Best Affirmative Action Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 4

“I'm not one that believes that affirmative action should be based on one's skin color or one's gender, I think it should be done based on one's need, because I think if you are from a poor white community, I think that poor white kid needs a scholarship just as badly as a poor black kid.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Should Believe Done Kids Action Black Community White Poor Color Skins Gender Scholarship Affirmative Action Affirmative Skin Color

Author:J. C. Watts

“My views on everything from welfare to a balanced budget to affirmative action can be traced to what Buddy and Helen Watts taught me as a young boy growing up poor but proud in Eufaula.”

Action Young Poor Views Boys Growing Up Growing Taught Proud Budgets Welfare Balanced Buddy Affirmative Action Affirmative Helen Balanced Budget

Author:J. C. Watts

“Affirmative action is an effort to include every aspect of society in the decision making.”

Action Decision Effort Aspect Decision Making Affirmative Action Affirmative

Author:Andrew Young

“Some kind of affirmative action is important in a democracy and for economic competitiveness and national security. The Army was the first to realize that you had to have desegregation of a military to have it working properly.”

Firsts Kind Important Action Realizing Democracy Economic Security Military Army National Security Affirmative Action Affirmative Competitiveness

Author:Andrew Young

“The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they simply want what most people want, to be judged by the quality of their skills, not by the color of their skin. But the black conservatives overlook the fact that affirmative action policies were political responses to the pervasive refusal of most white Americans to judge black Americans on that basis.”

“The worst thing about affirmative action is that it encourages reverse discrimination, so-called because it goes in the opposite way of how we naturally discriminate.”

Way Action Worst Opposites Discrimination Reverse Worst Things Affirmative Action Affirmative

Author:Stephen Colbert

“One thing has not changed: to doubt the worth of minority students' achievement when they succeed is really only to present another face of the prejudice that would deny them a chance to even try. It is the same prejudice that insists all those destined for success must be cast from the same mold as those who have succeeded before them, a view that experience has already proven a fallacy.”

“You can't talk about the environment, you can't talk about political correctness, affirmative action and all the other innumerable things that freedom is about, unless you have a free society based upon the integrity of the individual. If you have a responsible society, these other issues will not come up in a responsible society, and that is what freedom is all about.”

Ifs Action Political Individual Freedom Responsibility Issues Environment Integrity Responsible Come Up Political Correctness Free Society Correctness Affirmative Action Affirmative Individual Responsibility

Author:Russell Means

“The equal protection standard of the constitution has one clear and central meaning - it absolutely prohibits invidious [repugnant] discrimination by government...Under our Constitution, any official action that treats a person differently on account of his race or ethnic origin is inherently [by nature] suspect and presumptively [probably] invalid...Under the Constitution we have, one practice in which government may never engage in the practice of racism - not even "temporarily" and not even as an "experiment."”

“The unhappy persistence of both the practice and the lingering effects of racial discrimination ...is an unfortunate reality...and the government is not disqualified from acting in response to it.”

Reality Government Action Acting Practice Effects Response Unhappy Discrimination Persistence Unfortunate Affirmative Action Affirmative Lingering Racial Discrimination

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Too often the result of affirmative action has been an artificial diversity that gives the appearance of parity between blacks and whites that has not yet been achieved in reality...Preferences tend to attack one form of discrimination with another...Affirmative action encourages a victim-focused identity, and sends the message that there is more power in our past suffering than in our present achievements.”

“...The Court ...[recognizes]...the persistence of racial inequality and a majority's acknowledgement of Congress's authority to act affirmatively, not only to end discrimination, but also to counteract discrimination's lingering effects. Those effects, reflective of a system of racial caste [legal segregation and discrimination] only recently ended, are evident in our work places, markets, and neighborhoods. Job applicants with identical resumes, qualifications, and interview styles still experience different receptions, depending on their race.”

“Placing a time limit on affirmative action would in all likelihood blunt the orchestrated politics of controversy that now bedevils it. And thinking about phasing it into a class-based entitlement program may at long last bring Americans around to a consideration of the growing inequality that threatens the harmony of our democracy far more than the alarmist cry of 'racial division.'”

“We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”

Years Use Today Action Interest Preference Approved Affirmative Action Affirmative

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Most important, [research on affirmative action] has completely failed to show that affirmative action ever closes the academic gap between minorities and whites. And failing in this, affirmative action also fails to help blacks achieve true equality with whites - the ultimate measure of which is parity in skills and individual competence. Without this underlying parity there can never be true equality in employment, income levels, rates of home ownership, educational achievement and the rest.”

“Affirmative action is not going to be the long-term solution to the problems of race in America, because, frankly, if you've got 50 percent of African-American or Latino kids dropping out of high school, it doesn't really matter what you do in terms of affirmative action. Those kids aren't going to college.”

“We have to think about affirmative action and craft it in such a way where some of our children, who are advantaged, aren't getting more favorable treatment than a poor white kid who struggled more.”

Thinking Way Children Kids Action White Poor Our Children Crafts Treatment Affirmative Action Affirmative

Author:Barack Obama

“You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.”

Men Years Believe Has Beens Stills Facts Action Opportunity Lines Results Race Theory Fairs Starting Chains Affirmative Action Affirmative

Author:Lyndon B. Johnson

“...Started by missionaries in 1841, Punahou Academy had grown into a prestigious prep school, an incubator for island elites...It hadn't been easy to get me in, my grandparents told her (my mother); there was a long waiting list, and I was considered only because of the intervention of Gramps' boss, who was an alumnus (my first experience with affirmative action, it seems, had little to do with race).”

Firsts Littles Long Seems Action School Mother Easy Waiting Race Lists Islands Boss Elites Grandparent Intervention Academy Easy To Get Affirmative Action Affirmative Preps Prestigious Alumni

Author:Barack Obama

“So many of our conversations (about affirmative action) have been dishonest”

Has Beens Action Conversation Affirmative Action Affirmative

Author:Clarence Thomas

“Blacks who have not succumbed to the victim culture have been, are and will be doing quite well - all on their own, without handouts, affirmative action and other patronizing measures”

Wells Has Beens Action Culture Victim Affirmative Action Affirmative Handouts Patronizing

Book:The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left's Assault on Our Culture and Values

Source: The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left's Assault on Our Culture and Values

“All rights are individual. We do not get our rights because we belong to a group. Whether it's homosexuals, women, minorities, it leads us astray. You don't get your rights belonging to your group. A group can't force themselves on anybody else. So there should be no affirmative action for any group.”

Should Action Individual Force Rights Groups Minorities Belonging Homosexual Affirmative Action Affirmative

Author:Ron Paul

“[A]ffirmative action in the United States has made blacks. . .who have largely lifted themselves out of poverty, look like people who owe their rise to affirmative action and other government programs.”

People Looks Made States Government Action United Poverty United States Program Affirmative Action Affirmative Government Programs

Author:Thomas Sowell

“The median GPA and LSAT percentile for students of the country's elite law schools were 3.8 and 98 respectively. At the time fewer than 20 black law students in the entire country met those standards.”

Country Action School Law Black Students Mets Standards Fewer Elites Affirmative Action Law School Affirmative Median Law Students Gpa

Author:Lino Graglia

“I read American sagas (of the west) and I do not see people who went in search of material things. I see people who wrote down that what they sought was an escape from an old world which dictated their conscience and established their merit based on who their parents.”

People World Action Parent Materials Conscience West Merit Affirmative Action Affirmative Material Things Old World Saga

Author:Alan Keyes

“That is one of the reasons I oppose this whole Affirmative Action business. We are not supposed to be judged based on what our ancestors did or suffered. We are supposed to be judged as individuals, based on what we are able to achieve.”

Reason Whole Able Action Individual Achieve Supposed To Be Judged Ancestor Affirmative Action Affirmative

Author:Alan Keyes

“And when you tell me that somebody's skin color or gender is going to determine their prospects in this world, that is turning the clock back hundreds of years. Back to a time before this nation declared that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator; not by their ancestry, not by their skin color, not by their gender, not by Congress, not by the Constitution, and not by the laws”

Men World Years Action Law Nations This World Color Equal Skins Constitution Congress Determine Creator Gender Clock Ancestry Prospects Affirmative Action Affirmative Skin Color

Author:Alan Keyes

“The purpose of affirmative action is to give our nation a way to finally address the systemic exclusion of individuals of talent on the basis of their gender, or race from opportunities to develop, perform, achieve and contribute. Affirmative action is an effort to develop systematic approach to open the doors of education, employment, and business development opportunities to qualified individuals who happen to be members of groups that have experienced long-standing and persistent discrimination.”

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1995

“I think there are some things ... that may even be distorted in the practice, such as some affirmative action programs becoming quota systems. And I'm old enough to remember when quotas existed in the United States for the purpose of discrimination, and I don't want to see that happen again.”

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1981

“Affirmative action was designed to keep women and minorities in competition with each other to distract us while white dudes inject AIDS into our chicken nuggets.”

Action White Rocks Competition Aids Minorities Chickens Affirmative Action Affirmative Nuggets Chicken Nuggets

Author:Tracy Morgan

“Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty, and the end of welfare and affirmative action.”

“When I call myself an affirmative action baby, I'm talking about the essence of what affirmative action was when it started.”

Action Talking Baby Essence Affirmative Action Affirmative

Author:Sonia Sotomayor

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination.”

Way Eye Speak Race Subjects Effects Century Bases Constitution Discrimination Unfortunate Affirmative Action Racial Discrimination

Author:Sonia Sotomayor

“Affirmative action is the most important modern anti-discrimination technique ever instituted in the United States. It is the one tool that has had a demonstrable effect on discrimination. No one who knows anything about the subject would say it hasn't worked. It has certainly done something, or else it wouldn't have provoked so much opposition.”

“Due to affirmative action, about half of the black law students fall to the bottom 10% percent of the class and they are 2.5 times more likely than whites not to graduate college. Blacks are four times less likely to pass the bar exam on the first attempt.”

Firsts Action Law Fall Black Half Class Four Students College Percent Bottom Dues Bars Graduates Exam Affirmative Action Affirmative Law Students Bar Exam

Author:Peter Kirsanow

“Preferential affirmative action patronizes American blacks, women, and others by presuming that they cannot succeed on their own. Preferential affirmative action does not advance civil rights in this country.”

Doe Country Action Rights Succeed Civil Rights Affirmative Action Affirmative Presuming

Author:Alan Keyes

“I was critical of race-based affirmative action early on in my career and I've changed my mind. And I've publicly acknowledged that I was wrong.”

Mind Action Race Careers Changed Critical Affirmative Action Affirmative I've Changed

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“Affirmative action was never meant to be permanent, and now is truly the time to move on to some other approach.”

Action Moving Approach Permanent Meant To Be Keep Moving Forward Affirmative Action Affirmative Time To Move On

Author:Susan Estrich

“Once they arrive, affirmative action kids are generally left to sink or swim academically. Brown (University) offers plenty of counseling and tutoring to struggling students, but, as any academic Dean will tell you, it's up to the students to seek it out, something that a drowning minority student will seek to avoid at all costs, fearing it will trumpet a second-class status.”

“And affirmative action is a very nice term for racial discrimination against better-qualified white people in jobs, employment, promotions and scholarships, and college admittance.”

People Action Jobs Term White Nice College Discrimination Employment Promotion Qualified Scholarship Very Nice Affirmative Action Affirmative Racial Discrimination Admittance

Author:David Duke

“I regard affirmative action as pernicious - a system that had wonderful ideals when it started but was almost immediately abused for the benefit of white middle-class women.”

Action White Class Wonderful Middle Benefits Ideals Regard Discrimination Middle Class Affirmative Action Affirmative Pernicious

Author:Camille Paglia

“I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.”

I Can Action Jobs Race Workers Suspects Employers Affirmative Action Affirmative Co Worker

Author:Peggy McIntosh

“Thanks to the Polgars the adjective 'men's' before events and the 'affirmative action' women's titles such as Woman Grandmaster have become anachronisms.”

Men Action Women Events Chess Thanks Titles Adjectives Affirmative Action Affirmative Anachronism

Book:How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

Source: How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law. That [affirmative action] programs may have been motivated, in part, by good intentions cannot provide refuge from the principle that under our Constitution, the government may not make distinctions on the basis of race.”

“Some would argue that the president himself benefited from a form of affirmative action because as a C student, he only got into Yale because his father was a wealthy alumnus. But the White House counters that Saddam is a menace and must be stopped.”

Action Form Father House President White Students Arguing Wealthy White House Saddam Menace Affirmative Action Yale Affirmative Alumni

Author:Jon Stewart

“I filed a brief as a friend of the court in the U. of Michigan to keep affirmative action at the U. of Michigan, which I attended the law school. And I was one of the original sponsors of making the Martin Luther King birthday a federal holiday.”

Action School Law Kings Originals Court Holiday Luther Michigan Affirmative Action Law School Affirmative Sponsors

Author:Dick Gephardt

“Affirmative action based on quotas is wrong - wrong because it is antithetical to the genius of the American idea: individual liberty.”

Ideas Action Individual Liberty Genius Affirmative Action Affirmative Individual Liberty Quota

Author:Jack Kemp

“I have been a long and strong supporter of civil rights in my whole career. I led the fight to get the voting rights act re-enacted. I have been a strong supporter of affirmative action. I believe in it strongly.”

Believe Long Has Beens Whole Action Fighting Strong I Believe Careers Rights I Believe In Civil Rights Voting Supporter Affirmative Action Right To Vote Affirmative Voting Rights Act

Author:Dick Gephardt

Affirmative Action Quotes

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Affirmative Action Quotes