Senate Committee on Race Relations in the United States
Chairs: Zachary Zemmel and Prez Thomas Crisis Director: Amir Mustefa
Table of Contents
Background………………………………………………………...……………………………...2
Questions to Consider……………………………………………………………………………..4
Senators on the Committee………………………………………………………………...……...5
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………..…….1
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1 Background
The United States has an unfortunate history of racism dating back to slavery or arguably earlier. In the past the United States has systematically restricted the freedoms of Black people,
Jews, Native Americans, Hispanic people, and Asians. However, most racial prejudice in the
United States today is directed towards Black people. Although racial prejudice occurs almost entirely at an individual level in the United States, there are still people who are disadvantaged because of examples of historical racially-prejudiced programs like Jim Crow.
On March 3, 1991, Black taxi driver Rodney King became internationally known after he was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers following a high-speed car chase.
Footage taken by witness George Holliday was leaked to the Los Angeles local news station KTLA. Parts of this footage were subsequently aired around the world. Four officers were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force. Three of them were acquitted of all charges. The jury acquitted the fourth officer of assault with a deadly weapon but did not reach a verdict on use of deadly force. The jury voted 8-4 in favor of acquittal at a state level. These acquittals are widely accepted to have caused the 1992 Los Angeles riots. In these riots, 55 were killed and 2,000 were injured. These riots are seen as as one of the lowest points of race relations in Modern American history.
According to a New York Times/CBS poll from July 2016, sixty-nine percent of
Americans say that race relations are generally bad. According to this poll, the United States has reached one of the highest levels of racial discord since the Los Angeles Riots as well as the highest level of racial discord of the Obama presidency. This same poll found that 60% of
Americans believe that race relations are getting worse, a large increase from the 38% of
Americans that said race relations were worsening in 2015. More than half of African-Americans
2 polled say they were unsurprised by the ambush and attack by Micah Xavier Johnson on a group of Dallas police officers that killed five and injured nine. Almost half of White Americans believe this to be unsurprising too.
Recently racial activist groups and movements including “Black Lives Matter” have formed. While many of their leaders claim that they are fighting against police violence targeted specifically towards black individuals, they have faced much criticism and been controversy. The most frequent animadversion is that the group’s leaders inspire violence against police officers.
This has inspired the formation of the media group and movement “Blue Lives Matter,” who claim to, “honor and recognize the actions of law enforcement, strengthen public support, and provide much-needed resources to law enforcement officers and their families.”
This committee begins on August 3, 2016. The committee is taking place in the wake of the deaths of Philando Castile and the assassination of five Dallas police officers. The issues the committee will discuss are highly contentious ones that all Americans are seeking a solution to.
Given this, and the fact that the committee is taking place during a highly bellicose primary season, it is advised that all committee members refrain from personal attacks and stay on topic.
3 Questions to Consider
1. Police officers risk their lives every day to help keep their communities safe and deserve
the utmost respect from all Americans. However, there have been several instances of
racial prejudice in policing and an increasing anti-police sentiment in the United States.
How can a solution to racial prejudice in policing be worked towards while still
maintaining respect for police officers?
2. Section one of the Fifteenth Amendment stipulates that “The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State
on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” This has been expanded to
mean that no rights can be denied on account of race. This is why racially-specific bills
are rarely or never passed. How can racially-specific problems be addressed without
creating racially-specific legislation?
3. Affirmative Action programs were created to help minority students get into colleges.
However, they arguably hurt minority students by setting them up for failure at
institutions they are not qualified enough to attend. Additionally, according to a Princeton
study (on a 1600 point scale) black students receive on average a 230 point bonus
through affirmative action programs on SAT scores while Latino students receive an
average bonus of 185 points. In contrast, Asian students are penalized 50 points on
average. There is no clear advantage to being of Asian descent in the United States. So
when judging issues surrounding race, should equality of opportunity or equality of
outcome be judged?
4 Senators on the Committee on Race Relations in the United States
John McCain (R) - Arizona
John McCain is a Republican senator from Arizona and a former presidential candidate. While he has largely not been involved in recent conflict surrounding policing, he has consistently supported American Indian self-determination and is the longest serving member of the Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs. He has introduced the Native American Education Opportunity act and cosponsored legislation that would help stop the illegal trafficking and sale of Native
American artifacts.
Tim Scott (R) - South Carolina
Tim Scott is a Republican senator from South Carolina. He has consistently discussed policing in the past. He has largely focused on the “trust gap that has been growing for centuries” between black communities and the American police forces. He has acknowledges racial discrimination that has unfortunately been propagated by several American police forces and has even talked about the discrimination that he, as a black senator, has faced in the past.
Additionally, after the murder of five Dallas police officers by Micah Xavier Johnson in 2016, he spoke about how violence against police is “never, ever” acceptable.
Jeff Sessions (R) - Alabama
Senator Jeff Sessions is a Republican senator from Alabama. He formerly served as a
U.S. attorney and played an important role in prosecuting the head of the Alabama State Klan,
Henry Francis Hays, for abducting and murdering Michael Donald, a black teenager selected at
5 random. Sessions insisted on the death penalty for Hays, yet did not serve as the trial lawyer in his case. Instead, he facilitated the state prosecution specifically so that Hays could receive the death penalty. However, it is worth noting, that Sessions admitted that he once joked with a black lawyer that "I used to think [the KKK] were OK, but they are pot smokers." He later apologized and said that he thought this to be acceptable when prosecuting the Klan.
According to Senator Sessions, he played an important role in the desegregation of
Alabama schools: “I filed 20 or 30 civil-rights cases to desegregate schools and political organizations and county commissions when I was a United States attorney,” Sessions told
National Review in 2009. Politico later confirmed his claim.
Marco Rubio (R) - Florida
Marco Rubio is a Republican senator from Florida. He has been relatively quiet on the topic of race relations yet has emphasized that "The overwhelming majority of the men and women who serve us in law enforcement are incredible people who every single day put their lives potentially on the line for our safety and security." He later went on to describe the adverse reality that "[He] also know[s] that there are communities in this country where minority communities and the police department have a terrible relationship.”
Ted Cruz (R) - Texas
Ted Cruz is a Republican Senator from Texas. He is a staunch critic of President Obama, especially when it comes to race relations, and has asserted in the past that "One of the things that has been very disappointing when it comes to questions of race relations [is that], President
6 Obama, when he was elected, he could have been a unifying figure. He could have chosen to be a leader on race relations in the United States. And, he hasn't done that. He's made decisions that
I think have inflamed racial tensions, that have divided us rather than bringing us together."
Additionally he contended that "I think [Obama] has not used his role as president to bring us together. He has exacerbated racial misunderstandings, racial tensions, from back at the beer summit to a series of efforts to pit Americans against each other. And, part of the problem is the way he advocates for any given plan, is to build a straw man of the opposition and then to vilify their position. So that, in the president's telling, anyone who opposes Obamacare wants people to be denied health care and to get sick and pass away. That's the only reason someone could oppose Obamacare, is because you malevolently want people to suffer."
Joni Ernst (R) - Iowa
Joni Ernst is a Republican senator from Iowa. In response to claims of racial discrimination made against Iowa police departments her spokeswoman, Angela Zirkelbach, stated that "Senator Ernst opposes racial profiling and maintains that any inequalities in our judicial system must be corrected. She will therefore closely consider any legislation introduced in the Senate that attempts to further efforts to end racial profiling.”
Shelley Moore Capito (R) - West Virginia
Shelley Moore Capito is a Republican senator from Virginia who has not spoke much on the issue of race relations. However, on crime and policing bills, a key part of race relations, she has largely voted in agreement with her fellow Republicans. She voted “yes” on the expanding
7 services for offenders who were re-entering society (H.R.1593: Second Chance Act of 2007:
Community Safety Through Recidivism Prevention or the Second Chance Act (Motion to
Suspend the Rules and Pass)).
Rand Paul (R) - Kentucky
Rand Paul is a Republican Senator from Kentucky. He has been active on race relations in the past and is working to expand the demographics associated with the Republican Party. As he is largely a libertarian, he remains critical of the United States government on the issue of policing. While criticizing the looters and rioters and praising police during the Ferguson riots, he claimed that, “Given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for
African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them.”
Corey Booker (D) - New Jersey
Corey Booker is a democratic senator from New Jersey. He has in the past sponsored a bill with Senator Jeff Sessions to give the Selma marchers the Congressional Gold Medal. He has criticized mass incarceration in the past as well as written about the burden of a criminal record.
Additionally, he has spoken out against other Democrats in the past for not supporting school choice. A system that would allow students in public schools to choose which public school they want to go to rather than being forced to remain in their own school district. He claims that school choice would allow inner-city children to improve their education. However, he has seemingly reversed his opinion recently and has voted more along traditional Democratic Party lines on school choice.
8 Al Franken (D) - Minnesota
Al Franken is a Democratic Senator from Minnesota. He opposes sentencing for drug users and has claimed that harsh sentencing for drug-related crimes hurts black communities.
Additionally, he has a 73% rating by the NAPO which indicated a moderate stance on issues of policing.
Charles “Chuck” Schumer (D) - New York
Chuck Schumer is a Democratic senator from New York. While voting along Democratic
Party lines on issues of crime and race, he has had controversy surrounding his actions as a New
York state assemblyman in 1974; as described by Jay D. Homnick, Schumer allegedly engaged in a scheme that would push black residents out of certain New York City neighborhoods.
Tim Kaine (D) - Virginia
Tim Kaine is a Democratic senator from Virginia. As mayor he argued that race “is a legitimate factor that everybody’s got to kick the tire on and think about.” Additionally, as mayor, he offered the first formal apology for Richmond for the city’s role in the slave trade and led the effort to add a statue of Arthur Ashe to Richmond’s Monument Avenue.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D) - New York
Kirsten Gillibrand is Democratic senator from New York. She tends to vote along democratic party lines on issues of race relations. However, she has been criticized in the past for her friendship with Reverend Al Sharpton, a controversial and arguably divisive commentator on
9 politics and race in the United States. Additionally she was a cosponsor of Session-110; Bill
Number-H Res 194; Apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of
African-Americans.
Elizabeth Warren (D) - Massachusetts
Elizabeth Warren is a Democratic senator from Massachusetts. As senator, she has consistently campaigned for police reform and opposed voter identification laws, claiming that they were racially prejudiced. She has however been criticized for her assertions that voter ID laws were racist as she has yet to provide any evidence that voter ID laws target specific groups on a racial basis.
Dianne Feinstein (D) - California
Dianne Feinstein is a Democratic senator from California. She has been relatively quiet on the issue of race relations yet holds a moderate stance on crime. She voted “yes” on rejecting racial statistics on death penalty crimes and also voted for mandatory sentences for crimes involving firearms.
Bernard “Bernie” Sanders (Ind.) - Vermont
Bernie Sanders is an independent senator from Vermont. However, he typically sides with the policies of the Democratic Party. He supports racially-based affirmative action programs in colleges and has voted against many crime bills that he claims would
“disproportionately punish people of color — especially blacks.”
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Angus King (Ind.) - Maine
Angus King is an independent senator from Maine. While he has not spoken on the issue of race relations, he holds a centrist point of view on crime. He supports using state funds for the construction of new state prisons yet supports punishments other than incarceration for nonviolent offenders.
11 Sources Cited
● Arkin, William, Tracy Connor, and Jim Miklaszewski. "Dallas Shooter Micah Johnson Was Army Veteran and 'Loner'" NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News Group, 09 July 2016. Web. 20 Mar. 2017. ● "Race & Policing - The Legacy of Rodney King." PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.
12 ● Franken, Alan Stuart. "Al Franken Issues: Crime." Senate.gov. Government of the United States, 06 May 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2017. ● OnTheIssues.org Editors. "Al Franken on the Issues." On the Issues. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2017. ● Homnick, Jay D. "Race to the Top." The American Spectator. N.p., 13 Mar. 2017. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. ● OnTheIssues.org Editors. "Charles Schumer on the Issues." Charles Schumer on the Issues. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2017. ● Helderman, Rosalind S. "Tim Kaine: A White Mayor in a Divided City with a Painful Racial Past." The Washington Post. WP Company, 01 Aug. 2016. Web. 22 Mar. 2017. ● Mahler, Jonathan. "Tim Kaine Recalled for Commitment to Richmond's African-Americans."The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 July 2016. Web. 29 Mar. 2017. ● Mcauliff, Michael. "Rev. Sharpton, Sen. Gillibrand Join Forces." NY Daily News. N.p., 17 Jan. 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2017. ● Craven, Julia. "Elizabeth Warren Set The Bar On Race For 2016 Presidential Candidates."The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Oct. 2015. Web. 27 Mar. 2017. ● "Elizabeth Warren Addresses Racial Justice: "Black Lives Matter, Black Citizens Matter, Black Families Matter"." RealClearPolitics. Tom Bevan, 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. ● OnTheIssues.org Editors. "Dianne Feinstein on the Issues." OnTheIssues.org. On The Issues, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017. ● Phillips, Amber. "Bernie Sanders Still Won't Update His Message on Race Issues." The Washington Post. WP Company, 12 Feb. 2016. Web. 29 Mar. 2017. ● Krieg, Gregory. "Bernie Sanders: I Would 'Absolutely' Improve Race Relations." CNN. Cable News Network, 11 Feb. 2016. Web. 29 Mar. 2017. ● "Bernie Sanders on Black Rights." Feelthebern.org. N.p., n.d. Web. ● Ontheissues.org Editors. "Angus King on Crime." Ontheissues.org. On The Issues, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.
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