Affirmative Quotes

• The third fallacy is that affirmative action doesn't work.

  Harold Washington

  Action, Fallacy, Thirds

  Harold Washington, Alton Miller (1988). “Climbing a Great Mountain: Selected Speeches of Mayor Harold Washington”

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• Here's the point - you're looking at affirmative action, and you're looking at marijuana. You legalize marijuana, no need for quotas, because really, who's gonna wanna work?

  Jon Stewart

  Marijuana, Needs, Quota

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• It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative.

  John Burroughs

  Believe, Optimism, Mind

  John Burroughs (1900). “Writings: The light of day”

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• White... is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black... God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Flower, Color White, Shining

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• You have to give access to people with disabilities but there is no requirement to hire them. What I mean by affirmative obligation is that producers must take the necessary steps to include opportunities for people with disabilities and a vast majority of them do.

  Richard Masur

  Mean, Opportunity, People

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• 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.

  David Duke

  Jobs, Nice, College

  "David Duke's View Of An Obama Presidency". Interview with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. October 31, 2008.

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

  Andrew Young

  Effort, Decision, Action

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• 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.

  Tracy Morgan

  Rocks, White, Competition

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

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Baby, Talking, Essence

  "NBC's Guthrie Frets Over Supreme Court Split: 'So-Called Liberals' vs 'Conservative Bloc'". "Today" with Savannah Guthrie, www.newsbusters.org. January 14, 2013.

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• In the final analysis courage is nothing but an affirmative answer to the shocks of existence, to the shocks which it is necessary to bear for the sake of realizing one's own nature.

  Kurt Goldstein

  Courage, Bravery, Finals

  "Human Nature in the Light of Psychopathology".

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• 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.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Careers, Race, Mind

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• You can't be a minority in this society without having someone express disapproval about affirmative action.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Minorities, Action, This Society

  "Justice Sotomayor prefers "Sonia from the Bronx"". Interview with Scott Pelley, www.cbsnews.com. January 29, 2013.

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• You know, I love all kinds of activism. I certainly think blacks deserve to have something whether it is affirmative action or an opportunity that should be opened up to them. But at the same time I believe that people of color are not the only poor people in America and all over the world.

  Russell Simmons

  Believe, Opportunity, Thinking

  "More Questions with Russell Simmons". content.time.com. May 3, 2007.

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• In modern European thought a tragedy is occurring in that the original bonds uniting the affirmative attitude towards the world with ethics are, by a slow but irresistible process, loosening and finally parting. Out of my life and Thought.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Attitude, Tragedy, World

  Albert Schweitzer (1949). “Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography”, New York : H. Holt

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• 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.

  Camille Paglia

  Class, White, Benefits

  "Interview with the Vamp". Interview with Virginia Postrel, reason.com. August/September 1995.

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• Well, certainly one of the ironies of the success of affirmative action is that the middle class within the black community no longer lives within 'black community' by and large.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Class, Community, Black

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Children, Kids, Thinking

  "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer", www.cnn.com. July 27, 2008.

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• What is so remarkable about the success of affirmative action is that it has been accomplished despite the Justice Department and the policies of the federal government.

  Harold Washington

  Congratulations, Government, Justice

  Harold Washington, Alton Miller (1988). “Climbing a Great Mountain: Selected Speeches of Mayor Harold Washington”

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• If you don't like affirmative action, what is your plan to guarantee a level playing field of opportunity?

  Maynard Jackson

  Opportunity, Level Playing Field, Guarantees

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

  Susan Estrich

  Moving, Time To Move On, Action

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• There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled.

  Spike Lee

  Black And White, Thinking, Needs

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• With my academic achievement in high school I was accepted rather readily at Princeton and equally as fast at Yale, but my test scores were not comparable to that of my classmates. And that's been shown by statistics, there are reasons for that - there are cultural biases built into testing, and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action to try to balance out those effects.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Motivation, School, Yale

  "Videotaped remarks shed light on Sotomayor" by Charlie Savage, www.sfgate.com. June 11, 2009.

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• Affirmative action works but we're going to need to muster all our political resources if we are to keep it in place.

  Harold Washington

  Political, Needs, Never Quit

  Harold Washington, Alton Miller (1988). “Climbing a Great Mountain: Selected Speeches of Mayor Harold Washington”

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• 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

  Tammy Bruce

  Culture, Action, Victim

  Tammy Bruce (2003). “The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left's Assault on Our Culture and Values”, Prima Lifestyles

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• There are cultural biases built into testing, and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action - to try to balance out those effects.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Motivation, Balance, Trying

  "Videotaped remarks shed light on Sotomayor" by Charlie Savage, www.sfgate.com. June 11, 2009.

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