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Statement before the Joint Hearing of the House Resources Committee

and Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Ada Deer, 1997

Good morning Chairman Campbell, Chairman Young, and Members of the

Committees. I am pleased to be here to present the Department of the Interior’s

views on proposed amendments to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978.

The Department of the Interior supports, without reservation, H.R. 1082 and its

companion bill, S. 569, which have incorporated the consensus-based tribal

amendments developed last year by tribal governments and the National Con-

gress of American Indians (NCAI) and the adoption community to improve the

Indian Child Welfare Act.

Background Information

Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 (ICWA), after ten years of

study on Indian child custody and placements revealed an alarming high rate of

out of home placements and adoptions. The strongest attribute of the ICWA is

the premise that an Indian child’s tribe is in a better position than a State or Fed-

eral court to make decisions or judgments on matters involving the relation-

ship of an Indian child to his or her tribe. The clear intent of Congress was

to defer to Indian tribes issues of cultural and social values as such relate to child

rearing.

In addition to protecting the best interests of Indian children, the ICWA has

also preserved the cultural integrity of Indian tribes because it affirmed tribal au-

thority over Indian child custody matters. As a result the long term benefit is, and

will be, the continued existence of Indian tribes.

Implementation of the ICWA

The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 is the essence of child welfare in Indian

Country and provides the needed protections for Indian children who are neg-

lected. On the whole, the ICWA has fulfilled the objective of giving Indian tribes

the opportunity to intervene on behalf of Indian children eligible for tribal mem-

bership in a particular tribe.

There have been concerns over certain aspects of the ICWA and the ICWA

should be revised to address problem areas and to ensure that the best interests

of Indian children are ultimately considered in all voluntary child custody pro-

ceedings. Although several high-profile cases were cited to support the introduc-

tion last year of ICWA amendments, which would have been detrimental to In-

dian tribes and families, those cases do not warrant a unilateral and unfettered

intrusion on tribal government authority.

Implications of Proposed Amendments to the ICWA

The provisions contained in H.R. 1082 and S. 569 reflect carefully crafted con-

sensus amendments between Indian tribes seeking to protect their children, cul-

ture and heritage and the interests of the adoption community seeking greater

clarity and certainty in the implementation of the ICWA. First and foremost, the

amendments will clarify the applicability of the ICWA to voluntary child custody

matters so that there are no ambiguities or uncertainties in the handling of these

cases. We know from experience that State courts have not always applied the

ICWA to voluntary child custody proceedings.

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The amendments will ensure that Indian tribes receive notice of voluntary

ICWA proceedings and also clarify what should be included in the notices. Timely

and adequate notice to tribes will ensure more appropriate and permanent place-

ment decisions for Indian children. Indian parents will be informed of their

rights and their children’s rights under the Act, ensuring that they make informed

decisions on the adoptive or foster care placement of their children. When tribes

and extended family members are allowed to participate in placement decisions,

the risk for disruption will be greatly reduced. While the amendments place lim-

itations on when Indian tribes and families may intervene and when birth par-

ents may withdraw their consent to an adoption, they protect the fundamental

rights of tribal sovereignty. Furthermore, the amendments will permit open

adoptions, when it is in the best interest of an Indian child, even if State law does

not so provide. Under an open adoption, Indian children will have access to their

natural family and cultural heritage when it is deemed appropriate.

An important consideration is that upon a tribe’s decision to intervene in a

voluntary child custody proceeding, the tribe must certify the tribal membership

status of an Indian child or their eligibility for membership according to tribal

law or custom. Thus, there would be no question that a child is Indian under the

ICWA and ensures that tribal membership determinations are not made arbi-

trarily. Lastly, the amendments will provide for criminal sanctions to discourage

fraudulent practices by individuals or agencies which knowingly misrepresent or

fail to disclose whether a child or the birth parent(s) are Indian to circumvent the

application of the ICWA.

In summary, the tribally developed amendments contained in H.R. 1082

and S. 569 clearly address the concerns which led to the introduction of Title III

of H.R. 3286 (104th Congress), including time frames for ICWA notifications,

timely interventions, and sanctions, definitive schemes for intervention, limita-

tions on the time for biological parents to withdraw consent to adoptive place-

ments, and finality in voluntary proceedings.

Effect of “Existing Indian Family” Concept

Chairman Campbell and Chairman Young, we want to express our grave con-

cern that the objectives of the ICWA continue to be frustrated by State court

created judicial exceptions to the ICWA. We are concerned that State court

judges who have created the “existing Indian family exception” are delving into

the sensitive and complicated areas of Indian cultural values, customs and prac-

tices which under existing law have been left exclusively to the judgment of In-

dian tribes. Legislation introduced last year, including H.R. 3286, sought to rat-

ify the “existing Indian family exception” by amending the ICWA to codify this

State-created concept. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, in striking Ti-

tle III from H.R. 3286, made clear its views that the concept of the “existing In-

dian family exception” is in direct contradiction to existing law. In rejecting the

“existing Indian family exception” concept, the Committee stated that “the

ICWA recognizes that the Federal trust responsibility and the role of Indian

tribes as parens patriae extend to all Indian children involved in all child cus-

tody proceedings.” [Report 104–335 accompanying S. 1962, 104th Cong., 2nd

Session].

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Position of the Department of the Interior

The Department of the Interior’s position on the emerging “existing Indian fam-

ily exception” concept is the same as previously stated in the Administration’s

statement of policy issued on May 9, 1996. We oppose any legislative recognition

of the concept.

The Department’s position is that the ICWA must continue to provide Fed-

eral protections for Indian families, tribes and Indian children involved in any

child custody proceeding, regardless of their individual circumstances. Thus, the

Department fully concurs with the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs’ assess-

ment and rejection of the “existing Indian family exception” concept and all of its

manifestations. We share the expressed concerns of tribal leaders and a majority

of your Committee members about continuing efforts to amend the ICWA, par-

ticularly those bills which would seriously limit and weaken the existing ICWA

protections available to Indian tribes and children in voluntary foster care and

adoption proceedings.

The United States has a government-to-government relationship with In-

dian tribal governments. Protection of their sovereign status, including preserva-

tion of tribal identity and the determination of Indian tribal membership, is fun-

damental to this relationship. The Congress, after ten years of study, passed the

Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (Pub. L. 95–608) as a means to remedy the many

years of widespread separation of Indian children from their families. The ICWA

established a successful dual system that establishes exclusive tribal jurisdiction

over Indian Child Welfare cases arising in Indian Country, and presumes tribal

jurisdiction in the cases involving Indian children, yet allows concurrent State ju-

risdiction in Indian child adoption and child custody proceedings where good

cause exists. This system, which authorizes tribal involvement and referral to

tribal courts, has been successful in protecting the interests of Indian tribal gov-

ernments, Indian children and Indian families for the past eighteen years.

Because the proposed amendments contained in H.R. 1082 and S. 569 will

strengthen the Act and continue to protect the lives and future of Indian children,

the Department fully embraces the provisions of H.R. 1082 and S. 569.

In closing, we appreciate the good faith efforts of tribal governments in ad-

dressing the ICWA-specific concerns raised by certain members of the Congress

and in developing tribally acceptable legislative amendments toward resolving

these issues within the past year. I would like to thank Chairman Campbell,

Chairman Young, and the Committee members for all their hard work and heart-

felt assistance to tribes in shepherding the tribal amendments through the leg-

islative process. This Administration will endeavor to ensure that tribal sover-

eignty will not be compromised, specifically, the right of tribal governments to

determine tribal membership and the right of tribal courts to determine internal

tribal relations.

This concludes my prepared statement. I will be pleased to answer any ques-

tions the Committees may have.

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Confronting Racism and Discrimination

Americans have long battled a wide range of prejudices that have included discrim-

ination on the basis of sex, race, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation, and

skin color. Viewing racism and discrimination through the eyes of women who have

experienced it provides an invaluable perspective for understanding the indignities

the targets of these prejudices have endured and the strength required to persevere in

the face of them.

In the 1890s, Mary Church Terrell emerged as a leader in the African Ameri-

can women’s club movement and served as the first president of the National Asso-

ciation of Colored Women. Through her description of discrimination in the early

1900s, she shares her frustration with the practice and she compels the reader to join

her in her resistance to it. In the 1940s, she was a leader in the movement to end dis-

crimination in Washington, D.C.’s restaurants, hotels, and other public accommoda-

tions.

Rep. Patsy Mink (D-HI) offers another perspective on race relations, that of a

Japanese American. In her 1971 speech to the Los Angeles Japanese-American Citi-

zens League, she outlines discriminatory actions and sentiments. She also discusses

generational differences between older Japanese Americans and their children, who

may have adopted the dominant cultures in ways that confuse their elders.

Senator Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL), the first African American elected to the

United States Senate, attracted national attention for her opposition to what ob-

servers initially thought was a noncontroversial matter. In July 1993, the Senate de-

bated renewing a patent on the Daughters of the Confederacy’s flag. Moseley-Braun’s

arguments against the measure led to its defeat.

In the 1980s and 1990s, gays and lesbians responded in increasingly public

ways to the legal, verbal, and physical attacks directed at them. Asserting their hu-

manity, their dignity, and their desire to be recognized as citizens possessing the same

civil rights as other Americans, gays and lesbians called on each other and on all

Americans to join them in their crusade. In her 1993 speech to the March on Wash-

ington, Urvashi Vaid challenged her listeners to join the struggle to end violence, dis-

crimination, and homophobia. She frames her arguments in the context of the civil

rights and feminist movements, describing the gay rights movement as “an integral

part of the American promise of freedom.”

A Black Woman Describes Prejudice in the Nation’s Capital,

Mary Church Terrell, 1900

For fifteen years I have resided in Washington, and while it was far from being a

paradise for colored people when I first touched these shores it has been doing its

level best ever since to make conditions for us intolerable. As a colored woman I

might enter Washington any night, a stranger in a strange land, and walk miles

without finding a place to lay my head. Unless I happened to know colored peo-

ple who live here or ran across a chance acquaintance who could recommend a

colored boarding-house to me, I should be obliged to spend the entire night wan-

dering about...

As a colored woman I may walk from the Capitol to the White House, rav-

enously hungry and abundantly supplied with money with which to purchase a

meal, without finding a single restaurant in which I would be permitted to take a

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morsel of food, if it was patronized by white people, unless I were willing to sit

behind a screen. As a colored woman I cannot visit the tomb of the Father of this

country which owes its very existence to the love of freedom in the human heart

and which stands for equal opportunity to all, without being forced to sit in the

Jim Crow section of an electric car which starts from the very heart of the city—

midway between the Capitol and the White House. If I refuse thus to be humili-

ated, I am cast into jail and forced to pay a fine for violating the Virginia laws.

Every hour in the day Jim Crow cars filled with colored people, many of whom

are intelligent and well to do, enter and leave the national capital...

Unless I am willing to engage in a few menial occupations, in which the pay

for my services would be very poor, there is no way for me to earn an honest liv-

ing, if I am not a trained nurse or a dressmaker or can secure a position as teacher

in the public schools, which is exceedingly difficult to do. It matters not what my

intellectual attainments may be or how great is the need of the services of a com-

petent person, if I try to enter many of the numerous vocations in which my

white sisters are allowed to engage, the door is shut in my face . . .

Some time ago a young woman who had already attracted some attention

in the literary world by her volume of short stories answered an advertisement

which appeared in a Washington newspaper, which called for the services of a

skilled stenographer and expert typewriter. It is unnecessary to state the reasons

why a young woman whose literary ability was so great as that possessed by the

one referred to should decide to earn money in this way. The applicants were re-

quested to send specimens of their work and answer certain questions concern-

ing their experience and their speed before they called in person. In reply to her

application the young colored woman, who, by the way, is very fair and attrac-

tive indeed, received a letter from the firm stating that her references and expe-

rience were the most satisfactory that had been sent and requesting her to call.

When she presented herself there was some doubt in the mind of the man to

whom she was directed concerning her [race], so he asked her point-blank

whether she was colored or white. When she confessed the truth the merchant

expressed great sorrow and deep regret that he could not avail himself of the

services of so competent a person, but frankly admitted that employing a col-

ored woman in his establishment in any except a menial position was simply out

of the question . . .

And so I might go on citing instance after instance to show the variety of

ways in which our people are sacrificed on the altar of prejudice in the Capital of

the United States and how almost insurmountable are the obstacles which block

his path to success. Early in life many a colored youth is so appalled by the help-

lessness and the hopelessness of his situation in this country that in a sort of sto-

ical despair he resigns himself to his fate. “What is the good of our trying to ac-

quire an education? We can’t all be preachers, teachers, doctors, and lawyers.

Besides those professions there is almost nothing for colored people to do but en-

gage in the most menial occupations, and we do not need an education for that.”

More than once such remarks, uttered by young men and women in our public

schools who possess brilliant intellects, have wrung my heart.

Reprinted from “What It Means to Be Colored in the Capital of the United

States,” The Independent, LXII (Jan. 24, 1907), pp. 181–182, 185.

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Seeking a Link with the Past, Rep. Patsy T. Mink, 1971

I would like to thank President Kanegai and the other officers and members of

the West Los Angeles Japanese-American Citizens League for this opportunity to

be with you at your thirtieth anniversary banquet and installation. I am delighted

to participate in this memorable occasion.

It must be difficult to look back thirty years to 1941 and relive the pains and

agonies that were inflicted upon you as citizens, unloved and unwanted in their

own country of their birth. Loving this land as much as any other citizen, it is dif-

ficult to fathom the despair and fury which many must have felt, yet who fought

back and within a few years had reestablished their lives and their futures. Most

of us remember these years vividly. Our faith in justice was tested many times

over. Our patriotism was proven by blood of our sons upon the battlefields.

Yet today, thirty years later to many even in this room, it is only a part of our

history. Our children, thirty years old and younger, cannot follow with us these

memories of the forties. They tire of our stories of the past. Their life is now, to-

day . . . tomorrow. Their youthful fervor was poured into the symbolism of the re-

peal of Title II of the Internal Security Act of 1950, portrayed by its title, Emergency

Detention Act. That Act became law nearly ten years after the Japanese were evac-

uated from the West Coast into “relocation camps.” Yet, it stood as a reminder of

what could happen again. Of course, despite the successful repeal, it could happen

again, as it did indeed to the Japanese-Americans who were rounded up without

any statutory authority whatsoever. It was not until 1950 that Title II became law.

It is quite evident that I am standing before an affluent group whose surface

appearance does not reveal the years of struggle and doubt that have ridden be-

hind you.

Sociologists have generally described the Japanese-Americans as an easily

acculturated people who quickly assimilated the ways of their surroundings. This

has always been in my view a friendly sort of jab at our cultural background, for

what it has come to mean for me is a description of a conformist which I hope I

am not!

I still dream that I shall be able to be a real participant in the changing sce-

nario of opportunity for all of America. In this respect, I share the deep frustra-

tion and anguish of our youth as I see so much around us that cries out for our

attention and that we continue to neglect.

Many factors have contributed towards a deepening sense of frustration

about our inability to solve our problems of poverty and racial prejudice. Un-

doubtedly the prolonged, unending involvement in Vietnam has contributed to

this sense of hopelessness. At least for our youth who must bear the ultimate bur-

den of this war, it seems unfair that they should be asked to serve their country

in this way when there are so many more important ways in which their youth

and energy can be directed to meet the urgent needs at home. They view our Gov-

ernment as impotent to deal with these basic issues.

It is true that Congress has passed a great many civil rights laws. The fact

that new, extra laws were found necessary to make it easier for some people to re-

alize their constitutional guarantees is a sad enough commentary on the Ameri-

can society, but what is even worse is the fact that the majority of our people are

still unready, personally, to extend these guarantees to all despite the Constitution

and all the civil rights laws, and despite their protestations to the contrary.

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Certainly, no one will admit his bigotry and prejudice—yet we always find

ways to clothe such feelings in more presentable forms—and few will openly ad-

vocate suppression or oppression of other men, but nevertheless, it exists.

Although Congress has repealed the Emergency Detention Act, the fight for

freedom is not over. We now see a new witch hunt proclaimed in which all Gov-

ernment employees will be examined for their memberships and organizations. It

seems that we have not yet succeeded in expunging the notion that dangerous per-

sons can be identified by class or group relationships and punished accordingly.

I believe that nobody can find safety in numbers—by huddling with the

larger mass in hopes of being overlooked. Those who seek to suppress will always

find ways to single out others. Instead, we must change the basic attitude that all

must conform or be classed as renegades and radicals. Our nation was founded

on the idealistic belief in individualism and pioneering spirit, and it would be

tragic for our own generation to forswear that ideal for the false security of in-

stant assimilation.

It seems to me that our society is large enough to accept a wide diversity of

types and opinions, and that no group should be forced to try to conform to the

image of the population as a whole. I sometimes wonder if our goal as Japanese-

Americans is to be so like the White Anglo-Saxon population as to be indistin-

guishable from it. If so, we will obviously never succeed!

There has been and continues to be prejudice in this country against Asians.

The basis of this is the belief that the Oriental is “inscrutable.” Having such base

feelings, it is simple to stir up public outrage against the recognition of the Peo-

ple’s Republic of China in the United Nations, for instance, even though reasoned

judgment dictates otherwise, unless of course a Yellow Communist is really worse

than a Red one!

The World War II detention overnight reduced the entire population of one

national origin to an enemy, stripped of property, rights of citizenship, human

dignity, and due process of law, without so much as even a stifled voice of con-

science among our leading scholars or civil libertarians. More recently, the Viet-

nam war has reinforced the view of Orientals as something less than fully human.

All Vietnamese stooping in the rice fields are pictured as the enemy, subhuman

without emotions, and for whom life is less valuable than for us.

During the trial of Lieutenant Calley, we were told about “MGR,” the “Mere

Gook Rule,” which was the underlying basis for Calley’s mindless assertion that

the slaughter of defenseless women and children, our prisoners of war, was “no

big thing.” The “Mere Gook Rule” holds that life is less important, less valuable to

an Oriental.

Laws that protect other human beings do not apply to “gooks.” One reporter

noted before the verdict became known that the essence of the Calley case was to

determine the validity of this rule. He described it as the “unspoken issue” at the

trial.

The issue was not as unspoken as most would prefer to believe. The indict-

ment drawn up by the Army against Lieutenant Calley stated in six separate

charges that he did at My Lai murder four “Oriental human beings” . . . murder

not less than thirty “Oriental human beings” . . . murder three “Oriental human

beings” . . . murder an unknown number of “Oriental human beings” not less

than seventy . . . and so on numbering 102. Thus, the Army did not charge him

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with the murder of human beings as presumably would have been the case had

Caucasians been involved, but instead charged the apparently lesser offense of

killing mere “Oriental human beings.”

The Army’s definition of the crime is hardly surprising inasmuch as the

Army itself could have been construed as on trial along with Calley for directing

a genocide against the Vietnamese. Indeed, the Lieutenant pleaded he was only

doing what he thought the Army wanted. It seems clear to me that the Army rec-

ognized the “Mere Gook Rule” officially by distinguishing between the murder of

human beings and “Oriental human beings.” When Calley was convicted, the re-

sulting thunder of criticism verified that many in the public also went along with

the concept of differing scales of humanity.

Somehow, we must put into perspective Dean Rusk’s dread of the “yellow

peril” expressed as justification for a massive antiballistics missile system on the one

hand, and on the other, a quest for improved relations with Peking. This latter event

could have a great meaning in our own lives as Japanese-Americans. We could help

this country begin to deal with Asians as people. Just the other day in a beauty par-

lor, I heard a congressional secretary discuss China and say, “An Asian is different,

you can never figure out what he’s really thinking. He has so little value for life!”

Instead of seeking refuge, we should seek to identify as Asians, and begin to

serve America as the means by which she can come to understand the problems

of the East. Our talents have not been used in American diplomacy, I suspect,

largely because we are still not trusted enough.

We must teach our country that life is no less valuable, and human dignity

no less precious, in Asia than elsewhere. Our detractors point to the large-scale

killings that have occurred in China, Vietnam, Pakistan, and elsewhere in Asia,

but we hear remarkably few references to the mass-slaughter of six million Jews

in Nazi gas chambers in World War II—that was done by Aryans, not Asians, and

the total far exceeds the loss of life in the Orient that has been used to justify the

debasement of “mere gooks.” I am not trying to compare one group against an-

other, but merely to point out that a lack of appreciation for the value of human

life can occur wherever totalitarian government exists. This makes it more than

vital for us to oppose such influences within our own country wherever they may

occur. The war in Vietnam has lasted for seven years. If Americans believed there

was the same worth in the life of an Asian, this war would have ended long ago.

If Americans were willing to concede that the Asian mind was no different than

his, a peace would have been forged in Paris long ago. I am convinced that racism

is at the heart of this immoral policy.

I know that many of you are puzzled and even dismayed by actions of some

of your sons and daughters who have insisted on a more aggressive role in com-

bating the war and other evils that exist in our society. I plead with you for un-

derstanding of this Third World movement in which not only young Japanese-

Americans but many minority groups are so deeply involved.

We are confronted with what seem to be many different revolutions taking

place all over the world...the black revolution, the revolution of emerging na-

tions, the youth revolution here and in other countries as well—and something

that was even more unheard of, the priests challenging the Vatican on the most

basic issues of celibacy and birth control. It is no accident that these things are all

happening at the same time, for they all stem from the same great idea that has

786 Documents

somehow been rekindled in the world, and that is the idea that the individual is

important.

All of the systems of the world today have this in common: for they are

mainly concerned with industrialization, efficiency, and gross national product;

the value of Man is forgotten.

The children of some of you here tonight are involved in the great protests

of today—are they chronic malcontents and subversives? I think not—I think

they are probably fairly well-educated, thoughtful people who see certain condi-

tions they don’t like and are trying to do something about it. I’m not sure they

know exactly what they want to do. I do know they are clearly dissatisfied with

the way their world has been run in the past.

So, the problem is not what to do about dissent among our young people—

the problem is what to do about the causes of this dissent. The question is not

“how to suppress the dissent” but how to make it meaningful...how to make it

productive of a better society which truly places high value on individual human

beings as human beings and not merely as so many cogs in the great, cold and im-

personal machinery of an industrialized society.

I, for one, believe that the grievances of our youth are real and that they are

important. Merely because the majority of students are not involved . . . merely

because the dissidents are few...should not minimize the need for serious ef-

forts to effectuate change. Our eighteen-year-olds now have the right to vote.

Whether we like it or not, we will have to take better account of their wishes.

Their acceptance as adults will bring into policy making eleven million new vot-

ers next year. Their cause for identity must be encouraged.

Our sons and daughters seek to establish a link with the past. They want to

discover who they are, why they are here, and where their destinies are to take

them. So many of our children are growing up in complete isolation in a society

that places a premium on conformity, in middle-class homes where parents still

want to play down their differences, and prefer to homogenize with society. Some

of these children are rebelling and are seeking ways to preserve their uniqueness

and their special heritage. I see pride and strength in this.

One of the most promising avenues for this renewed search for one’s her-

itage is in our school systems—the logical place for instructing children in the

knowledge they need. Programs of Ethnic Heritage Studies are needed in our

schools. I feel that this would be particularly valuable in Hawaii, California, and

other areas where there are large numbers of children of Oriental descent.

It seems to me that we as Asians have a large stake in encouraging and pro-

moting such a program. We cannot and must not presume knowledge about Asia

merely because we are Asians. This requires concentrated study and dedicated de-

termination. Of course, we do not need to become scholars cloistered in the ivory

tower of some campus. We need to become aware of the enormous history of Asia

and through our daily lives, regardless of what our profession, translate it to all

the people with whom we deal. We have not fully met our responsibility to edu-

cate the public about Asia and its people.

I hope that all Japanese-American organizations and others with strong be-

liefs in the magnificent history and culture of the Orient will now help lead the

way to a more enlightened America. We have an immense story to tell, for as I

have said the public at large too often assumes that all civilization is Western and

Documents 787

no worth is given to the human values of the East. As long as this belief persists,

we will have future Vietnams. The way to counteract it is to build public knowl-

edge, through school courses, travel, and dedicated emphasis on increased com-

munications, so that our people will know and appreciate all that is Asian.

Last Thursday night in a display of utter ignorance and contempt for diver-

sity, the House of Representatives killed the ethnic heritage studies program by a

vote of 200 ayes to 159 noes. And so you see, I speak of an urgent matter. We are

so few and they who do not care to understand us are so numerous.

It is fine for all citizens to pursue the good life and worldly goods on which

our society places such emphasis, but there is increasing recognition that all will

be ashes in our mouths unless our place as individuals is preserved. This is what

the young are seeking—and I am among those who would rejoice in their goals.

They need the guidance and support of their parents to succeed, but in any

event with or without us, they are trying. It behooves us to do all we can to accept

their aspirations, if not all of their actions, in the hope that this new generation

will be able to find a special role for themselves in America, to help build her

character, to define her morality, to give her a depth in soul, and to make her re-

alize the beauty of our diverse society with many races and cultures of which we

are one small minority.

This address was delivered before the West Los Angeles Japanese-American Cit-

izens League in Playa Del Rey, California, November 6, 1971. Reprinted by

permission.

Getting Beyond Racism, Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, 1993

Madam President, I really had not wanted to have to do this because in my re-

marks I believe that I was restrained and tempered. I talked about the committee

procedure. I talked about the lack of germaneness of this amendment. I talked

about how it was not necessary for this organization to receive the design patent

extension, which was an extraordinary extension of an extraordinary act to begin

with.

What I did not talk about and what I am constrained now to talk about with

no small degree of emotion is the symbolism of what this vote . . . That is what

this vote really means.

I started off—maybe—I do not know—it is just my day to get to talk about

race. Maybe I am just lucky about that today.

I have to tell you this vote is about race. It is about racial symbolism. It is

about racial symbols, the racial past, and the single most painful episode in Amer-

ican history.

I have just gone through—in fact in committee yesterday I leaned over to

my colleague Dianne Feinstein and I said, “You know, Dianne, I am stunned

about how often and how much race comes up in conversation and debate in this

general assembly.” Did not I say that?...

So I turned to my colleague, Dianne Feinstein. You know, I am really stunned

by how often and how much the issue of race, the subject of racism, comes up in

this U.S. Senate, comes up in this body and how I have to, on many occasions, as

the only African-American here, constrain myself to be calm, to be laid back, to talk

about these issues in very intellectual, nonemotional terms, and that is what I do

on a regular basis, Madam President. That is part and parcel of my daily existence.

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