Bonnie Watson Coleman: “I thank the Congresswoman so much for her leadership and this Special Order hour and considering this subject matter…”

“I thank the Congresswoman so much for her leadership and this Special Order hour and considering this subject matter that we are going to discuss. I want to talk a little bit about something that has sort of been my observation and my experiences for a very long period of time and I think that are actually exacerbated by this Presidency that we currently have in this House. Let me, by way of association, just comment positively to the remarks of my colleague and the former speaker, Hakeem Jeffries from New York. I entitled my remarks ``From the Cradle to the Grave.'' From the cradle to the grave, Black people in America are required to be resilient, courteous, and persistent. The rules are always different. From the cradle to the grave, Black people in America must be comfortable and confident in ourselves, but only so much so that we do not intimidate or aggravate. From the cradle to the grave, Black people in America are told our plight, our struggle, and our sacrifice is a mere fantasy in post- racial America while we witness the reality of institutional racism, conscious discrimination, and our rich history erased or appropriated. From cradle to grave, Black people in America experience this racism and discrimination walking home from the corner store eating a pack of Skittles, listening to music at a gas station, or simply sitting in our neighborhood park.…”