seek a future without the pain 
of suffering from the indignities and intolerances spawned by the 
involuntary seizure of a people from the very continent on which we 
stand today.
  The Congressional Black Caucus stands with the participating nations 
asking for a healing that will repair the broken and make them whole. 
But first our country must recognize its past mistakes and own up to 
them.
  It is disingenuous for critics to harp on the theme that the past is 
the past, which they had nothing to do with, and now we must fast-
forward to the future. It loses sight of the psychological and 
sociological damage remaining from the harsh and unjust treatment of 
the past. This refrain, ``the past is the past,'' cannot be washed away 
with only an apology, but could with a series of meaningful discussions 
held in the United States that acknowledge the past and develop plans 
for the future to eradicate racism.
  I therefore call on the United States to host its own conference on 
racism in the near future and to support the legislation of the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), H.R. 40, which will ask for a 
discussion, a study on racism.
  Reparations can consist of a variety of approaches that indeed 
further the advancement of those oppressed and provide benefits for 
their offspring. We need to look at better educational opportunities 
for our young people from kindergarten to college; health insurance 
coverage, maybe; the unjust justice system; racial profiling; 
affordable housing; environmental racism; job opportunities; creation 
of entrepreneurships. There are many, many ways in which 40 acres and a 
mule can translate into productive activities without the need for 
budget-busting expenditures.
  Let us start the debate here, and then go to our respective homes and 
continue these dialogues until the culture of racism and intolerance is 
eliminated from the face of the Earth, and especially, from the soil 
that we tilled and sowed.

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