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2003
in Review
 On
inner beauty
- “ The first attribute of true beauty
is integrity. Integrity is standing up for the truth … This
means as young women of integrity, you must learn to make
wise decisions … and always seek the guidance and strength
of God. A beautiful young woman must be diligent [which
is] defined as hardworking and industrious. Prove to your
teacher and to yourself what diligence looks like. Lastly,
beautiful people enjoy themselves at all times. Do activities
you’ve never done before. Don’t procrastinate.” — Adriana
Bond, Miss Nefertiti Debutante 2001
On protecting children
- “ O God of children who can walk and
talk and hear and see and sing and dance and jump and play.
And of children who wish they could but can’t. Of children
who are loved and unloved, wanted and unwanted. Help us
to love and respect and protect them all.” — Marian Wright
Edelman
On prisons and racism
- “Over the years, it has become more evident
the biggest problem in the prisons is racism. And every
step of the way, as you go up the scale of the prisons,
the racial mix gets more and more Black. The Supermax prison
is 65 percent Black. We’ve concluded that the schools are
the gateway to prison for minority kids. We’re spending
all of our money for minority kinds on a prison system where
they remain uneducated, instead of on the school system
where they’re supposed to be educated.” — Ed Steichen
On affirmative action
- “By joining the friend-of-the-court filing,
we are stressing our belief that being educated in a diverse
environment will help today’s students realize their potential
as the next corporate and community leaders. We believe
diversity is a critical factor in hiring and maintaining
a well-trained, experienced workforce that encourages, respects,
and values the differences that every employee brings into
the workplace.”— Erroll B Davis Jr.
- “Affirmative action opponents tend to
champion so-called color-blindness in the name of individual
rights and merit by looking at a qualified applicant as
a whole. To fully appreciate an individual, we must take
all aspects of their talents, ideas, and uniqueness into
account. Unlike racism and sexism, affirmative action recognizes
that people of color and women belong beside, not below,
everyone else. Allow us a fair and equal opportunity to
compete, and we’ll take it from there.”— Ikeita Cantu
- “As long as people of color fail to show
up on voting day with the same turnout percentage as Euro-American
males, affirmative action will always be an ‘endangered
species.’”— Jonathan Gramling
On Ojibwe culture
- “In Ojibwe culture, the drum is synonymous
with life. Dance is so very important in my culture. It
is the very essence of who each one of us really is. The
drum, in a way, is the woman. The drum is the strength.
She gives life. She is like the creator.” — Nick Hockings
On Black History
- “African American history, correctly
understood, is the struggle of an enslaved people to preserve
a way of life, to maintain those vital bridges over troubled
waters in order to make it possible for a people to survive
the harshest circumstances, to create something out of nothing,
to thrive when our survival was in question, to resist and
overcome in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles
and odds.”— Ron Daniels
On leadership
- “We must know how to build alliances,
allow transformations, retain what is just, promote sustainability,
and create opportunities for new leaders.”— Jan Miyasaki
- “Leadership isn’t about being visible.
It’s about how people feel about you in the community. It
is also about followership.”— Gladis Benavides
On war
- “It’s easy for some who stand far from
the front lines of the world’s conflicts to always propose
seeking the peaceful way out, as it is for some who stand
far from the front lines to glibly sound the call to arms.
Nor … do I have any tolerance for those who practice terrorism.
The murder of innocent people for any ideological cause
has never been, and is not now, and will never be acceptable.”
— Hugh B. Price
- “The misadventure in Iraq is merely another
example of policy driven by the kind of arrogance, militarism,
greed, and profit motives that Martin Luther King rejected
in mounting his opposition to the war in Vietnam. Once again,
America is willing to spill the blood of innocent people,
if necessary, to promote and protect its vital interests
— which more often than not are about making the world safe
for U.S. corporate interests.” — Ron Daniels
On dealing with racism
- “Here in our home of Madison, when we
clear away discrimination and other obstacles that hinder
the growth of a truly vibrant, diverse community, we’re
clearing the path for future generations — we’re moving
our own boulders.”— Mayor Dave Cieslewicz
- “How we are dealing with racism and other
types of discrimination exemplifies our city’s drift into
mediocrity. Racial discrimination needs to be clearly opposed
and exposed, both when it is subtle and when it is blatant,
when it is done by the economically powerful or by public
officials, when it is done with personal attacks or with
legal rationalization. How we address discriminatory actions
determines the future of the community we create and whether
the community fully values and includes all of us.” — Bert
Zipperer
On Housing
- “While deliberate acts of discrimination
pose obstacles to equal housing opportunity, general lack
of public knowledge about fair housing is also a community
problem. Because housing discrimination is often subtle
and difficult to detect, many consumers leave an interaction
with a housing provider unaware that they were treated differently
than someone else because of their race, disability, or
because they have children – and therefore never file a
complaint. As a result, discrimination in the housing market
is vastly underreported.” — Fair Housing Center
- “If we’re going to have ‘workforce housing,’
the private sector needs to understand that being part of
the solution is in their interest as well as that of the
broader community. Affordable housing is an economic development
priority. If people in the workforce can’t afford decent
places to live, it will be harder for businesses to find
and keep a workforce. And if workers need more money to
pay for housing, it’s harder for businesses to stay competitive.”
— William Perkins
On sexual assault
- “Rape cultures embody a false belief
which places responsibility of rape on its victim and ameliorates
the responsibility of the perpetrators. Societal messages
to men are to be sturdy and not have feelings, so how are
you going to expect men to understand that when a woman’s
crying it’s not a good thing?” — Luoluo Hong
- “There is always an ongoing challenge
to balance crisis counseling and at the same time work on
prevention. Ultimately, the idea is that we leave our daughters
with a better world than we inherited.” — Kelly Anderson
On Juneteenth
- “African American emancipation is part
of every American’s history, but most significantly, it’s
part of our history. We want people to dig into that experience,
that first experience we share as African Americans. That’s
what Juneteenth is all about.” — Annie Weatherby
On advising students
- “Education doesn’t end with graduation.
Education continues even after we’ve finished our advanced
or technical degrees or found our place in the workforce.
It’s about what book you pick out to read, what musical
event you choose to attend, or what volunteer opportunity
you willingly give your time to.” — Mayor Dave Cieslewicz
- “Avoid debt. The last thing you want
to do is increase your debt. You’ve learned how to live
on needs when you were in college. Why create that additional
debt now that you have graduated? I recommend you pay yourself
an incentive, through savings. Savings should not be what’s
left over.” — Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu
On a national health
insurance program
- “There is a crisis in our health system,
and we, physicians are concerned. Physicians’ idealism of
serving everybody isn’t happening. We are not happy that
business/investment has become the bottom line.” — Dr. Linda
Farley
- “Sometimes we call people ‘undocumenteds’
but that doesn’t mean they’re not ‘human beings’. They don’t
understand the language or how the system works. Every single
day, I see patients with chronic conditions for whom I cannot
prescribe medications because they are so expensive. They
don’t come back to the clinic because they can’t pay for
it.” — Dr. Patricia Tellez-Giron
- “While sound business practices are essential
to the provision of quality health care at affordable prices,
market forces within the health care system have been creating
an oligarchy of health care providers and insurers that
are somewhat insulated from consumer preference and market
forces. … The demand for medical services will always be
there because the alternative is death or a lifetime of
ill health.”— Jonathan Gramling
On Hip-Hop
- “The aesthetic of America is the hip-hop
culture, the Hip-Hop Nation which could be considered Black,
but really has evolved to the point — if ‘evolved’ is the
word — that it’s national. It’s the American Way.”— Nikki
Giovanni
On Bayard Rustin and
the Black Church
- “ My hope is, particularly in the Black
Church, that we put things out front that Bayard Rustin
was about the truth and speaking truth to power, putting
it right out front to say ‘This is what it is. I’m going
to say what it is’ That’s important as opposed to having
people shy away from things that are important in our community.
It’s very very important for any faith community to
understand that and to embrace it.” — Steve Braunginn
On Black unemployment
- “The Black unemployment situation amounts
to a crisis within the overall national unemployment crisis,
and it demands concerted action. The high rate of Black
unemployment from the 1970s to the 1990s produced many severe
problems that bedeviled not just Black America, but America
as a whole.” — Marc Morial
On UW-PEOPLE program
- “ In a world where minorities are looked
upon as inferior, the PEOPLE program has strengthened us
through its self-empowerment classes. It has cultivated
us into becoming intelligent students.” — Joshua Hargrove
On Grow Wisconsin
- “Our comprehensive strategy of action
is to get Wisconsin’s economy moving again, producing the
kind of good-paying jobs that allow people to support their
family, buy a home, and enjoy the great things in life Wisconsin
has to offer.” — Gov. James Doyle
On domestic violence
- •“People of color must have equal access
to services and support when they are victimized. They must
have access to services that are provided by people who
look like them, service providers that understand their
culture and barriers to services, and who speak their language.”
— Mary Lauby, WCADV
- “Let’s not flatten the woman out to being
only the victim of someone’s fist. In order to help her,
you have to see the continuum of violence that has happened
to her, not just the moment that made her show up to your
shelter.”
— Loretta Ross
On community involvement
- “The reason I’m here, and the reason
I’ve stepped up, so to speak, is because I want to emphasize
how we can change this. Invest in our children, families,
and neighborhoods and support Black-owned businesses. Tell
minority children the truth about alcohol and drug use so
they can make informed decisions later on in life, when
it counts. We need to form coalitions and work collectively
for safe neighborhoods.”— Lendell Alston
On Latino-Black unity
- “Although Latinos are less cohesive as
a group than Blacks — identifying themselves by place of
origin rather than race and collectively lacking a shared
history in the United States — Blacks and Latinos, as well
as other minorities, will move forward fastest if we move
forward together.” — Julian Bond
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