Donald M. Payne: “I thank the gentlewoman from California as well for always making very clear and thoughtful comments and for being a…”

“I thank the gentlewoman from California as well for always making very clear and thoughtful comments and for being a leader in this House for many years and taking bold steps in your beliefs and your principles. Sometimes when it looked grim, that you might be stepping out, history has been kind to you and shown that you were right. So I appreciate your leadership in this United States House of Representatives. One of the issues that we also find around racism is mass incarceration, which is a topic that has come to the forefront. The President is taking bold steps in that direction to try to have a discussion and correct those issues. There is no reason why the United States of America, which comprises 5 percent of the world's population, has 25 percent of the incarcerated population in the world. That number is mind-boggling. We are talking about these schools that are having racial issues and they are not being addressed. {time} 2100 There is no mistake that when you look at the issue even around cocaine and the disparity in the length of time that you receive for having crack cocaine, which has predominantly been in African American communities, as opposed to powdered cocaine, which has predominantly been in the major population's community, but the sentences for crack cocaine are so much stiffer and longer that you can see a racial component in even those sentences given out by the justice system.…”