On the recordNovember 16, 2015
First, let me thank the gentleman for his kind remarks, but also for really digging deeper into this subject and really raising, in many ways, the unconscious biases that are reflected oftentimes in the policies and in the laws of the land. One example that Chairman Butterfield and myself, co-chair for the Congressional Black Caucus, and Reverend Jackson have really been true leaders in, and that is the effort with the tech industry in terms of the diversity of the tech industry. We have learned and the data shows that many companies next door to me in the Silicon Valley, 2 to 5 percent may be African Americans and Latinos--maybe. To their credit, they are trying to figure out how to address this; but one of the areas that some of the companies are exploring now is looking at unconscious bias and how that is reflected in the hiring policies of their managers as it relates to the discrimination actually that takes place against people of color, especially African Americans. It is embedded in this whole system here in our country, both in the private and in the public sector, and we have to really begin to talk about it to raise the level of awareness so people understand we are not talking about individuals and we are not going after people. We are talking about biases that are embedded in our programs and policies and in the law of the land.
