issues2000

More headlines: Bill Bradley on Civil Rights

(Following are older quotations. Click here for main quotations.)


Equal justice is today’s most urgent civil rights issue

Q: Comments on racial profiling? A: I’d pass a law to make sure that every police department had to keep track of who they arrested and what the race of the person they arrested was. I would then use the Justice Department to intervene aggressively if there was a pattern. This is the civil rights issue of our time. It is no longer blocking people from schools. It is no longer trying to eat in a restaurant. It is having the justice system in this country finally provide equal justice for all.
Source: Democrat debate in Los Angeles Mar 1, 2000

Accord gays dignity like every person deserves

GORE: We need the Employment Nondiscrimination Act to end discrimination in the workplace. [In ‘98] we came within one vote of passing it.

BRADLEY: [I agree & would include] gays & lesbians in the military openly, [as part of] adding sexual orientation to the Civil Rights Act. Gays and lesbians are no different than the rest of us. They just have a different attribute, like a different color hair, or it’s no different. And we have to accord them the dignity that every person in this world deserves.

Source: Democrat debate in Los Angeles Mar 1, 2000

Diversity creates the best Administration

Q: Will you appoint minorities to high offices? A: Absolutely. [My] administration will reflect the diversity of the country for one common-sense reason, because that would be the best administration. I have always had advisers at the highest level who were African-American, who were Latino, who were Asian-Americans. I did that because I thought that made me a better leader. And besides, there are a lot of people out there with a great talent that need to be given that chance to serve their country.
Source: Democrat Debate in Des Moines, Iowa Jan 17, 2000

Include gays in Civil Rights Act

Q: How will Senator Bradley’s proposal to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include gay and lesbian Americans impact the civil rights of racial, religious and other minorities?

GORE: The leaders of civil rights groups & most gay and lesbian rights groups believe that it is not wise to open up the 1964 Civil Rights Bill in the Republican congress to a process that could lead to it being seriously damaged and even lost. Virtually all of them have followed the leadership of Congressman Barney Frank in supporting the employment nondiscrimination act as a way to get right to the heart of the problem.

BRADLEY: When there is discrimination, you address it with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. would I send such a piece of legislation to the congress if I’d thought the 1964 Civil Rights Act was going to be opened up? Absolutely not.

Source: (X-ref from Gore) Democrat Debate in Des Moines, Iowa Jan 17, 2000

Appointments should reflect a world without gender

Q: What is your opinion of the fact that women earn less than men for the same work? A: I think that appointments should reflect that you see a world without gender. I think that women in the country today have so much talent burgeoning into the scene in the corporate sector and slowly in government. I think that there’s an opportunity to unlock enormous potential in our society, so that we can be as good as we can possibly be.
Source: Democrat Debate in Johnston Iowa Jan 8, 2000

Gays are no different than all of us; end discrimination

Q: What leadership will you offer to move our national policies forward on social justice for gays and lesbians? A: I am against all discrimination. I am against discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation. We should realize that gay Americans are our neighbors, they’re our bosses. They’re no different in many ways than all of us. And we have to get to a time in America where we can see beneath skin color, eye shape, or sexual orientation, to the individual.
Source: Democrat Debate at Dartmouth College Oct 28, 1999

Supports affirmative action

Bradley positions [include] support for affirmative action.
Source: Boston Globe, Sunday April 25, 1999, p. C4, by David Nyhan Apr 25, 1999

NY shooting as error; 1992 King verdict denounced.

Bradley did not join the criticism of [the 4 white NYC officers accused of fatally shooting an unarmed African immigrant]. He called the shooting “a grevious error by those charged with protecting the very person they shot.” But he added that the case shed light on “white indifference and black suspicion.” In 1992, when white LA officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King, Bradley denounced the verdict, and rapped a pencil on the Senate podium 56 times to dramatize how many times King had been hit.
Source: Boston Globe, 4/21/99, p. A12, col. 5-6 Apr 21, 1999

Indian reservations are not for get-rich-quick schemes

The economic plight of Native Americans seems to breed get-rich-quick schemes. Because they were cheated out of land. and denigrated at every turn by the white majority, it isn’t surprising that faintly fanciful ideas have taken root among many of them. Some tribes have used the sovereignty of the reservation to bring in gambling halls [or] banks to launder money from around the world. requiring non-Indian expertise. These white advisers see the reservations [merely] as places to make a quick buck.
Source: Time Present, Time Past, p. 314 Jan 8, 1997

Indian tribes all differed; we need to view them as equals

Our literature and history have narrowed and simplified Native Americans. White America doesn’t appreciate their diversity. There is no single Native American point of view--about anything, from the land to creation. The Plains Indians rode horseback and attacked wagon trains; Pueblo villagers were stable and rooted. Native Americans were good and bad, generous and selfish, brave and cowardly, bloodthirsty and passive, respective of nature and destructive of nature, anxious to change and resistant to change. The relentless advance of white settlers forced different strategies of survival on different tribes at different times. In all cases, the range of choices open to Native Americans was narrowing as the Europeans advanced across the continent. From the beginning, European settlers have viewed Native Americans as children or savages, and in both cases inferior to Europeans. Now, in the 1990s, we ought to begin to see them as equals who do not need idealizing, demonizing, or patronizing.
Source: Time Present, Time Past, p. 300 Jan 8, 1997

Urban problems based on white fear & black emboldenment

What is new [about urban problems] is white fear of random violence. Suburban subdivisions used to advertise by promoting the pleasures of outdoor life or the prestige of the community. Now they advertise personal safety, with guards and gates. To a white person, no place in a city seems safe. Walking the streets is often likened to Russian roulette. At core, this fear is a fear of young black men. [The other] phenomenon today is the appearance of black emboldenment. Many white Americans, whether fairly or unfairly, seem to be saying of young black males, “You litter the street and deface the subway, cut school, threaten a teacher, snatch a purse, and no one, black or white, says stop. You rob a store, rape a jogger, shoot a tourist, and when they catch you, if they catch you, you cry racism. And nobody, black or white, says stop.” It makes no difference whether this white rap is the exact and total reality of our cities: it is what millions of white Americans believe.
Source: Time Present, Time Past, p. 376 Jan 8, 1997

Address racism via behavioral problems in blacks & whites

We are allowing a violent Third World country to emerge in our midst, and we are doing little to avert it. No one levels about these realities. White racism lives, but so does black denial. The stakes are too high for either to be tolerated. We must aim at the behavioral problems--racism among whites and self-destructive behavior among African Americans--or accept the status of a second-rate nation. No longer can we keep running away from making decisions. Denial will not remedy our society.
Source: Time Present, Time Past, p. 390 Jan 8, 1997

Voted against school prayer; for condom distribution

Source: (X-ref Education) Project Vote Smart -- Voting Record Jul 27, 1994

Other candidates on Civil Rights: Bill Bradley on other issues:
Former Presidents/Veeps:
George W. Bush (R,2001-2009)
V.P.Dick Cheney
Bill Clinton (D,1993-2001)
V.P.Al Gore
George Bush Sr. (R,1989-1993)
Ronald Reagan (R,1981-1989)
Jimmy Carter (D,1977-1981)
Gerald Ford (R,1974-1977)
Richard Nixon (R,1969-1974)
Lyndon Johnson (D,1963-1969)
John F. Kennedy (D,1961-1963)
Dwight Eisenhower (R,1953-1961)
Harry_S_TrumanHarry S Truman(D,1945-1953)

Religious Leaders:
New Testament
Old Testament
Pope Francis

Political Thinkers:
Noam Chomsky
Milton Friedman
Arianna Huffington
Rush Limbaugh
Tea Party
Ayn Rand
Secy.Robert Reich
Joe Scarborough
Gov.Jesse Ventura 		Abortion
Budget/Economy
Civil Rights
Corporations
Crime
Drugs
Education
Energy/Oil
Environment
Families/Children
Foreign Policy
Free Trade
Govt. Reform
Gun Control
Health Care
Homeland Security
Immigration
Infrastructure/Technology
Jobs
Principles/Values
Social Security
Tax Reform
War/Iraq/Mideast
Welfare/Poverty





Page last updated: Oct 26, 2021