Newt Gingrich and Jesse Jackson talk minorities and women

In the last week, political leaders Newt Gingrich and Jesse Jackson have both given speeches in Claremont. At Scripps College on Wednesday, Gingrich talked about what it takes to be an effective leader. Last week at CMC, Jackson gave a speech honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here's what the two men had to say about the challenges of minorities/women in this country.


Newt Gingrich

"Women face probably a higher challenge than men, not so much in the form of discrimination. Remember more women than men vote in American elections. I think women have a particular challenge because women tend to get sucked into trying to do everything simultaneously. You have the mommy track, the professional track and the wife track, whereas men are basically a lot more selfish."

"If you look around the country, in academics [for example], just look how many women presidents and women deans and provosts there are, it's pretty clear that we're beginning to be a country where talent competes rather than gender or race."


Jesse Jackson

"[Minorities] have achieved freedom but not equality. From the last 5 graduating classes from this school [CMC], the white student went on to make more money than the black students. They have more life options, because that’s the real world."