Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes

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

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.

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.

The only way you get to the goal of color blindness is to be color conscious along the way.

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

What we hope to achieve is a society that doesn't value a white man because he's a white man, but also doesn't value a woman because she's a woman, or a black because he's a black.

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

We will live with racism for ever. But senses of self, senses of belonging, senses of us and of others? Those are up for grabs.

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.

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 are justified in believing that the success of this movement for equality of the sexes means more progress toward equality of the races.

The whole issue of race and discrimination is a moral issue.

The destiny of the colored American... is the destiny of America.

In approaching this problem [school desegregation], we cannot turn the clock back...

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

I think that affirmative action programs can be very important.

I'm someone very interested in diversity, equity, social justice, and getting rid of white supremacy.

It's not enough to just not be racist. You've got to be anti-racist. You've got to hold everybody accountable.

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.

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.

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.

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

Race prejudice can't be talked down, it must be lived down.

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

We cannot reform institutional racism or systemic policies if we are not actively engaged. It's not enough to simply complain about injustice; the only way to prevent future injustice is to create the society we would like to see, one where we are all equal under the law.