Announcement By the Acting Chair

Floor Speech

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment. First, let me just say, our diversity is our strength. The diversity of this country is our strength. The diversity of our military is our strength.

I keep hearing the other side of the aisle say that DEI and critical race theory is about assigning characteristics to people based on the color of their skin.

That is not what DEI or critical race theory are. What they are, are a recognition that for 350 years, from the founding of this country in Jamestown through the civil rights movement, that our laws, our social mores assumed different characteristics based on the color of your skin and made Black people second-class citizens.

DEI is designed to address that and to ensure that our military, which kept my uncles from serving in combat because of the color of their skin, to make sure their children and grandchildren want to serve in that military because it is a welcoming and inclusive place.

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chairman, I want to personalize the remarks alluded to by our ranking member because I was born Black in Virginia, and I was raised there.

I represent the former capital of the Confederacy. My entire family was raised in the former Confederacy. For my entire life I have lived in the shadow of Robert E. Lee and his fellow Confederate generals. He was a looming presence in my hometown of Petersburg where the former Fort Lee sits.

He was a looming presence in my neighborhood. I want to talk about the monument that the gentleman from Virginia alluded to. One of the largest monuments to General Lee stood for 130 years around the corner from my house, which is ironic because General Lee himself did not believe monuments to Confederate generals should be erected because he recognized that countries where there is a civil war, monuments to the losing side help to foster wounds that haven't healed. That is exactly what happened in this country.

That monument, and many others, were put up as part of a backlash for the social, political, and economic gains of formerly enslaved people during Reconstruction. Another wave of monuments were put up as backlash to Brown v. Board of Education and the gains of the civil rights movement.

When that monument came down, I felt a weight off of my shoulders that I didn't know I was carrying. It was the burden of having to drive past a man who fought against the country he swore to serve to keep my ancestors enslaved. He owned people who could have been my ancestors and was documented to be horrifically cruel to them.

We are trying to recruit a diverse armed services. We need to recruit the sons and daughters and granddaughters of the descendants of slaves. Having them walk into a building on a base named for their former oppressors is not going to create a welcoming environment.

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chairman I rise in opposition to the amendment.

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford).

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Point of Order

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Tokuda).

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chair, I think this debate today demonstrates exactly why diversity, equity, and inclusion are necessary, not only in the military, but we probably need some training here in this body.

I am going to limit my remarks to the armed services. I want to break down what DEI training actually is because most of the comments I have heard today are not an accurate definition of what DEI is. I am going to take those words one at a time.

Diversity training and diversity efforts recognize that we need to have a military, servicemembers, and an officer corps that reflects the diversity of the country that they protect. For a wide variety of reasons, it doesn't.

We need to recognize that our diversity is our strength and that our unity is our power, but we can only have unity when we recognize and respect the diversity of this country and the people who serve.

Equity recognizes that despite the fact the first casualty of the Revolutionary War was a Black man, Black men weren't allowed to serve in the military until the Civil War. Until 1948, the service was segregated and Black men like my uncles were not allowed combat duty. My uncles were only allowed to cook when they served during World War II.

My uncles brought back home stories of the names they were called, of the threats they received, not from the enemy but from their fellow servicemembers. Their children and grandchildren, who heard those stories, didn't want to serve in a military that was unwelcoming to them.

Inclusion means we are creating an atmosphere and a workplace that is inclusive of the full diversity of everyone who serves.

Mr. Chair, whether we like it or not, the history of this country is complicated. The history of this country is rooted in the original sin of slavery and 100 years of Jim Crow when Black Americans were treated as second citizens, if they were treated as citizens at all.

We have to teach that history, and most of the amendments we have seen today have either tried to whitewash that history or ignore that it ever happened. We cannot do it. I urge the body to reject this amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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