The opposite of poverty is not wealth. I don't believe that. I actually think, in too many places, the opposite of poverty is justice.
Interpretation
True wealth is measured not by riches, but by the presence of justice and fairness in society.
In this quote, Bryan Stevenson challenges the conventional notion that wealth is the opposite of poverty. Instead, he emphasizes that true opposition to poverty lies in the pursuit of justice. This perspective highlights that societal inequities and injustices contribute significantly to poverty, and achieving justice can create an environment where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
In practice
In a speech on social justice, mentioning Stevenson's quote can emphasize the importance of fairness in alleviating poverty.
That's my mission: I really want to get in the heads and hearts of kids and persuade them that they can believe things they haven't seen, they can do things that maybe others haven't done before them, that they are more than their worst acts.
We all have a responsibility to create a just society
One of the things that pains me is we have so tragically underestimated the trauma, the hardship we create in this country when we treat people unfairly, when we incarcerate them unfairly, when we condemn them unfairly.
Somebody has to stand when other people are sitting. Somebody has to speak when other people are quiet.
I grew up in a segregated community: I couldn't go to the public schools, beaches, certain parts of town.
If we had done the work that we should have done in the 20th century to combat our history of racial inequality, no one could win national office after demonizing people because they're Mexican or Muslim. We would be in a place where we would find that unacceptable.
Justice and goodwill will outlast passion.
It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.
In a lot of ways, civil rights division is the conscience of the Justice Department. You can almost measure what kind of Justice Department you have by what kind of civil rights division that you have.
You white folks have long been eating the white meat of the chicken. We Negroes are now ready for some of the white meat instead of the dark meat.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.
Justice is not cheap. Justice is not quick. It is not ever finally achieved.
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