Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois and the gentlewoman from Florida for holding this Special Order hour. I give my deep appreciation to the Congressional Black Caucus for always using this time for us to talk about timely and relevant issues.

Last week, the gasp heard around the world came after a colleague from the other side of the aisle was talking about the National Defense Authorization Act, about the military, about veterans, and decided to call Black people colored people, something you haven't heard in decades.

I thought to myself, we are beyond this. Haven't we gotten beyond this? Well, I guess we have not.

The response was, the person misspoke, so I am going to pause after saying that because I still don't understand how that could be.

It is not an ignorant slip of the tongue. You do not misspeak. If you are going to say that, that is because it is front of mind. It is because that is how you see Black people. It is probably because that is what you have called Black people.

What is also interesting is that they are not here in the Chamber to hear this, to reflect on that kind of ignorance.

I know we are in a period of time where we want to be aggressive, hyper-aggressive, we want to push the envelope, we want to stoke fires, but I am here to tell you that we are not going to take the bait.

Black people are not going to be used as bait in these culture wars, and we are also not going to stand by and let you demoralize us, dehumanize us.

What is important to note is that the majority of the people who are in these Chambers every single day, helping us do this work, keeping us safe, running this floor, are Black. How shameful is it, while they are making sure that we are doing the people's business, to then be called that; men and women who could be our grandmothers, our parents, who fought in the civil rights movement to make sure that democracy was here in these Chambers for all of us.

It is fear and cowardice and ignorance that would allow those words to come out of your mouth.

It is important that you know Black people are not going anywhere. We are here. We are in these Chambers. We are in these committees. We are in your districts. We are your constituents.

Show some respect. Show some respect. In my community people like to say, you need to put some respect on my name. I didn't think that we were going to have to say that in these Chambers, but I see we do.

This is why we should not be banning books. This is why reading is so fundamental. This is why history is important because if we remove ourselves far enough from it, we start to make the same mistakes over again, and no one wants that to happen.

We are celebrating this year the March on Washington. We are fighting against forces that want to keep us from voting, that want to take away our votes, our voice, our children, our presence, our futures. That is a lot.

So on top of that, don't be disrespectful and call us out of our name. Colored is for crayons, not to name a person, not to name a race. Let's not get it twisted.

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