Remarks at a High-level UN General Assembly Meeting to Mark the Closure of the International Decade of People of African Descent

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
U.S. Representative to the United Nations
New York, New York
November 8, 2024

AS DELIVERED

Good morning, everyone. Let me start by thanking the President of the UN General Assembly, His Excellency Philemon Yang, for gathering us today, as we close out the International Decade of People of African Descent.

Three and a half years ago, in one of my very first speeches before the General Assembly, I introduced myself to this body. I am, as I explained, the story of America – the story of so many of our nations.

I shared that I am a person of African descent. That while many of my friends can trace their lineage to a single town, even a specific street in Europe, I don’t know where my ancestors came from: only that they were stolen from their homes in Africa, packed into ships, and arrived here in chains.

They helped build this country despite having no right to determine its future, no right to determine their own future.

And while it may all seem rather removed from the world we live in today, that story isn’t ancient history.

In 1865, the same year that African Americans were emancipated, my own great-grandmother, Mary Thomas, was born. The daughter of slaves, born free – but into a world where the scourge of slavery continued through segregation and discrimination.

I experienced that bigotry myself, that hatred, growing up in the Jim Crow south. I was bussed to a segregated school, past the ashes of crosses burned by the Ku Klux Klan.

I entered the U.S. Foreign Service as it was being hit by two simultaneous lawsuits: one, for institutional racism; the other, rampant sexism.

And what I learned is a simple truth. That racism is not my problem. Racism is not the problem of the person who experiences it. It is the problem of the racist. They have to own that. It is the problem of the society that produces the racist. And that is, in today’s world – unfortunately – every single society.

Slavery may be America’s original sin, but America is hardly the original, or the only, source of slavery. So many of our nations share in this shame. So many of our people are affected by its legacy.

And so, this meeting – this notion that we must address the historic injustices, fight the systemic inequalities, and break down the remaining barriers faced by hundreds of millions of people of African descent – is both deeply personal and truly universal.

For the past four years, the Biden-Harris Administration has committed to doing this work: upholding the Decade’s three pillars: Recognition, Justice, and Development.

And that includes appointing the State Department’s first-ever Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, and advancing legislation aimed at reducing racial disparities in everything from voting rights to law enforcement.

We have also worked to ensure that disadvantaged communities, chronically marginalized by underinvestment and pollution, benefit from advancements in climate resilience and affordable housing.

And all the while, we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in youth leadership and collaborated with governments, civil society, and the UN itself to advance racial equity and justice, including by advocating for a Second Decade for People of African Descent to continue this mission.

And yet, we know – we know that for as much work as we have done, we haven’t done enough.

We haven’t done enough when, despite a nationwide reckoning with police brutality, Black and brown Americans are profiled, harassed, and locked up at disproportionately high rates.

We haven’t done enough when white supremacists march into grocery stores, and churches, and hospitals in Black neighborhoods and murder innocent people – inspired by the bile they see not only in the darkest corners of the internet, but increasingly in the mainstream.

We haven’t done enough when the phrase – the phrase, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” is not employed as a rallying call, but as a slur. When the idea of “Critical Race Theory” is not an invitation to reflect on our nation’s past, but a scare tactic meant to divide us.

And, colleagues, we haven’t done enough when our leaders smear and degrade and disparage entire communities – people who look like me, and my children, and my grandchildren – and they are there in leadership roles in spite of their hatred.

The prevalence and pervasiveness of racism – the reality of people of African descent here in America and all around the world continue to experience bigotry and inequality is cause to make even the most optimistic people feel powerless.

And yet, I choose hope over hatred. The fact that I’m here is a testament to the fact that change is possible. That progress happens in fits and starts, that it doubles back on itself, forcing us to fight battles we thought we had already won. But it’s possible, as long as we refuse to throw up our hands, and instead, we roll up our sleeves.

And so, let us keep hope alive and pair it with action. With, as this Decade has called for, recognition and justice and development, anywhere and everywhere that inequality rears its ugly head. It’s what the next generation demands and it’s what the next generation deserves.

Thank you.

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By United States Mission to the United Nations | 8 November, 2024 | Topics: Highlights, Remarks and Highlights