QuoteProject
Race is a constant factor in American life. Yet reacting to every incident,real or imagined, is crippling, tiring, and ultimately counterproductive.
Condoleezza Rice
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that acknowledging race is essential, but overreacting to every racial situation can be detrimental.

Condoleezza Rice's quote highlights the reality that race is an inescapable part of American society. However, she argues that constantly responding to every racial incident, whether genuine or perceived, can be exhausting and ultimately unhelpful. It advocates for a more thoughtful approach to addressing race rather than one steeped in emotional reaction.

Themes

RaceReactionLifeAmericanCounterproductive

In practice

Example use cases

During a discussion about social justice at a community meeting.

More from Condoleezza Rice

Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same.
Condoleezza RiceRead
I think my father thought I might be president of the United States. I think he would've been satisfied with secretary of state. I'm a foreign policy person and to have a chance to serve my country as the nation's chief diplomat at a time of peril and consequence, that was enough.
Condoleezza RiceRead
What the United States has done is to be open to people who are fleeing tyranny, who are fleeing danger, but we have done it in a very careful way that has worked for us.
Condoleezza RiceRead
For the United States, supporting international development is more than just an expression of our compassion. It is a vital investment in the free, prosperous, and peaceful international order that fundamentally serves our national interest.
Condoleezza RiceRead
Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same. If you are too attentive to the former, you will most certainly not do the hard work of securing the latter.
Condoleezza RiceRead
Does anybody think these people were just sitting around drinking tea?
Condoleezza RiceRead

Similar quotes

If the Barbarians are destroyed, who will we then be able to blame for the bad things?
Angela CarterRead
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe._x000D_ _x000D_ And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;_x000D_ _x000D_ And thereby hangs a tale.
William ShakespeareRead
What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself.
Roland BarthesRead
When you have strong views about how to approach thinking about the law, then that view is going to lead to certain results in certain situations. And so people seem to think this predictability is based on some kind of partisan political view. But it's not.
Sonia SotomayorRead
Is it astonishing that, like children trying to catch smoke by closing their hands, philosophers so often see the object they would grasp fly before them?
Henri BergsonRead
Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods.
Baruch SpinozaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.