Monte Irvin Quotes

I never looked at the bigger picture. I was just so passionate about football; I just wanted an opportunity to play with no barriers and no stigma.

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.

I'm persuaded that sports is the one place where the rules are pretty well set out, where fans are equal. And if you got game or you're a good official, you make it here, whether you're white or you're black.

I don’t care if he is black, blue or green. He is the best man for the job.

Equal opportunity for all, special privilege for none.

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.

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

Now, as a nation, we don't promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That's an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.

Sports is the common denominator in the world that brings everyone together. If there's any one place in the world where there is equality, it is probably sports. That was something that didn't always exist. We've come a long way in sports. Why can't society use sports as a way to bring people together and create change?

I want to be elected on my own ability. Only then do you have progress... People should not use race as a basis for labelling me.

Racial distinctions should not play a role in sport.

Society as a whole benefits immeasurably from a climate in which all persons, regardless of race or gender, may have the opportunity to earn respect, responsibility, advancement and remuneration based on ability.

Let the path be open to talent.

This country can no longer afford to choose our leaders from a talent pool limited by sex, race, money, powerful fathers and paper degrees. It's time to take equal pride in breaking all the barriers.

We must restore the emotional relationship that people have to the idea of America, that no matter where you come from, no matter where you live, that you have access to the same opportunities that somebody who is born in privilege.

That's what liberalism is all about, is promoting incompetence on the basis it's fair, because people would be the best if they weren't discriminated against.

In the field of sports you are more or less accepted for what you do rather than what you are.

The liberal ideal is that everyone should have fair access and fair opportunity. This is not equality of result. It's equality of opportunity. There's a fundamental difference.

Accomplishments have no color.

On the field, everyone is equal.

Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.

I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life.

The colored employees of the Government shall be treated precisely as the whites are treated. If they attend to their duty they will not be disturbed.

The supreme test of a democracy is the measure of equality of opportunity that it affords to its citizens to rise to the highest point of authority and position.

We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.