Affirmative Quotes - Page 5

• And, even if Affirmative Action survives, it is also clear that these policies are not themselves sufficient to close the educational and employment gaps that plague U.S. minorities.

  Harry J. Holzer

  Educational, Gaps, Minorities

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

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Years, Today, Use

  Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

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• 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.'

  Orlando Patterson

  Thinking, Class, Long

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• ...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.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  Jobs, Persistence, Race

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• 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.

  Shelby Steele

  Past, Reality, Giving

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• 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

  Alan Keyes

  Men, Skin Color, Years

  "Preparing Our Country for the 21st Century: The Official Transcript of the United We Stand America Conference". Book by United We Stand America Inc., November, 1995.

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• Just your laughter will be enough to prevent the war. Your celebration, your dance, will be enough to prevent the war. Your ecstasy, your meditation, will create a tremendous force which will be far higher because it is life-affirmative.

  Rajneesh

  Laughter, War, Meditation

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• Theres another reason for working inside the system. Dostoevsky said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution.

  Saul Alinsky

  Letting Go, Attitude, Acceptance

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• 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.

  Cornel West

  Color, Skills, White

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• 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.

  Peter Kirsanow

  Fall, College, Law

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• You got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and latch on to the affirmative. Don't mess with Mr. In Between.

  Ann M. Martin

  Inspirational, Education, Negative

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• 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.

  Andrew Young

  Military, Army, Important

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• Many claim I am a photographer of tragedy. In the greater sense I am not, for though I often photograph where the tragic emotion is present, the result is almost invariably affirmative.

  W. Eugene Smith

  Tragedy, Emotion, Photographer

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• 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.

  Eleanor Holmes Norton

  Racism, Important, Tools

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• The why is what makes journalism an adult game. The why is what makes policy coherent and useful. The why is what transforms bureaucrats and foot soldiers and political leaders into viable instruments of rational and affirmative change. The why is everything and without it, the very suggestion of human progress becomes a cosmic joke.

  David Simon

  Games, Feet, Leader

  "The escalating breakdown of urban society across the US" by David Simon, www.theguardian.com. September 5, 2008.

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• The present dominant values (xenophilia, cosmopolitanism, narcissistic individualism, humanitarianism, bourgeois economism, hedonism, homophilia, permissivenes, etc.) are actually anti-values - values of devirilising weakness, since they deplete a civilization's vital energies and weaken its defensive or affirmative capacities.

  Guillaume Faye

  Civilization, Weakness, Energy

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• 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.

  William J. Clinton

  Opportunity, Race, Doors

  Clinton, William J. (1996). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1995”, p.1108, Best Books on

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• 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.

  Ron Paul

  Political Opinions, Support, Liberty

  Ron Paul's newsletter (1992), as quoted in "10 Extreme Claims in Ron Paul’s Controversial Newsletters" by Andy Kroll, www.motherjones.com. January 3, 2012.

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• 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.

  Ron Suskind

  Struggle, Kids, Class

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• The most wonderful inspirational chemistry we can use on another is the gift of our love and acceptance. Devoted and unquestioned love has a magic creative power.

  Wilferd Peterson

  Love, Uplifting, Healing

  "The Art of Living in the World Today".

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• 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.

  Ronald Reagan

  Thinking, Practice, Quota

  Reagan, Ronald (1982). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1981”, p.58, Best Books on

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• No negative, all positive, affirmative. I am, God is, everything is in me. I will manifest health, purity, knowledge, whatever I want.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Health, Negative, Want

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2788, Manonmani Publishers

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• There's a gap in perceptions between women and men. Women feel much freer than they did, but still, when alcohol is involved, especially, there's a lot of sexual assault, and a lot of confusion about that. So, we need to focus a lot more on what consent is and on the importance of affirmative consent.

  Martha C. Nussbaum

  Men, Confusion, Focus

  Source: www.neh.gov

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• A Confucian or Jewish love of learning would gain minorities far more than any affirmative action laws we might pass.

  Richard Lamm

  Law, Minorities, Might

  "Two Wands" by Gov. Dick Lamm, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 18, 2010.

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• If we could create the conditions that make racism difficult, or discourage it, then there would be less stress and less need for affirmative action programs. One of those conditions would be an economic policy that would create tight labor markets over long periods of time. Now does that mean that affirmative action is here only temporarily? I think the ultimate goal should be to remove it.

  William Julius Wilson

  Stress, Mean, Thinking

  Interview With Gerald Early, www.motherjones.com. September/October 1996.

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