Political Quotes

“I would like to thank my good friend, my colleague, the gentleman from the great State of New York (Mr. Jeffries) for his leadership and for coanchoring this hour, and for focusing the efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus and the attention on such an important and pressing matter as the issue of the decline of opportunities for millions of Americans. So often people ask the question, why do you have to talk about race? Why do you have to raise issues in the context of the disproportionality of issues as it applies to race? {time} 2045 If there is any question about why that is the need or why there is a need to do that, unfortunately, the events over the last week and the comments by individuals over the last week indicate why these issues are still so prevalent in our country. They talk about the original sin being slavery in this country, and the fact is so much of the disparate treatment of color is based on some institutional issues that are so pervasive in a number of different areas. For me, it is necessary because I represent a district that is very diverse, like many Members in this body. My district is home to Cliven Bundy, the rancher that has received so much national attention, not just because of the issues around his use of public lands, even though he had failed to pay the grazing fees and was prohibited from being on that land, but because of the racist, hate-filled words that he talked about pertaining to African Americans.…”