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Upward Mobility Quotes

Browse 31 quotes about Upward Mobility.

Upward Mobility Quotes

“The “American Dream” is grounded in the promise of the transcendence of social class boundaries, as in the opportunity to enable one’s children to climb the social ladder through educational and financial achievement. The mythology of upward mobility encourages Americans (including many in the academy) to pathologize poverty and disregard the influence of privilege”

AmericaPovertyAmerican DreamUpward MobilityPrivilege Ns
Book:All About the Girl
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“What is key to America's understanding of class is the persistent belief - despite all evidence to the contrary - that anyone, with the proper discipline and drive, can move from a lower class to a higher class. We recognize the mobility may be difficult, but the key to our collective self-image is the assumption that mobility is always possible, so failure to move up reflects on one's character.”

American DreamClass SystemUpward MobilityThe American Dream
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“African Americans have even less mobility. For those born to parents in the bottom income quintile, over half (53 percent) remain there as adults, and only a quarter (26 percent) make it to the middle quintile or higher. Considering the disadvantages that low-income African Americans have had as a result of segregation - poor access to jobs and to schools where they can excel - it’s surprising that their mobility, compared to that of other Americans, isn’t even lower. Two explanations come to mind. One is that many African Americans heed the warning that they have to be twice as good to succeed and exhibit more than average hard work, responsibility, and ambition to supplement a little luck. The other is that our affirmative action programs have been moderately successful. Probably some of both are involved.”

RacismMiddle ClassAmerican DreamUpward Mobility
Book:The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
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“Most governments have been based, practically, on the denial of equal rights of menours began, by affirming those rights. They said, some men are too ignorant, and vicious, to share in government. Possibly so, said we; and, by your system, you would always keep them ignorant, and vicious. We proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant wiser; and all better, and happier together.”

MenGivingHas BeensSaidGovernmentTogetherGrowsChanceRightsShareEqualWeakStrongerExpectedIgnorantDenialWiserThey SaidViciousEqual RightsAffirmingUpward Mobility
Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“I was brought up in a very naval, military, and conservative background. My father and his friends had very typical opinions of the British middle class - lower-middle class actually - after the war. My father broke into the middle class by joining the navy. I was the first member of my family ever to go to private school or even to university. So, the armed forces had been upward mobility for him.”

FirstsWarSchoolFatherForceOpinionClassMiddleMilitaryMembersMy FamilyUniversityConservativeBritishBackgroundsBrokeMiddle ClassTypicalNavyJoiningArmed ForcesMobilityNavalPrivate SchoolUpward Mobility
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“Obama does not believe in individual upward mobility. He would penalize it, tax it, regulate it, inveigh against it and disincentivize it. We will be like salmon swimming upstream to mate. We will overcome the currents, the waterfall, the rocks and the predators, and will grapple our way up the stream. Then, at the top of the waterfall will stand Obama the Bear, waiting to scoop us up and have us for dinner. The taxman cometh.”

WayBelieveDoeIndividualWaitingRocksBearsTaxesOvercomingCurrentsDinnerStreamsSwimmingMatesPredatorMobilitySalmonWaterfallsUpward MobilitySwimming Upstream
Author:Dick Morris
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“There is a myth that the purpose of education is to give one the means for upward mobility and success. The plain truth is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does need desperately more peacemakers, healers, restorers, story tellers, and lovers of every shape and form.”

PeopleNeedsGivingMeanDoeStoriesFormPurposeSuccessfulPlanetsLoversTruth IsShapesMythSuccessful PeopleHealerMobilityPeacemakerPurpose Of EducationUpward Mobility
Author:David W. Orr
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“We live in a country [USA] where the belief is that anyone can succeed, but for so many here, and for the majority of the world, that's not the case. In many parts of the world, women and poor people are at a huge disadvantage - certain rights and protections don't exist, and they don't have the chance of upward mobility.”

PeopleWorldCountryCertainBeliefChancePoorCasesRightsHugeSucceedMajorityProtectionUsaPoor PeopleDisadvantagesMobilityUpward Mobility
Author:Joy Bryant
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“One chronicler writes of an area of India during the end of the 20th century: Almost no-one in this slum was poor by Indian benchmarks. ... True, a few residents trapped rats and frogs and fried them for dinner. A few ate the scrub grass at the sewage lake edge. And these individuals, miserable souls, thereby made an inestimable contribution to their neighbors. They gave those slum dwellers who didn't fry rats and eat weeds a sense of their upward mobility.”

WritingMadeSoulEndsIndividualPoorCenturyAreasIndiaEdgesDinnerNeighborMiserableIndianGrassContributionLakesWeedTrappedRats20th CenturyFrogsResidentsMobilitySlumsDwellersSewageUpward Mobility
Author:Katherine Boo
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“The American Dream is individualistic. Martin Luther King's dream was collective. The American Dream says, "I can engage in upward mobility and live the good life." King's dream was fundamentally Christian. His commitment to radical love had everything to do with his commitment to Jesus of Nazareth, and his dream had everything to do with community, with a "we" consciousness that included poor and working people around the world, not just black people.”

PeopleWorldI CanDreamChristianJesusBlackCommunityPoorConsciousnessKingsCommitmentAround The WorldRadicalCollectivesGood LifeBlack PeopleAmerican DreamLutherMobilityIndividualisticNazarethUpward Mobility
Author:Cornel West
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“The term Hispanic, coined by technomarketing experts and by the designers of political campaigns, homogenizes our cultural diversity (Chicanos, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans become indistinguishable), avoids our indigenous cultural heritage and links us directly with Spain. Worse yet, it possesses connotations of upward mobility and political obedience.”

PoliticalTermDiversityCampaignsObedienceExpertsDesignerLinksHeritageSpainIndigenousCubanHispanicMobilityCultural DiversityConnotationCultural HeritagePolitical CampaignCharacter EducationUpward Mobility
Book:Warrior for Gringostroika: Essays, Performance Texts, and Poetry
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“The truth is, the liberal policies of the elite class have done little to improve the lot of those who depend so much on them. In America's black communities, where the goodies have been flowing for decades, rather than seeing improvements in terms of upward mobility, we are seeing deteriorating family structure, increases in violent crimes, growing poverty, and growing dependence. Even with such a blatant record of failure, there is slavish devotion to the elite class who continue to promise more goodies in exchange for votes.”

LittlesHas BeensDoneAmericaBlackTermCommunityClassPovertyRecordsGrowingSeeingCrimePolicyDependsPromiseTruth IsVoteIncreaseStructureDecadesImprovementViolentDevotionElitesDependenceMobilityBlack CommunityViolent CrimesDeterioratingUpward Mobility
Author:Benjamin Carson
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“If you go on TV and say there's no other country in the world where you can be born poor and become rich, you get a huge megaphone. If you tell the truth, which is that most of the studies show actually the United States is worse than anybody except Britain in upward mobility, there is no audience for you.”

IfsWorldCountryStatesShowsBornPoorUnitedUnited StatesAudienceStudyRichTvsHugeGoes OnBritainTelling The TruthOther CountriesMobilityBecome RichUpward Mobility
Author:David Frum
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