Mary Francis Berry, the Chairperson of the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights, spoke in Filene Auditorium yesterday as one of the guest speakers in a series of lectures in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Berry opened her talk by honoring the famous civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"Whenever I have to talk about MLK, I miss him very much. All of us miss MLK very much, but we must celebrate [what] he did for Americans, all Americans," Berry said.
Berry, after recounting stories concerning King's life and work, touched on a variety of subjects, from the increasingly globalized world to Clinton's civil rights policy record.
She called for a more global focus on civil rights, noting that "human rights are being challenged everywhere, and all around the world, countries are counting on America, they think they can learn from us," she said.
"We have a responsibility in the international arena," Berry warned. "We must stand up for human rights. Americans are a people who give so much courage, this courage must inspire others."
Berry spoke of the world boundaries which seem to bind the human rights movement, and cautioned that the tendency towards nationalism is accelerating, even in the midst of increasing globalization.
The real international boundaries however, are class boundaries Berry noted.
"Capitalism connects to capitalism and poverty connects to poverty," she said.
The past few years have been mixed in terms of human rights in America, due in part to such boundaries.
"Every year when reporters ask me about the United States, I say the glass is half full and half empty," she joked.
Indeed, such was the case under the Clinton administration.
Berry spoke of Clinton's mixed cabinet and ability to mute backlash by "simply appearing so comfortable with people of color."
Yet, even in this seemingly liberal era, civil rights policies are still fundamentally lacking, she added.
"There is no doubt the modern civil rights movement has been successful -- we have torn down legal barriers to integration, created more opportunities, and stopped legal discrimination of African Americans -- the movement has reached many of its goals," she said.
The movement has also been successful in its scope; King's struggle for civil rights for African Americans has influenced a proliferation of movements, which include that of women, other minorities, the disabled and immigrants.
"King would have seen these struggles as an extension of African Americans, and supported them," she noted.
However even with substantial progress in the arena of human rights, "the glass is still half empty," Berry said.
The lecture, which focused heavily on public policy concerning civil rights under the Clinton Administration, also touched on the topic of voting rights, specifically in Florida.
"Whatever further progress we have depends on public policy," Berry said, "on how we respond to the outcome of the election."
The United States has a long history of expanding the vote, running the gamut from only white men, to men and women of all races.
Yet "most people don't pay attention. They have ignored what has happened to others," Berry claimed. "But one by one, everyone was picked off. Now people pay attention because they think 'they're coming for us.'"
Berry criticized the heavy Supreme Court involvement in the election outcome, as well as people who contend that the election is over and should not be discussed further.
"People say it is partisan to discuss, others say it is partisan not to discuss," Berry remarked. "But I believe that as a result of what happened, we have a crisis that concerns the very validity of our political system."
Voting obstacles and Bush's proclaimed mandate jeopardizes our democracy, Berry claimed.
"A person who lost the popular vote is ascending to the presidency, eased by a majority on a Supreme Court shaped by his father," Berry remarked.
"This man claims he has a mandate on policy issues and has nominated a cabinet -- one of whom falsely denied that their state police department engaged in racial profiling, another who kept an undocumented worker in servitude, and one who was defeated in his Senate race by a dead man," she continued.
