Sydney Kamlager-Dove: “I thank the gentleman from Illinois and the gentlewoman from Florida for holding this Special Order hour. I give my deep…”

“I thank the gentleman from Illinois and the gentlewoman from Florida for holding this Special Order hour. I give my deep appreciation to the Congressional Black Caucus for always using this time for us to talk about timely and relevant issues. Last week, the gasp heard around the world came after a colleague from the other side of the aisle was talking about the National Defense Authorization Act, about the military, about veterans, and decided to call Black people colored people, something you haven't heard in decades. I thought to myself, we are beyond this. Haven't we gotten beyond this? Well, I guess we have not. The response was, the person misspoke, so I am going to pause after saying that because I still don't understand how that could be. It is not an ignorant slip of the tongue. You do not misspeak. If you are going to say that, that is because it is front of mind. It is because that is how you see Black people. It is probably because that is what you have called Black people. What is also interesting is that they are not here in the Chamber to hear this, to reflect on that kind of ignorance. I know we are in a period of time where we want to be aggressive, hyper-aggressive, we want to push the envelope, we want to stoke fires, but I am here to tell you that we are not going to take the bait. Black people are not going to be used as bait in these culture wars, and we are also not going to stand by and let you demoralize us, dehumanize us.…”