Stacey Abrams in Lead from the Outside
On Principles & Values:
What do I want, and how do I get there?
When we win, we achieve beyond ourselves. We become models for others, known and unknown, who see our victories as proof that they can win too. Even by simply embracing ambition, talking about it, trying and failing, we mentor others who see their
potential. And by going beyond their own limits, we change the places we inhabit. We bring a fresh perspective to a company or a cause, a minority lens that expands or shifts how the work gets done.So what takes us beyond the dream to charting a new
reality? Whether the dream is to run a company, run for office , or run a 5k-or even if your dream has not yet been discovered-the path to recognizing ambition is the sme;1. What do I want? 2. Why do I want it? 3. How do I get there?
Before exploring
these steps, it's important to understand & internalize our right to being ambitious. Because, for too many of us, we are stopped in our tracks before we even begin because we don't believe we deserve to want more. And it is by wanting more that we win.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. 6-7
Mar 26, 2019
On Principles & Values:
First black woman as major party governor nominee
In May 2017, I became the first black woman to receive the gubernatorial nomination in American history. On November 6, 2018, I received more votes than any Democrat in Georgia history, outpacing Barack Obama and Secretary of state,
Hillary Clinton. I learned later that our turnout tripled the amount of Latinos and Asian Americans, more than doubled the youth participation rate.
I received more votes from African Americans than the sum [of all] voters in 2014. My candidacy created a path to win a congressional seat and flip sixteen legislative seats.
I received the highest white vote in a generation. And I was within 1.4% of the man who had run the election and run against me-serving as both contestant and referee.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. xiii
Mar 26, 2019
On Government Reform:
Elections are rigged when poor communities' voting hindered
In elections, our nation has fought a lifelong battle about who gets to have any say in the outcome--and set the terms of the next battle. Race, gender, and sex have been constant markers of access, beginning with the Constitution.
My election was no different. Poor communities found themselves without equipment for voting, including missing power cords and antiquated machines.
Other voters arrived at their polling stations only to be turned away because they'd been illegally purged or because the poll workers didn't have enough paper for extra ballots.
Some stood in hour-long lines, while their compatriots had to give up and go back to work or risk a family's already meager paycheck. This is how the game of elections gets rigged.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. xiv
Mar 26, 2019
On Principles & Values:
Yale Law School; tax attorney and romance novelist
I received a master's degree from the University of Texas. I would attend Yale School of Law, the most exclusive in the country, where I would try to confront the questions of race and gender in a space that prided itself on mediocrity, on ignoring
the value of privilege, though I could count the number of folks who looked like me in a class on one hand.When I graduated from Yale, I joined a white-shoe law firm, where I was the only person of color who practiced my type of tax law.
Despite the long history of the firm, only two people of color had ever become partners--and this was one of the more diversity conscious law firms in Atlanta.
For every success-becoming deputy city attorney, running for office,
and rising in less than four years to serve as the minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives-I have consistently confronted racism, sexism, ageism, and other bias about my otherness.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. xxvi
Mar 26, 2019
On Civil Rights:
Entered politics in 1992 with Rodney King riots
I can easily trace my goal of becoming mayor to my freshman year of college. In that spring of 1992, America exploded when the Rodney King verdict was announced. In downtown Atlanta, where I attended school, young black men and women smashed windows,
overturned cars, and ransacked the city. For my part, I joined with fellow students in a silent march.Yet, although I helped lead the peaceful protest, I understood what drove those angry young people to hurl bottles and shout epithets.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. 15-17
Mar 26, 2019
On Crime:
In 1992 riots, police treated all young blacks as guilty
[During the Rodney King riots in 1992, in Atlanta], as the police moved into our area of the city to quell the unrest, a strange thing happened. Tear gas rained down on our college quads, vile smoke filling the open spaces. Across the street, similar
bombs exploded in the eyes of section 8 housing dwellers. The police only saw congregations of young blacks, and race became a unifying marker of guilt. Watching the news, I heard false reports about why the area was under siege and facile explanations
for complex social problems. After seething and talking back to the television set, I called the most offensive station to demand they do a better job of telling the story.Quickly, I looked up the numbers to all the TV stations. Before the advent of
24/7 news, most people got their sense of what's happening from just four networks. I went up and down the halls of my dorm and organized fellow students to begin calling the TV stations to extend our protest.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. 16-18
Mar 26, 2019
On Families & Children:
Government can foster change for families like mine
I first ran for office because I understood that government has a tremendous capacity to help people unlock their own potential, and I wanted a job where I could foster change for families like mine. Families that want more than entry level jobs that
pay the lowest wages. I want to lead a state that does more than survive--doing okay by some, and not so great for many of us. That means becoming governor, although no black woman has ever held the job in American history.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. 23
Mar 26, 2019
On Government Reform:
Investigated for registering 86,000 voters in one year
In 2014, I raised more than $3.5 million, and we submitted more than 86,000 voter applications to the state for processing. Which was when the new Georgia plan was placed under investigation by the secretary of state, who questioned how our organization
could have registered so many people of color in such a short span of time without some misconduct. Yet, of the voter registration applications we submitted, an estimated 40,000 registration forms were missing from the rolls on election day. For the
next two years, my team and I would battle not only the accusations of the state, but also questions from our allies about what had transpired. Eventually, we proved the secretary of state had illegally cancelled 35,000 registrations, including ours,
and no wrongdoing had occurred on our side of the process. The secretary of state closed his investigation, admitting we had done nothing illegal. Better still, we've already registered more than 200,000 of our voters on the way to the 800,000 voters.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. 53-54
Mar 26, 2019
On Government Reform:
Register 75,000 out of 800,000 unregistered people of color
In the winter of 2013, Georgia had more than 800,000 unregistered people of color--a community the size of South Dakota who who did not have the legal ability to vote despite being eligible. Politicians discussed how distressed they were by the sheer
number. Finally, I decided to launch a non-profit voter registration effort to target these potential voters, whose decisions could shift the balance of power in the state if they participated en masse. My plan to register 75,000 potential voters in 2014
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. 54
Mar 26, 2019
On Education:
4-year degree gains white family $55,900 & black only $4,800
My parents, who met in high school, both made it to college. But as mom and dad, and millions of folks learn in our country, a college degree is no guarantee of opportunity. Despite the prestige of their investigations, the 'isms' that stalk the
minorities do not disappear once they cross the academic stage, and turning the tassel from right to left isn't a magical ritual to open and close doors. Doing exactly what were told, amassing the education and the accolades and the experiences,
guarantees absolutely nothing. A white family of median income sees a return of $55,869 from completing a four year degree. A black family will earn a return of $4,846, slightly more than a Latino family at $4,191.Mom got a job as a college
librarian, where her paychecks rarely reflected her worth. For my father, his struggle with reading meant he took his bachelor's degree in history to a local shipyard where he worked as a laborer for the next fifteen years.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. 57
Mar 26, 2019
On Civil Rights:
Inspire running for office:You cannot be what you cannot see
Sometimes, we inadvertently constrict the aspirations of those who share our particular strain of otherness. We need to be in it for others like us. The imperative of showing it can be done is only logical.
When no one in a poor neighborhood owns a business, the idea of entrepreneurship scarcely takes root. Kids who have never met a college graduate tend not to pursue higher education.
Groups like Emily's List and Higher Heights for America know how to convince women how to run an office, especially women of color, you must tell them about other women who have run for
office in the past, even after they have actually won. The pithy saying goes, "You cannot be what you cannot see."
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p. 77
Mar 26, 2019
On Budget & Economy:
White family wealth: $142,000; black family wealth: $11,000
To maintain financial freedom, we must build wealth beyond our take-home pay or our homes. That means understanding the difference between income and wealth. To put the gap in stark racial terms, in America in 2013, the average income per household
was $81,000. But averages have highs and lows. When you disaggregate the numbers, white families average $142,000 in wealth, Latinos come in at $13,700, and black families come in the rear at $11,000. Asian Americans are closer to whites than other
people of color, but they also are behind whites.
For women, the wealth gap manifests itself first in the wages women earn. Women are more likely to be underpaid more than for the same work, to be in careers where salaries lag behind, and face hidden
tax prejudices that siphon off their money before it can be translated into wealth. The wage gap is real: in 2016, women working fulltime women were generally paid 80% of what men received.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p.115-6
Mar 26, 2019
On Principles & Values:
The best ideas & the best policies are collaborative
Given the scope of the issues we face, too often we wrongly map out power by assuming the right leader is the one with the most brilliant mind, with the most unique approach, WHO CAN GO IT ALONE. Moreover, as minorities, we believe that to be valued, we
must take all the credit and be the author of every solution. I assure you, this thinking is wrong. The best ideas and policies are typically collaborative, and those that succeed are the product of a community. When a woman, a person of color,
or a millennial prepares to lead, she can be lulled into believing that the resident genius will be the winner, and the only way the work gets done is to go it alone. The reality is much simpler: the ones who deny themselves a place in the room where
the work gets done will be the victims, not the leaders. Too often, race, gender, and age convince us to sacrifice our power because no one has told us we have it--or that we already have access to enough of it if we read our power map.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p.169-70
Mar 26, 2019
On Principles & Values:
Short-sighted leaders have definite opinion about everything
Public policy--usually--isn't good or evil, or even that interesting. It is mundane and routine, and it cuts across neighborhoods, nations, and ideologies. So when a belief allows for only a single myopic focus, a solitary filter has no room for debate,
leaders miss the true role of government and of public policy. The same goes in the office where doing what has always been done in the reason to keep doing it wrong, or where fear of the unknown paralyzes decision making.
These shortsighted leaders are easy to spot. They are the ones who have a definite opinion about every headline and give you the answer before you ask the question. And if you can't point out who is in the circle of colleagues is that person, it just
might be you. I do have core beliefs, but I don't have an unshakeable opinion on every issue. I accept I may not know enough about every situation to render immediate judgement.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p.171-2
Mar 26, 2019
On Principles & Values:
I author romance novels, but I'm not married
As the author of romance novels, I have been asked on more than one occasion of my love life. As I got ready to run for governor, we did focus groups, and one of those topics was how harshly I would be judged for my single status.
The kindest question about why I'm not married is usually acknowledged by how busy I am. Less thoughtful ones accuse me of being too ambitious and of prioritizing my professional goals over my personal life.
Years ago, I decided to ignore how society told me I should behave because what I was doing turned out pretty well.
I have erred along the way in romantic relationships (a book for another day) but not because I picked work over life.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p.180-1
Mar 26, 2019
On Corporations:
Founded company "Insomnia"; motto "We don't deal with jerks"
When Laura and I founded our firm Insomnia, we had five rules, my favorite of which was "we don't deal with jerks". - Life comes first,
- Don't deal with jerks
- Only take projects that deal with our head and our heart
-
If it can't change the world we don't do it, and
- Sleep is optional.
In the business context, we agreed to fire any clients whose values failed to align with our own, or whose boorish behavior made our work harder than required.
The jerks label extends to flaky friends, the colleague who always has emergencies, and the guy who always borrows but never lends. I've expanded the description to cover a host of people who are especially unkind,
those who place their needs above others and have little patience for the issues that involve don't involve them. Only twice have we had to invoke our "no jerks" rider, by mutual agreement.
Source: Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams, p.186
Mar 26, 2019
Page last updated: May 01, 2021