Affirmative action has to be combined with a broader program of social reform that would emphasize social rights: the right to employment, the right to education, the right to good health.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Affirmative action alone is insufficient; it must be paired with broader social reforms addressing employment, education, and health to be effective.
- In plain terms
- You need more than affirmative action; you need better jobs, schools, and healthcare too.
- What can you take from it?
- Social reform must include rights to work, learn, and be healthy to support affirmative action.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What broader reforms should accompany affirmative action?
- How should leaders prioritize economic versus social issues?
Another view
The critique of black leadership may overlook structural constraints they face.
More from William Julius Wilson
A lot of people feel that because of racism, it is unrealistic to get groups of different racial backgrounds to work together iri an effective coalition. I arg…
Permalink to quote #8 And you can't capture the importance of the environment unless you recognize the interaction between social conditions and cultural conditions.
Permalink to quote #10 A lot of people are going to call me naive.
Permalink to quote #7
Related quotes
Affirmative action has to be combined with a broader program of social reform that would emphasize social rights: the right to employment, the right to educati…
William Julius WilsonWilliam Julius Wilson quote #2 The church has stood, a rock colossus of bigotry, in the path of ten thousand proposed reforms. Sane efforts to legalize birth control information, the manufac…
Philip WyliePhilip Wylie quote #5 The hours men and women worked, the wages they received, the conditions of their labor - these had passed beyond the control of the people, and were imposed by…
Franklin Delano RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt quote #36