Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Floor Speech

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Congressman Jonathan Jackson, I commend you and Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick for co-chairing tonight's Special Order hour.

I rise today with my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus to address the recent comments made on the House floor by Representative Eli Crane of Arizona during last week's debate on the National Defense Authorization Act.

While offering an amendment that would prohibit the Pentagon from participating in race-based concepts in hiring, promotion, or retention in our military, Representative Crane stated that the military was never intended to be ``inclusive,'' adding that the military strength is ``not in its diversity.''

Representative Crane would go on to refer to Black servicemen and servicewomen who defend our country with their lives as ``colored people.''

These words harken back to a dark and racist time in our country's history and should not be tolerated. Representative Crane's comment on the House floor was unprofessional, wholly inappropriate, and unbecoming of a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Furthermore, to have a word like that spoken anywhere but here on the House floor in the year 2023 actually speaks to the very need for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Sadly, in the days since, we have heard from Members on the other side of the aisle who have tried to provide cover for Representative Crane. We need to be absolutely clear here tonight. For a Member of this body to use the words ``colored people'' in this Chamber in 2023 is unconscionable, and it calls for nothing short of full condemnation.

From the Speaker of this body to the leadership on the other side of the aisle, to those who claim to be allies of the Congressional Black Caucus, your silence is deafening.

Representative Crane has publicly stated that he misspoke during debate. However, he has yet to formally apologize directly to his colleagues, including our former chair, the previous chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Joyce Beatty, who was handling debate on the very amendment before this body, or to the servicemen and servicewomen who deserve far more respect than the indignity of being reduced to a racial slur on the House floor; to our veterans, our veteran servicemembers who have had to deal with the consequences of segregation in our military, of being referred to as colored, even on the battlefields while fighting for our freedom and our justice.

What Representative Crane said last week while defending his amendment was shocking, but it was not unsurprising, given what the Republicans have shown us every single day on this issue.

Right now, in fact, the U.S. Marine Corps is without a confirmed commandant for the first time in over 160 years. Why? All because one Senator believes his political agenda is more important than the servicemembers of our military. That same Senator went on to say he thinks that White nationalists aren't racist. Well, what are they, then?

MAGA Republicans have made it their entire political agenda to fight against ``wokeism.'' Every time they use the word woke, I think they mean Black.

They want to ban diversity. They want to ban equity and inclusion programs and erase Black history from the classrooms. Ironically, what Representative Crane's comments made clear is that the very diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that they fight against are necessary. They are necessary in boardrooms, in our schools, in the halls of Congress, and, yes, in our military, which grows more diverse every day.

In fact, more than 40 percent of our servicemembers today are servicemembers from a broad array: African American, Latino, Asian American, and Pacific Islanders who are serving our country and do not deserve to be called anything other than honorable.

Instead of prioritizing military readiness and the needs of our servicemembers, MAGA Republicans are more concerned with stoking culture wars to appease their base, which will only make it more difficult to recruit servicemembers from diverse backgrounds.

In fact, I am a member of the Armed Services Committee, and when we were discussing this in committee, I put into the Record a report from the Gold Star families who conducted a survey of our servicemembers and their families who expressed the very concerns around racial tolerance and discrimination as a factor of whether or not people wanted to join the military.

If you are so concerned about recruitment, you might actually want to focus on eliminating the issues of hate, discrimination, and white supremacy in the military.

My message here tonight, along with my colleagues, is not only will the Congressional Black Caucus continue to call for Representative Crane to make a formal apology to this body, as well as to the servicemembers that were disrespected, but we also want to state in no uncertain terms that his views on diversity in the military are misguided.

Representative Crane, Representative Gaetz, and Senator Tuberville, we are not going back. We are not going back to the days of the 1950s. We are not going back to when our communities were segregated. We are not going back to when the term colored people was normalized. We are not going back here on the House floor, and we are not going back in America, and we will not be silenced. Our military is stronger when it reflects the entire American experience.

Now, it is unfortunate, and, in fact, it pains me that this must be said in 2023, but diversity is our Nation's strength, not its burden. Instead of using it as a culture war issue, a wedge issue, I hope that the Speaker of this body will condemn the remarks of Representative Crane and anyone else who would try to bring that type of divisive language to this body.

I commend my colleagues for being here tonight. I know that this is an issue that strikes to the core of who we are and who we represent.

We understand that when we lift up the Black community, we lift up everybody. The Congressional Black Caucus may stand for the 80 million people across the country, but we stand for all Americans, and, yes, we stand for our servicemembers in the military. May God bless them, and may God bless the United States of America.

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