Date: 1995-03-06
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Thank you. Mr. CLYBURN. I appreciate your efforts and leadership. Affirmative action is a phrase that has caused a great deal of noise and potential separation in this country. And -yet. it was brought about for a remedy. The only reason why the phrase was ever devised is to address inequities in this country. Frequently we have said that this nation has come as far as it has with less than half of its brain power. One of the reasons why we say that is because women and minorities have been virtually ignored. Affirmative action actually started under President Richard Nixon. who recognized the inequities that existed and recognized the loss to this country. First of all. if there are no opportunities for minorities to have decent jobs and have an opportunity to move up. then they are not going to pay the taxes that they ought to be paying because every one ought to share that. However. you cannot pay if you do not make it. I think that some think that the only persons that have been helped have been black Americans. That is so far from the truth. First. I think it is wellknown that persons who have gained most by affirmative action have been white females. However. beyond that. especially in my State of Texas. short men. short white men. have gained an opportunity to. be members of the Texas Rangers. who had a ceiling. .a base on how tall one must be to be a Texas Ranger. I do not know if that meant that they had to be tall enough for someone to look in their faces upward when they stopped their cars on the Texas highways. or what. but it was discriminatory. It had eliminated virtually all MexicanAmericans in Texas from.becoming Texas Rangers. Blacks were. perhaps. eliminated for other reasons. Also. white males that were short had been eliminated from being hired. To remove this kind of discriminatory measure that really had no force. had no reason to be there. offered first opportunities to white males quicker than anyone else. because that is always the case. 100 percent of the persons who have been President of this country have been white males. 90 percent of the ones who make up this body where we serve are white males. I do not know that any affirmative action. program has served to hurt white males. It helped white males to get jobs on Southwest Airlines. when men brought a suit because they were eliminated from being hired as airline attendants. when they were called stewardesses. Then other airlines. too. have now started to hire. Most of the diversity went to white males when the change came. I tarted out as a young professional. before I was old enough to vote. at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Dallas as a registered professional nurse. The majority of the patients were male. That is because the majority of the veterans were male. The majority of the nurses were female. because traditionally. nursing had been thought of as a female profession in this country. Therefore. most of the nursing assistants had to be male. because of lifting. privacy. However. that has changed. now. Why did it change? Because of sensitivity. Affirmative action has brought about more sensitivity than any other measure. and recognizing that perhaps whole groups of people have been left out of professions that have something to offer if they felt there were opportunities within those professions. Mr. Speaker. this affirmative action is not just for black Americans. though most battles to do with civil rights have been fought by black Americans. but we are the last ones that receive most of the benefit from many of the battles that we fight. However. that is OK. because what is good for us is good for America. Fairness and opportunity are good for all Americans. Now we talk about being a global society. and a leader in the global world. We cannot be global leaders. eliminating and ignoring and not including diversity. Mr. Speaker. we say we are a nation of nations. and if we are. and we are. we have to be diverse. Every American must feel that there is an opportunity. The Constitution guarantees that. and it is recognized that we did not get covered by the Constitution until later in its history. because. you know. just 50 years ago. in 1944. were blacks able to vote in the primary in Texas. just 50 years ago. Laws had to be passed. lawsuits. lots of time in court. just to get the right to cast a vote. We have done a lot for this country. We have fought very. very vigorously in every war. We have brought about the opportunities for diversity in this country. We have brought the attention to the need for diversity in this country. Ithink if we do nothing else. we need to continue to educate the people of this Nation that affirmative action is for all people. There have been opportunities for nonblacks to work for Members of this Congress that are black. I think that is important. I think it is important to have those kinds of relationships and those opportunities. but without that sensitivity. without the idea of affirmative action.. I am not a quota supporter. because it implies just putting someone in the place. whether they are qualified or not. I do not support that. Itis not necessary. There are numerous people that. given the opportunity.