Nana Patekar Quotes

Equality means nothing unless incorporated into the institutions.

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

Now we Democrats believe that America is still the country of fair play, that we can come out of a small town or a poor neighborhood and have the same chance as anyone else, and it doesn't matter whether we are black or Hispanic, or disabled or women.

As a philanthropist, I try to help people take ownership. Everything I've done is rooted in the notion that every human being is born equally capable. What people lack is equal opportunity.

I have dedicated my political career to bringing fairness to America's economic system and to our work force, regardless of what people look like or where they may worship.

In our insistence upon equality of opportunity has our system advanced beyond all the world.

Equal opportunity for all, special privilege for none.

You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, “you are free to compete with all the others”, and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through the those gates.

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

I think women benefit from being in places and having positions where the quality of work is the criteria, not what you look like. Not every place is like that.

I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage. We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us.

I never want to get a job because I'm female. I want to get it because I earned it and I deserve it... Whether my hair is going to be blue or purple, people should be judged on how well they do the job and deliver results and whether they do it the right way. That's how I like to be judged; most people are like that.

The person who does that role better than anyone else is the person who should get that role, regardless of their background or heritage.

Ending discrimination and extending equality should always be a national priority.

We do not have the right to discriminate against people.

I'm all for diversity - but diversity for deserving people.

We are building a country where a person's prospects are determined by their own initiative and hard work and not by the color of their skin, place of birth, gender, language, or income of their parents.

It doesn't matter what color you are. Poverty is poverty. Inmates come from all walks of life. We have to make sure we look out for these people and give them a chance.

I think a lot of moral debates are not over what is the basis of justice, but who gets a ticket to play in the game.

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.

Your performance gets you promoted. It doesn't matter if you're brown, back or white.

What is the American dream? The American dream is one big tent. One big tent. And on that big tent you have four basic promises: equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access, and fair share.

If we try to engineer outcomes, if we overturn tradition to make everyone the same, we ruin society. If we upset tradition to allow for an equal shot at the starting gate, everyone wins, except for the charlatans and would be dictators.

Everyone is born equally capable but lacks equal opportunity.

In the workplace, employees should be judged on their merit and hard work and not on aspects that are irrelevant to their performance.