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I am willing to compete on my merits and on my character - not with the color of my skin. We talk about being a color-blind society, but I don't think the political process could actually handle that.

J. C. Watts

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J. C. Watts
Age: 66
Born: 1957
Born: November 18
American Football Player
Canadian Football Player
Former U.S. Representative
Politician
Eufaula
Oklahoma
Actually
Skin
Process
Skins
Political
Handle
Character
Blind
Think
Color
Thinking
Willing
Merits
Talk
Compete
Society
Merit

More quotes by J. C. Watts

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A Black man voting for the Republicans makes about as much sense as a chicken voting for Col. Sanders.
J. C. Watts
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I believe government should be loyal to parents, teachers and children.
J. C. Watts
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I'm not one that believes that affirmative action should be based on one's skin color or one's gender, I think it should be done based on one's need, because I think if you are from a poor white community, I think that poor white kid needs a scholarship just as badly as a poor black kid.
J. C. Watts
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As an Oklahoma quarterback, you learn to perform under pressure.
J. C. Watts
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We need to remember that politics is all about people, not programs. We shouldn't want to take the humanness out of the political arena.
J. C. Watts
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I think the Republican Party should be a pro-life party. I am pro-life. I do not apologize for that. On the flip side of that coin, the Republican Party has been big enough to allow pro-choice advocates to be heard.
J. C. Watts
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To say America can have strong leadership without strong character is to say we can get water without the wet.
J. C. Watts
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My work in the House of Representatives, at this time in my life, is completed. It is time to return home.
J. C. Watts
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I think in politics, in Congress, you often do things that are Republican, or you do things because you're a Democrat. Sometimes that's good, obviously, and sometimes that's obviously bad. But in the news business, there's no such thing as Republican or Democratic news. News is news.
J. C. Watts
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In 2008, as a matter of fact, I had people accusing me of being a Senator Obama supporter because I wouldn't slam him. I said, 'Well, consider the fact that I voted for impeachment for President Clinton, but it wasn't a personal vote. I voted based on the facts and the law and the Constitution and what we were dealing with.'
J. C. Watts
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Individual responsibility, hard work, paying attention in school, faith, family all these things are important.
J. C. Watts
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Most of all, however, critics of black conservatives say we've forgotten where we came from. I may forget a federal budget number or, God forbid, to set the alarm clock for my weekly 6 a.m. flight to Washington, but I know exactly where I came from.
J. C. Watts
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I think that anybody that stays in school, gets good grades, pays the price, I think we are wealthy enough in the public and the private sector in America to make sure that every child in America that wants to continue their education, they should be able to do that.
J. C. Watts
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I embrace my blackness, just as I do my conservatism and my Christianity, but I don't want to be defined or pigeonholed by any one of the many elements that make up my character.
J. C. Watts
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In 1989 when I switched from Democrat to Republican, with God as my witness, not one thing changed about what I believed about one man and one woman in a marriage or about diversity of color. That's a good thing.
J. C. Watts
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It doesn't take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go.
J. C. Watts
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Consider in Washington, around the country today we are talking about balanced budgets, paying down our national debt, getting the economy going, defending ourselves, activist judges. Newt Gingrich did all those things when he was speaker. We got tax relief. We got balanced budgets. We got, you know, job creation. We paid down our national debt.
J. C. Watts
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The more I ponder some of the boneheaded decisions GOP candidates have made of late, I can't bring myself to believe that they are serious about capturing more than about 8 percent of the black vote.
J. C. Watts
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I would love to be associated with some sports organization. I was a journalism major. That's kind of intriguing, to do something in the political-commentary arena.
J. C. Watts
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I was taught to respect everyone for the simple reason that we're all God's children. I was taught, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.... to judge a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. And I was taught that character...is simply doing what's right when nobody's looking.
J. C. Watts