Rafael Cruz Quotes

The fact is that in too many parts of our country, we still have discrimination. And affirmative action is not just something that applies to people of color. Some people have a mistaken view of it in America. It also is with respect to women, it's with respect to other efforts to try to reach out and be inclusive in our country.

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.

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

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.

You always make a film with the hope that all types of people will want to see your work and that it doesn't matter about your color, but unfortunately it still does.

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

Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.

Affirmative action is under attack today, not because it has failed, but because it succeeded.

To realize democracy it is necessary to absolutely eliminate ... colour from all State and social policy, unless you would justify ... caste, wealth, rank, birth and education, as giving title to privileged treatment ...

In the long run it is more important to us as a nation to show the world that we believe in equality of opportunity, that we realize that any kind of segregation is discrimination whether it comes about because of race, color, or creed, and that we are determined to show the world that we believe in the things we preach.

We suspect that 25 years from now the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary.

Government service in all its branches, state and federal, would have to be thrown open to all on the basis solely of merit, and promotions made accordingly. It would probably be necessary to have drastic laws against manifestations of color prejudice and discrimination, just as we have legislated against kidnapping, arson and murder which are certainly no more serious from the viewpoint of national welfare.

Genius draws no color line.

Superior ability is not the exclusive possession of any one race or any one class.

I think that affirmative action programs can be very important.

To abandon affirmative action is to say there is nothing more to be done about discrimination.

I always had my views on racial tolerance. I couldn't see why anyone would dislike or to the nth degree hate someone simply because they were a different color.

The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.

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.

Two people will never be President in my lifetime. A woman and a black.

If women were in charge of everything, there would be women tyrants. If black people were in charge, there would be black tyrants. If Hispanics were in charge, then Hispanic tyrants.

We beg you to save young America from the blight of race prejudice. Do not bind the children within the narrow circles of your own lives.

Affirmitive action is extremely complex because it appears in many different forms.

I'm not going to sit here now and say 'do this,' or 'do that.' But you must - must - expunge any vestige of racism.

I had no need to apologize that the look-wider, search-more affirmative action that Princeton and Yale practiced had opened doors for me. That was its purpose: to create the conditions whereby students from disadvantaged backgrounds could be brought to the starting line of a race many were unaware was even being run.