The basis for sustainable progress is legal protections grounded in an awareness of how identity has been used to deny opportunity.
Interpretation
Sustainable progress requires legal protections that recognize and address systemic discrimination based on identity.
This quote by Stacey Abrams emphasizes that in order to achieve lasting progress in society, it is essential to implement legal safeguards that are informed by an understanding of how various aspects of identity, such as race, gender, and ethnicity, have historically been exploited to limit access to opportunities. Legal protections serve as a foundation to ensure equality and promote fairness, thus fostering an inclusive environment for all individuals to thrive.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about social justice reforms during a community rally.
I grew up one of six children with working-class parents in the Deep South. My mother was a college librarian, and my father worked in a shipyard. I never saw them balance a checkbook, but they kept a roof over our heads and got all six of us into college.
I do not Google myself, I do not read comments, and I barely look myself in the eye when I look in the mirror.
My being a black woman is not a deficit. It is a strength. Because I could not be where I am had I not overcome so many other barriers. Which means you know I'm relentless, you know I'm persistent, and you know I'm smart.
I like to solve problems. I know it is a skill set, but it's also an obligation. I grew up with parents who believe that you don't simply complain: you try to find solutions and fix what's in front of you.
Here in Georgia, we continue to grapple with our own vestiges of hate. The image carved into Stone Mountain, like Confederate monuments across this state, stand as constant reminders of racism, intolerance, and division.
To achieve our goals of educating bold and ambitious children, we must invest in enriching, quality early child care and learning.
Racism has its boot squarely wedged on the neck of black communities, and we don't want to be told that hard work and responsibility are the answer.
It's important to recognise that opposing racism isn't just about presenting an alternative set of values; it's about looking at how the far right play on people's hardships in order to nurture a sense of enmity between white people and those racialised as migrants.
For people of color - especially African Americans - the idea that racist cops might frame members of their community is no abstract notion, let alone an exercise in irrational conspiracy theorizing. Rather, it speaks to a social reality about which blacks are acutely aware.
There is no reason why a nation as rich as ours should be blighted by poverty, disease, and illiteracy.
I've always been bothered by systems that don't work for everybody. It doesn't mean we're all equal. I am not naive about that. But we should have a more inclusive society.
Before the Civil War, the Negro was certainly as efficient a workman as the raw immigrant from Ireland or Germany. But, whereas the Irishmen found economic opportunity wide and daily growing wider, the Negro found public opinion determined to 'keep him in his place.'
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