HomeOffice of the Special Representative for Racial Equity and JusticeRemarks & Releases...Remarks for Special Representative Cormier Smith’s Participation in the at the 12th Annual Black Women’s Roundtable’s Women of Power Summit

# 									Remarks for Special Representative Cormier Smith’s Participation in the at the 12th Annual Black Women’s Roundtable’s Women of Power Summit							

Remarks

Desirée Cormier Smith, Special Representative for Racial Equity and JusticeBureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

March 17, 2023

Good afternoon. My name is Desirée Cormier Smith, and I am the State Department’s first ever Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice.

I was appointed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June of last year to advance the human rights of members of marginalized racial, ethnic, and Indigenous communities, including people of African descent. In this historic new role, I am working to combat systemic racism, discrimination, violence, and xenophobia globally through U.S. foreign affairs work.

The United States has a rich diversity that is undoubtedly a source of national strength and pride. However, practitioners, policy makers, and Americans alike cannot and should not ignore the reality that our country – like too many others around the world – continues to grapple with racism, xenophobia, and discrimination – all the result of some of the uglier parts of our history. Though they be ugly, we must never forget them.

I would like to pause here to acknowledge that we’re gathered here this afternoon on the ancestral lands of the Piscataway and Anacostan peoples. We honor their contributions and resilience today, and I pay respect to their elders both past and present.

As the Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, my mandate is two-fold: to ensure U.S. foreign policy, processes, and programs advance the human rights of people belonging to marginalized racial, ethnic, and Indigenous communities, including people of African descent, and to combat systemic racism, discrimination, and xenophobia around the world – NOT because we have solved these challenges here in the United States, but because we recognize that these are global challenges that will require coordinated and sustained global solutions.

My mandate was created because the Biden-Harris Administration acknowledges the global nature of systemic racism.

Yet, there are many people who question the need for our diplomats to focus on racism in other countries. Why should the State Department be spending time, energy, and resources examining the effects of systemic racism and promoting equity around the world?

Well, one reason is that the State Department’s top priority is the protection of Americans and American interests. We’re doing this work because our country is diverse and multiracial. This work is about helping to combat racism, discrimination, and xenophobia everywhere for the safety of U.S. citizens inside and outside our borders. We’re doing this work to promote inclusive democracy, human rights, and political and economic stability around the world – and that is good for everyone.

Another important reason my role exists is because, while we acknowledge the very real and ongoing challenges we are facing here in the United States to fully address the long and lingering legacies of the forced relocation of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans and their descendants, we also recognize that these challenges are not unique to the United States. It’s not just us. Structural racism, discrimination, and xenophobia are global scourges that require global solutions. As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk put it plainly: “No country in the world is free of racism.”

The United States seeks to be a positive and productive member of a global community working to address racial and ethnic inequities as a means to a more just and peaceful world for all. And we are trying to show our commitment not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example by doing the hard but necessary work to address systemic racism here at home openly and honestly. Why? Because we know firsthand that structural racism weakens societies. It makes countries less prosperous, less stable, less equitable. It undermines development, peace, democracy, and rule of law. And it harms ***everyone***.

Because of the metastatic nature of racism, discrimination, and xenophobia, a concerted and urgent effort on the part of the entire global coalition of anti-racist governments, our communities, and our institutions is required to address this challenge. We also recognize anti-Black racism as a specific type of globally pervasive discrimination.

That’s why the United States is a party to international human rights treaties that enshrine states parties’ obligations to eliminate racial discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal protection of the law.

In June 2021, the United States fulfilled its obligation under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to submit its periodic report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, or CERD. We went a step further and nominated Fordham Professor Gay McDougall as an independent expert to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. She was successfully elected in June 2021.

At the UN General Assembly, the United States championed the establishment of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, and we went a step further and nominated Howard Law Professor Justin Hansford as an independent expert, who was successfully elected in December 2021. We were the only country that made a voluntary contribution to the launch of the Permanent Forum last year. Our contribution supported travel scholarships for 13 members of civil society as well as the livestream of the Permanent Forum’s inaugural session last December, which allowed 500 people around the world to tune in virtually.

The United States was also elected to the UN Human Rights Council for a three-year term beginning on January 1, 2022, and we’re prioritizing racial equity and justice in our agenda there, including by promoting the UN International Decade for People of African Descent.

And as part of our commitment to commemorating the Decade, we developed a program that brings together 91 local leaders of African descent from across the U.S. and around the world working to empower and uplift their communities. The program – FIRST OF ITS KIND – includes a two-week long program across three U.S. cities and the launch of a Global African Descendant Network (GADN) that will continue to foster collaboration and the exchange of ideas on how to support the economic empowerment and political participation of marginalized communities of African descent. I had the honor of meeting these phenomenal leaders on Monday in Baltimore and I am still basking in the collective hope and brilliance of that group. I am excited to see what they are able to do with the connections they build over these next two weeks.

Strengthening inclusive democracies worldwide is a core tenet of the Biden-Harris Administration’s foreign policy and the work I am leading to advance racial equity and justice. And to advance this goal, we’re using American leadership abroad to advance equity, human rights, and full inclusion for communities that are underserved or face barriers to inclusion.

This work is critical to ensuring and bolstering our own peace and security. When we invest and develop more equitable healthcare systems in other regions of the world, we are better protecting Americans from borderless pandemics. When we help to make political participation more inclusive in every corner of the globe, we’re helping to decrease the likelihood that members of marginalized communities will find belonging among illicit groups that threaten our national security. Our nation will be safer and more prosperous when we address the deep-rooted inequities that are caused by global racism. Fortifying policies globally that support societies free from racism, discrimination, and xenophobia will reduce corruption, economic-driven migration, and authoritarianism, and the disproportionate effects these ills have on underserved communities.

On his very first day in office, President Biden signed Executive Order 13985 Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, an ambitious, whole-of-government equity agenda. To that end, Secretary Blinken released the State Department’s Equity Action Plan in April of last year – outlining priorities, including the establishment of the Department’s first Agency Priority Goal (APG) to advance equity in U.S. foreign policies, programs, and processes and announcing plans to appoint a Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice – the position which I am now honored to occupy.

As the President has said: “Advancing equity is not a one-year project. It’s a generational commitment.” To double down on his commitment to strengthen the federal government’s ability to address the barriers that underserved communities continue to face, President Biden followed up with a new Executive Order last month entitled, Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.

Because racism is ubiquitous and ever-evolving, we must all be constantly adapting. When racism moves the goalpost, we have to imagine new ways to become anti-racist. Systemic racism, discrimination, and xenophobia and their harmful effects on our everyday lives should never be an afterthought.

But we cannot go at this alone. At the State Department, we understand that racism can be compounded by the intersection of other identities that are also the targets of oppression. Because equity is bigger than just racial equity, I’m only one member of a team of Department officials tasked with exploring ways U.S. foreign policy can help build a more just and equitable world. We fundamentally believe that when we defend equal rights of all people around the world — of women and girls in all their diversity, people of African descent, LGBTQI+ individuals, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and people of every ethnic background and religion — we ensure that those rights are protected for our own children here in America.

Maya Angelou once said that none of us can be free until everybody is free and, because I wholeheartedly agree, it’s the case I make everywhere I go.

I’m truly honored to be here among so many brilliant, inspirational, and beautiful Black women leaders. It’s invigorating to be in the company of leaders who fully understand the urgency of the moment and who are working nonstop to help even the playing field for Black women and every other marginalized community. Each of us in our respective fields must all work in concert to uproot systemic racism and ALL FORMS of discrimination from our society and our global community. Our country and the world are at an inflection point. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice, and I believe that it is up to all of us to bend it.

Black women have always and will continue to help close the gap between the promises of America and the reality on the ground for too many Americans. Women like you and me cannot afford to sit this fight out or operate in silos. We have a lot riding on America’s guarantee of liberty and justice for all. Freedom for Black women, in all our diversity, means freedom for everyone.

When bigotry, hate, and indifference win, we all lose. But if we harness the power of our collective brilliance in pursuit of equality and justice, we can build a better world that the one we’ve got now. As Bell Hooks put it, “Our struggle for liberation has significance only if it takes place within a feminist movement that has as its fundamental goal the liberation of all people.” This work is not easy. It will not be quick. I know it can be done, but we’ll have to do it together – in solidarity.

Thank you.

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