Quote

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

Affirmative action is an effort to include every aspect of society in the decision making.

Affirmative action is the most important antidiscrimination technique ever instituted in the United States. It is the one tool that has had a demonstrable effect on discrimination... Affirmative action, by all statistical measures, has been the central ingredient to the creation of the black middle class.

Affirmative action has a negative effect on our society when it means counting us like so many beans and dividing us into separate piles.

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.

I'm not one that believes that affirmative action should be based on one's skin color or one's gender, I think it should be done based on one's need, because I think if you are from a poor white community, I think that poor white kid needs a scholarship just as badly as a poor black kid.

Affirmative action was designed to recognize the uniquely difficult journey of African-Americans. This policy was justifiable and understandable, even to those who came from white cultural groups that had also suffered in socio-economic terms from the Civil War and its aftermath.

I think that affirmative action programs can be very important.

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

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