“Right now, one in three African American students are dropping out of high school. Only one in five African Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 has gotten a college degree; one in five.”

—  Michelle Obama

2010s
Context: But today, more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, more than 50 years after the end of 'separate but equal', when it comes to getting an education, too many of our young people just can’t be bothered. Today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they're sitting on couches for hours playing video games, watching T. V. Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader, they're fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper. Right now, one in three African American students are dropping out of high school. Only one in five African Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 has gotten a college degree; one in five.

Remarks at Bowie State University ceremony (17 May 2013) http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/17/remarks-first-lady-bowie-state-university-commencement-ceremony

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Right now, one in three African American students are dropping out of high school. Only one in five African Americans b…" by Michelle Obama?
Michelle Obama photo
Michelle Obama 108
lawyer, writer, wife of Barack Obama and former First Lady … 1964

Related quotes

Robert Maynard Hutchins photo

“The products of American high schools are illiterate; and a degree from a famous college or university is no guarantee that the graduate is in any better case. One of the most remarkable features of American society is that the difference between the "uneducated" and the "educated" is so slight.”

Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) philosopher and university president

Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education (1954)

Malcolm X photo

“You and I, 22 million African-Americans — that's what we are — Africans who are in America. You're nothing but Africans. Nothing but Africans. In fact, you'd get farther calling yourself African instead of Negro. Africans don't catch hell. You're the only one catching hell. They don't have to pass civil-rights bills for Africans.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964)

Mitch McConnell photo

“African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.”

Mitch McConnell (1942) US Senator from Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader

Source: "Virginia congressman blasts McConnell for comment on voters of color" https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/20/politics/mcconnell-voters-of-color-criticism-mceachin/index.html, CNN, January 21 2022

“One in five American children live in poverty, even as pundits tout employment highs.”

Rajan Menon (1953) political scientist

Trump’s War on the Poor Includes Our Children (February 4, 2020)

“Only five books tonight, Mommy," she says.
No, Olivia, just one."
How about four?"
Two."
Three."
Oh, all right, three. But that's it!”

Ian Falconer (1959) American illustrator and writer, costume and set designer

Source: Olivia

Barack Obama photo

“So tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be a community college or a four-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

First address to Congress (24 February 2009)
2009

Steve Sailer photo

“America`s relatively brief experiment with a generous welfare state was doomed by our African-American population. America tried to import the two fundamentals of the Swedish welfare state—high welfare payments and an end to social disapproval of illegitimacy—beginning about 1961. In parts of the U. S., such as heavily Scandinavian Minnesota, this worked reasonably well. But American voters were confronted with stunning speed with the realization that African-Americans responded differently than Swedes did to the new incentive structures. Welfare allowed much of African-American society to revert to African-style family structures.”

Steve Sailer (1958) American journalist and movie critic

More Diversity = Less Welfare? http://www.vdare.com/articles/more-diversity-less-welfare, VDARE, March 14, 2004

“The probability of policy change is nearly the same (around 0.3) whether a tiny minority or a large majority of average citizens favor a proposed policy change. … A proposed policy change with low support among economically-elite Americans (one out of five in favor) is adopted only about 18 percent of the time, while a proposed change with high support (four out of five in favor) is adopted about 45 percent of the time.”

Benjamin Page (1939) Professor of Decision Making

Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens," Perspectives on Politics, vol. 12, no. 3 (September 2014), p. 572

Miyamoto Musashi photo

“The five attitudes are: Upper, Middle, Lower, Right Side, and Left Side. These are the five. Although attitude has these five dimensions, the one purpose of all of them is to cut the enemy. There are none but these five attitudes.
Whatever attitude you are in, do not be conscious of making the attitude; think only of cutting.”

Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese martial artist, writer, artist

Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Water Book

Gerald Durrell photo

“Right in the Heart of the African Jungle a small white man lives. Now there is one extraordinary fact about him that he is the frind of all animals.”

Gerald Durrell (1925–1995) naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author and television presenter

Written by Durrell at age ten (1935), from Gerald Durrell: An Authorized Biography by Douglas Botting (1999), p. 43, ISBN 0-786-70655-4

Related topics