Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Plaskett for starting off this Special Order hour on racism and discrimination in the age of Trump. I really think that this is important and timely that we talk about this because, as you mentioned, these incidents are on the rise and we need to start to discuss them. We need to have open and honest, frank discussions about them, to be quite forward, because, if we don't, then we are never going to be able to move past this or be able to have a better America in regards to racism, hate, and discrimination if we don't begin to have that open dialogue. Not only does the country need to have an open dialogue, but I think that, as Members of Congress, we need to be the leaders in this area, and we should be the ones who are kicking off the dialogue and starting this. Make no mistake about it, I know a lot of people will tell you that racism is dead, that discrimination is a thing of the past, that it was something that happened to people that are baby boomers and older and that the effects of discrimination are no longer with us, but we know that is not true. We know that, again, as Ms. Plaskett just mentioned a second ago, since 2016, there has been a disturbing number of incidents that have occurred, a disturbing number of things that have been said, things that have been tweeted, the rise of the alt-right, and so many other things that we should be concerned about. The Southern Poverty Law Center supports this very claim.…”