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“WORLD CONFERENCE ON RACISM” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1511 on Aug. 2, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WORLD CONFERENCE ON RACISM
______
HON. DANNY K. DAVIS
of illinois
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, August 1, 2001
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, as we speak an intensive two week effort is underway in Geneva to finalize plans for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.
The World Conference, to be held in Durban, South Africa on August 31st, is expected to be the most important international meeting on racism ever held.
Given America's tragic history of racial oppression, racism and inequality and the bloody struggles required to end slavery, lynching, Jim Crow, discrimination in employment, education, health care and public accommodations one would assume that America would have some important lessons to share with the international community.
Given the heavy price the world has been forced to pay as a result of the slave trade one would assume that America would be sensitive and responsive to an attempt to clarify that history and examine means of redressing the wrongs of slavery and racism.
Given the ongoing conflicts, and the heritage of conflict, as a result of the exploitation of the third world by the U.S. and other developed nations largely driven by American slave system, driven by the lingering aftereffects of the slave trade one would assume that America would be sensitive and responsive to an attempt to clarify that history and examine means of
Given the contradictions arising from the international debt crisis, from the process of globalization and trade driven by the great inequalities between the rich nations and the poor nations, one would assume that America would be sensitive and responsive to an attempt to clarify that history and examine means of redressing the wrongs of slavery and racism.
And one would assume that America would feel a powerful sense of responsibility to share those experiences, because we understand the immense human, social and economic costs associated with the evils of racism and discrimination.
Unfortunately, if one were to make those assumptions, one would be wrong . . . our State Department has indicated that the United States will not attend the World Conference unless two items are struck from the proposed agenda: the characterization of Zionism as racism and the issue of reparations for slavery and colonialism.
In international forums from Ireland to the Mideast, from Southern Africa to the Indian sub-continent America has always insisted that problems cannot be solved, that differences cannot be narrowed if we refuse to discuss them.
Suddenly America has become the loner in world diplomacy, insisting that it is our way or no way.
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Germ Warfare Treaty the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty and now the World Conference on Racism.
What kind of super-power are we?
Are we about democracy, about democratic process, about transparency and mutual self interest.
Or are we about imposing our will on international consultations, about insisting on predetermining the outcomes of discussions between nations?
Only those who fear the outcome of fair and open discussion have reason to refuse to engage in debate and discussion.
I believe we have nothing to fear in openly and honestly exploring history and repudiating racism.
It's time to come to grips with racism and the legacy of racism. It's in our national interest and our international interest.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has corrected defined the problem: we need to ``find way to acknowledge the past without getting lost there; and to help heal old wounds without reopening them.''
If American is serious about its affirmation that racism and democracy are fundamentally incompatible, and I think that we are serious about it, then America must be at the table in Durban, South Africa on August 31st.
If I might paraphrase the words of Abraham Lincoln: America was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal. Now, we are being tested as to whether this nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
Mr. Speaker, I am optimistic that America, and the world, are firmly on the road to ending racism and resolving the lingering and persistent after effects of this great distortion of all human, civil and economic rights.
Mr. Speaker if we are to continue down that road, we must not, we cannot fail this great test.
Mr. Speaker, in the interests of all humankind let us hope and pray that America will not turn its back on the World Conference on Racism.
