Shelby Steele Quotes

I think that affirmative action programs can be very important.

But even race-neutral policies and recruitment efforts designed to achieve greater diversity are, in the end, not race neutral.

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

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

Advocating for affirmative action through the prism of diversity may be more politically palatable, but it will inevitably yield insufficient results.

Diversity for diversity's sake is nothing more than affirmative action and can make no claim to being part of America's greatness.

Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them.

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

I don't want affirmative action - too much affirmative, not enough action.

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.

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

I champion sensibly designed racial affirmative action, not because I have benefited from it personally - though I have. I support it because, on balance, it is conducive to the public good.

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.

If giving points to some students to achieve greater diversity is a quota system in violation of the Constitution, how can the awarding of points to the children of a less diverse alumni be upheld?

Republicans can be a funny bunch. They're against affirmative action, but they always seem to be able to find people of color to fill a slot just when they're most needed.

I support affirmative action. I support special measures when you need it.

In Obama's case, we've enabled affirmative action to find a home in the nation's highest office. There you have it. I said it and I stand by it. America fell for the gimmick candidate, disregarding every fact and warning sign in the rush to have 'the first African-American president.'

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

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.

I suspect that it would be impossible to arrange an affirmative action program in a racially neutral way and have it successful. To ask that this be so is to demand the impossible.

Affirmative action takes many forms in our society. White fraternity members help others with jobs.

For a long time, the Court has moved toward outlawing all forms of racial preference, including affirmative action, and Obama seems accepting, even supportive, of the change.

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

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.

Real progress will have been made when people don't care or even notice the color of a comedian when they'll just be concerned with whether he's funny.