We have to improve life, not just for those who have the most skills and those who know how to manipulate the system. But also for and with those who often have so much to give but never get the opportunity.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the need for equity in improving life, ensuring opportunities are extended to everyone, especially those without access.
Dorothy Height's quote highlights the importance of creating a more equitable society where improvement in life is not reserved solely for the skilled or those who manipulate systems. It calls for including and uplifting those who possess great potential but lack the opportunities to showcase it, reinforcing the idea that true progress involves all members of society.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a speech advocating for social reform to highlight the importance of inclusivity.
I think of my life as a unity of circles. Some are concentric, others overlap, but they all connect in some way. Sometimes the connections don't happen for years. But when they do, I marvel. As in a shimmering kaleidoscope, familiar patterns keep unfolding
Progress comes from caring more about what needs to be done than about who gets the credit
We had people of all backgrounds coming together - all races, all creeds, all colors, all status in life. And coming together there was a kind of quiet dignity and a kind of sense of caring and a feeling of joint responsibility.
There is no contradiction between effective law enforcement and respect for civil and human rights.
The Black family of the future will foster our liberation, enhance our self-esteem, and shape our ideas and goals.
My mother helped me understand how not to show off what I knew, but how to use it so that others might benefit.
Being a woman, we talk about equal pay all the time. We're not talking about if you're black or if you are Latina. I would like to get back to that and improving the relationship between the police community and the community of color. I don't know exactly all the right things to say, but I want to engage in that conversation.
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town.
When we pull back the curtain and take a look at what our 'colorblind' society creates without affirmative action, we see a familiar social, political, and economic structure - the structure of racial caste. The entrance into this new caste system can be found at the prison gate.
The success of the few does not excuse the caste-like system that exists for many. In fact, black exceptionalism - the high-profile, highly visible examples of the black success - actually serves to justify and rationalize mass incarceration.
The people who serve your fast food lunch or your after-work drinks deserve dignity - and if big companies don't start paying them enough for a decent standard of living, they have the power to close these businesses. But no one goes on strike lightly.
If we continue to tolerate this level of poverty in our cities, and go along with eviction as commonplace in poor neighborhoods, it's not for a lack of resources. It will be a lack of something else.
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