Clint Smith Quotes

Until affirmative action is described and understood as one mechanism by which to make amends for historical wrongdoing against members of marginalized communities, it will fail to meaningfully address the inequality that exists as a direct result of federal policy.

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

The legal battle against segregation is won, but the community battle goes on.

Judges cannot mandate Black or Hispanic excellence.

Where the effects of past discrimination persist, society has an obligation to take positive steps to overcome the legacy of injustice. Judiciously administered affirmative action programs in education and employment can be important expressions of the drive for solidarity and participation that is at the heart of true justice. Social harm calls for social relief.

Affirmative action is the majority’s constitutional prerogative, through the use of the democratic process—and a means of taking responsibility for the community’s past wrongdoing.

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

It is not up to women of color to save this country from itself. That's on all of us. That's on all of us.

We've come a long way from the days where there was state-enforced segregation. But we still have a way to go.

In theory, affirmative action certainly has all the moral symmetry that fairness requires. It is reformist and corrective, even repentent and redemptive.

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

Only when we ensure that the mistakes of our past are not the vision for our future, will we truly have achieved justice.

Too often when we talk about racial or economic justice, we white people do not see ourselves in the picture. We feel like it's all well and good for other people to do better, but not at our expense, and it won't benefit us.

However, while we should certainly celebrate the demise of overt official racism, we must also critically examine where we are at this historical moment, recognize the many challenges ahead and reaffirm our commitment to making Brown v. Board a reality.

The NAACP was even considering earlier this summer reassessing their position on school integration.

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.

Certainly we can end racism with love. We can demand that the federal government change its emphasis on racial distinction.

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.

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 don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.

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.

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.

So as soon as the land was worth something and there was money in the bank, all of a sudden everybody got interested in non-discrimination, in who's really going to administer this stuff.

Affirmative action was always racial justice on the cheap.

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