Affirmative action is the most important modern anti-discrimination technique ever instituted in the United States. It is the one tool that has had a demonstrable effect on discrimination. No one who knows anything about the subject would say it hasn't worked. It has certainly done something, or else it wouldn't have provoked so much opposition.
On the road to equality there is no better place for blacks to detour around American values than in forgoing its example in the treatment of its women and the organization of its family.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the need to recognize and improve the treatment of women in order to achieve true equality for all, especially for the black community.
Eleanor Holmes Norton points out that the pursuit of racial equality cannot ignore the systemic issues present in the treatment of women and family structures within American society. By highlighting these specific challenges, she suggests that the injustices faced by black individuals are intertwined with gender-related inequalities, indicating that true progress in equality requires addressing both fronts simultaneously.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of social justice, I might say, 'As Eleanor Holmes Norton once said, on the road to equality...' to highlight gender issues.
More from Eleanor Holmes Norton
All quotes →I agree that income disparity is the great issue of our time. It is even broader and more difficult than the civil rights issues of the 1960s. The '99 percent' is not just a slogan. The disparity in income has left the middle class with lowered, not rising, income, and the poor unable to reach the middle class.
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.
Similar quotes
Male and female citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, must be equally admitted to all honors, positions, and public employment according to their capacity and without other distinctions besides those of their virtues and talents.
If a man can coach a female, why can't a female coach a male? When I was looking for a coach, the gender of the coach never occurred to me. It was about who I thought was good and who I could get along with and listen to.
In addition to being an economic security issue, the failure to pay women a salary that's equal to men for equal work is also a women's health issue. The fact is that the salary women are paid directly impacts the type of health care services they are able to access for both themselves and their families.
The media says that equality for women has arrived, but if you look around, you still don't see girls playing guitars and having success with it.
I believe women not just in the United States but throughout the world deserve equality and freedom but know I am in no position to tell women of other cultures what that equality and freedom should look like.
Women must have economic and social equality with men.