We've talked more about civil rights after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than we talked about it before 1964.
Clarence ThomasRead
Even as someone who's labeled a conservative - I'm a Republican I'm black, I'm heading up this organization in the Reagan administration - I can say that conservatives don't exactly break their necks to tell blacks that they're welcome.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Clarence Thomas expresses the sentiment that the conservative political movement often does not reach out to welcome Black individuals.
In this quote, Clarence Thomas, a prominent African American figure within the conservative Republican Party, highlights the disconnect between the conservative movement and the Black community. He notes that despite his own position within the Reagan administration, there is a lack of proactive efforts from conservatives to make Black individuals feel included and valued within their political ideology, pointing to a broader issue of representation and outreach within the party.
Themes
ConservatismRacePoliticsInclusionRepresentation
In practice
Example use cases
During a political debate to illustrate the need for better engagement with minority communities.
More from Clarence Thomas
All quotes →Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot.
Clarence ThomasRead
I was Catholic. You talk about a minority within a minority within a minority: a black Catholic in Savannah, GA.
Clarence ThomasRead
When I was a kid, we said that we were precluded from going to certain neighborhoods because of the color of our skin Now the neighborhoods are the neighborhoods of ideas, youre not supposed to be there because of the color of your skin.
Clarence ThomasRead
The myths that are created about the South, about the way we grew up, about black people, are wrong.
Clarence ThomasRead
Similar quotes
So efficient are the available instruments of slavery; fingerprints, lie detectors, brain washings, gas chambers; that we shiver at the thought of political change which might put these instruments in the hands of men of hate.
Bernard BaruchRead
In short, killing the goose that lays the golden egg is a viable political strategy, so long as the goose does not die before the next election and no one traces the politicians’ fingerprints on the murder weapon.
Thomas SowellRead
Voting is merely a labor-saving device for ascertaining on which side force lies and bowing to the inevitable... It is neither more nor less than a paper representative of the bayonet, the bully, and the bullet.
Benjamin TuckerRead
Democracy belongs to those who exercise it.
Bill MoyersRead
In contrast to totalitarianism, democracy can face and live with the truth about itself.
Sidney HookRead
I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.
Shirley ChisholmRead