Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I watched the wrestling video and I hear the stories from a school in Texas or Banana Republic, and I find these things horrible. I don't think you can find any Member in this Chamber who doesn't find racial discrimination to be repugnant and inconsistent with basic standards of human decency. What Democrats and Republicans also agree on is that using hairstyles as an excuse for engaging in racial discrimination is wrong and is already illegal under Federal civil rights law, and I think that is where we come to a little bit of a disagreement. If a school administrator in Texas can't find title VII, he is not going to find this language in addition to title VII. In 1973, the Supreme Court held that using a pretextual reason as cover for undertaking an action prohibited by Federal civil rights laws is, nonetheless, a violation of Federal civil rights laws. As early as 1976, Federal courts held that discrimination on the basis of a hairstyle associated with a certain race or national origin may constitute racial discrimination. Looking at both this bill and the law, it appears to me that the behavior that we are seeking to make illegal is already illegal. However, both at markup and on the floor, our colleagues have made impassioned arguments about why this bill is necessary, even though we all agree that the activity that we are already talking about is already illegal.…”