In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.
Interpretation
Acknowledging race is essential to combat racism, and equality sometimes requires differential treatment.
In this quote, Harry A. Blackmun emphasizes that to effectively address and overcome racism, society must first recognize and understand the significance of race. He suggests that genuine equality cannot be achieved by ignoring racial differences; instead, it calls for acknowledging those differences and sometimes responding with tailored approaches to ensure fair treatment for all individuals.
In practice
During a diversity training session, one could share this quote to emphasize the importance of recognizing race in discussions about equality.
I cannot see any of these death penalty cases where there hasn't been a violation on the ground of either poverty or race. If we can ever get that straightened out, it will help. But, of course, the real answer to it is to do away with the death penalty.
From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. ... I fell morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed.
Of one thing, however, I am certain. Just as an execution without adequate safeguards is unacceptable, so too is an execution when the condemned prisoner can prove that he is innocent. The execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder.
The right of an individual to conduct intimate relationships in the intimacy of his or her own home seems to me to be the heart of the Constitutions protection of privacy.
From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.
I hope you will be yourself, human, even a little sentimental, possessed of a sense of humor and a sense of humility. . . . There are arrogant people in this world and, what is worse, arrogant judges.
I'm a capitalist. I believe in capitalism. But capitalism only works if you have safety nets to deal with people who are naturally left behind and brutalized by it.
The joke of it all is that you are looking from your true nature right now without knowing it. If you would stop being fascinated with the contents of your mind, you would experience what I am saying. Feel your way into what I am saying rather than thinking about it. Only a self-concept looks and longs for God. Drop your self-concept and there is only God meeting God. Enlightenment is the restoration of cosmic humor.
If any one idea can justly be called the American idea, it is that a child's circumstances at birth should not determine the station in life that that child will occupy as an adult.
The law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is to be decided.
Whole people see and create wholeness wherever they go; split people see and create splits in everything and everybody.
I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence.
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