Welcome to our collection of quotes by J. C. Watts. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for J. C. Watts
Julius Caesar Watts Jr. (born November 18, 1957) is an American politician, clergyman, and athlete. Watts was a college football quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners and later played professionally in the Canadian Football League. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003 as a Republican, representing Oklahoma's 4th Congressional District.
Watts was born and raised in Eufaula, Oklahoma, in a rural impoverished neighborhood. After being one of the first children to attend an integrated elementary school, he became a high school quarterback and gained a football scholarship to the University of Oklahoma. He graduated from college in 1981 with a degree in journalism and became a football player in the Canadian Football League until his retirement in 1986.
Watts became a Baptist minister and was elected in 1990 to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as the first African-American in Oklahoma to win statewide office. He successfully ran for Congress in 1994 and was re-elected to three additional terms with increasing vote margins. Watts delivered the Republican response to Bill Clinton's 1997 State of the Union address and was elected Chair of the House Republican Conference in 1998. He retired in 2003 and turned to lobbying and business work, also occasionally serving as a political commentator.
I'm secure in who I am. I don't need the validation of those that would say, you have to be a certain thing in order to be accepted. I'm comfortable going against the grain if I need to.
There is a direct correlation between education, stable families and incarceration and crime.
You take a poor black child. Give him a good education, tell him he's somebody, that God didn't create junk when he created him, and that black child will create his own affirmative action.
You always hear 'black Republican,' but you never hear 'white Democrat.' We've got to get beyond the labels and stereotypes. Other people have hang-ups about it. I don't.
You saw the exodus of many people on the business council, who resigned, who said those are not my personal values, those are not our corporate values, and those -- we don't believe -- are the values of our country.
Education is a bipartisan issue that concern all communities of color and should be first, last and always about the student learning.
Serving in Congress has been more than an honor; it has been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life ... It has been a wonderful ride. It has been a wonderful journey.
Individual responsibility, hard work, paying attention in school, faith, family all these things are important.
Some might think that George W. Bush had his shortcomings, but let me tell you something -- history's going to be kind to George W. Bush.
My father taught that the only helping hand you're ever going to be able to rely on is the one at the end of your sleeve.
To say America can have strong leadership without strong character is to say we can get water without the wet.
They said that I had sold out and (am an) Uncle Tom. And I said well, they deserve to have that view. But I have my thoughts. And I think they're race-hustling poverty pimps.
Governor is not the position to have in Oklahoma. It is the head coach of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State or Tulsa.
As an Oklahoma quarterback, you learn to perform under pressure.
In my wildest imagination, I never thought that the fifth of six children born to Helen and Buddy Watts -- in a poor black neighborhood, in the poor rural community of Eufaula, Oklahoma -- would someday be called Congressman.
We have seen the Democrat solution to an energy crisis; it's called California.
Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking.
I have often said one of the reasons more blacks don't support Republicans is because they don't trust the GOP establishment.
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.
For longer than I've been involved in the political process, the Republican establishment has claimed to want to provide an alternative for the black community, yet party elite refuse to show up for the game.
The Republican Party is terrific at determining how a program will impact the federal budget, but we're not nearly as good as the Democrats in explaining to people how our agenda will directly benefit them and their families.
My views on everything from welfare to a balanced budget to affirmative action can be traced to what Buddy and Helen Watts taught me as a young boy growing up poor but proud in Eufaula.
I still get to preach 14, 15 times a year. But you have to make a living.
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.
I never got into politics for it to be a career. It doesn't take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go.
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.
Everything I am I owe to my faith and secondly to parents who were old school.
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.
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.
I think Newt Gingrich has a proven track record of changing Washington and getting results.
I like to call the ethos I grew up with 'Oklahoma values.' But you'd be just as accurate if you said 'American values.' Except for our lack of a seacoast, Oklahoma has a little bit of just about everything that's American.
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.
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.
Like any group that has endured much, African Americans have created a strong and mutually reinforcing sense of group identity. That's not a bad thing in and of itself.
In addition, there is one title I cherish a great deal more than Congressman and that is the title of... Dad.
One of the Republicans' major products is dream making. People are dying to get into this country... not out of it.
When it comes to the American dream, no one has a corner on the market. All of us have an equal chance to share in that dream.
The establishment wonders why we can't get more of the black vote. It's because it's not doing the things necessary to establish a deeper relationship with the black community. Most black people don't think alike. Most black people just vote alike.
Having a Republican candidate speak at the NAACP convention is like trying to build a house starting at the roof. If you don't have a foundation, the roof isn't going to stand.
I do think, however, that there's a very diverse point of view in the African-American community. There's a lot of different voices that need to be heard. I don't claim and pretend to know the thoughts and opinions and ideas of all African-Americans.
I guess probably in my time in politics, it continued to be affirmed to me that the African-American community, despite being subscription television's most valuable customers, they are very underserved by cable and satellite television programming options.
Serving in Congress has been more than an honor; it has been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life... It has been a wonderful ride. It has been a wonderful journey.
My work in the House of Representatives, at this time in my life, is completed. It is time to return home.
I don't know if anybody has moved up the ladder more quickly than I have.
I never got into politics for it to be a career.
If diversity is O.K. for God, it ought to be O.K. for Republicans.
When you look at the results that Newt Gingrich got when he was speaker, he got results for the American people.
I would caution all of us or I would remind all of us that any candidate that we support, they are going to be flawed.
If you are explaining, you are losing.
Republicans think that the NAACP is the only voice in the black community. It is a voice in the black community. But it's not the only voice.
Everyone tries to define this thing called Character. It's not hard. Character is doing what's right when nobody's looking.
I'm looking forward to the day when America will mature to the point that we are a color-blind society. I'm not so sure that in politics that will ever be reality, because politics has a way of separating us based on skin color.
Good policy makes good politics and what I've done has been good politics.
Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught.
There's a whole lot more to the African-American community than entertainment and sports.
The measure of a man is not how great his faith is, but how great his love is. We must not let government programs disconnect our souls from each other.
It doesn't take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go.
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.