The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE WRONG TARGET” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Senate section on pages S5928 on May 1, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE WRONG TARGET
Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, recently, Bob Herbert, a columnist for the New York Times, had a column about affirmative action and how the politics of meanness is in the ascent.
My colleagues have heard me address this question before. Affirmative action is basically an excellent thing that has helped to make opportunity available to many people who otherwise would not have it. Has it been abused occasionally? Yes, like any good thing is abused, just as religion and education are abused.
In this column, he concludes ``All of this will pass. Eventually we'll find our higher selves.''
I hope he is right.
But there is both the beast and the noble in all of us, and unless our leaders appeal to the noble in us, instead of the beast--instead of hatred and fear--the better instincts in our people will not come forward. That is true, not only in the United States but in any country.
It is important for politicians, journalists, members of the clergy, business leaders, labor leaders, and people of every walk of life to call upon us to reach out and do what is noble.
``One nation, under God, indivisible'' should be more than a phrase in our country.
At that point, I ask that the Bob Herbert article be printed in the Record.
The article follows:
[From the New York Times, Apr. 5, 1995]
The Wrong Target
(By Bob Herbert)
One of the many important issues to emerge battered and distorted from the insidious cavern of political demagoguery is affirmative action. If you listen to the latest crop of compulsively deceitful politicians, or tune into the howling degradation of talk radio, you might become convinced that the biggest problem of discrimination in the United States today is bias against white men.
The complaint is that legions of African-Americans, women and assorted others are taking jobs, promotions, classroom slots, theater tickets and the best seats on the bus from the folks who really deserve them--white guys.
The arguments against affirmative action are almost always crafted in racial terms because the demagogues know that race is the way to get the emotional flames roaring. In fact, the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action are women. If all parties would lower their voices and try to communicate in good faith, it could be pointed out that while there are problems with affirmative action--including some serious problems of fairness--the negative impact on white men has not been great, and the problems are correctable.
What you do not want to do, in a country where there are still prodigious amounts of race and sex discrimination, is abandon a long and honorable fight for justice in the face of political hysteria.
The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission recently reported that 95 percent of top corporate management positions in the United States are held by white men. Throughout corporate America, women, blacks and Latinos are paid less than white men for doing the same work. And if you believe there is a bias against white males in hiring, just pair up a white guy with a black guy and send them off in search of the same job.
Racism against blacks and sexism against women abound. And yet the outrage we hear today is about discrimination against white men.
A report on discrimination in employment commissioned by the Labor Department found very little evidence of employment discrimination against white men. The report was prepared by Alfred W. Blumrosen, a law professor at Rutgers University. It found that a ``high proportion'' of the so-called
``reverse discrimination'' claims brought by white men were without merit.
The politicians will tell you that the attack on affirmative action is a cry for racial justice. That is not so. It is an expression of the anger and frustration felt by large numbers of overwrought and underemployed white men. Their anxiety is understandable, but affirmative action is not their enemy. Downsized to the point of despair, their wages stagnant or falling, their prospects dim, these men are caught up in the treacherous world of technological innovation, economic globalization and unrestrained corporate greed. Buffeted by forces that seem beyond their control
(forces that are affecting everybody, not just white men), they listen to the demagogues. It's the blacks doing it to you. It's the women. They're getting your piece of the pie. Otherwise you'd be O.K.
affirmative action isn't anti-white
The Clinton Administration, under pressure, is reviewing Federal affirmative action programs. Fine. Let whatever abuses exist come to light. Scrap whatever programs are unnecessary or unfair. Where affirmative action is being used to help the disadvantaged, remove the racial or ethnic requirements. There are white kids all over the country who are economically and educationally deprived. Give them a hand.
But neither Bill Clinton nor anybody else should back off from the commitment to fight what is still an enormous and debilitating problem--discrimination against blacks, other ethnic minorities and women. Where affirmative action is needed to counter the effects of discrimination, let it be.
The United States is going through a period in which the politics of meanness is in the ascent. In many circles, it is unfashionable to be compassionate. Putting down others is the dominant mode of political expression, preferably with a vicious remark accompanied by cruel laughter.
All of this will pass. Eventually we'll find our higher selves and chase the dogs of bigotry and fear and ignorance from the yard. I am convinced this will happen. We are Americans, after all. We are better than we have been behaving lately.
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