'What Are We Doing Here?': AOC Calls Out Republicans Over Opposition To Diversity Efforts

4 months ago

At a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke about discrimination in work.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.

00:03Ms. Wiley, I found some of the opening statements quite interesting that we heard

00:09from our witnesses here today, plenty of claims being thrown out there.

00:15One I thought that was particularly interesting was the idea that a company,

00:19a large company, perhaps a company like Disney or any other employer,

00:25aspiring to maybe have about 30% of new hires and

00:31having a goal of 30% of new hires being from diverse backgrounds or people of color.

00:36And the assertion that that kind of goal was anti-white discrimination.

00:41I wanted to break things down in terms of the numbers a little bit.

00:47About what percentage of Americans are white, non-Hispanic white?

00:55I think we're hearing from the census, like 59, 60%, is that right?

01:01That is about right, yes.

01:03Okay, so about 59% of every American, of all Americans, are white.

01:10That would mean about 40% of people are people of color in the US population.

01:16And it seems to be that the argument is that

01:21Seeking to have 30% of your hires be people of color is anti-white discrimination.

01:28Can you shed some light on the logic of that for me, please?

01:33No, because that's not logical.

01:36What I can say is what is factually accurate around the state of our laws.

01:41And that is aspirations are not unconstitutional.

01:46Aspirations are not antithetical or

01:49in any way a violation of Title VII under our court's precedence or

01:55based on the plain language of Title VII.

01:58And in fact, this is exactly what the fear mongering is doing.

02:03We know, for example, that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had

02:07a million complaints between 2010 and 2018.

02:13A million complaints, anybody can file one.

02:16A white man who's experiencing discrimination on the job can file one,

02:21and it will be investigated.

02:22That is the job of the EEOC.

02:25What we're hearing and seeing is a large swath of cases that are based on race

02:31that are people of color, that are women of all races.

02:35In fact, the majority of hostile environment harassment cases are

02:39disproportionately women of all races, and black women in particular.

02:44And that's in the statistics that they provide on the website.

02:47I think the question here isn't whether people can file complaints and

02:52charges with the EEOC, it's who is filing them and why.

02:57And the aspirations themselves are consistent with our goals.

03:01Very well said, thank you.

03:02And I find that point so interesting and fascinating because

03:08this discussion around how diversity, equity, and

03:12inclusion policies are discriminatory in the long history of anti-integration

03:19in this country, and reaction and opposition to the Civil Rights Act,

03:22the Fair Housing Act, and more.

03:26I think one of the things that we need to take a look at is the world that

03:30they're fighting for, a world without diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

03:35Which is to say the default, which is to say workplaces

03:41that are honestly kind of like Congress.

03:46Because the population of the United States, as we mentioned, is about 59% white.

03:52Do you know what percentage of Congress is white?

04:00I don't, but I know that we finally have 60 members of the Congressional Black

04:03Caucus, which is progress.

04:04But even then, 75%, white Americans make up 60%,

04:1059% of the US population, 75% of Congress.

04:16Men are 50% of the population and make about 70% of Congress.

04:25When we see institutions of power, when we see, and

04:29that is reflected in almost any institutional organization of power.

04:32And when we even just try to have the basic acknowledgment that it would be good

04:38to encourage not an unreflective body,

04:45not unreflective workforce, but a workforce that barely even reaches

04:50the proportion of representation of what everyday Americans look like.

04:53That's somehow anti-white discrimination, anti-male discrimination,

04:59anti-straight discrimination, anti-cisgender discrimination.

05:04I mean, come on folks, what are we doing here?

05:08What are we doing here?

05:12And lastly, Ms. Weather, I was wondering if you could also just shed some light

05:15on the economic impact of civil rights legislation.

05:19And if you could draw that link between civil rights protections and

05:24policies and outcomes that help the working class.

05:27Yeah, one of the critical things we have seen as a result of having civil rights

05:31protections and having them enforced is we have seen an increase in participation

05:37and people getting to the middle class of the American country,

05:42particularly people of color, long denied fair and equal opportunities.

05:47And I think it's really important to understand that that has had widespread

05:50societal benefits.

05:53For example, thanks to civil rights laws,

05:56we have seen an increase in the life expectancy of people who are black.

06:02And not only black, other people of color, and that's something we all want.

06:07One of the things that's so important to understand about the Sheets case,

06:09because we keep hearing about this, and it is being misrepresented.

06:14What the Sheets case says isn't you have to hire any old body who's a person of

06:19color, no matter their criminal background.

06:20It's saying you can't use what is colorblind on its face,

06:26but has the practical effect of denying employment if,

06:30if it does not bear a relationship to the job that is going to be done.

06:36You can absolutely say an accountant who has been convicted of absconding with

06:42money, you don't have to hire that person.

06:46The reason that the Sheets case is a lawsuit is because they didn't

06:51have evidence that they needed to do that, and

06:54it was discriminating against qualified black applicants.

06:59Okay, chair now recognizes Mr. Palmer from Alabama.

07:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

07:06Last

'What Are We Doing Here?': AOC Calls Out Republicans Over Opposition To Diversity Efforts

Category

Transcript

Recommended