Supreme Court Decision on Affirmative Action Will Have Devastating Effects

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BOWMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Cherfilus-McCormick for her leadership and for bringing together the CBC this evening to once again discuss racism in America.

How long are we going to have to have this conversation? It seems like day after day, month after month, year after year, since 1619, we have had to have this conversation in some context.

The Supreme Court's decision, unfortunately, is not surprising because three of our Court Justices were chosen by one of the most, if not the most, racist Presidents in American history, former President Donald Trump. He chose three of the Supreme Court Justices. His slogan is to Make America Great Again, take America back to a time when African Americans did not have the rights that we have fought for and died for throughout American history.

Here we go again. This Supreme Court has now become a Supreme Court that legislates as opposed to a Supreme Court that simply implements the pillars of our Constitution, the same Supreme Court that rolled back Roe v. Wade not too long ago, that is now making it easier to carry concealed weapons in Democrat-led States with strong gun laws like New York, the same Supreme Court that says it is okay to turn away LGBTQ customers if you do not want to do work for that particular demographic.

This Supreme Court has gone rogue, and this Supreme Court has lost its legitimacy. Look at the reports: members of the Supreme Court receiving gifts from billionaire donors over the course of their careers, members of the Supreme Court allowing billionaire conservative donors to pay for their children's tuition as they attend private schools.

This is unacceptable. This is unethical. There are members of the Supreme Court who should immediately resign or be impeached because of taking these gifts from conservative billionaire donors.

These recent decisions rolling back Roe v. Wade and definitely the one as it relates to affirmative action are in alignment with MAGA Republicans and extreme conservative Republicans in our country. Notice the hypocrisy. Notice the disgusting decision to use the 14th Amendment, which was designed to protect the civil rights and citizenship of newly freed slaves. They use that argument to now take away rights from African Americans as it refers to entry into our most prestigious institutions.

This decision is going to prohibit millions of African Americans across this country who are brilliant from receiving the same access and opportunity as their White peers.

I think all of that is captured in this chart behind me when we look at the issue of wealth inequality in America. Look at this chart and the median family wealth gap. The average White family median wealth is $171,000. Compare that to the average Black family. The median in an average Black family is $17,409. The average Hispanic family is $20,920.

It is the consistent attack on Black and Latino communities that contributes to this wealth gap. It is not just the affirmative action decision in terms of the higher education institutions of America. It is also as it relates to employment opportunities, to career opportunities, to private investment in Black and Latino businesses, to the Federal budget, and where our money is allocated toward right here in this body, the United States House of Representatives.

It goes back to the issue of globalization and blue-collar jobs leaving Black and Brown communities as part of a race to the bottom for profit based on low-cost labor in other countries. When those factory jobs left our country and left Black and Latino communities, nothing replaced those jobs. As a matter of fact, I have misspoken. Something did replace those jobs: heroin, the numbers game, and crack cocaine replaced those jobs. Do you know what else replaced those jobs? Law enforcement.

You take away access and opportunity from a jobs perspective, from an economic perspective, from a higher education perspective--also, by the way, because of our support of redlining Black communities, the White middle class in the 1930s and 1940s was able to buy homes at very low interest rates, very low cost, move to the suburbs, out of public housing, and build their wealth. Do you know who was forced to stay in public housing? African Americans and Latinos. Those communities were considered devalued, less valuable because of the race of the people who lived there.

This is historic. This is not just the enslavement of Africans, not just Jim Crow, not just the Black laws, not just the Homestead Act. This is redlining, the Iran-Contra scandal, and drugs in our community. Now, in 2023, we continue to have these conversations because of the Supreme Court's recent decision.

I am also here to say that to us in the Congressional Black Caucus and to African Americans across this country, these setbacks are only that. They are only setbacks. Each setback makes us stronger, makes us more powerful, makes us more united, and gives us a deeper sense of commitment and self-determination as we work to reclaim our Black sovereignty not just here in America but throughout the African diaspora, in the Caribbean, on the African Continent, and in Central and South America.

We don't die; we multiply. We will continue to multiply exponentially as we weather this storm, grow our enrollment in historically Black colleges--a shout-out to HBCUs for doing the great work that they do so that is going to grow.

We also are going to let our voices be heard as we vote with our feet and go to the polls next year because we have to bring transformational change to the United States of America. We have to build a nation that works for everybody, and right now, we do not have that nation.

I will close with this: The Supreme Court has not only revealed its illegitimacy through receiving gifts from billionaire conservative donors. We have to look at complete Supreme Court reform as it relates to ethics reform and ending lifetime appointments.

We also need to look at the size of the Supreme Court. It is time to expand the Court beyond the nine members. This nine-member Supreme Court has been in place since 1869. America was 30 million people in 1869. It is now 330 million people, over 10 times the size.

There are 7,000 cases presented to the Supreme Court every single year. They hear only 80 of them. They do not have the capacity to respond to the complexity, diversity, and nuance that is American society today.

It is time for democracy reform, and it begins with the Supreme Court. It also begins with the electoral college. It also begins with ending the filibuster. We change all that by voting the right people into office and getting the wrong ones out of office.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source