Stephen Colbert Quotes

So many of our conversations (about affirmative action) have been dishonest

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

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.

I looked up affirmative action once in Wikipedia, and it said, 'A measure by which white men are discriminated against,' and I got so mad.

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

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

Racial preferences are dead. All that is required now is to give them a decent and honorable burial.

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.

I have supported affirmative action, I do support affirmative action and I will support affirmative action.

That is one of the reasons I oppose this whole Affirmative Action business. We are not supposed to be judged based on what our ancestors did or suffered. We are supposed to be judged as individuals, based on what we are able to achieve.

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

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

Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.

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

I don't know what this definition of affirmative action is for some.

Education is important because, first of all, people need to know that discrimination still exists. It is still real in the workplace, and we should not take that for granted.

Affirmative action was always racial justice on the cheap.

And nothing embittered me, which is important, because I think ethnic people and women in this society can end up being embittered because of the lack of affirmative action, you know.

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

Racial discrimination is wrong and racial preference is just as wrong.

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.

We don’t treat racism by practicing racism.

You can’t fight rational discrimination the same way as you fight irrational discrimination.

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.