Racism Quotes

We have collected and put the best Racism Quotes. Enjoy reading these insights and feel free to share this page on your social media to inspire others.

May these Racism Quotes from prominent individuals inspire you to never give up and keep working towards your goals. Who knows—success could be just around the corner.

Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against other people because they are of a different race or ethnicity. Modern variants of racism are often based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples. These views can take the form of social actions, practices or beliefs, or political systems in which different races are ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities.

Racism may include prejudice, discrimination, belief in the superiority of one race over another, antagonism directed against other people because they are of a different race or ethnicity, and the belief that members of different races or ethnicities should be treated differently.

See also: Quotes About Racism, Racism: The Destruction of Humanity, Black History Month Quotes, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Quotes

Racism is …

Racism – whether it’s in football or society, there’s absolutely no place for it. – Brendan Rodgers

Racism … What nonsense.

Racism always exists cheek by jowl with, inside, and alongside culture and class. As a rule, it is inseparable from them. That is why, for example, food, language and names assume such importance in racial prejudice. – Martin Jacques

Racism and discrimination of any kind have no place in football. – Sepp Blatter

Racism and hatred are synonymous. – Alex Haley Hatred

Racism and prejudice exist there [at the National Film Board] like anywhere else. My history at the Board has not been easy. It’s been a long walk. – Alanis Obomsawin

Racism and sexism are not “problems” or “topics.” They are ways of defining reality and living our lives that most of us learned along with learning how to tie our shoes and how to drink from a cup. – Paula Rothenberg

Racism and sexism, misogyny and homophobia, they’re so visible. They’re out in the open. When they’re visible, it’s a lot easier to deal with them. – Dolores Huerta

Racism been over. It’s the old people that keep on holding on to it. – ASAP Ferg

Racism built me into a person that was set up to be self-destructive. – Jayson Blair

Racism can be called our nation’s own specific ‘original sin.’ – Blase J. Cupich

Racism can well be that corrosive evil that will bring down the curtain on Western civilization. Arnold Toynbee has said that some twenty-six civilizations have risen upon the face of the earth. Almost all of them have descended into the junk heaps of destruction. The decline and fall of these civilizations, according to Toynbee, was not caused by external invasions but by internal decay. They failed to respond creatively to the challenges impinging upon them. If Western civilization does not now respond constructively to the challenge to banish racism, some future historian will have to say that a great civilization died because it lacked the soul and commitment to make justice a reality for all men. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in The Radical King

Racism cannot be cured solely by attacking some of the results it produces, like discrimination in housing or in education. – Sargent Shriver

Racism comes in many different forms. Sometimes it’s subtle, and sometimes it’s overt. Sometimes it’s violent, and sometimes it’s harmless, but it’s definitely here. It’s something that I think we’re all guilty of, and we just have to make sure that we deal with our own personal racism in the right way. – Jordan Peele

Racism does not diminish with brains, it’s a disease, a sickness, it may incubate in ignorance but it doesn’t necessarily disappear with the gaining of wisdom! – Bryce Courtenay

Racism does not limit itself to biology or economics or psychology or metaphysics; it attacks along many fronts and in many forms, deploying whatever is at hand, and even what is not, inventing when the need arises. – Albert Memmi

Racism doesn’t know color, death doesn’t know age, and pain doesn’t know might. – Jacqueline Woodson

Racism exists everywhere. So when people act surprised about racism, I’m the one that’s surprised. – Romany Malco

Racism exists, but it is far less rampant than ignorance, and ignorance can be cured through experience. – Candace Owens

Racism exists, but what I want to do is start a dialogue. – Charles Barkley

Racism has a very quick expiration date when exposed to actual contact with people. – Hasan Minhaj

Racism has always existed, and a big part of it is people just not knowing others. I think humans change other human’s minds, and it’s hard for someone in the middle of America to hate Syrian refugees if they’ve been able to befriend them. – Maz Jobrani

Racism has been for everyone like a horrible, tragic car crash, and we’ve all been heavily sedated from it. If we don’t come into consciousness of this tragedy, there’s going to be a violent awakening we don’t want. The question is, can we wake up? – Anna Deavere Smith

Racism has its boot squarely wedged on the neck of black communities, and we don’t want to be told that hard work and responsibility are the answer. – Patrisse Cullors

Racism has never done this country any good, and it needs to be fought against, not put under new management for different groups. – Thomas Sowell

Racism has two primary functions: the oppression of people of color, which most people recognize, but also the simultaneous elevation of white people. You can’t hold one group down without lifting the other up. – Robin DiAngelo

Racism in America absolutely exists – it is an issue. We need to fix it. We’re a great country – probably the greatest country but we could be a hell of a lot greater. – Spike Lee

Racism in America is real. – Darryl Glenn

Racism in Brazil is well hidden, subtle, and unspoken, underestimated by the media. It is nevertheless extremely violent. – Joaquim Barbosa

Racism in our countries is a fact in that the Indian is not allowed to be a politician or aspire to being head of state. It has reached the point that 99% of the indigenous women have not gone to school. The indigenous are condemned to live in a situation designed to exterminate them. They receive a pittance of a salary, they neither speak nor write the language, politics dictates their situation. Is this slavery? I don’t know what it’s called. It is not the same as before because we are in modern times. – Rigoberta Menchu

Racism is a belief in the inherent superiority of one race over another. – Neal Boortz

Racism is a blight on the human conscience. The idea that any people can be inferior to another, to the point where those who consider themselves superior define and treat the rest as subhuman, denies the humanity even of those who elevate themselves to the status of gods. – Nelson Mandela

Racism is a cancer that America does not want to cure. – Willie D

Racism is a common thread among people of color, even though each experience with it is different. – Harry Lennix

Racism is a destructive and artificially-manufactured element in the collective human psyche designed to fragment the natural desire of human beings to know and love one another. – Jane Urquhart

Racism is a disease in society. We’re all equal. I don’t care what their colour is, or religion. Just as long as they’re human beings they’re my buddies. – Mandawuy Yunupingu

Racism is a disease. Go to your doctor with an ailment, and let the doctor tell you, ‘Well, look, I’m not going to treat you; we’re just not going to talk about it. It’s going to go away.’ You would look at him like he’s crazy. By not talking about racism, it’s not going to go away. – Shannon Sharpe

Racism is a doctrine of, by and for brutes. – Ayn Rand

Racism is a group dynamic. The members of the dominating group participate, contribute, receive financial rewards, benefits, privileges, and status from the maintenance of a false belief and assumption of racial superiority that gives them the right to rule over other human beings. This participation and reception of benefits can be direct or indirect, willing or unwilling, voluntary or involuntary. Even though an individual in the dominate group may or may not express an opposing opinion, the fact that the effect of the dominating groups’ action demeans, belittles, dehumanizes, and exploits other human beings makes them participants in the system. Therefore, any individual who is a member of the dominating group can be called a racist. – Kenneth L. Radcliffe

Racism is a grown-up disease, and we should stop using our kids to spread it. – Ruby Bridges

Racism is a learned affliction and anything that is learned can be unlearned. – Jane Elliott

Racism is a moral catastrophe, most graphically seen in the prison industrial complex and targeted police surveillance in black and brown ghettos rendered invisible in public discourse. – Cornel West

Racism is a part of human nature, and you’re not going to eradicate it; all you can do is try to keep it in check. – Ron Stallworth

Racism is a physical experience. – Ta-Nehisi Coates

Racism is a problem everywhere, especially in this country, but all over the world, and especially within queer space. – Sasha Velour

Racism is a problem, economic inequality is a problem, not enough rock n’ roll on the radio is a problem. But all those problems will become insignificant when the oceans rise in a way that threatens organised human activity. – Tom Morello

Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and to destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped out. – Pierre Berton

Racism is a sign of ignorance, in my opinion. It’s people who haven’t been anywhere, haven’t seen the world. – Tyson Fury

Racism is a sin and has no place in the church, including the Archdiocese of Chicago. – Blase J. Cupich

Racism is a system of power and in the absence of power you cannot be considered a racist. – Sister Souljah

Racism is a universal phenomenon that exists across cultures and tends to emerge wherever ethnic diversity and perceived or real differences in group characteristics become part of a struggle for social power. – Jerry V. Diller

Racism is a very insidious thing. It’s dangerous to the psyche, to mind and body. It erodes the self-confidence. And I don’t know how we get through it. – Ruby Dee

Racism is a virus. And since nobody’s really looking too hard for a cure it reproduces itself over and over again. – Marita Golden

Racism is a way to gain economic advantage at the expense of others. Slavery and plantations may be gone, but racism still allows us to regard those who may keep us from financial gain as less than equals. – Alveda King

Racism is a word which describes one of the results–perhaps the principal result–of our estrangement from our beginnings, from the universal source. – James Baldwin

Racism is a worldwide problem. – Patterson Hood

Racism is alive and doing too well in America. – Johnnetta B. Cole

Racism is always there underneath, but usually it is exploited in these times of economic crisis, and it’s hard to find out when one slides into another. – Iris Chang

Racism is America’s greatest disease, racism is a disease of the white man. – Albert Einstein

Racism is an attack on the very notion of the universality of human rights. It systematically denies certain people the enjoyment of their full human rights because of their colour, race, ethnicity, descent or national origin. – Irene Khan

Racism is an effect of slavery, not the other way around. Once slavery was abolished, not only did racism not disappear, neither did the economic system it upheld. – Sarah Churchwell

Racism is an essential ingredient in the alchemy of empire, and always has been. – Justin Raimondo

Racism is beyond common sense and has no place in our society. – Steven Patrick Morrissey

Racism is essentially natural, it’s old fashioned it’s an evolutionary phase that we’re going through. Ultimately it wont exist. – Michael Hutchence

Racism is everywhere – the older generations in Malaysia still say things like, ‘She’s darker-skinned; maybe don’t marry her,’ and it’s very judgmental. A lot of girls do try to get fairness cream to lighten their skin, and I’m against all of that. – Yuna

Racism is felt the most definitely in grassroots football. – Vincent Kompany

Racism is here and will always exist, but we can’t use it as a crutch. – Charles Barkley

Racism is if there are spectators or, outside the field of play, there are movements to discrimination, but, on the field of play, I deny that there is racism. – Sepp Blatter

Racism is ignorant. And it’s stupid. And it’s old. And it’s played out. So beat it already with that, you know what I mean? ‘Let’s all get along’ – I’m so tired of that damn sentence, but it’s true. – Queen Latifah

Racism is kinda old. For real.

Racism is like a horror movie. Black kids die because of racism. I don’t know what’s more horrifying than that. – Daniel Kaluuya

Racism is like high blood pressure—the person who has it doesn’t know he has it until he drops over with a God damned stroke. There are no symptoms of racism. The victim of racism is in a much better position to tell you whether or not you’re a racist than you are. – Coleman Young

Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason. – Abraham Joshua Heschel

Racism is not about hurtful words, bruised feelings, political correctness, or refusing to call short people ‘vertically challenged.’ Racism is about the power to treat entire groups of people as something less than human—for the benefit of that power. That’s why a Native American sports mascot is far from harmless. – Dave Zirin

Racism is not dead, but it is on life support — kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists’ – Thomas Sowell

Racism is not dead. Definitely, there are these biases. – John McWhorter

Racism is not first and foremost a skin problem. It is a sin problem. See, when you believe that racism is a skin problem, you can take three hundred years of slavery, court decisions, marches, and the federal government involvement and still not get it fixed right. – Tony Evans

Racism is not new. It was not invented just for you. So get bigger than that stuff. – Chris Gardner

Racism is not real, it’s made up, it’s cruel, it can be stopped. – Gloria Steinem

Racism is nothing more than ignorance, we are in the dessert together at one time in our lives, we got segregated by peoples beliefs of what was true of what we have to have and don’t have to have so for me it is all about education. – John Assaraf

Racism is old, but Peele found a poetic new way of talking about it. He gave us language we didn’t know we lacked. – Wesley Morris

Racism is one of the worst forms of torture because it’s directed at something you never asked for and something you can’t change. – Paolo Nutini

Racism is over in the ‘Star Trek’ future, but they found a way to comment on sexism and racism in the present day in such a subversive and smart way, you know? – Justin Simien

Racism is predictable. It’s predicted by interaction or lack thereof with people unlike you, people of other races. – Nate Silver

Racism is real in this country. – Kamala Harris

Racism is real; it exists here and now. You can find it on the streets, in your office, and in football stadiums. – Kevin-Prince Boateng

Racism is ridiculous no matter where it’s coming from. – Alan Ball

Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike: as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called “diversity” actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist. The true antidote to racism is liberty. – Ron Paul

Racism is so extreme and so pervasive in our American society that no black individual lives in an atmosphere of freedom. – Margaret Walker

Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread and deepseated, that it is invisible because it is so normal. – Shirley Chisholm

Racism is something that is taught. We, as a people, need to work to get past that. – Booker T. Washington

Racism is something that people can transcend through friendship. – Vincent F. Rocchio

Racism is still alive they just be concealing it. – Kanye West

Racism is systemic: It’s oppression that’s built into the laws, legislation, into the way neighborhoods are policed, and into job opportunities and health care and education. – Justin Simien

Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. It is learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics. – Alex Haley

Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it’s very hard to teach racism to a teenager who’s listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It’s hard to say, ‘That guy is less than you.’ The kid is like, ‘I like that guy, he’s cool. How is he less than me? – Jay-Z

Racism is the dogma that one ethnic group is condemned by nature to congenital inferiority and another group is destined to congenital superiority. – Ruth Benedict

Racism is the greatest cancer of my lifetime. – Charles Barkley

Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage–the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors. – Ayn Rand

Racism is the most divisive force in our society, so until it is dealt with we cannot hope for much. – Michael Yates

Racism is to the current era what unAmericanism was to the Fifties: a curse word that provides a handy substitute for logical thought. – Steve Sailer

Racism is unacceptable in the real world, and it’s unacceptable online. – FKA twigs

Racism is very characteristic of imperialism. Racism is very characteristic of capitalism. – Hugo Chavez

Racism is very painful. That’s life. It never ends. – Sidney Poitier

Racism is very prevalent and alive… in this country and in this world. – Raheem DeVaughn

Racism is what acquitted O. J. Simpson. – Katherine Ryan

Racism is when you have laws set up, systematically put in a way to keep people from advancing, to stop the advancement of a people. Black people have never had the power to enforce racism, and so this is something that white America is going to have to work out themselves. If they decide they want to stop it, curtail it, or to do the right thing… then it will be done, but not until then. – Spike Lee

Racism is within each and every one of us. – Jordan Peele

Racism is, among other things, the unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another. – Ta-Nehisi Coates

Racism isn’t born, folks, it’s taught. I have a two-year-old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list. – Dennis Leary

Racism isn’t just in America… Alienation is felt worldwide in different capacities. – Daniel Kaluuya

Racism itself is difficult to measure. We can measure hate crimes – which are absolutely an indicator. We can measure reports of discrimination. We can measure the number of times hateful words are being used across the Internet. Those things all help us measure racism, but it can sometimes be nebulous. – Shaun King

Racism keeps people who are being managed from finding out the truth through contact with each other. – Shirley Chisholm

Racism kills people. It kills people! – Daniel Kaluuya

Racism may be as systemic as it always was. It is the great problem of America. It’s the one stumbling block that I don’t believe was ever smoothed over. – Robert Guillaume

Racism plagued America throughout the ’60s, into the ’70s, through the ’80s; it continued in the ’90s and in the first decade of the new millennium; and it persists today. – Jack Schlossberg

Racism really does exist. – Normani Hamilton

Racism remains in the eyes of history … merely another instance of the persecution of minorities for the advantage of those in power. – Ruth Benedict

Racism rests upon and functions as a kind of seesaw: the persecutor rises by debasing and inferiorizing his victim. – Albert Memmi

Racism seduces us with its desire to categorize, shutting out the living and breathing and ‘different’ world all around us. – Hilton Als

Racism serves as the cutting edge of the most reactionary movements. An ideology that starts by declaring one human being inferior to another is the slope whose end is at Auschwitz. – Ken Livingstone

Racism should be a core concern for all Americans in every area of our lives. – Opal Tometi

Racism should be viewed as an intervening variable. You give me a set of conditions and I can produce racism in any society. You give me a different set of conditions and I can reduce racism. You give me a situation where there are a sufficient number of social resources so people don’t have to compete for those resources, and I will show you a society where racism is held in check. – William Julius Wilson

Racism should never have happened and so you don’t get a cookie for reducing it. – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Racism springs from the lie that certain human beings are less than fully human. It’s a self-centered falsehood that corrupts our minds into believing we are right to treat others as we would not want to be treated. – Alveda King

Racism still exists in the sport of boxing. – Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Racism tears down your insides so that no matter what you achieve, you’re not quite up to snuff. – Alvin Ailey

Racism today is the ultimate evil in the world. – Pope Francis

Racism was a big part of our community. I’m not going to revisit history, and I’m not going to call out those communities, but the communities we grew up around, we were treated like second- or third-class citizens. – Kelvin Sampson

Racism was never acceptable to the people who suffer from it. – Roger Ross Williams

Racism will disappear when it’s no longer profitable, and no longer psychologically useful. And when that happens, it’ll be gone. But at the moment, people make a lot of money off of it, pro and con. – Toni Morrison

Racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, sexism, anything Nazi and a boatload of other things have no place in my life. – Sandra Bullock

Racism, because it favors color over talent, is bad for business. – Steven Pinker

Racism, in the first place, is a weapon used by the wealthy to increase the profits they bring in by paying Black workers less for their work – Angela Davis

Racism, pollution and the rest of it are themselves very close to extinction. – Buckminster Fuller

Racism, prejudice and discrimination are an inexplicable collective stupidity. – Anderson Silva

Racism, sexism, and age-ism are all alive and well in the U.S. House. – Pramila Jayapal

Racism, unfortunately, is part of the fabric of America’s society. – David Scott

Racism, xenophobia and unfair discrimination have spawned slavery, when human beings have bought and sold and owned and branded fellow human beings as if they were so many beasts of burden. – Desmond Tutu

Racism? But isn’t it only a form of misanthropy? – Joseph Brodsky

Racist thought and action says far more about the person they come from than the person they are directed at. – Chris Crutcher

Racists always try to make you think they are the majority, but they never are. – Toni Morrison

Racists are not born, they are raised. Isolation is the breeding ground for racism. The more you come to know the world around you and people different than you the less likely you will become an extremist. The Church needs to bring the world together. – Erwin McManus

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Racism Quotes

[Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964], many governments in southern states forced people to segregate by race. Civil rights advocates fought to repeal these state laws, but failed. So they appealed to the federal government, which responded with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But this federal law didn’t simply repeal state laws compelling segregation. It also prohibited voluntary segregation. What had been mandatory became forbidden. Neither before nor after the Civil Rights Act were people free to make their own decisions about who they associated with. – Harry Browne

A black person grows up in this country – and in many places – knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone. – Maya Angelou

A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi… has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It’s not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for. – Thurgood Marshall

A democratic state will protect the freedom to hold any beliefs other than those that harm others, such as racism. In particular, it will see to it that no one is harmed just because of her beliefs. – Mario Bunge

A few years ago, (Barack Obama) would have been getting us coffee. – William J. Clinton

A fundamental but very challenging part of my work is moving white people from an individual understanding of racism – i.e. only some people are racist and those people are bad – to a structural understanding. – Robin DiAngelo

A group of white South Africans recently killed a black lawyer because he was black. That was wrong. They should have killed him because he was a lawyer. – A. Whitney Brown

A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be. On basic questions of morality and human decency – issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights – the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious. – Gregory S. Paul

A kind of racism still exists in the United States, and Islamophobia is a more convenient way to express that sentiment. There has also been an attempt to paint Muslims as enemies of the United States. – Feisal Abdul Rauf

A lot of different races and nationalities play football, so it is a good way to try and stop racism. – Thierry Henry

A lot of people experience racism at different times on different terms. – Luol Deng

A lot of people felt defeated and hopeless by Trump’s election. But I feel his election should energize people to resist apathy, ignorance, sexism, xenophobia, and racism. – Shepard Fairey

A lot of people thought oh, we caught the dictionary in racism, or all it takes is a whole bunch of people saying that a word is bad for the dictionary to change it. That’s not the case. For nude, things that are called nude color, that color palate has broadened very recently, in the last maybe seven to 10 years, and now covers all skin tones. – Kory Stamper

A lot of racism going on in the world right now. Who’s more racist? Black people or white people? Black people. You know why? ‘Cuz we hate black people too! Everything white people don’t like about black people, black people really don’t like about black people. – Chris Rock

A lot of times, when you have a story of minorities in America, it’s always this super, oppositional thing. It’s segregation, it’s the racism, and those are the hard facts of the story. – Margot Lee Shetterly

A majority of Americans want redemption for racism – for our terrible, destructive racist past – and so see a vote for Obama as redemptive.Gloria Steinem

A part of being black in America and, you know, I presume being any minority, is constantly being told that we’re being too aware of race somehow, we’re obsessed with it or we’re seeing racism where there just isn’t racism. – Jordan Peele

A racially integrated community is a chronological term timed from the entrance of the first black family to the exit of the last white family. – Saul Alinsky

A rare book at once of great importance and wonderful to read…. Gould presents a fascinating historical study of scientific racism, tracing it through monogeny and polygeny, phrenology , recapitulation, and hereditarian IQ theory. He stops at each point to illustrate both the logical inconsistencies of the theories and the prejudicially motivated, albeit unintentional, misuse of data in each case…. A major addition to the scientific literature. – Stephen Jay Gould

A transplanted Irishman, German, Englishman is an American in one generation. A transplanted African is not one in five! – Barbara Chase-Riboud

A white person listens to my act and he laughs and he thinks, ‘Yeah, that’s the way I see it too.’ Okay. He’s white. I’m Negro. And we both see things the same way. That must mean that we are alike….. So I figure I’m doing as much for good race relations as the next guy. – Bill Cosby

A white person was by definition somebody. Other people needed, across their hearts, one steel rib. – Gish Jen

A white person who claims to have no impediment of vision in this country is not, I think, telling the whole truth. And when it comes to race relations, not telling the whole truth about the fog one inhabits slows down the work of groping forward. – Naomi Wolf

Abortion and racism are both symptoms of a fundamental human error. The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives. Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness. – Alveda King

Abortion and racism are evil twins, born of the same lie. Where racism now hides its face in public, abortion is accomplishing the goals of which racism only once dreamed. Together, abortionists are destroying humanity at large and the black community in particular. – Alveda King

Achievement has no color. – Abraham Lincoln

Acknowledging the realities of structural and institutional racism is hard for conscionable white people. It might ask them to consider how they’re personally implicated, or have gained from systems that have oppressed and rejected others. It might require them to take a next step. It’s easier to say, “I don’t see race,” or to dismiss the Black Lives Matter movement as structureless and theatrical than to embrace and promote its most basic premise, which is to believe that black lives have worth. – Emily Raboteau

Actually I’m more culturally Muslim than religiously but being Muslim is an important part of my identity. As Muslim, I feel it’s important to counter any form of bigotry, be it anti-Semitism, homophobia, racism, etc. These forms of hate share a common denominator of misinformation and intentional fear mongering. – Aasif Mandvi

Adults who loved and knew me, on many occasions sat me down and told me that I was black. As you could imagine, this had a profound impact on me and soon became my truth. Every friend I had was black; my girlfriends were black. I was seen as black, treated as black, and endured constant overt racism as a young black teenager. – Shaun King

Aesthetic racism is almost always a sign of inexperience. Those who have not made their way far enough into the world of amorous delights judge women only by what can be seen. But those who really know women understand that the eye reveals only a minute fraction of what a woman can offer us. When God bade mankind be fruitful and multiply, Doctor, He was thinking of the ugly as well as of the beautiful. I am convinced I might add, that the aesthetic criterion does not come from God but from the devil. In paradise no distinction was made between ugliness and beauty. – Milan Kundera

African-Americans know about racism, but I don’t think we really know the causes. I decided it’s first of all a family problem. – Bebe Moore Campbell

Africans who immigrate to America know how little racism exists there. They suspect it before emigrating from Africa, and they know it after arriving in America. Indeed, America, the Left’s depiction of it notwithstanding, is the least racist country in the world. – Dennis Prager

After graduating high school, Betty attended the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, the alma mater of both her parents. My mother relocated to New York because she refused to accept the oppressive racism of the Jim Crow south. – Ilyasah Shabazz

After the Reagan years, there were only three people of color in the Republican Party. Their slogan was ‘Republicans – the Other White Meat.’ George [H.] Bush tried to dispel the ‘whites only’ image of his party, often referring to his Mexican-American grandkids as ‘the little brown ones over there,’ and nominated Clarence Uncle Thomas to the Supreme Court. – Kate Clinton

Age-based retirement arbitrarily severs productive persons from their livelihood, squanders their talents, scars their health, strains an already overburdened Social Security system, and drives many elderly people into poverty and despair. Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism. – Claude Pepper, Statement in U.S. House of Representatives

Ageism is a variation of racism or sexism, all the other isms. – Hugh Hefner

Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism. – Claude Pepper

Ageism is the racism of the gay world. We really believe that age-and all of our fears that it carries-will “rub off” on us, the way that racists once believed blackness would. – Perry Brass

Al Campanis made people finally understand what goes on behind closed doors – that there is racism in baseball. – Frank Robinson

All Americans are the prisoners of racial prejudice. – Shirley Chisholm

All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them. No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. – Elie Wiesel

All my life, I faced sexism and racism and then, when I hit 40, ageism. – Rita Moreno

All nationalism is based on racism and hate. I’m Scottish; I was born in Scotland, as my parents, as my grandparents. – Philip Kerr

All of my history as an African-American woman, as a Jewish woman, as a Muslim woman. I’m bringing everything I ever knew, and all the stories I’ve read – everything good, strong, kind and powerful. I bring it all with me into every situation, and I will not allow my life to be minimized by anybody’s racism or sexism or ageism. – Maya Angelou

All of you are aware of the tragic history of racism in America, but for a very long time, African-Americans and their white allies came together and they struggled and they stood up for justice and they stood up to lynching and they stood up to segregation and the stood up to a nation where African-Americans couldn’t even vote in America. – Bernie Sanders

All people who have reached the point of becoming nations tend to despise foreigners, but there is not much doubt that the English-speaking races are the worst offenders. One can see this from the fact that as soon as they become fully aware of any foreign race they invent an insulting nickname for it. – George Orwell

All racism is wrong, and denying that it exists does not make it go away. – Roger Ross Williams

All racists are irresponsible. – James A. Baldwin

All the many brands of suppression – racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, classism – are historical; they have not been always with us. It was not ever thus. And it’s not going to be this way, come the revolution! – Clara Fraser

All the negro asks is that the door which rewards industry, thrift, intelligence and character be left as wide open for him as for the foreigner who constantly comes to our country. More than this he has no right to request. Less than this a republic has no right to withhold. – Booker T. Washington

All these walls that keep us from loving each other as one family or one race – racism, religion, where we grew up, whatever, class, socioeconomic – what makes us be so selfish and prideful, what keeps us from wanting to help the next man, what makes us be so focused on a personal legacy as opposed to the entire legacy of a race. – Kanye West

Almost all of my early art dealt with the fallout from middle-class taboos, the messy, the ambivalent emotions couples felt, the inherent racism, the sexual tensions and the unhappiness roiling below the surface of our prim suburban lives. Meanwhile I was a suburban bad boy – cynical, sarcastic, contemptuous of all authority. – Eric Fischl

Although much of the media have their antennae out to pick up anything that might be construed as racism against blacks, they resolutely ignore even the most blatant racism by blacks against others. – Thomas Sowell

Although racism does, of course, occur in individual acts, these acts are part of a larger system that we all participate in. The focus on individual incidences prevents the analysis that is necessary in order to challenge this larger system. – Robin DiAngelo

Although slavery may have been abolished, the crippling poison of racism still persists, and the struggle still continues. – Harry Belafonte

Always remember: You have to identify the disease before you can begin work on a cure. In the case of support for Donald Trump, the results are in: It isn’t the economy. It’s the racism, stupid. – Mehdi Hasan

America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white, but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all together, irrespective of their color. – Malcolm X

Americans love to talk about the Constitution and how it protects the rights of every citizen and promises freedom to every citizen, but it’s also a country based on racism and they don’t talk about that too much and every time there’s a film which deals with it there’s certain parts of the country that feel uncomfortable. – Denzel Washington

And if we are to open employment opportunities in this country for members of all races and creeds, then the Federal Government must set an example. The President himself must set the key example. I am not going to promise a Cabinet post or any other post to any race or ethnic group. That is racism in reverse at its worst. So I do not promise to consider race or religion in my appointments if I am successful. I promise only that I will not consider them. – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

And the basis on which we agreed to operate with them involved a manifesto, where it states that we proceed from different ideologies and policies. One thing that we insisted on was that they should take an oath to reject racism and discrimination. – Mangosuthu Buthelezi

And what is the Republican solution to these outrageous [racial] inequalities? There isn’t one. And that’s the point. Denying racism is the new racism. To not acknowledge those statistics, to think of that as a ‘black problem’ and not an American problem. To believe, as a majority of FOX viewers do, that reverse-racism is a bigger problem than racism, that’s racist. – Bill Maher

Anger is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change. – Audre Lorde

Antiblack racism is not only happening in the United States. It’s actually happening all across the globe. – Opal Tometi

Anti-black racism operates at a society-wide level and colludes in a seamless web of policies, practices, and beliefs to oppress and disempower black communities. – Opal Tometi

Anti-racists must acknowledge that patriarchy has long been a weapon of racism and cannot sit comfortably in any politic of racial transformation – .Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

Anti-white racism is developing in sections of our cities where individuals – some of whom have French nationality – contemptuously designate French people as gaulois on the pretext they don’t share the same religion, color or origins. – Jean-Francois Cope

Any concept of one person being superior to another can lead to racism. – Walter Lang

Any racial reconciliation we’ve had in this country has come not out of confrontation but out of a spirit of reconciliation. If we continue to practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we’ll eventually end up with a land of people who are blind and toothless. – Andrew Young

Any racism or barriers that may be put up, you get a tremendous sense of resistance. The more you push me, the greater I am. You can’t hold me down. And the church helped me do that. My family helped that. The whole issue of struggle is critical in my life. Resistance, finding ways to resist. That does not mean you do somebody in to get it. No, it means finding ways to be human in what you do, but making sure that you get it done. – Cecil Williams

Any time there’s racism somewhere in sports, we should get it out of there because sports is a place where everything’s supposed to be fair. – Ice Cube

Anything being perceived as being superior takes the noun. And everything that isn’t, that’s judged to be inferior, requires an adjective. So there are black novelists and novelists. There are women physicians and physicians. Male nurses and nurses. – Gloria Steinem

Anytime you’re saying that a person will be thinking one way or another or biased one way or another just based upon race, I just think it’s certainly going to be subject to that criticism of racism. – Matt Mead

Anywhere in the world you go, you find racism, discrimination. Not just in the United States, or in Texas. It’s very sad for me, but that’s the way it is. I can’t change the world by myself. I, being Hispanic, have also faced discrimination. But … the world keeps turning. – Selena

Apartheid still hangs in the air like a poisonous cloud left over from chemical warfare. – Dervla Murphy

Are you ready to sacrifice to end world hunger? To sacrifice to end colonialism? To end neo-colonialism? To end racism? To end sexism? – Assata Shakur

As a black man, sometimes you can’t tell if what you’re seeing has underlying bigotry, or it’s a normal conversation and you’re being paranoid. That dynamic in itself is unsettling. I admit sometimes I see race and racism when its not there. – Jordan Peele

As a historian of American and African-American religion, I know that the Trayvon Martin moment is just one moment in a history of racism in America that, in large part, has its underpinnings in Christianity and its history. Those of us who teach American Religion have a responsibility to tell all of the story, not just the nice touchy-feely parts. – Anthea Butler

As a parent, you want to protect your children, but the fact of racism in this country, of inequality, that is still a lesson my children are going to have to learn. I can’t protect my kids from that. – Jesmyn Ward

As a person of color, you’re in a PhD level racism class, every day. Every day, I’m in a deep racism seminar. And I’m not saying that white people aren’t taking that class, but they don’t show up that often and they’re auditing it. – Kamau Bell

As a Republican, I believe it’s unfortunate that a perception still exists in the minds of some Americans that the GOP condones racism. – Will Hurd

As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. – Peggy McIntosh

As far Chicago, our city was designed with racism in mind, with neighborhoods segregated by expressways and train tracks. Even suburbs, like Highland Park, have long histories of barring Jewish and black people. That history that has always existed has come out of the shadows because of the social and political climate. – Christian Picciolini

As for the European far left, it has very little to do with Marxism-Leninism these days. It has more to do with anti-Semitism, racism, anti-migration. They claim to be left-wing but they’re espousing positions which would actually be classically brown. – Toomas Hendrik Ilves

As for the not-black black president issue – white people can imagine blacks worse off than them, no problem. And now they can imagine blacks better off, no problem. But they still can’t imagine black people who are just like them. That’s the real problem. That’s racism. Not being able to believe that those others are actually just like you. – Darryl Pinckney

As I often say, we have come a long way from the days of slavery, but in 2014, discrimination and inequality still saturate our society in modern ways. Though racism may be less blatant now in many cases, its existence is undeniable. – Al Sharpton

As long as you hate, there will be people to hate. – George Harrison

As much as the world has an instinct for evil and is a breeding ground for genocide, holocaust, slavery, racism, war, oppression, and injustice, the world has an even greater instinct for goodness, rebirth, mercy, beauty, truth, freedom and love. – Desmond Tutu

As much as we want to say racism is dead, it’s still rearing its ugly head constantly. – Kenya Barris

As part of my work, I teach, lead and participate in affinity groups, facilitate workshops, and mentor other whites on recognizing and interrupting racism in our lives. – Robin DiAngelo

As someone who was gay bashed as a kid, I learned firsthand how a lot of people only feel good about themselves when they sense that someone or something is on a lower rung than they are. This inferiority complex drives racism and sexism as well as outdated attitudes about animals. – Dan Mathews

As soon as my trial was over, we tried to use the energy that had developed around my case to create another organization, which we called the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression. – Angela Davis

As soon as you opened your mouth and said the word woman, you were beaten down with the argument that you were betraying the class struggle. There are many poignant writings in which feminists first write pages about their class standpoint before getting to their actual issue. What was then known as class warfare is today called anti-racism. The threat of being accused of racism gave birth to false tolerance. – Alice Schwarzer

As the Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe has presciently pointed out, neoliberal corporate globalism threatens to exploit that advantage like never before, and it seems set to turn vast swathes of humanity into “the Negros of a new racism.” – Andre Naffis-Sahely

As the global expansion of Indian and Chinese restaurants suggests, xenophobia is directed against foreign people, not foreign cultural imports. – Eric Hobsbawm

As the Trump administration takes office – and we see acts of racism, misogyny, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination around the country – ask yourself, ‘What’s important to me? What do I care about? What have I benefitted from that I want to pay forward?’ Then look for ways to spread help and hope. – Celeste Ng

As we search as a nation for constructive ways to challenge racism and white supremacy, it is absolutely essential that progressive female voices gain a hearing. – Bell Hooks

As white people in this society, we are socialized from the time that we’re born to see ourselves as superior, to see white people and things associated white people as superior. At the same time, I’m encouraged to never admit to that. I’m taught that racism is very bad and immoral. – Robin DiAngelo

As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash. – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Assumptions that racism is more oppressive to black men than black women, then and now … based on acceptance of patriarchal notions of masculinity. – Bell Hooks

At the end of the day, if you’re not against racism, you’re racist. – Stephen Jackson

At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being – Friedrich Otto Hertz

At the heart of the problem is the fact that the United States is a racially divided nation where extreme racial inequalities continue to persist. – Robert D Bullard

At the rate things are going here, all of Africa will be free before we can get a lousy cup of coffee. – James Baldwin

At their core, misogyny and racism are very similar modes of thinking. Both diminish and disrespect a class of people based on a trait that is wholly distinct from their ideas, their carriage and their conduct. – Dessa Darling

At times I feel it almost impossible not to despond entirely of there ever being a better, brighter day for us. None but those who experience it can know what it is – this constant, galling sense of cruel injustice and wrong. I cannot help feeling it very often, – it intrudes upon my happiest moments, and spreads a dark, deep gloom over everything. – Charlotte Forten Grimke

Attacking racism and discrimination is a very important way to work against radicalisation. – Deeyah Khan

Auschwitz cries out with the pain of immense suffering and pleads for a future of respect, peace and encounter among peoples.Pope Francis

Avoid internalizing society’s sexism, racism, ageism – pick an ism, any ism. – Paul Krassner

Bad schools, crime, drugs, high taxes, the social security mess, racism, the health care? crisis? unemployment, welfare state dependency, illegitimacy, the gap between rich and poor. What do these issues have in common? Politicians, the media, and our so-called leaders lie to us about them. They lie about the cause. They lie about the effect. They lie about the solutions. – Larry Elder

Barack Obama being President of the United States doesn’t mean racism has disappeared. It’s all a process, and we have to be aware that the work never ends. – Misty Copeland

Be true. Be beautiful. Be free. In the midst of segregation and racism Mamma raised us to be independent and free. We saw ourselves as citizens of the world, not of a block. – Debbie Allen

Before the game there was all this stuff about anti-racism and anti-bullying. It would be a good idea to start wearing wristbands for anti-diving. – Roy Keane

Being black only helps them. Many times they get sponsors because they are black. And they have had a lot of advantages because they can always say, ‘It’s racism.’ They can always come back and say, ‘Because we are this color, things happen.’ – Martina Hingis

Being Latino means being from everywhere, and that is exactly what America is supposed to be about. – Raquel Cepeda

Berry was a transitional and, to my mind, revolutionary black figure who had to find a place for the rage that the crucible of racism created. – Elvis Mitchell

Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future. – Audre Lorde

Black folk who don’t realize I’m mixed will treat me like I’m some racist person, or when white people find out I’m black, they treat me with racism, and I don’t feel like I belong or fit in anywhere. – Logic

Black folk, a lot of us lived as victims in a certain part of our history. And we had to really erase that tape. We’re not victims. We are citizens. – Dorothy Cotton

Black people are pretty much the same as white people; they just tend to be a little bit darker. – Tom Clancy

Black people can’t be racist. Racism is an institution. Black people don’t have the power to keep hundreds of people from getting jobs or the vote. Black people didn’t bring nobody over in boats. They had to add shit to the Constitution so we could get the vote. Affirmative action is about finished in this country now. It’s through. And black people had nothing to do with that, those kinds of decisions. So how can black people be racist when that’s the standard? Now, black people can be prejudiced. Shit, everybody’s prejudiced about something. – Spike Lee

Black reporters are as capable of racism as anyone else. – Julian Bond

Black women’s intersectional experiences of racism and sexism have been a central but forgotten dynamic in the unfolding of feminist and antiracist agendas. – Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

Black writers, of whatever quality, who step outside the pale of what black writers are supposed to write about, or who black writers are supposed to be, are condemned to silences in black literary circles that are as total and as destructive as any imposed by racism. – Audre Lorde

Blacks are supposed to rejoice whenever our way of life becomes more mainstream. We seldom do. For we see in it a sanctioning that can only be granted by white society. In other words: If you’re white, it’s all right. If you’re black, step back. – Lena Williams

Blatant hostility and racism toward whites is common among black youth. – Jesse Lee Peterson

Bosnia is a complicated country: three religions, three nations and those “others”. Nationalism is strong in all three nations; in two of them there are a lot of racism, chauvinism, separatism; and now we are supposed to make a state out of that. – Alija Izetbegovic

Both racism and homophobia come from a sense of the presumed and the unknown. – Jacqueline Woodson

Boxing was on the one hand barbaric, unconscionable, out of place in modern society. But then, so are war, racism, poverty, and pro football. Men died boxing, yet there was nobility in defending oneself. – Ralph Wiley

But suppose God is black? What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response? – Robert Kennedy

But, on the other hand, I get bored with racism too and recognize that there are still many things to be said about a Black person and a White person loving each other in a racist society. – Audre Lorde

By the 1960s, many of us believed that the Civil Rights Movement could eliminate racism in America during our lifetime. But despite significant progress, racism remains. – Bill Cosby

By the numbers, by all the official records, here at the confluence of history, of racism, of poverty, and economic power, this is what our lives are worth: nothing. – Jesmyn Ward

Capitalism, racism and inhuman technocracy quietly develop in their own way. The causes of misery are no longer to be found in the inner attitudes of men, but have long been institutionalized. – Jürgen Moltmann

Certainly we can end racism with love. We can demand that the federal government change its emphasis on racial distinction. – Bell Hooks

Christian virtues unite men. Racism separates them. – Sargent Shriver

Civil rights in this country is unfinished business, and racism is alive and well. – Marcia Fudge

Civil rights laws were not passed to protect the rights of white men and do not apply to them. – Mary Frances Berry

Claudia Rankine’s Citizen comes at you like doom. It’s the best note in the wrong song that is America. Its various realities-‘mistaken’ identity, social racism, the whole fabric of urban and suburban life-are almost too much to bear, but you bear them, because it’s the truth. Citizen is Rankine’s Spoon River Anthology, an epic as large and frightening and beautiful as the country and various emotional states that produced it. – Hilton Als

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd. – Bertrand Russell

‘Color-blind’ comes up – people say ‘Oh, I’m color-blind and therefore can’t be accused of racism,’ but I think that if we are going to have an honest dialogue about racism, we have to admit that people of color are having a different experience. – Justin Simien

Colorblind racism is the new racial music most people dance to, the ‘new racism’ is subtle, institutionalized and seemingly nonracial. – Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

Colorism and racism don’t stop when you’re a musician or when you have wealth or when you’re in any given position. – Chance The Rapper

Comedy can always be taken the wrong way. If I do a bit that is meant to diffuse racism or sexism, I’m not going to avoid it on the chance that a small portion of the audience might take it the wrong way. – Doug Stanhope

Concerning non-violence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks. – Malcolm X

Conversations are efforts toward good relations. They are an elementary form of reciprocity. They are an exercise of our love for each other. They are the enemies of our loneliness, our doubt, our anxiety, our tendencies to abdicate. To continue to be in good conversation over our enormous and terrifying problems is to be calling out to each other in the night. If we attend with imagination and devotion to our conversations, we will find what we need; and someone among us will act — it does not matter whom — and we will survive. – Barry Lopez in Considering Hate by Kay Whitlock and Michael Bronski

Corruption is Africa’s greatest problem. Not poverty. Not lack of riches. Not racism. – Dennis Prager

Country must confront what he called institutional racism. [We should] create a country which provides economic, social and environmental justice for all. – Bernie Sanders

Crisis’ seems to be too mild a word to describe conditions in countless African-American communities. It is beyond crisis when in the richest nation in the world, African Americans in Harlem live shorter lives than the people of Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations of the world. – Johnnetta B. Cole

Death row was the only place where I never witnessed racism. We all went to bed with a death sentence on our heads and woke up that way. We had to become each other’s support system. – Anthony Ray Hinton

Defeating racism, tribalism, intolerance and all forms of discrimination will liberate us all, victim and perpetrator alike. – Ban Ki-moon

Democrats know ‘racism’ doesn’t exist, but they use it to silence white conservatives and to instill fear in blacks and motivate them to vote. – Jesse Lee Peterson

Denying racism is the new racism. – Bill Maher

Dick Gregory will be greatly missed. Humbly, and in his stead, ‘Turn Me Loose’ carries on to be his voice and his inspiration for all who wish to laugh at the absurdity of racism and be enlightened by his spirit of justice. – Joe Morton

Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up. – Bill Gates

Discrimination is a disease. – Roger Staubach

Do I think that Trump needs to be better on racism? One hundred percent. – Tyrus

Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice. – Michael Crichton

Does racism exist in this country? Sure. But I think the overwhelming majority of Americans who care about this country do not care about skin color. – Ryan Frazier

Donald Trump has shown us his dark heart, has shown us his racism. – Ana Navarro

Donald Trump has tapped into a deep vein of racism, nativism, and misogyny. – Stephanie Coontz

Donald Trump is American neo-fascist. The word “neo” meaning “new”, has a lot to do with it, a new kind of fascist in our culture, dealing with an authoritarian demagogic point of view, nativist, anti-immigrant, racism, bigotry that he appeals to. – Carl Bernstein

Don’t tell me I have latent sexism or racism that I need to confront. I don’t believe that. I think we are so burned by the current situation that we want somebody that it isn’t possible to have. We want someone who definitely looks like the messiah. – Sara Paretsky

Don’t you know sugar is brown first? White folks couldn’t stand the fact that something so sweet shared the same color as the people who cut the cane, slopped the hogs and picked the cotton. So they bleached it to resemble them, and now they done gone and fooled everybody. You included. – Bernice L. McFadden

Each individual has a responsibility to get out of bed, learn their ABCs, learn your math tables, not use race and racism as an excuse. – Henry Louis Gates

Each one of us must ask how we contribute to the racist climate that seems only to grow stronger in spite of our best efforts at legislative and social remedies. Whether we are victims of racism or its perpetrators, we must begin on our knees. – Wilton Daniel Gregory

Education in this country is about how to maintain the status quo and to perpetuate racism.– Jane Elliot

Electing the first African-American president was a tremendous accomplishment, but it hasn’t erased racism. – Jack Schlossberg

Even if I don’t always behave as I should, this still doesn’t explain why so many people have something against me. But you know how it is. A lot of people vent themselves by coming to the stadium to yell at me. I hope it’s not racism. I tell myself that it’s not racism; it’s because I’m tough, and I repeat this to myself. – Mario Balotelli

Even if we’re facing bigotry or racism, we can still be successful. – Ibtihaj Muhammad

Even in the era of the first black president, racism is still the most intractable issue in USA. Regarding poverty, half of all Americans are either in or near poverty. Poverty is certainly worse for African-Americans now than it was during King’s lifetime. – Tavis Smiley

Even though I’m appalled when racism surfaces, and I personally don’t agree with certain policy solutions and a lot of what they believe in, as someone who is very concerned about reinvigorating democracy the Tea Parties are an answer to what I asked for. – Naomi Wolf

Even when black youth gangs target white strangers on the streets and spew out racial hatred as they batter them and rob them, mayors, police chiefs and the media tiptoe around their racism and many in the media either don’t cover these stories or leave out the race and racism involved. – Thomas Sowell

Every now and then I’m in a situation where someone doesn’t recognize me, and I experience racism. Things like not being buzzed into a store or sitting in first class on a plane and having someone ask to see my ticket four times. – Chris Rock

Every time I was off school, I was in Carolina with my cousins. So it was a big influence on me. I actually experienced straight-up racism out there, too. – John David Washington

Everybody’s scared for their ass. There aren’t too many people ready to die for racism. They’ll kill for racism but they won’t die for racism. – Florynce Kennedy

Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no right to assume otherwise. If we do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world. – James A. Baldwin

Evil is the shadow of angel. Just as there are angels of light, support, guidance, healing and defense, so we have experiences of shadow angels. And we have names for them: racism, sexism, homophobia are all demons – but they’re not out there. – Matthew Fox

Evolution is the root of atheism, of communism, Nazism, behaviorism, racism, economic imperialism, militarism, libertinism, anarchism, and all manner of anti-Christian systems of belief and practice. – Henry M. Morris

Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. – Oprah Winfrey

Except in a few well-publicized instances (enough to lend credence to the iconography painted on the walls of the media), the rigorous practice of rugged individualism usually leads to poverty, ostracism and disgrace. The rugged individualist is too often mistaken for the misfit, the maverick, the spoilsport, the sore thumb. – Lewis H. Lapham

Facing sexism and racism and classism and transphobia, there are ways to choose to act in those situations, and there shouldn’t be a prescriptive list of things that you have to say. – Kathleen Hanna

Fantastically, Australia is still the lucky country. We have the flawed but necessary gift of democracy. Currently there is a debate about whether there is racism in Australia. There is racism in every country in the world. Relatively speaking, we are tolerant of one another. We have a large and giving land and, if you haven’t seen its beauty, you haven’t seen a beauty precious to the earth.Martin Flanagan

Far from ending, systemic racism reinvents itself to conform to what is publicly acceptable, leaving the quality of black life diminished and more permanently fixed with each passing decade. – Opal Tometi

Fear and ignorance are the key roots to racism. – Timothy Long

Fear is created which can lead to racism. However, we can overcome that fear through trust. – Tariq Ramadan

Feminism is to sexism what black nationalism is to racism; the most rational response to the problem. – Pearl Cleage

Feminism isn’t simply about being a woman in a position of power. It’s battling systemic inequities; it’s a social justice movement that believes sexism, racism and classism exist and interconnect, and that they should be consistently challenged. – Jessica Valenti

Few if any political philosophers have had the courage of tackling the Cold War. Even the best of them have kept silent or have stated some bromides glossing over the serious shortcomings of “our” side, such as racism, social injustice, extreme income disparities, the exploitation of the Third World, and environmental degradation. – Mario Bunge

Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so–called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States. – Ishmael Reed

Find a balance between one’s responsibility as a white person to confront acts of racism and one’s subconscious sense of power and privilege over people of color when reacting to the [racist] event. – Eileen O’Brien

First and foremost, I want people to have a good read, because I want everything I write to entertain people. There are always different layers to the story, though, so if you want to think about social justice, or sexism or racism or homophobia, or really drill down into why the world is a better place when the police force looks like the people they are policing, then that’s there, too. – Karin Slaughter

First there was racism. Then liberals created institutional racism and coded racism. You can only hear it with a dog whistle. – Evan Sayet

Focusing on being a person instead of an Asian or an [anything] seems to promote a worldview that encourages people to treat others based on what each person has specifically done in their life, which seems like it would reduce such things as war, racism, unfairness, “hate crimes,” [other things most people feel aversion toward]. – Tao Lin

Football is not, in my view, a sport: it is somewhere between a business racket and a mental illness. I associate it with all the worst aspects of our society – violence, drunkenness, drugs, racism, exploitation, greed and stupidity; and that’s just for starters.Simon Heffer

For all of the continued awareness of systemic violence and oppression, there isn’t a lot of talk about that psychological toll of racism, at least in white circles and white media. – Tavi Gevinson

For decades now, Republicans and Democrats have shared the same mythology around the great American meritocracy. The only real difference was that republicans thought the American meritocracy was already perfect and Democrats believed it could be perfected if we just dealt with racism and sexism and other forms of bigotry. – Krystal Ball

For everybody, I think that we all, when we look at this situation of race, we need a change of heart, and I said it before. I believe the heart change comes from repenting of your racism, repenting of your bias, repenting of your prejudice and understanding that, you know what, God sees us all the same. – Benjamin Watson

For many Native Americans across the land, the name of the Washington football team is a deeply personal reminder of a legacy of racism and generations of pain. – Dan Maffei

For many Washington liberals, terrorism was not the instrument of political fanatics and evil men, but was the product of social conditions – poverty, racism and oppression – for which the Western democracies, including Israel were always ultimately to blame. – David Horowitz

For many years, I believed racism in America was dead and that opportunity existed for all. My beliefs were shaken when the Rodney King officers were acquitted. – John Hope Bryant

For me the deepest existential source of coming to terms with white racism is music. In some ways, this is true for black America as a whole, from spirituals and blues through jazz, rhythm and blues, and even up to hip-hop. . . . . This rich tradition of black music is not only an artistic response to the psychic wounds and social scars of a despised people. More importantly, it enacts in dramatic forms the creativity, dignity, grace, and elegance of African Americans. – Cornel West in Hope on a Tightrope

For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject. The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country; one’s life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own.Peggy McIntosh

For most Black people there is still poverty and desperation. The Ghettos still exist, and the proportion of Blacks in prison is still much greater than Whites. Today, there is less overt racism, but the economic injustices create an “institutional racism” which exists even while more Blacks are in high places, such as Condoleeza Rice in Bush’s Administration and Obama running for President. – Howard Zinn

For my own part, once I became a teenager, I experienced severe and violent racism. – Maajid Nawaz

For someone with a background of economic justice, what scared me about climate change is not just that the sea level will rise and we’ll have more storms – it’s how this intersects with that cocktail of inequality and racism. – Naomi Klein

For too long now, European football authorities have not taken the problem of racism in the game seriously and refuse to acknowledge how widespread the problem is. – Rio Ferdinand

For white people, their identities rest on the idea of racism as about good or bad people, about moral or immoral singular acts, and if we’re good, moral people, we can’t be racist – we don’t engage in those acts. – Robin DiAngelo

Games don’t cause racism. But the real-time chat makes nasty comments hard to moderate and easy to spread. – Naomi Alderman

Give the man of color an equal opportunity with the white, from the cradle to manhood, and from manhood to the grave, and you would discover the dignified statesman, the man of science, and the philosopher. – Maria W. Stewart

Given the knee-jerk patriotism of recent war movies, it’s discouraging to see ‘Windtalkers’ evade pertinent facts that could have recast the doubled-edged issues of racism and loyalty and made them relevant to contemporary times. – Elvis Mitchell

Go down to the corner store and beat the Jap up, clean all the crap up. – Ice Cube

Gone must be the days of only pointing fingers at others to fix what they may never fix. Our nation’s ills are not merely the result of corruption or racism, although these are evil. Our troubles can also be traced directly to ineffective Christians. – Tony Evans

Grassroots groups challenge the “business-as-usual” environmentalism that is generally practiced by the more privileged wildlife-and conservation-oriented groups. The focus of activists of color and their constituents reflects their life experiences of social, economic, and political disenfranchisement. – Robert D Bullard

Growing inequality is a huge problem, and of course is intimately connected to xenophobia and racism. – Adam Hochschild

Growing up as Chinese-American, as someone who experienced racism, questions of ‘otherness’ are always at the forefront of my mind. – Marjorie Liu

Growing up in Michigan, I can’t think of anything so explicitly communicated to me in my whole education experience as the vileness of in-your-face racism. – Kevin DeYoung

Hate speech, racism, and bigotry are intolerable realities that we must all come together to take action against. – Whitney Wolfe Herd

Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong. – Muhammad Ali

Hating skin color is contempt for God’s divine creative imagination. – F. Hodge

Hatred of oppression seems to me so blended with hatred of the oppressor that I cannot separate them. I feel that no other injury could be so hard to bear, so very very hard to forgive, as that inflicted by cruel oppression and prejudice. – Charlotte Forten Grimke

Hatred of producers of wealth still flourishes and has become, in fact, the racism of the intelligentsia. – George Gilder

Hatred, racism, and extremism have no place in this country. – Angela Merkel

Having a strong race lens means you understand racism is threaded through and institutionalized in all of our systems and our very perceptions, threaded through how someone looks at you, treats you, thinks about you and your potential. – Pramila Jayapal

He (Bob Marley) had this idea, it was kind of a virologist idea, he believed he could cure racism and hate, literally cure it by injecting music and love into people’s lives. One day he was scheduled to perform at a peace concert, gunmen came to his house and shot him down. Two days later he walked out on that stage and sang. Somebody asked him why. He said the people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness. – Bob Marley, Movie I Am Legend story told by character Robert Neville M.D., played by Will Smith

Hillbilly stereotypes have always made it easier for middle-class whites to presume that racism is the exclusive province of ‘that kind’ of person. – Michelle Dean

Hip-hop is contributing to American society’s misogyny and racism, hyper-sexuality anti-Black representations. Hip-Hop isn’t setting the standard for misogyny. No one reduces the presidency to misogyny, although we’ve had misogynistic presidents. No one reduces our government to being solely homophobic, although we have a government with a don’t ask, don’t tell policy for gays and lesbians in the military. – Bakari Kitwana

Hippies started the ecology movement. They combated racism. They liberated sexual stereotypes, encouraged change, individual pride, and self-confidence. They questioned robot materialism. In four years they managed to stop the Vietnam War. They got marijuana decriminalized in fourteen states during the Carter Administration. – Timothy Leary

Hollywood has successfully produced many films framed by anti-racist or pro-integrationist story lines. I’m going to guess that since ‘Gone With The Wind,’ Hollywood realized films about racism and segregation pull at the heartstrings of everyone and hopefully serve to purge a sense of guilt. – Joe Morton

Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. – Coretta Scott King

Homophobia, racism, and sexism are all rooted in the same oppression that causes a group of people to internalize the oppression they’ve experienced and then continue the cycle of abuse. Simply put, hurt people hurt people. – Karamo Brown

Honestly, racism is something learned, not something that you just pick up one day and wish to dislike someone. – Tituss Burgess

How can it be said we should use only constitutional means in our struggle, when all resistance is illegal and we have no way to change the brutal realities of the racism regime? – Oliver Tambo

How can you work in film and still see the overt racism that exists in film and not just be furious all the time? – Joaquin Phoenix

How different South Africa’s cricketing achievements, and indeed the future of the country itself, might have been if racism had not denied Frank Roro the opportunity of batting with Bruce Mitchell in the Lord’s sunshine. – Richard Lloyd

How grateful I am that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has from its beginnings stood strongly against racism in any of its malignant manifestations. – Alexander B. Morrison

How I’d like to start a new life in a distant land. Not because of racism or politics. But to be in a place that I knew hardly anything about, in a place where I wouldn’t even care to know the prime minister’s name. A place where names and faces would have no meaning for me. – Sayed Kashua

However, while we should certainly celebrate the demise of overt official racism, we must also critically examine where we are at this historical moment, recognize the many challenges ahead and reaffirm our commitment to making Brown v. Board a reality. – Ed Markey

However, while we should certainly celebrate the demise of overt official racism, we must also critically examine where we are at this historical moment, recognize the many challenges ahead and reaffirm our commitment to making Brown v. Board a reality.

Humanity from the first has had its vultures and sharks, and representatives of the fraternity who prey upon mankind may be expected no less in America than elsewhere. That this virulence breaks out most readily and commonly against colored persons in this country, is due of course to the fact that they are, generally speaking, weak and can be imposed upon with impunity. Bullies are always cowards at heart. – Anna Julia Cooper

I accepted that a new kind of hate had emerged, silent and disciplined, a racism tempered by loyalty cards and PIN numbers. Shopping was now the model for all human behaviour, drained of emotion and anger. – G. Ballard

I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both body and mind. – Thomas Jefferson

I also believe my home state is cursed by ignorance and poverty and racism, much of it deliberately inculcated to control a vulnerable electorate. And I believe many of the politicians in Louisiana are among the most stomach-churning examples of white trash and venality I have ever known. To me, the fact that large numbers of people find them humorously picaresque is mind numbing, on a level with telling fond tales of one’s rapist. – James Lee Burke

I also often hear people say that the deck is stacked against them because of racism, sexism, or other oppressive ‘isms.’ But once you let go of the blame and excuses, you’ll see that you can alter your position on your own. – Chris Gardner

I always felt the ‘X-Men,’ in a subtle way, often touched upon the subject of racism and inequality, and I believe that subject has come up in other titles, too. But we would never pound hard on the subject, which must be handled with care and intelligence. – Stan Lee

I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion, or insult, as pitiable, from the other person. I never absorbed that. I always thought that there was something deficient — intellectual, emotional — about such people. – Toni Morrison

I always try to individualize everything, every person. I see individuals and that’s why I’ve never fallen for racism, or any type or classification of people. – Mike Vallely

I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the U.S. government’s policy towards people of color. – Assata Shakur

I am a Muslim and . . . my religion makes me be against all forms of racism. It keeps me from judging any man by the color of his skin. It teaches me to judge him by his deeds and his conscious behavior. And it teaches me to be for the rights of all human beings, but especially the Afro-American human being, because my religion is a natural religion, and the first law of nature is self-preservation. – Malcolm X

I am black: I am the incarnation of a complete fusion with the world, an intuitive understanding of the earth, an abandonment of my ego in the heart of the cosmos, and no white man, no matter how intelligent he may be, can ever understand Louis Armstrong and the music of the Congo. – Frantz Fanon

I am disappointed that after all of the struggles that we have had in this country for such a long time, trying to get through and beyond racism and bigotry and discrimination – I think it is sad. It just tells us the kind of work that we have to do as – as America, as a nation. – Bernie Sanders

I am disappointed with America. And there can be no great disappointment where there is not great love. I am disappointed with our failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. We are presently moving down a dead-end road that can lead to national disaster. America has strayed to the far country of racism and militarism. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am fifty-two years of age. I am a bishop in the Anglican Church, and a few people might be constrained to say that I was reasonably responsible. In the land of my birth I cannot vote… – Desmond Tutu

I am not ashamed to use the word class. I will also plead guilty to another charge. The charge is that people belonging to my class think they’re better than other people. You’re damn right we’re better. We’re better because we do not shirk our obligations either to ourselves or to others. . . .we live by our lights, we die by our lights, and whoever the high gods may be, we’ll look them in the eye without apology. – Walker Percy

I am not naive, and I do realize that racism is alive and well in the United States of America. I am also fully aware that when segregation ended, we didn’t all live happily ever after. No one can convince me, however, that life in America would be better if blacks and whites had stayed separate and unequal. – Maysoon Zayid

I am not obliged to tackle racism wherever and whenever it occurs, nor am I qualified to do so. – Romesh Ranganathan

I am not sure that I know enough about the pre-history of 9/11 to agree or disagree. But I did think at the time that the [George W.] Bush administration took a number of cues from the Israeli government, not only by drawing on and intensifying anti-Arab racism, but by insisting that the attack on US government and financial buildings was an attack on “democracy” and by invoking “security at all costs” to wage war without a clear focus (why the Taliban?), and by suspending both constitutional rights and the regular protocol for congressional approval for declaring war. – Judith Butler

I am obliged to confess that I do not regard the abolition of slavery as a means of warding off the struggle of the two races in the Southern states. The Negroes may long remain slaves without complaining; but if they are once raised to the level of freemen, they will soon revolt at being deprived of almost all their civil rights; and as they cannot become the equals of the whites, they will speedily show themselves as enemies. – Alexis de Tocqueville

I applied for a scholarship to Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. I knew I was good enough, but they turned me down. And it took me about six months to realize it was because I was black. I never really got over that jolt of racism at the time. – Nina Simone

I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color. – Malcolm X

I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being, neither white, black, brown nor red. When you are dealing with humanity as one family, there’s no question of integration or intermarriage. It’s just one human being marrying another human being, or one human being living around and with another human being. – Malcolm X

I believe in the law. I think we have a great system of justice. But I do think that system of justice has been corrupted by racism and classism. I think it’s difficult for ‘poor people’ – poor white people, brown people – to be treated fairly before the law in the same way that upper-class people are. – Henry Louis Gates

I believe racism has killed more people than speed, heroin, or cancer, and will continue to kill until it is no more. – Alice Childress

I believe that racism is a problem, and we need to do something about it. – Peyton List

I believe the NME have deliberately tried to characterise me as a racist in a recent interview in order to boost their circulation. I abhor racism and cruelty of any kind and will not let this pass. – Steven Morrissey

I believe we should work to end all racism in American society and staunchly defend the inherent rights of every person. – Rand Paul

I came back from university thinking I knew all about politics and racism, not knowing my dad had been one of the youngest-serving Labour councillors in the town and had refused to work in South Africa years ago because of the situation there. And he’s never mentioned it – you just find out. That’s a real man to me. A sleeping lion. – Johnny Vegas

I came into this whole business by going to see Rock Against Racism gigs with the Clash. – Billy Bragg

I can conceive of no Negro native to this country who has not, by the age of puberty, been irreparably scarred by the conditions of his life. – James Baldwin

I can honestly say that in my time in America, I have not encountered any racism. When Jim Thorpe and I make fun of each other on the range, or even when a white player makes a joke about my color, I take it as what it is-a joke-and give it back accordingly. – Vijay Singh

I can think of no better reason to vote against Obama than the prospect of an administration where any criticism of the President is treated as racism. – Glenn Reynolds

I can’t say I have enough experience with Hollywood to feel that I’ve encountered racism there. I can tell you that I did about five fruitless years of auditioning for voiceovers where I did variations on tacos and Latin accents, and my first screen role was as a bellhop on ‘The Sopranos.’ – Lin-Manuel Miranda

I come from a family of Mississippi sharecroppers just a few generations away from slavery, and I experienced a lot of racism growing up – you can’t avoid that if you’re a person of color in this country. – Carrie Mae Weems

I condemn racism on all levels, whether personal or systemic. – Tony Evans

I could help a lot of people’s kids that are going through racism or getting bullied. That’s what I wanna do. – Kane Brown

I couldn’t adjust to the racism in Florida. – Sidney Poitier

I couldn’t adjust to the racism in Florida. It was so blatant… I had never been so described as Florida described me. – Sidney Poitier

I definitely think men can be leaders. I see an analogy in the case of what helped me think about racism, which was to find parallels with sexism. In other words, I don’t think I was such a great ally until I got mad on my own behalf. – Gloria Steinem

I didn’t really understand racism because I grew up in an all-black society, so I didn’t see how it was possible not to like me! – Jamaica Kincaid

I didn’t run into racism until I got into the wrestling business. – Booker T. Washington

I didn’t run into racism until we moved to Nassau when I was ten and a half, but it was vastly different from the kind of horrendous oppression that black people in Miami were under when I moved there at 15. I found Florida an antihuman place. – Sidney Poitier

I didn’t want to give the white reader an opportunity to think of racism as imaginary – a sentiment that is already a central barrier in addressing the problem. – Vivek Shraya

I do not have the slightest bit of racism in me. I do not judge people with regards to the colour of their skin, their origin, or their religion. I defend them all, because I defend French people. And, of course, I defend the interests of France, the interests of French people. – Marine Le Pen

I do not know many Negroes who are eager to be “accepted” by white people, still less to be loved by them; they, the blacks, simply don’t wish to be beaten over the head by the whites every instant of our brief passage on this planet. – James Baldwin

I do not think it is an exaggeration at all to say to my friend from West Virginia [Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan recruiter] that he would have been a great senator at any moment. . . . He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this nation. – Christopher Dodd

I don’t believe in reverse racism. I really don’t. – Rachel Dolezal

I don’t condone racism. I don’t condone prejudice. – John Schnatter

I don’t feel that I’ve been hampered by [ racism or discrimination], and the reason why is that we reach out to people on the basis of where everyone meets, and try to build common cause on that basis. Because of that, I think we’ve cut through some of the issues that normally divide people. – Keith Ellison

I don’t know anywhere in the world where there is not racism against somebody. – Alex Haley

I don’t know how racists live with their racism. We need to take the road of love. I don’t think folks are born that way; it’s learned and taught out of fear. – Kenny Leon

I don’t know what to say about Asians. I think everyone is “racist,” to differing degrees, in that everyone’s brain will automatically associate information with other information, based on the information they are looking at (for example skin color, bone structure), but I think focusing on race in any manner that isn’t neutral or self-aware probably increases racism. – Tao Lin

I don’t like people who like me because I’m a Negro; neither do I like people who find in the same accident grounds for contempt. – James Baldwin

I don’t like that word ‘discovery.’ … Sinatra was the first one to call Ray Charles a genius, he spoke of ‘the genius of Ray Charles.’ And after that everybody called him a genius. They didn’t call him a genius before that though. He was a genius but they didn’t call him that. … If a white man hadn’t told them, they wouldn’t’ve seen it. … Like, you know, they say Columbus discovered America, he didn’t discover America. – Gayl Jones

I don’t like the idea of telling private business owners. I abhor racism. I think it’s a bad business decision to ever exclude anybody from your restaurant. But at the same time I do believe in private ownership. I think there should be absolutely no discrimination in anything that gets public funding. – Rand Paul

I don’t like to just talk of Africa, and south of the Sahara in general. No, I’ll talk about the Third World in general. I’ll like to say this – we in the United States would never believe that another form of goverment – I don’t care even if it’s against the racism, etc. – it is hard to get the masses of people to believe or accept that a socialist government will relieve them of most of the problems. – Huey Newton

I don’t make any notes, but I do know where to find things. Suppose I need to know where Wexford first talked about his love of the countryside or where he quotes Larkin or what was the beginning of his hatred of racism or where he first encountered domestic violence; I would be able to find it straight away. – Ruth Rendell

I don’t mean to be a racist but if you’re going to get raped by a Japanese guy, it’s not going to hurt at all. – Chelsea Handler

I don’t really know exactly how it happened but I don’t like the idea that I would ever have said I’m going to write about racism or puberty or bullying. – Judy Blume

I don’t think it’s entirely paranoid to suspect that one day, you won’t be able to so much as question the primary tenets of anti-racism without going to jail. – Jim Goad

I don’t think many people understand what racism is. The intellectuals use it like toilet paper; it’s something they can use. It’s not something they live. – Mark Fuhrman

I don’t think my films are going to get rid of racism or prejudice. I think the best thing my films can do is provoke discussion. – Spike Lee

I don’t think racism can be eliminated in my lifetime … or my children’s or grandchildren’s. But I think it’s something we have to strive for. I’m going to keep working toward that day coming. – Spike Lee

I don’t understand racism. I have many black friends and many others have been my opponents. Respect is basic. Unfortunately racism is a social problem, and football belongs to society. – Francesco Totti

I don’t understand racism. We are all the same and I have the perfect hypothesis to prove it. I play to all those countries and they cry in all the same places in my show. They laugh in the same places. They become hysterical in the same places. They faint in the same places and that’s the perfect hypothesis. There is a commonality that we are all the same. – Michael Jackson

I don’t wanna believe that racism exists, but the more I wish it away, the more I realize it’s in our system. – will.i.am

I don’t want to die and leave a few sad songs and a hump in the ground as my only monument. I want to leave a world that is liberated from trash, pollution, racism, nation-states, nation-state wars and armies, from pomp, bigotry, parochialism, a thousand different brands of untruth and licentious, usurious economics. – George Jackson

I don’t want to see trickle down racism. I don’t want to see a president of the United States saying things which change the character of the generations of Americans that are following. Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nature. And trickle down racism, trickle down bigotry, and trickle down misogyny, all these extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America. – Mitt Romney

I encountered Newton when I was growing up, and it has kind of made me who I am, although I came to love Boston. It’s a complicated city. Some of the smartest people in the world are in Boston. How many institutions of higher learning are in that one area? It’s a pool of intelligence. It’s a great town. You can encounter racism anywhere. I have a lot of nostalgic feelings about Boston. It was a cool place to grow up. – Kasi Lemmons

I experienced racism in different settings: I was followed in stores, in cars. The way you experience racism depends on how you deal with it. My memories of Goodeve are good ones. – Perry Bellegarde

I feel like racism isn’t over. – Joel Embiid

I feel like racism’s more pronounced in America. – Daniel Kaluuya

I feel sorry for Obama because he’s still got to fight the innate racism of Americans. I mean, did you see his first speech, when he got made President and they put all that bullet proof glass in front of him? I think that shows you how racist America still is. Just because he’s black doesn’t mean he’s going to shoot anybody. – Frankie Boyle

I felt like there was something I needed to do – speaking to kids and sharing my story with them and helping them understand racism has no place in the minds and hearts of children. – Ruby Bridges

I felt pretty good growing up. I didn’t feel a lot of prejudice or racism. But I do remember, if there was going to be a movie or a television show with Asian characters, I would go out of my way to avoid them, because they portrayed all Asians as either ridiculously good or ridiculously bad; you know, the whole Charlie Chan-Fu Manchu thing. – David Henry Hwang

I find it ironic that Republicans have such disdain for the lazy, and yet their solution to every problem is do nothing. Their answer to wealth inequality, do nothing. Health care? Do nothing. Climate change? Nothing. Racism? Doesn’t exist. For a group of people so head over heels in love with self-reliance, they sure do recommend a lot of sitting on their ass. – Bill Maher

I found that my wounds begin to heal when the voices of those endangered by silence are given power. The silence of hopelessness, of despair buried in the depths of poverty, violence, racism are more deadly than bullets. The gift of light, in our compassion, our listening, our works of love is the gift of life to ourselves. – Janice Mirikitani

I found there’s a fairly blatant racism in America that’s already there, and I don’t think I noticed it when I lived here as a kid. But when I went back to South Africa, and then it’s sort of thrust in your face, and then came back here – I just see it everywhere. – Dave Matthews

I found this out over the years, that racism is a thinly veiled disguise over economics and money. It really is. – Quincy Jones

I get how it can be news to some of you that people are victimized by systems legitimated by your nation, countrymen, and god. But I’m black and female and southern. I call that Tuesday. – Tressie McMillan Cottom

I get that racism exists, but it’s not a catalyst for my content. I don’t need to talk about race to have material. My style of comedy is more self-deprecating. I think that makes me more relatable. When you deal with ‘topics’ – race, white versus black – you’re not separating from the pack. You’re doing what everybody else is doing. – Kevin Hart

I give interracial couples a look. Daggers. They get uncomfortable when they see me on the street. – Spike Lee

I go to music festivals, and people want to talk to me about racism. I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m trying to have fun!’ – Daniel Kaluuya

I got agitated at the idea that racism is a Southern thing. Did you hear about the cross-burning out here? A black family moved into an upper-middle-class Los Angeles suburb and found a cross burning on their lawn. Swastikas are being painted on synagogues. I’m moving to France. I don’t think this ‘kinder, gentler nation’ bit is working too well. – Pruitt Taylor Vince

I got back from Toronto, where they had a severe outbreak of SARS – you know, Severe Asian Racism Syndrome. – Margaret Cho

I got the genetics of – not to get into racism or anything – but I’m built like a black man. – Brock Lesnar

I grew up in a predominantly white community – Hinsdale, Illinois – and given that, I feel blessed because I could still count my experiences with blatant racism on two hands. I thought racism was the substitute teacher picking on you because she assumes that you’re a delinquent, and she doesn’t know you have the highest score in the class. – Tomi Adeyemi

I grew up in a small segregated steel town 6o miles outside of Cleveland, my parents grew up in the segregated south. As a family we struggled financially, and I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s where overt racism ruled the day. – Lori Lightfoot

I grew up in the Deep South, where sexism, racism, and homophobia were and still are alive and well. I have early, early memories of words and actions of this type being very painful. – Pauley Perrette

I grew up like a neglected weed, – ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it. Then I was not happy or contented. – Harriet Tubman

I grew up poor and white. While my class oppression has been relatively visible to me, my race privilege has not. In my efforts to uncover how race has shaped my life, I have gained deeper insight by placing race in the center of my analysis and asking how each of my other group locations have socialized me to collude with racism. – Robin DiAngelo

I grow dizzy when I recall that the number of manufactured tanks seems to have been more important to me than the vanished victims of racism.Albert SpeerNumbers, Important, Tanks

I grow dizzy when I recall that the number of manufactured tanks seems to have been more important to me than the vanished victims of racism. – Albert Speer

I guess I don’t have a candidate who makes my heart go pitter-patter the way I wish it would. I’m thinking, here’s an African American candidate – yes! And here’s a woman candidate – yes! Why can’t I get behind either one of them? Don’t tell me I have latent sexism or racism that I need to confront. I don’t believe that. I think we are so burned by the current situation that we want somebody that it isn’t possible to have. We want someone who definitely looks like the messiah. – Sara Paretsky

I guess racism is sort of like a form of discrimination but it’s just that you classify people in different colours and different races. I think everyone is born with an inherent, the inherence to discriminate. – Pearl Tan

I had a funny last name, and I didn’t look like everybody else, and I got faced with a lot of racism. – Sam Esmail

I had a lot of racism growing up where I grew up. Bullied at school. It definitely encouraged me. It’s like battle wounds – you come out the other side, and it just makes you tougher. – Lewis Hamilton

I had to deal with it so often, I found ways of making a point against racism. When I played against Real Zaragoza, they chanted like monkeys and threw peanuts on the pitch. So when I scored, I danced in front of them like a monkey. When the same thing happened against Real Madrid, I scored and held my fist in a Black Power salute. – Samuel Eto’o

I had to go to England to really learn about American racism in a way that corroborated my reality. That was critical. – Carl Hart

I hate it when, after I let a white person know they’ve said something racist, I end up having to listen for hours to their life. – Toi Derricotte

I hate to tell you, but racism is alive and well in a lot of parts of the world. – Timothy Olyphant

I have a dream that one day … right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have always abhorred the word ‘racism.’ I never use it. – Jim Clyburn

I have always been very concerned that Darwinism gave the basic okay to terrible racism and to the idea of murder based upon race. – Ben Stein

I have become the poster child for calling all the Trump people racists, when, in fact, I don’t think they’re all racists, but they tolerated racism. And that’s a problem. – Van Jones

I have experienced racism in this country. My children have experienced racism in this country. I wouldn’t say America is against me. It is not an either/or proposition. But there are some people who hold fast to certain religious beliefs. – James Peterson

I have known Trent Lott for 20 years, … I don’t believe he’s racist. But he must proactively send a message to his colleagues in the Senate and the American people that he is absolutely opposed to any segregation in any form and racism in any form and discrimination in any form. – John McCain

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed. – Booker T. Washington

I have lived with a lot of racism in Spain. Unfortunately, I have had to learn to deal with it. – Dani Alves

I have never experienced racism in the feminist movement, so it concerned me to think that I was unable to see the subject clearly because I came from white, middle-class privilege. – Betty Buckley

I have no bigger goal than to eradicate racism, to grant Americans who have a different color of skin the right to disagree against the Left’s style of orthodoxy. – Andrew Breitbart

I have no protection at home, or resting place abroad. … I am an outcast from the society of my childhood, and an outlaw in the land of my birth. I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner as all my fathers were. – Frederick Douglass

I have nothing to do with racism in America; it was here when I got here. – Paul Mooney

I have often said I come from a family of unreliable narrators. I tend to believe their struggles with racism, identity, nationality do dovetail with my motivation to write.Luis – Alberto Urrea

I have seen white settlers in Africa who had sworn that they would never sit down to table with those “smelly blacks” sit down quite happily with half-nude tribesmen once a country achieves independence. It is the context of power which changes behavior and transmutes antipathy into sympathy. – Lewis Nkosi

I have to battle so many issues, and the biggest is racism. – Tan France

I have touched here on a problem that is masked if one speaks of racism. And that is the fact that the major differences between the established and outsiders group, which create tension and irritation, is not the form of the face or the skin color but the form of behavior: something learned. The form of behavior and feeling, of sentiment, is different in the immigrant groups from that of the established groups, and that may give rise to an enormous irritation. – Norbert Elias

I have visited some places where the differences between black and white are not as profound as they used to be, but I think there is a new form of racism growing in Europe and that is focused on people who are Middle Eastern. I see it. – Montel Williams

I hope that my new status will be an example of Israeli-Palestinian co-existence, I believe that the destinies of the Israeli people and the Palestinian people are inextricably linked. – Daniel Barenboim

I just don’t think there’s that many people who think it’s wrong to have control on our borders. That’s not racism. It’s not racism to question some of the political correctness today that’s going on, to recognize that things are going as well as – for American workers, as they’d like, because people, their frustration is arising from a deep sense of unease that Washington is fiddling while their house is burning. – Jeff Sessions

I just think racism is within each and every one of us. It’s everyone’s responsibility to figure out how they deal with this kind of obsolete instinct. – Jordan Peele

I just want to see more understanding and less racism in sports. – Samuel Eto’o

I know I’m breaking a taboo by using the term antiwhite racism, but I do so intentionally, because it’s the reality some of our fellow citizens live with, and remaining quiet about it only aggravates their trauma. – Jean-Francois Cope

I know that the Black emphasis must be not against white but FOR Black. – Gwendolyn Brooks

I know these dirty cops that’ll get us in if we murder some Wop. – Big Pun

I like Paris because I find something here, something of integrity, which I seem to have strangely lost in my own country. It is simplest of all to say that I like to live among people and surroundings where I am not always conscious of ‘thou shall not.’ I am colored and wish to be known as colored, but sometimes I have felt that my growth as a writer has been hampered in my own country. And so – but only temporarily – I have fled from it.Jessie Redmon Fauset

I live in a pretty liberal place, so it’s a lot of hidden racism and things like that. If you really look up California, it’s a really shitty place when it comes to things like that. So I think it will just take time. Old people have to die. Once the generation right under my Mom dies, we’ll be fine. – Vince Staples

I live in racist America and I’m uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can’t do much better than that. – Richard Pryor

I look at an ant and I see myself: a native South African, endowed by nature with a strength much greater than my size so I might cope with the weight of a racism that crushes my spirit. – Miriam Makeba

I look at racism as one of the social demons. And, in its worst, it’s violent and it’s a systemic commitment to oppression. – Jordan Peele

I love Canadians because I don’t see very much racism in Canada. – Patti LaBelle

I love living around black people. Home is home. We suffer under racism and the physical deprivations that come with that, but beneath that, we form cultures and traditions that are beautiful. – Ta-Nehisi Coates

I maintain that the period during the first half of the 1990s, the period in which rising inequality reached its peak, was a period in which we came very, very close to a demagogic immobilization of racism in this society. – William Julius Wilson

I marvel at the many ways we, as black people, bend but do not break. – Kristin Hunter

I mean, we’re not talking about simply racism, we’re taking about white supremacy. – Henry Giroux

I mean, what is racism? Racism is a projection of our own fears onto another person. What is sexism? It’s our own vulnerability about our potency and masculinity projected as our need to subjugate another person, you know? Fascism, the same thing: People are trying to untidy our state, so I legislate as a way of controlling my environment. – Gary Ross

I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man. – Joe Biden

I never had to deal with racism as a kid, by the grace of God somehow. – Booker T. Washington

I never suffered anti-Semitic racism because no one thought I was Jewish. – Sophie Okonedo

I obviously try to avoid racism, because that’s one thing that I should not be putting on to the Internet. – Grace Helbig

I picked up a camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty. – Gordon Parks

I picked up a camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty. I could have just as easily picked up a knife or a gun, like many of my childhood friends did… most of whom were murdered or put in prison… but I chose not to go that way. I felt that I could somehow subdue these evils by doing something beautiful that people recognize me by, and thus make a whole different life for myself, which has proved to be so. – Gordon Parks

I realize that I’m black, but I like to be viewed as a person, and this is everybody’s wish. – Michael Jordan

I realized there was racism because people thought, ‘Oh, if you like roll ‘n’ roll, that makes you like a white kid.’ – Queen Latifah

I really hate racism because I saw people denied possibilities. – Joe R. Lansdale

I really think that discrimination and racism is a horrible thing. And I don’t want any form of it in our government, in our public sphere. – Rand Paul

I received a most amusing postcard the other morning. Unfortunately, it was not signed in a readable manner so I cannot answer it privately. But it comes from Moblie, Ala., and says: ‘Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: You have not answered my question, the amount of Negro blood you have in your veins, if any.’ I am afraid none of us know how much nor what kind of blood we have in our veins, since chemically it is all the same. And most of us cannot trace our ancestry more than a few generations. – Eleanor Roosevelt

I refuse to accept the view . . . that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

I remember after I dated this white man, nobody said anything but there was a couple of men in my family that joked after that. ‘Oh yeah, we had a party when y’all broke up. Hee hee hee.’ And, you know, they laughed, and it was like light and a joke. But, you know, that’s real. That was real and they let me know. And, it’s almost acceptable within our culture to be prejudiced toward whites because of our history. This country is loaded with racism. – Sanaa Lathan

I remember being suddenly snatched awake into a frightening confusion of pistol shots and shouting and smoke and flames. My father had shouted and shot at the two white men who had set the fire and were running away. Our home was burning down around us. We were lunging and bumping and tumbling all over each other trying to escape. My mother, with the baby in her arms, just made it into the yard before the house crashed in, showering sparks. I remember we were outside in the night in our underwear, crying and yelling our heads off. The white police and firemen came and stood around watching as the house burned down to the ground. – Malcolm X

I remember people saying: ‘You look funny, your hair is so black, you have a flat nose,’ but I didn’t think of it being racism, and I still don’t. But there was a sense of difference, of being an outsider. – Sadie Jones

I remember sitting there on my father’s couch or my mother’s couch, listening to this lecture about how there were two groups and we had to be separated. We’ve come a long way from this kind of open racism. And I think it’s wonderful. – James Heckman

I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera. – Gordon Parks

I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over. – Jimmy Carter

I see racism as a cancer. It is a cancer growing in us. Unless we stop it, it vegetates and grows bigger which hurts every one of us. – Pearl Tan

I see racism as institutional: the rules are different for me because I’m black. It’s not necessarily someone’s specific attitude against me; it’s just the fact that I, as a black man, have a much harder time making an art-house movie and getting it released than a white person does about their very white point of view. That’s racism. – Justin Simien

I sometimes feel that racism is getting worse. – Tahar Rahim

I sometimes think that courage is the thing that you need more than any other thing. It’s fear that cripples us. It’s fear that accounts for racism, it’s fear that accounts for sexism, for xenophobia. – Anna Quindlen

I stand for anti-bigotry, anti-Semitism, and anti-racism. – George H. W. Bush

I stand here as a black lesbian feminist, having been invited to comment within the only panel at this conference where the input of black feminists and lesbians is represented. What this says about the vision of this conference is sad, in a country where racism, sexism and homophobia are inseparable. . . . – Audre Lorde

I still think people do have racial hang-ups, but I think one of the reasons I can joke about it is people are shedding those racial hatreds. – Dave Chappelle

I struggle with racism every day. – John Grisham

I suspect unconscious bias has been far more of a factor for President Obama than overt racism and will also be a challenge for Hillary Rodham Clinton if she runs for president again.Nicholas Kristof

I swear to the Lord
I still can’t see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me. – Langston Hughes

I talked a lot early on in my career about intersectionality and how racism and classism and sexism and homophobia and capitalism are all connected with each other, and they’re these crazy systems that are feeding on each other and are also damaging. I can’t even go into the whole spectrum of it. But I feel like kids today are so much more savvy about that conversation. And I’m so thrilled when I get to meet younger people who are doing that so much better than I did. – Kathleen Hanna

I talked about the persecution of Algerians and told about racism in my childhood. And it was as if, after that, I wasn’t French anymore. – Isabelle Adjani

I think about the history of racism in this country all the time. – Clint Smith

I think all these pop cultural media often reflect conversations we’re having in the real world at that moment in time. I think one of the big conversations we’re having as a culture is we thought we’d solved sexism and racism, and we’re realizing more and more that we haven’t. – G. Willow Wilson

I think back to when I was growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, in the 1950s, during the [John] McCarthy era, with two parents who founded a Unitarian Church. We lived in a little frame house, and my bedroom was just down the hall from the kitchen. My favorite memories of childhood are of the smell of coffee wafting into my bedroom as my parents and their friends talked about the big, important things – about racism and about how to move our country to live its values. – Frances Moore Lappé

I think education is power. I think that being able to communicate with people is power. One of my main goals on the planet is to encourage people to empower themselves.” Another “I was raised to believe that excellence is the deterrent to racism and sexism. And that’s how I operate my life.” And another “It does not matter who you are or where you came from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always. – Oprah Winfrey

I think everyone is “racist,” to differing degrees, in that everyone’s brain will automatically associate information with other information, based on the information they are looking at, but I think focusing on race in any manner that isn’t neutral or self-aware probably increases racism. – Tao Lin

I think it’s cultural racism more than anything, which dovetails with actual racism, but the cultural racism to me is even more shocking. – Hilton Als

I think patriotism is never racism. – Marine Le Pen

I think people are just going to be people, and racism is a thing. If people have an inclination to be racist then they are going to be, and there is not a whole lot that you can do about it. – Brandi Rhodes

I think people are uncomfortable talking about the racist history of this country and what we need to do to undo the impact of racism. – DeRay Mckesson

I think race and racism is probably the most studied social, economic, and political phenomenon in this country, but it’s also the least understood. – Alicia Garza

I think racial justice – and addressing the sick and enduring legacy of structural racism – remains one of the greatest challenges of our time, and one that’s particularly important for more and more white people to speak up about. – Sally Kohn

I think racism is a bottom-line AIDS issue. And I think homophobia is a bottom-line AIDS issue, and sexism and class issues and all of this. I think that we are not going to solve the AIDS epidemic unless we deal with these issues, and vice versa. – Ann Northrop

I think racism is a terrible thing. I think we should all learn to hate each other on a individual basis. – Cathy Ladman

I think racism is something that is passed on and taught to our kids, and that’s a shame. – Ruby Bridges

I think racism is unacceptable and should not be stood for. It is not an issue just in Italy, it is around the world. – Chris Smalling

I think really the whole problem with racism and its continuing legacy in this country is that we simply love it. Who would we be without the ‘struggle?’ – Kara Walker

I think some people feel that if you question the reality of race, you’re questioning racism; you’re saying racism isn’t real. Racism is real because people actually believe race is real. We’d have to really let go of the 500-year-old idea of race as a worldview in order to undo racism. – Rachel Dolezal

I think tech lives inside of a society that still has a lot of systemic racism and doesn’t stop at the boundaries of the tech industry. But neither is it especially exacerbated by being around technology. But it is maybe exacerbated by the irrational decision making of people who are trying to make money. – Stewart Butterfield

I think that America certainly has racism, I think that any industrialized country does. But when you see how many million fans Barack Obama has who are not black, it would lead one to the conclusion that millions of Americans are in fact not burdened by the albatross of racism. – Henry Rollins

I think that if there can be considered racism it’s to do with the lack of opportunities for writers and producers and the people behind the camera. – Denzel Washington

I think that in his 39 short years of life, Malcolm X came to symbolize Black urban America, its culture, its politics, its militancy, its outrage against structural racism and at the end of his life, a broad internationalist vision of emancipatory power far better than any other single individual that he shared with DuBois and Paul Robeson, a pan-Africanist internationalist perspective. – Manning Marable

I think that racism has gotten more subtle, and it’s not even racism anymore: it’s placism. Like where you live or whether you went to community college or Harvard, and it exists within the race. – Esai Morales

I think that racism is ugly and so unfair, and I believe that we all need one another. – Ruby Bridges

I think that the agriculture system in general is rooted in racism – consider that historically black labor on plantations was the backbone of the economy. These workers didn’t reap the benefit of that system. – Bryant Terry

I think that the roots of racism have always been economic, and I think people are desperate and scared. And when you’re desperate and scared you scapegoat people. It exacerbates latent tendencies toward – well, toward racism or homophobia or anti-Semitism. – Henry Louis Gates

I think that there are some people on the so-called Left who might say we have to circle our wagons around the first African American president, and to me that is racism in reverse because his policies are actually still the racist policies of empire. – Cindy Sheehan

I think that we need to have an honest conversation in this country. This idea that somehow we’re beyond sexism, beyond racism is just wrong. And this is where having an honest conversation with white men about their issues and their concerns, and having honest conversations about the experiences that African-Americans are still having, despite who’s the president of the United States, in the criminal justice system that we see in sentencing, we see in policing and a lot of these issues. – Cory Booker

I think that what Donald Trump is doing, the way in which racism, xenophobia, anti-Muslim belief and the like are being expressed through the campaign of Donald Trump, calls for, I think, a very vigorous and aggressive response to what he’s saying. – Michael Eric Dyson

I think the history of western feminism is one that is fraught with racism, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that and, at the same time, to say that feminism is not the western invention, that my great-grandmother in what is now south-western Nigeria is feminist. – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I think the Negro people should feel secure enough by now to face a reasonable ridicule without terror. I am unalterably opposed to all efforts to put down free speech, whatever the excuse. – L. Mencken

I think the traditional stereotypes are loaded in institutional racism. – Daniel Kaluuya

I think the two issues, racism and chauvinism, are linked. Look at how much weaker was support for U.S. actions in Iraq among black people. – Michael Yates

I think there are universal principles that we should want to understand, but that are not necessarily good for us. We could recognise universal propensities which current cultures can’t fully eradicate, which we would want to eradicate if we could. Let’s say, a tendency for tribal violence. Or racism. – Sam Harris

I think there is no racism in this film industry. They are only in need of talent, though it takes time; but, if you are talented, you will get your due. I am thankful to be part of this industry. – Nawazuddin Siddiqui

I think there’s always going to be some kind of bigotry or some kind of racism. There has to be, because people can’t feel that they have any hero qualities unless there’s someone beneath them. – Dustin Hoffman

I think there’s institutionalised racism in this country. – Linford Christie

I think we can continue to do as much protesting as we want. Systemic racism needs to be changed from within. – Michael Ealy

I think we should not accept and tolerate racism anywhere, in any game, whether it’s a friendly game or a World Cup final, or it’s a Champions League final. – Kevin-Prince Boateng

I think we’ve made tremendous progress on racism. We’ve even made progress on war. We’ve made almost no progress on poverty. – Andrew Young

I think, at some level, we see young people all over the country mobilizing around different issues, in which they’re doing something that I haven’t seen for a long time. And that is, they’re linking issues together. You can’t talk about police violence without talking about the militarization of society in general. You can’t talk about the assault on public education unless you talk about the way in which capitalism defunds all public goods. You can’t talk about the prison system without talking about widespread racism. You can’t do that. They’re making those connections. – Henry Giroux

I truly believe that one of the things that has been lacking in America is a spirit of repentance about the injustices of slavery and the injustices of segregation and racism generally. I truly believe that we cannot come to a place of reconciliation until there is individual repentance and corporate repentance. – David Oyelowo

I try to look at it like an angry optimist. In other words, I’m not happy with the state of affairs that we have. The rise of nationalism under the guise of patriotism is so effed up, and underneath this banner of “patriotism” is the worst of nationalist rhetoric: racism, xenophobia, sexism, pitting communities against each other, implicitly inciting race wars and stuff like that. So that’s the angry part of it, but I’m incredibly optimistic about the potential to redefine what it means to be a “patriotic American”. – Hasan Minhaj

I vividly remember the summer of 1964 with its voter registration drives, boiling racial tensions, and the erupting awareness of the cruelty of racism. I was never the same after that summer. – Sue Monk Kidd

I want a hairy little Jewish Princess with a brand new nose, who knows where it goes. – Frank Zappa

I want to be on a show that’s not sensitive to racial jokes; I want to be on one where they call me everything and I call them right back. There’s blatant racism going both ways. That’s what we need. – Wale

I want to go up to the closest white person and say: ‘You can’t understand this, it’s a black thing’ and then slap him, just for my mental health. – Charles Barron

I want to know
Why racism today
Was not clearly explained to me
Even though we covered events
That happened long ago.
I want to know why you
Never shared with us
Why other countries
Never liked us,
Why we are taught to compete,
To be divided in teams,
And why conformity is associated
With popularity, while
Eccentricity is considered Undesirable? – Suzy Kassem

I want to stay in the European Union which is the best trade deal we could possibly have, but we need to call out racism. – Jo Swinson

I wanted people to begin dialogue about racism, about colorism. I wanted people to really become honest about our beliefs, about racism and how it exists in America today. – Mathew Knowles

I wanted to have a body of work behind me before I wrote about racism. – Malorie Blackman

I wanted to use my experience to teach kids that racism has no place in hearts and minds. – Ruby Bridges

I wanted to write about racism and xenophobia in 21st Century England and Ireland, but I wanted to do it in an exciting way so that I could reach more readers. Zombies seemed like a good way to do that. – Darren Shan

I warn young people that I interact with about this – you get into unrealistic expectations where you think that, “Oh, we’re gonna eliminate racism like that. After Obama’s elected how could there be any racism?” – Barack Obama

I was born and raised in the oldest settled part of the nation and in an environment in which racism was officially mooted. – Constance Baker Motley

I was born in the late ’70s and grew up in the deep South, and I was very much still of an era where racism was a casual part of white people’s public and private lives, though it had been pushed more into its own little echo chamber by then. As a five year old, I saw a fully costumed Klan circle, complete with burning cross, on a town square in rural Alabama at high noon. – Nate Powell

I was fortunate enough to have been raised to a certain point before I got into the race thing. I had other views of what a human is, so I was never able to see racism as the big question. Racism was horrendous, but there were other aspects to life.Sidney Poitier

I was fortunate enough to have been raised to a certain point before I got into the race thing. I had other views of what a human is, so I was never able to see racism as the big question. Racism was horrendous, but there were other aspects to life. – Sidney Poitier

I was in an organization called Progressive Labor Party and International Committee Against Racism. And I was – I started out helping to organize a farm workers’ union in Central California. – Boots Riley

I was in Toronto when they had a severe outbreak of SARS – you know, Severe Asian Racism Syndrome. I was in the airport and there were these big snowboarder guys and they had white masks around their necks, and as soon as they saw me, they put their masks on. So I went “cough, cough, cough… You wanna egg rorr? – Margaret Cho

I was literally the black sheep of the family, and there were definitely moments of discomfort while my grandmother was working through her racism. – Lisa Bonet

I was lucky I had a mom who had seen it all. From seeing my grandfather march in the Civil Rights era, she understood the depth, character, and stability you need to go through racism. She taught me not to accept it to but deal with it and be better than it. – Malcolm Brogdon

I was never exposed to a great deal of racism, but the Chicago I grew up in was very, very segregated. – Don Cornelius

I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that’s how I operate my life. – Oprah Winfrey

I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group. – Peggy McIntosh

I was teasing my brother that he was penniless, homeless, jobless. Right now in his life, racism isn’t the central highlighting force: it’s the world of work and economics. It doesn’t mean that he isn’t influenced by racism, but when he wakes up in the morning the thing that’s driving his world is really issues of class, economics and power as they articulate themselves. – Bell Hooks

I was the only white kid in my neighborhood for most of my youth even in high school, so reverse racism was just as apparent as racism. – Shia LaBeouf

I wasn’t always black… there was this freckle, and it got bigger and bigger. – Bill Cosby

I went to an all white school where I dealt with racism. – Chaske Spencer

I went to Catholic school and experienced racism firsthand from nuns and priests. – Anthea Butler

I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories… We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust… We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better. – Thurgood Marshall

I wish I could say to all those people who consider themselves anarchists or radicals: Please join the nonviolent movement. This is how Gandhi freed India. If Gandhi freed India, we can certainly free the United States from our racism, misogyny, and bigotry. – Dolores Huerta

I wish she’d said something different, but patriarchy is as prevalent around the world as racism and xenophobia are. We can’t hide from it, not even here. – Raquel Cepeda

I would argue that racism, for example, is a feature of machine learning – it’s not a bug. – Trevor Paglen

I would even say that my parents, and their friends in our community, thought of education as a kind of armor against racism. – Condoleezza Rice

I would get bullied a lot. You know, it was the ’70s and ’80s, so it was a lot of racism back then towards Indian people. And it wasn’t actual hatred, it was just that blind, ‘Let’s pick on that guy.’ You know, and you’ve got to figure that I was a very small kid. And I had a big mouth, so I’m sure that didn’t help. – Russell Peters

I would not be standing here today if my skin were white or my religion were Presbyterian. I am here today only because my skin is yellow and my religion is Unification Church. The ugliest things in this beautiful country of America are religious bigotry and racism. – Sun Myung Moon

I, for one, would think both about how far we have come as a country and how much further we need to go to erase racism and discrimination from our society. – Charles Rangel

I’m a real person, and I’m angry. I’m trying to use this celebrity thing to get people some help. AIDS, poverty, racism – I want to be one of the hands that helps stop all that. I’ll put it on my shoulders. I’ll charge it to my account. – Jamie Foxx

I’d argue that in the last few decades in America, when people are asked what they hope the future will look like, they still turn to ‘Star Trek.’ They hope we put aside our differences and come together as humanity, that we rise above war, poverty, racism, and other problems that have beset us.Ronald D. Moore

I’d be lying to say I’ve not experienced a lot of racism in my life; it’s very much alive. I don’t let it bother me. I couldn’t be the singer I am if I didn’t let it go. – Darius Rucker

I’d hasten to say that the prejudice in Dust City isn’t completely analogous to racism in the real world. – Robert Paul Weston

I’d like to change the world. Eradicate poverty, racism, and sexism… all the usual things. – Ian Brown

I’d like to make one thing very clear: Muhammad Ali loved people, and he had white friend as well as black friends – and the only thing that he hated was discrimination and racism. – Jim Brown

If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America. – Eldridge Cleaver

If a white man falls off a chair drunk, it’s just a drunk.
If a Negro does, it’s the whole damn Negro race. – Bill Cosby

If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power. – Stokely Carmichael

If anti-Semitism is a variety of racism, it is a most peculiar variety, with many unique characteristics. In my view as a historian, it is so peculiar that it deserves to be placed in a quite different category. I would call it an intellectual disease, a disease of the mind, extremely infectious and massively destructive. – Paul Johnson

If anyone had told us in 1945 that there are certain battles we’ll have to fight again we wouldn’t have believed it. Racism, anti-Semitism, starvation of children and, who would have believed that? At least I was convinced then, naively, that at least something happened in history that, because of myself, certain things cannot happen again. – Elie Wiesel

If Asian America exists, it is because of systemic racism. – Karan Mahajan

If black people mistrust white people, they are mistrusting racism, and that is appropriate. – Jasmine Guy

If I had to guess and put a name on it, I’d say that at some point, the drug war was as much a function of class and social control as it was of racism. – David Simon

If I have to jump six feet to get the same thing that you have to jump two feet for – that’s how racism works. – Ta-Nehisi Coates

If I was in a room with a bunch of skinheads talking about racism, then I would be disturbed, but after we finished a take, we were normal people again. – Edward Furlong

If kids have the opportunity to come together to get to know one another, they can judge for themselves who they want their friends to be. All children should have that choice. We, as adults, shouldn’t make those choices for children. That’s how racism starts. – Ruby Bridges

If men disappeared tomorrow, we’d still be having the abortion debate. If men disappeared tomorrow, there would still be racism and conflicts over religion. – Marjorie Liu

If one lives in a country where racism is held valid and practiced in all ways of life eventually, no matter whether one is a racist or a victim, one comes to feel the absurdity of life….Racism generated from whites is first of all absurd. Racism creates absurdity among blacks as a defense mechanism. – Chester Himes

If one thinks about racism by examining only one wire of the cage, or one form of disadvantage, it is difficult to understand how and why the bird is trapped. Only a large number of wires arranged in a specific way, and connected to one another, serve to enclose the bird and to ensure that it cannot escape. – Iris Marion Young

If parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out. – Marian Wright Edelman

If people in Indonesia look ‘different’, they are afraid. Racist insults fly if someone does not look like part of the majority. Indonesia is one of the most racist countries on earth, and it has proven it during several of the genocides that have taken place here. But there is no perception, no clue, and no understanding of what racism actually is. And there is zero self-criticism. – Andre Vltchek

If political correctness has achieved one thing, it’s that it has made the Conservative party cloak their inherent racism behind more creative language. – Stewart Lee

If racism can’t be shown to be natural then it is the result of certain conditions, and we are impelled to eliminate those conditions. – Howard Zinn

If racism is not the whole of the Tea Party, it is in its heart, along with blind hatred, a total disinterest in the welfare of others, and a full-flowered self-rationalizing refusal to accept the outcomes of elections, or the reality of democracy, or the narrowness of their minds and the equal narrowness of their public support. – Keith Olbermann

if some folks have buried their racial prejudices, the chances are that they’ve got the graves marked and will have no trouble disinterring their pet hates. – Josephine Lawrence

If the first words out of your mouth are to cry ‘political correctness!’, … chances are very, very high that you are in fact part of the problem. – N.K. Jemisin

If the truth be told, we are a society that is dripping in racism. This is not in the least surprising. For the best part of two centuries, we British ruled the waves, controlled two-fifths of the planet, and believed it was our responsibility to bring civilisation to those who allegedly lacked it. – Martin Jacques

If there had been a charismatic figure in the United States who could mobilize fears, anger, racism, a sense of loss of the future that belongs to us, this country could be in real danger. We’re lucky that there never has been an honest, charismatic figure. McCarthy was too much of a thug, you know? Nixon was too crooked. Trump, I think, is too much of a clown. So, we’ve been lucky. – Noam Chomsky

If trees can create art, if they can encircle the globe seven times in one year, if prisoners can grow plants and raise frogs, then perhaps there are other static entities that we hold inside ourselves, like grief, like addictions, like racism, that can also change. – Nalini Nadkarni

If we are to have that harmony and tranquility, that union of spirit which is the foundation of real national genius and national progress, we must all realize that there are true Americans who did not happen to be born in our section of the country, who do not attend our place of religious worship, who are not of our racial stock, or who are not proficient in our language. If we are to create on this continent a free republic and an enlightened civilization that will be capable of reflecting the true greatness and glory of mankind, it will be necessary to regard these differences as accidental and unessential. We shall have to look beyond the outward manifestations of race and creed. Divine providence has not bestowed upon any race a monopoly of patriotism and character. – Calvin Coolidge

If we are to open employment opportunities in this country for members of all races and creeds, then the Federal Government must set an example … I am not going to promise a Cabinet post or any other post to any race or ethnic group. That is racism in reverse at its worst. So I do not promise to consider race or religion in my appointments if I am successful. I promise only that I will not consider them. – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

If we could create the conditions that make racism difficult, or discourage it, then there would be less stress and less need for affirmative action programs. One of those conditions would be an economic policy that would create tight labor markets over long periods of time. Now does that mean that affirmative action is here only temporarily? I think the ultimate goal should be to remove it. – William Julius Wilson

If we want to think about racism and how it might play out in drug policy, we have to think about the trial of George Zimmerman. We think about the prosecution, when they said “race is not a factor.” It’s so dishonest. – Carl Hart

If we’re going to address trafficking in our country we have to address poverty, racism & gender based violence. – Rachel Lloyd

If whites would vote their economic interests, not their racial fears, we the people who have the most need for change have the power to bring about that change nonviolently. – Jesse Jackson

If you are accused of racism, to deny racism is proof of racism. – Amy Wax

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. – Desmond Tutu

If you are white, racism is too easily ignored and forgiven, regarded as of burning concern only to the ethnic minorities, and therefore of relatively marginal significance. – Martin Jacques

If you live in the elite world of dance, you find yourself in a world rife with racism. Let’s face it. – Alvin Ailey

If you look hard enough, you can find race issues and racism in everything. I know people who say, ‘See, I don’t play pool ‘cuz that’s where the white ball chase the black ball off the table. So I prefer bowling, where the big black ball knock down the white pins with the red necks.’ – Chi McBride

If you read Martin Luther King speeches and sermons in the last two years of his life – you might want to – –when I read these to my students, they think it’s Malcom X because it’s so radical. And if you read nothing else – if your viewers read nothing else – then the April 4, 1967, speech at Riverside Church called “Beyond Vietnam,” that’s where he says the greatest purveyor of violence on earth is my country. And he connects the triplets of evil, racism, militarism, and materialism, and that connection makes him a radical. – Bill Ayers

If you see something is going wrong within politics and the world today, then some Hip Hop artist is gonna come along and get straight with it. If they think that there’s a lot of racism going on then there’s another Hip Hop artist who’s gonna come out and speak their mind. – Afrika Bambaataa

If you take racism away from certain people – I mean, vitriolic racism as well as the sort of social racist – if you take that away, they may have to face something really terrible, misery, self-misery, and deep pain about who they are. – Toni Morrison

If you think about a child that is born and how it’s born, if it has racism in his genes, every child that is raised up to hit or beat someone up with anger and resentments.John Assaraf

If you think about it, there’s not a religious group, there’s not a nationalistic group, there’s not a tribe, there is no grouping of people to my knowledge, of any consequence, who have not, at one or another time, been the object of hatred, racism, or who has not had people against them just because they were them. – Alex Haley

If you think the country is a bastion only of nasty tendencies and racism and oppression, that is anti-American. – Rich Lowry

If you want to know if racism is a problem in your country, you might not want to ask white people. – Tim Wise

If you’re getting harassed, it’s not helpful to know that racism has generally declined in America, when you’re still experiencing it. That is a reality that we’re still vulnerable to. – Shelby Steele

If you’re quiet, knowing that there’s a culture of racism inside most police departments, and you’re not saying anything, you are on the wrong side of history. – Alicia Garza

Ignorance and prejudice are the handmaidens of propaganda. Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will, and must be defeated. – Kofi Annan

I’ll always remember the phrase of my husband: “Racism is never surprising, but it is always disappointing.” Anytime I see it or I feel it, that quote comes back. This is something that has to be constantly talked about in order to be changed. – Ashley Graham

I’m a believer of destiny and I believe I’m destiny’s child. I’ve seen the highs and I’ve seen the lows and I believe things happen for a reason and always for the best. Maybe this was all meant to be and maybe Big Brother worked as a catalyst in a bigger issue like racism, which was important to be broached. Maybe it had to happen this way and I’m glad that I could help it. – Shilpa Shetty

I’m a multi-racial person – I’m black and white – and growing up in North Carolina, I’ve dealt with a lot of racism. Growing up as a kid, I’ve seen it. I’ve been through it in many forms and fashions. – Jimmy Graham

I’m a real person, and I’m angry. I’m trying to use this celebrity thing to get people some help. AIDS, poverty, racism – I want to be one of the hands that helps stop all that. I’ll put it on my shoulders. I’ll charge it to my account. – Jamie Foxx

I’m filled with despair. We live in a pathological culture filled with rage and bitterness and greed. The hate-mongering and racism is reaching a frightening pitch. – Alison Hawthorne Deming

I’m from the South; there’s been such progress since I was young, with racism, with feminism. The environment is next. – Marilyn Minter

I’m inspired by people like Nelson Mandela. Can you imagine – you know how racist America was back then – imagine how racism was in South Africa when he had to stand up and say what he had to say. That’s bravery beyond comprehension. – Nas

I’m more interested in a feminism that ends discrimination for all people. It’s not just about a woman becoming the CEO of a company or something. It’s connected to racism and classism and gender issues that go beyond the binary. – Kathleen Hanna

I’m most biased about how white people have to learn to shut up when the conversation of racism comes up. White people have to learn to listen. Whether they agree with what they’re hearing or not, they have to know to shut up and listen. – Kamau Bell

I’m not a racist or misogynist person, but I find these jokes funny, so I say them. – Daniel Tosh

I’m not a racist. I made a terrible, terrible mistake. – Donald Sterling

I’m not afraid of death but I am afraid of dying. Pain can be alleviated by morphine but the pain of social ostracism cannot be taken away. – Derek Jarman

I’m not black, but there’s a whole lot of times I wish I could say I’m not white. – Frank Zappa

I’m not going to sit here now and say ‘do this,’ or ‘do that.’ But you must – must – expunge any vestige of racism. – Bartlett Giamatti

I’m not one to spend my life asking the question, ‘Is there racism in America?’ Certainly there is. But I want to do something about it. – Kenny Leon

I’m not sure that there are days of my life when I’m not confronted with racism. For some, that may seem hyperbolic, but it’s true. – Clint Smith

I’m not the authority on the subject. I’m a middle-aged white guy speaking about racism. I’m just finding it a really difficult subject to broach. – Gareth Southgate

I’m not trying to say that it never hurt or that I never felt its sting, but I can honestly say that I never blamed anybody for racism. I have considered it more of a manifestation of humanity’s problem rather than my personal problem. – Robert Guillaume

I’m proud to be next to the Confederate flag. That flag is not – it is not about racism folks. It’s not about hatred. It’s not about slavery. It’s about our heritage. – Corey Stewart

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Quotes

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Quotes

  • I’M ANGRY because the stories of injustice that have been passed down for generations seem to be continuing before our very eyes. – Benjamin Watson
  • I’M CONFUSED, because I don’t know why it’s so hard to obey a policeman. You will not win!!! And I don’t know why some policeman abuse their power. Power is a responsibility, not a weapon to brandish and lord over the populace. – Benjamin Watson
  • I’M EMBARRASSED because the looting, violent protests, and law breaking only confirm, and in the minds of many, validate, the stereotypes and thus the inferior treatment. – Benjamin Watson
  • I’M FEARFUL because in the back of my mind I know that although I’m a law abiding citizen I could still be looked upon as a “threat” to those who don’t know me. So I will continue to have to go the extra mile to earn the benefit of the doubt. – Benjamin Watson
  • I’M FRUSTRATED, because pop culture, music and movies glorify these types of police citizen altercations and promote an invincible attitude that continues to get young men killed in real life, away from safety movie sets and music studios. – Benjamin Watson
  • I’M HOPEFUL, because I know that while we still have race issues in America, we enjoy a much different normal than those of our parents and grandparents. I see it in my personal relationships with teammates, friends and mentors. And it’s a beautiful thing. – Benjamin Watson
  • I’M HOPELESS, because I’ve lived long enough to expect things like this to continue to happen. I’m not surprised and at some point my little children are going to inherit the weight of being a minority and all that it entails. – Benjamin Watson
  • I’M INTROSPECTIVE, because sometimes I want to take “our” side without looking at the facts in situations like these. Sometimes I feel like it’s us against them. Sometimes I’m just as prejudiced as people I point fingers at. And that’s not right. How can I look at white skin and make assumptions but not want assumptions made about me? That’s not right. – Benjamin Watson
  • I’M OFFENDED, because of the insulting comments I’ve seen that are not only insensitive but dismissive to the painful experiences of others. – Benjamin Watson
  • I’M SAD, because another young life was lost from his family, the racial divide has widened, a community is in shambles, accusations, insensitivity hurt and hatred are boiling over, and we may never know the truth about what happened that day. – Benjamin Watson
  • I’M SYMPATHETIC, because I wasn’t there so I don’t know exactly what happened. Maybe Darren Wilson acted within his rights and duty as an officer of the law and killed Michael Brown in self defense like any of us would in the circumstance. Now he has to fear the backlash against himself and his loved ones when he was only doing his job. What a horrible thing to endure. OR maybe he provoked Michael and ignited the series of events that led to him eventually murdering the young man to prove a point. – Benjamin Watson

I’m writing about the things I see all around me. Growing up in Mississippi, I’ve seen how these backward ideas about class and race and healthcare and education and housing and racism impact everyday lives. For example, my mother wouldn’t let me go to my homecoming dance because the yacht club where they were having the dance threw a fundraiser for David Duke, an ex-Klan member, when he was running for governor of Louisiana. So I grew up seeing how personal politics could be. – Jesmyn Ward

I’m your typical highly educated, progressive white dude. I’ve lived my life resisting racism both within myself and in the society around me. – Mark Manson

Imagine a judicial nominee said ‘my experience as a white man makes me better than a Latina woman.’ Wouldn’t they have to withdraw? New racism is no better than old racism. – Newt Gingrich

In 1967, I had my first black girlfriend, and a lot more ever since then. I just don’t understand racism. I never thought it was an option. – Lemmy

In 2006, I entered the presidential palace in the main square of La Paz as the first indigenous president of Bolivia. Our government, under the slogan ‘Bolivia Changes,’ is committed to ending the colonialism, racism and exclusion that many of our people lived under for many centuries. – Evo Morales

In 2016, Trump, with his outsized ego, his anti-immigrant and anti-trade positions, coupled with barely disguised racism and deep-seated sexism and a willingness to lie whenever it suited him, was a near perfect fit. – Bob Beckel

In a manner akin to the influence of Tiger Woods on the other side of the Atlantic, Thierry Henry has helped kick down a few of the remaining bigoted stereotypes. Through his undisputable class and dignity, Henry has made a deep-seated difference to race relations in this country. Racism will flounder whenever white children grow up with a black man as their hero. That so few comment on Henry’s colour is a silent tribute to his impact. – Pete Gill

In a racially divided society, majority rule is not a reliable instrument of democracy. – Lani Guinier

In a sense, we are all victims of the misogyny and racism that exist in the world, no matter what our gender or race happens to be. – Kehinde Wiley

In all manifestations of racism from the mildest to the most severe, what is being denied is the possibility that the racializers and the racialized can coexist in the same society, except perhaps on the basis of domination and subordination. – George M. Fredrickson

In America right now, the people who talk about race the most are people of color – and if we are going to move the needle forward, it’s WHITE people who need to acknowledge their role in racism. – Jodi Picoult

In America there is institutional racism that we all inherit and participate in, like breathing the air in this room – and we have to become sensitive to it. – Henry Louis Gates

In America, racism exists but racists are all gone. Racists belong to the past. Racists are the thin-lipped mean white people in the movies about the civil rights era. Here’s the thing: the manifestation of racism has changed but the language has not. So if you haven’t lynched somebody then you can’t be called a racist. If you’re not a bloodsucking monster, then you can’t be called a racist. Somebody has to be able to say that racists are not monsters. – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In America, we have struggled too much, too long as a country trying to overcome racism and sexism and homophobia. We cannot go back to a more discriminatory society. – Bernie Sanders

In aversive racism, the concept of racism is abhorrent to that person. But they’re filled with racist conditioning and bias, as we all are. Because that conflicts with their identity as good people, they suppress it and are even more in denial about it. They are even more likely to erupt in defensiveness if it gets called out. – Robin DiAngelo

In Baltimore they can’t do police work to save their lives. Now because of Freddie Gray they’re not even getting out of the car and policing corners – they’re on a job slowdown, basically. Right now if the police stopped being brutal, if we got police shooting under control, and the use of excessive force, if we have a meaningful societal response to all that stuff, and the racism that underlies it, the question still remains: what are they policing, and why? – David Simon

In England, I’ve never really had a problem with racism. – Didier Drogba

In Italy, especially in ’70s and ’80s, there was a lot of racism between north and south. And my mom immigrated from the south to the north, from Puglia, the heel of Italy. But what made me feel different was society, not my family. – Riccardo Tisci

In many ways, everything about my upbringing decreed that I wouldn’t write a memoir because in the world where I grew up, in Chicago in the Fifties and Sixties, one key way of protesting ourselves – ‘we’ meaning black people – against racism, against its stereotypes and its insults, was to curate and narrate very carefully the story of the people. – Margo Jefferson

In music, the Specials brought a city, Coventry, bombed out for a second time and riven with racism, to a celebration between black and white musicians and their music. – Melvyn Bragg

In my earliest of years, my mother was a huge force in my life. She was for all intents and purposes, a single parent. My father had abandoned us. He was an alcoholic and a physical abuser. My mother lived through that tyranny and made her living as a domestic worker. She was uneducated but she brought high principles and decent values into our existence, and she set lofty goals for herself and for her children. We were forever inspired by her strength and by her resistance to racism and to fascism. – Harry Belafonte

In my thirties, I have felt a greater urgency to make art that highlights what it feels like to be racialized, likely due to living in a country that obscures our racism with the idea of “multiculturalism.” – Vivek Shraya

In one sense, Obama’s point couldn’t be clearer: race is a distraction from class-based inequities. And if we dismiss working-class resentment as camouflaged racism, we will continue to be distracted by the spectre of race. – Sarah Churchwell

In order for us, black and white, to disenthrall ourselves from the harshest slavemaster, racism, we must disinter our buried history…. We are all the Pilgrim, setting out on this journey. – Studs Terkel

In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently. – Harry A. Blackmun

In other words, I’m against cheating, greed, cruelty, racism, imperialism, religious fundamentalism, treason, and the seemingly limitless capacity for hypocrisy shown by Bush and his administration. – Viggo Mortensen

In our country, racism is never far below the surface. – Mazie Hirono

In our struggle against racial segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, I came to see at a very early stage that a synthesis of Gandhi’s method of nonviolence and the Christian ethic of love is the best weapon available to Negroes for this struggle for freedom and human dignity. It may well be that the Gandhian approach will bring about a solution to the race problem in America. His spirit is a continual reminder to oppressed people that it is possible to resist evil and yet not resort to violence. – Martin Luther King, Jr

in race relations, the single gesture and the single individual are more often than not doomed to failure. Only the group and the long-term, undeviating policy make much headway. … if you want to make the world a better place, the first thing you must accept is the fact that you cannot transcend your limitations as an individual. – Margaret Halsey

In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

In terms of activism, the Trump-era transformation of news into entertainment has had a deep effect on the way that collegiate politics are perceived. Campuses are a main flashpoint of the post-2016 culture wars about free speech, racism, and elite privilege. That’s undeniable. – Vanessa Grigoriadis

In terms of the contemporary food system we see a lot of racism currently. Obviously we have a large supply of food. A lot of people don’t examine why that is the case, but there are a number of nonwhite migrant workers being exploited every day. – Bryant Terry

In the beginning–and neither can this be overstated–a Negro just cannot believe that white people are treating him as they do; he does not know what he has done to merit it. And when he realizes that the treatment accorded him has nothing to do with anything he has done, that the attempt of white people to destroy him–for that is what it is–is utterly gratuitous, it is not hard for him to think of white people as devils. – James Baldwin

In the common esteem, not only are the only good aboriginals dead ones, but all aboriginals are either sacred or contemptible according to the length of time they have been dead. – Mary Hunter Austin

In the course of his long, turbulent career, W. E. B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism…scholarship, propaganda, integration, national self-determination, human rights, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity. – David Levering Lewis

In the end the recrudescence of racism on the right is conservatism’s problem to solve, and it has to be solved independently of whatever liberals and leftists happen to be saying. But the task of solving it still gets a little harder with every nonsense charge or bad-faith accusation. – Ross Douthat

In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute – a white skin. – Desmond Tutu

In the last few years, race relations in America have entered upon a period of intensified craziness wherein fear of being called a racist has so thoroughly overwhelmed fear of being a racist that we are in danger of losing sight of the distinction. – Florence King

In the past quarter century, we exposed biases against other races and called it racism, and we exposed biases against women and called it sexism. Biases against men we call humor. – Warren Farrell

In the racialized space of capitalist gentrification, police are not only arbiters of the peace, they are the muscle of retail racism: You can only be in this space if you transcend your blackness by showing us some green dollars. Even then, there is no guarantee that green will transcend your black skin. – Anthea Butler

In the real world, there’s probably nothing more horrifying than racism. Living racism is a horrifying experience. And then, having to normalize it and internalize it. – Daniel Kaluuya

In the segregated South, education was almost like armor. It was a way to put yourself in a category where even with the slings and arrows and humiliations of racism and segregation, somehow you had better control of the situation. I always said my parents understood that you might not be able to control your circumstances, but they and their parents believed that you could control your reaction to your circumstances. – Condoleezza Rice

In the South, there is more overt racism. It’s more willfully ignorant and brazen. But it’s not as if by moving I’m going to be able to escape institutionalized racism. It’s not as though my life won’t be twisted and impacted by racism anymore. It will. – Jesmyn Ward

In the story [“The Pyramid and the Ass”] there’s this war against the so-called Buddhist Terrorists. As we find out, they’re not really terrorists at all, just good folks trying to liberate people from technology and fight against an American government/corporation trying to coopt our souls. The inherent racism and Buddhist-phobia in the story plays into the present demonizing of Islam – and of our loss of knowledge about the great, spiritual history of the Sufis, for example, or the cultural heritage from the middle east. – Alexander Weinstein

In the time when my mother began standing up against prejudice and racism, the vast majority of white Americans rarely thought about civil rights. – Ezekiel Emanuel

In the Trump era, it’s way more obvious extreme racism exists. But there are still a lot of people who think, ‘We don’t have a racist bone in our bodies.’ We have to face the racism in ourselves. – Jordan Peele

In the U.S., while individual whites might be against racism, they still benefit from their group’s control. Yes, an individual person of color can sit at the tables of power, but the overwhelming majority of decision-makers will be white. Yes, white people can have problems and face barriers, but systematic racism won’t be one of them. – Robin DiAngelo

In the United States the whites speak well of the Blacks but think bad about them, whereas the Blacks talk bad and think bad about the whites. Whites fear Blacks, because they have a bad conscience, and Blacks hate whites because they need not have a bad conscience. – Friedrich Durrenmatt

In the West or anywhere else, the treatment of people in an undignified way (structural and institutionalized racism against Latinos or African American citizens) as well as a dangerous dehumanization of some people (in Palestine, Iraq, Africa or Asia) are simply unacceptable. – Tariq Ramadan

In this century of knowledge, being racist only proves how low in society you really are. – Anonymous

In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate. – Toni Morrison

In this cultural moment, many of us are feeling inadequate to solve societal problems – fascism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, the list goes on – and are unsure of how individuals can affect real change. We don’t know what effect we will have on the current political climate as we strive to effect change. All large historical decision draw from a sea of smaller decisions. One never knows what will make the difference in the long run. – Sabina Murray

In this world we live in, racism is alive and well in all venues. We immediately categorize people, and that’s just not right. – Leigh Anne Tuohy

Indians in America are yet to be considered human beings, even though the Pope issued a papal bull in 1898 that declared us to be human beings. But to show you the institutional racism, the sports teams are still using the Indians as mascots. – Russell Means

Inevitably it’s going to cause some terrible misogynist backlash, and I assume we’ll look forward to eight years of jaw-droppingly sexist statements – the way we listened to eight years of racism around the presidency. It will be an argument before it’s a conversation. But at least it’s being had.Joss Whedon

Institutionalized racism has been with us pre-Obama, and it obviously will be with us post-Obama. – Bernice King

Institutionalized racism is an imaginary enemy. – Bret Stephens

Ironically, there is a history of black/Irish communion here in the states; Irish and African American brothers and sisters have often found common cause in fighting the bigotry both communities faced earlier in the 20th century. However, white skin privilege among the Irish separated them from blacks, who had no such advantage to fall back upon. The solution is to fight bigotry and racism wherever they appear, and to root out the forces of oppression as conscientiously as possible. – Michael Eric Dyson

Ironically, white America will catapult books about race to the top of the best-seller list, even as racism remains a national open wound. Obsession ain’t solution, however, because reading even at its most intense and verisimilitudinous is vicarious, and once you close the book you’re off the hook. – Marita Golden

Is Chris Rock still gonna host the Oscars after this blatant racism?? Is everyone still gonna show up?? – Tyrese Gibson

Is it different to come out now than it was to come out thirty-five years ago? Sometimes. But if you come out now and you come from poverty and you come from racism, you come from the terror of communities that are immigrant communities or communities where you’re already a moving target because of who you are, this is not a place where it’s any easier to be LGBT even if there’s a community center in every single borough. – Amber Hollibaugh

Is it not the interest of the human race, that every one should be so taught and placed, that he would find his highest enjoyment to arise from the continued practice of doing all in his power to promote the well-being, and happiness, of every man, woman, and child, without regard to their class, sect, party, country or colour. – Robert Owen

Is Zionism racism? I would say yes. It’s a policy that to me looks like it has very many parallels with racism. The effect is the same. Whether you call it that or not is in a sense irrelevant. – Desmond Tutu

It always seemed to me that white people were judged as individuals. But if a Negro did something stupid or wrong, it was held against all of us. – Annie Elizabeth Delany

It doesn’t even feel like racism is real. It just feels like the weirdest ploy, like we’re just being had on so many levels. It’s even kind of funny when you think about it. A reason not to like someone is ‘because you’re black.’ C’mon, man. How dumb is that? – Thundercat

It frightens me to realize that, if I had died before the age of fifty, I would have died a ‘Negro’ fraction. – Gwendolyn Brooks

It is an absolute impossibility in this society to reversely sexually objectify heterosexual men, just as it is impossible for a poor person of color to be a racist. Such extreme prejudice must be accompanied by the power of society’s approval and legislation. While women and poor people of color may become intolerant, personally abusive, even hateful, they do not have enough power to be racist or sexist. – Ana Castillo

It is clear to me that the racism was on the other foot, that really, society in Europe was much more racist – vis-à-vis Arabs at least and black Africans – than American society. – Michael Scheuer

It is important to understand that the system of advantage is perpetuated when we do not acknowledge its existence. – Beverly Daniel Tatum

It is notable how little empathy is cultivated or valued in our society. I put this down to our traditional racism and obsessive sectarianism. Even so, one would think that we would be encouraged to project ourselves into the character of someone of a different race or class, if only to be able to control him. But no effort is made. – Gore Vidal

It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and Discrimination half a block from home. – Carl Thomas Rowan

It is only human supremacy, which is as unacceptable as racism and sexism, that makes us afraid of being more inclusive. – Ingrid Newkirk

It is sad to witness the persistence in our society of the racism and xenophobia that seems to be a permanent part of our political culture. It is shameful to see politicians exploiting these human weaknesses in order to gain political power. It is most depressing of all to contemplate a future in which politicians who do this will continue to have influence over people’s lives. – Allen W. Wood

It is said that the Negro is ignorant. But why is he ignorant? It comes with ill grace from a man who has put out my eyes to makea parade of my blindness,–to reproach me for my poverty when he has wronged me of my money…. If he is poor, what has become of the money he has been earning for the last two hundred and fifty years? Years ago it was said cotton fights and cotton conquers for American slavery. The Negro helped build up that great cotton power in the South, and in the North his sigh was in the whir of its machinery, and his blood and tears upon the warp and woof of its manufactures. – Frances Harper

It is utterly exhausting being Black in America – physically, mentally, and emotionally. While many minority groups and women feel similar stress, there is no respite or escape from your badge of color. – Marian Wright Edelman

It is with great satisfaction that I learned of the adoption by consensus of the Durban Declaration against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and the intolerance associated with it. – Lionel Jospin

It isn’t only Republicans, it seems, who traffic in alternative facts. Since Donald Trump’s shock election victory, leading Democrats have worked hard to convince themselves, and the rest of us, that his triumph had less to do with racism and much more to do with economic anxiety – despite almost all of the available evidence suggesting otherwise. – Mehdi Hasan

It seems like racism in the United States is overflowing. – KRS-One

It seems to be the heart of much of my work. I grew up seeing a lot of racism in the South, but I’ve seen it all over the world. Don’t care for it at all. I was poor, so I’m used to the underdog position. – Joe R. Lansdale

It seems to me that obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept strongly inculturated in the United States so as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all. Keeping most people unaware that freedom of confident action is there for just a small number of people props up those in power and serves to keep power in the hands of the same groups that have most of it already. – Peggy McIntosh

It was definitely during the Obama administration that talking about racism, or calling it out, suddenly seemed taboo. It seemed like talking about race was somehow summoning the evil of racism. – Jordan Peele

It was just a wonderful experience, one for the memory book for sure. The sad thing about it was that the picture came under this absurd cloud of controversy. Here was a movie based on the central theme that racism is something that is taught, and it’s illustrated by this story of a dog and the efforts of humans to re-train it after it had been trained to go after black people. And it created this ridiculous controversy and wound up being the last Hollywood movie that Sam [Fuller] made. – Curtis Hanson

It was obvious that bigotry was never a one-way operation, that hatred bred hatred. – Isaac Asimov

It wasn’t the intention to do something important, or to even relate about social issues. The ground is so fertile in the justice world, dealing with the death penalty and the Innocence Project, for characters that have a moral ambiguity, which we were both attracted to. It’s the idea that everybody has their reasons. Whatever their actions are, whether you agree with them or not, you can understand why they’re feeling that way, in terms of racism or even the death penalty. – Richard LaGravenese

It would be a great mistake to look upon racism as an irrational doctrine: racism is not a doctrine of irrationalism, it is the very surging up of irrationalism as an elemental force, getting rid of all doctrine, truth and rational structure. – Jacques Maritain

It’s a cause for great concern because a lot of people have said and done repulsive things in terms of racism and misogyny and marginalizing people – it’s really come to fruition, something I’ve spent the last 21 years of my life trying to expose and educate people on. This really is kind of a dream scenario for white nationalists at the moment. – Christian Picciolini

It’s a life issue more than anything when you’re dealing with racism anywhere… It’s a life issue – bigger than sports, bigger than football. – Bob Stoops

It’s a totally different spiel when I talk at Morehouse. But when I’m talking at MIT? At the University of Cincinnati? I’m telling white people, in order to stop systemic racism, you must first befriend, become a colleague of, get to know intimately, put yourself culturally in the framework of someone who doesn’t look like you.Killer Mike

It’s almost like a renaissance of racism we have. – Donna Brazile

It’s becoming much more common to see yoga studios offer classes aimed exclusively at people of color who are searching for ways to cope with racism and fears around police brutality. – Jenna Wortham

It’s bizarre: I’ve tried to understand why people are into Trump. I really don’t think I can. I don’t think it’s as simple as just racism. I do think there’s a fear that white people have, even if they don’t have a vicious desire to do harm to black people, they fear losing their top spot. – Mary Gaitskill

It’s hard to say when or if we will actually arrive at that place called ‘post-racial’, or, better yet, post-racism. – Tim Wise

It’s important to acknowledge the danger when we provide an academic venue for racism. It’s interesting to hear people push the, quote, ‘free speech’ narrative in this way. They deny the speech of the people who disagree. – DeRay Mckesson

It’s just a fact that if you’re a young African-American man and you do the same thing as a young white man, you are more likely to be arrested, charged, convicted, and incarcerated. So we’ve got to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system. – Hillary Clinton

It’s much easier to talk about racism when you’re able to use mutants as a metaphor. People would much rather talk about Charles Xavier and Magneto than they would about Martin Luther King or Malcolm X. – Cheo Hodari Coker

It’s not a matter of whether the reviews of your books are good or bad, it’s about being taken seriously, both as a woman writer and as a writer of color. Also, it worries me when people point to a couple of women writers or writers of color who get some attention – and I am sometimes pulled into that category – to prove that others are getting a fair shot. It’s like those people who keep saying that racism no longer exists in this country because Barack Obama was a President of the United States. – Edwidge Danticat

It’s not racism per se but the tyranny of normalcy – no: the tyranny of attractive normalcy. Which leads to loveable white models who are supposed to be playing ordinary, adorably flawed professionals just like you and me with their brilliant minority friends (with vastly less camera time) who are surgeons. But it’s not just ethnicity. That narrow vision also extends to, say, things like women leads. Women leads have to be good-hearted and nice, with a Slutty Best Friend. The main character can’t be slutty. Because that’s not attractively normal etc. – Sandra Tsing Loh

It’s so hard for me to even acknowledge America without talking about race. If you look at our society, if you look at the prisons, if you look at the poverty and which side of the line the majority of people are, we have to acknowledge how we divide ourselves up, that there’s racism alive in this country. And it’s not in the law. It’s in our minds. And that’s what we have to actively battle. – Dave Matthews

It’s the last best trick of a losing Democrat, is to accuse the Republicans of racism. – Erick Erickson

It’s the people who don’t recognize the racism within themselves that can be the most damaging because they don’t see it. – Sterling K. Brown

It’s time we become comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations about race…Instead of being color blind, we need to be color brave. – Mellody Hobson

It’s very seldom that we see the good of the South. There is a perception that Southerners are racists and everyone else in the nation is ‘enlightened.’ There is racism everywhere, and there is good everywhere. – Octavia Spencer

I’ve always been raised to love everyone, to accept everyone for their differences, and to just be open. But at a young, a very young age, I realized what racism was all about. – Nia Long

I’ve always said that the greatest racism in Hollywood has to do with what color ink you produce: Black or red. – Suzanne de Passe

I’ve certainly experienced racism, but it has not made a great impact on me. I have always thought, as I got older and older, I was more in charge of who I was. What someone thought about me or said about me made less of an impression on me at very vulnerable times. – Robert Guillaume

I’ve experienced racism and homophobia my whole life, so I’ve trained myself to just deal with it calmly, to not cause a scene, and to find a way to calm the situation down. – Tan France

I’ve experienced racism and run-ins with the law, and it’s a real thing, and it happens where I grew up. It’s something that not a lot of people want to talk about. I feel like I have a duty, and I wouldn’t be honest or true to myself if I didn’t speak about it. – Little Simz

I’ve gotten in trouble with every race you can imagine. They say, ‘I can’t believe you talked about this – you’re racist.’ And I say, ‘How can I be racist? Isn’t racism exclusionary? If all of you are offended, that means I’m including every race in my jokes.’ – Carlos Mencia

I’ve grown up feeling very American but being constantly bothered by people – there’s internalized racism and feeling weird about being second-generation. – Kelela

I’ve grown up with racism my entire life. I’ve been bullied, sent to the hospital, beat up, I’ve been called a Chink and a Gook. Every single racial slur an Asian person can be called, I’ve been called it. – Arden Cho

I’ve had many incidents in my life of racism. I’ve been thrown on the ground. I’ve been frisked. I’ve been arrested so many times I couldn’t tell you. I have no need to talk about it. – Forest Whitaker

I’ve heard things said on football pitches that players clearly don’t mean, whether it’s racism or just an abusive comment in the heat of the moment. – Gary Lineker

I’ve said many times – I told William Buckley, I said, “You warped my mind and I never recovered from it.” That was a principled, lawful understanding of the role of government, the Constitution. It was not based on racism, on demagoguery, but on strong principles that – which, consistent with the American heritage and our strength for the future. – Jeff Sessions

I’ve seen people glaze over when they’re confronted with racism, and there’s nothing more, you know, damning and demeaning to having any kind of ideology than people just walking the walk and saying what they’re supposed to say and nodding, and nobody feels anything. – Kara Walker

I’ve seen racism in my audiences. For example, I’ve seen people laugh at every other group, but then clam up when it comes to their community. You can’t laugh at everyone else and then not laugh at yourself. You shouldn’t be at my show if you can’t laugh at yourself. – Russell Peters

Jeremy Clarkson is rather charming, but I can’t stomach his public persona. I don’t like his casual racism and casual misogyny. – Jo Brand

Jeremy Corbyn had shown a catastrophic failure of leadership and must step down to make way for someone with the backbone to confront racism and anti-Semitism. – Ruth Smeeth

Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. In all of his teachings about multiple things – he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies. – Jimmy Carter

Jim Crow laws stripped blacks of basic rights. Despite landmark civil rights laws, many public schools were still segregated, blacks still faced barriers to voting, and violence by white racists continued. Such open racism is mostly gone in America, but covert racism is alive and well. – Bob Beckel

Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Hunger is a weapon of mass destruction. Poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction. Poor education is a weapon of mass destruction. Discrimination is a weapon of mass destruction. Let us abolish such weapons of mass destruction here at home. – Dennis Kucinich

Jonestown was supposed to be a great socialist experiment, a place where all the evil “isms” would be eradicated: racism, sexism, elitism. This appealed to blacks and white progressives alike. Fed up with racist “AmeriKKKa,” they were going to start their own society, on their own terms. – Julia Scheeres

Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist. That this simple truth is glossed over in criticisms of his work is due to the fact that white racism against Africa is such a normal way of thinking that its manifestations go completely unremarked. – Chinua Achebe

Judgments prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances. – Dr. Wanye W. Dyer

Just as we reject racism, sexism, ageism, and heterosexism, we reject speciesism. The species of a sentient being is no more reason to deny the protection of this basic right than race, sex, age, or sexual orientation is a reason to deny membership in the human moral community to other humans. – Gary L. Francione

Just having people saying no to racism on a commercial changes nothing. – Kevin-Prince Boateng

Justification by faith is the key to eliminating racism. – Shai Linne

Kids know nothing about racism. They’re taught that by adults. – Ruby Bridges

Lampooning racism by reproducing brazenly racist imagery is a pretty dubious satirical tactic. – Mehdi Hasan

Latinos come from different countries, and they tend to segregate with only their country instead of embracing all the other countries, because in reality, all the Latinos are going through the same experiences of discrimination and racism. – Andrea Navedo

Laws on hate speech and hate crimes do important work in a world that has been rooted in racism and bigotry since the inception of this country, which was not founded on ideals of justice.DeRay Mckesson

Lee Zeldin

Leftist, anti-fascist activists known as Antifa, whose stated goals are to stamp out racism, white supremacy and authoritarianism, sometimes do use violence. – Elizabeth Flock

Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to the ideals of humanism which the Nobel Peace Prize encapsulates. Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war. – Nelson Mandela

Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists. And the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House  has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin. And that’s despicable. – Colin Powell

Let me just say that to imagine racism does not exist is imagination. And to imagine that it does not create its own set of problems is true imagination. So let’s not imagine that racism is gone, extinguished, because it’s not. We are seeing this in the top levels of the political arena, and we are seeing it very, very plainly. – Phylicia Rashad

Let me offer you, metaphorically, two magic wands that have sweeping powers to change society. With one wand you could wipe out all racism and discrimination from the hearts and minds of white America. The other wand you could wave across the ghettoes and barrios of America and infuse the inhabitants with Japanese or Jewish values, respect for learning, and ambition. … I suggest that the best wand for society and for those who live in the ghettoes and barrios would be the second wand. – Richard Lamm

Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. – Martin Luther King

Let us forget such words, and all they mean, as Hatred, Bitterness and Rancor, Greed, Intolerance, Bigotry. Let us renew our faith and pledge to Man, his right to be Himself, and free. – Edna St. Vincent Millay

Let’s be very honest about what this is about. It’s not about bashing Democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. – Janeane Garofalo

Let’s practice motivation and love, not discrimination and hate. – Zendaya

Let’s face it: there’s still a certain amount of racism in human beings, so that shows up in Hollywood. – James Gunn

Liberal Christianity, of course, has enemies, but they are everyone’s enemies – sexism, racism, homophobia. But liberal versions of Christianity, which can be both theologically and politically conservative, assume that what it means to be Christian qua Christian is to have no enemies peculiar to being Christian. – Stanley Hauerwas

Liberals instinctively cling to racism or bigotry or hate or narrow-mindedness whenever they can. – Mike Gallagher

Liberals see racism where it doesn’t exist, fabricate it when they can’t find it and ignore it within their own ranks. – Michelle Malkin

Libertarians are incapable of being a racist, because racism is a collectivist idea. – Ron Paul

Like Hipster Racism, Hipster Sexism is a distancing gesture, a belief that, simply by applying quotations, uncool, questionable, and even offensive material about women can be alchemically transformed. – Alissa Quart

Like my father, I believe that nonviolence is the antidote to what he called ‘the triple evils of racism, poverty and militarism.’ These three evils were consuming our hopes for community in 1964, and, fifty years later, we remain divided because of their festering effects. – Bernice King

Living under the perpetual and pervasive threat of racism seems, for black men and black women, to quite literally reduce lifespans. – Clint Smith

Look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. – Nelson Mandela

Lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection. – Martin Luther King

Madeleine L’Engle’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ has been targeted by censors for promoting New Ageism, and Mark Twain’s ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ for promoting racism. Gee, where does that leave the kids? – Judy Blume

Mainstream Canadians, what some might call the dominant culture, like to think this racism doesn’t happen. It’s important to remind people that it does and that we have work to do to end it. – Don Iveson

Mainstream dictionary definitions reduce racism to racial prejudice and the personal actions that result. But this definition does little to explain how racial hierarchies are consistently reproduced. – Robin DiAngelo

Making space to deal with the psychological toll of racism is absolutely necessary. – Jenna Wortham

Malcolm Fraser, in the marrow of his bones, despised racism. He despised people who discriminated against other people because they were different and in particular because of the colour of their skin, and I don’t think there has been a time in Australian politics where there has been more attention to the importance of that value. – George Brandis

Malcolm X finally became the person he was meant and raised to be. He fought against the forces of racism to return to that. Malcolm wanted to inspire other people to find their own strength. – Kekla Magoon 

Mandy Sutter’s ‘Bush Meat’ triumphs in its lean prose and true dialogue, in its disarming humour, in its evocation of a family divided by sexism and racism in 1960s Nigeria. – Rory MacLean

Many European countries are fascinated with minorities from the United States. They still see this country as a world power and they covet that power…I was approached by a professor once at the Sorbonne in Paris and asked about racism in this country, and when I reflected on racism on the streets of Paris – you know, I’d be considered an Arab there -well, she didn’t want to address that…It just goes to show it was easier for Europeans to study racism in the United States than it is from within the belly of the beast. – Ana Castillo

Many of them who belong to these countries that were former colonial powers have racist attitudes, but their racist attitude is never displayed to the degree that the America’s attitude of racism is displayed. Never. – Malcolm X

Many of us actively working to interrupt racism continually hear complaints about the ‘gotcha’ culture of white anti-racism. There is a stereotype that we are looking for every incident we can find so we can spring out, point our fingers, and shout, ‘You’re a racist!’ – Robin DiAngelo

Many of us believed that Black Lives Matter would move this country to not only reckon with white racism but to usher in new laws and practices that would curb vigilantism and law enforcement violence. But, instead, white nationalism was nurtured and began to take root among the American people. – Patrisse Cullors

Many think, because your skins are tinged with a sable hue, that you are an inferior race of beings; but God does not consider you as such. … he hath made all men free and equal. Then why should one worm say to another, ‘Keep you down there, while I sit up yonder; for I am better than thou? – Maria W. Stewart

Many voted in 2008 with the desire to see racism and racists humiliated by having a qualified black man elected president. – Douglas Wilder

Many white people experience themselves as powerless, even in the face of privilege. But the fact is that we all have a sphere of influence, some domain in which we exercise some level of power and control. The task for each of us, White and of color, is to identify what our own sphere of influence is (however large or small) and to consider how it might be used to interrupt the cycle of racism. – Beverly Daniel Tatum

Martin Luther King wanted to be morally consistent and speak out against various things that were wrong, not just racism. – Cornel West

Martin Luther King was talking about racism, war and poverty. I think we have made progress enormous progress in racism and war, but we have made little or no progress in poverty. And it’s because the economy has gotten more and more complex as we have globalized. – Andrew Young

Mass incarceration is a policy that’s kind of built up over the last four decades and it’s destroyed families and communities, and something we need to change. And it’s fallen disproportionally on black and brown communities, especially black communities, and it’s kind of a manifestation of structural racism. – John Legend

Maybe Pope Francis will say something on his visit to the US, maybe he’ll rebuke Donald Trump and anti-immigrant racism and demagoguery beautifully, in a way that illuminates hearts and makes people begin to turn away. That would be miracle enough for me. – Francisco Goldman

Maybe that’s one of the virtues of the 2016 election that we’re going through is all of this racism and xenophobia and sexism and whatever else you want to say is being exposed, maybe that’s a blessing. I’m trying to look at the positive side of what’s been happening in our country, which is frightening. – Annette Bening

Media are focused on comments Michael Jordan made about race which appear in my book. He made those comments years ago, talking of his youth. – Roland Lazenby

Michael Derrick Hudson is not the first person to slip into the identity of a person of color to give himself some perceived advantage. He can slip back into his life and not walk around in this world as a person of color who endures racism. – Jenny Zhang

Millions of people of color still experience racism daily. – William J. Clinton

Misogyny – and racism – are ‘hidden in plain sight,’ and the burden of eliminating them should fall on the institutions, not the victims. – Nell Scovell

Money is the root of all evil. Yeah, money is the root. It’s not racism and “this-ism” and “that-ism”; it’s our thirst and hunger for money. And that’s where all the bodies are buried. – Ice Cube

More people are aware of the consequences of hatred. People are aware. Therefore more people are engaged in fighting … racism and so forth. – Elie Wiesel

More than 2 million people found themselves behind bars at the turn of the twenty-first century, and millions more were relegated to the margins of mainstream society, banished to a political and social space not unlike Jim Crow, where discrimination in employment, housing, and access to education was perfectly legal, and where they could be denied the right to vote. The system functioned relatively automatically, and the prevailing system of racial meanings, identities, and ideologies already seemed natural. Ninety percent of those admitted to prison for drug offenses in many states were black or Latino, yet the mass incarceration of communities of color was explained in race-neutral terms, an adaptation to the needs and demands of the current political climate. – Michelle Alexander

More whites believe in ghosts than believe in racism. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Most Christian ‘believers’ tend to echo the cultural prejudices and worldviews of the dominant group in their country, with only a minority revealing any real transformation of attitudes or consciousness. It has been true of slavery and racism, classism and consumerism and issues of immigration and health care for the poor. – Richard Rohr

Most liberal-minded folk would like to think that since they are not hostile to people of a different race, racism is a disease of the uneducated, unenlightened and socially backward – football hooligans, British National Party supporters, policemen. You could call this the Bad Guy Theory. But the Bad Guy Theory does not explain why Indian-heritage children do nearly twice as well as Pakistani-heritage children at GCSE. – Trevor Phillips

Most middle-class whites have no idea what it feels like to be subjected to police who are routinely suspicious, rude, belligerent, and brutal. – Benjamin Spock

Most people are not naturally reflective any more than they are naturally malicious, and the white man prefers to keep the black man at a certain human remove because it is easier for him thus to preserve his simplicity and avoid being called to account for crimes committed by his forefathers, or his neighbors. – James Baldwin

Most people divorce because one in the couple falls in love with someone else: it’s a common cause of divorce. I still think that it’s tinted – this is my opinion – with a veil of racism and American puritanism. – Isabella Rossellini

Most people will agree that they would like if they were treated by other people based on what they have concretely done in their life, not what other people have done, with their lives. Focusing on being a person instead of an Asian or an anything seems to promote a worldview that encourages people to treat others based on what each person has specifically done in their life, which seems like it would reduce such things as war, racism, unfairness, “hate crimes”. – Tao Lin

Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist. – Peggy McIntosh

Motherfuckers will read a book that’s one third Elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they [white people] think we’re taking over. – Junot Díaz

Mr. Douglass talks about the wrongs of the negro; but with all the outrages that he to-day suffers, he would not exchange his sex and take the place of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. – Susan B. Anthony

Music documentaries are hard to tell, but I think they’re an amazing vehicle to look at racism, our attitude to sex, the way we judge drugs. There’s the ability to get a big audience because of these incredible, iconic, charismatic people. You can look at a number of issues – the challenge is to make sure you choose something that has all those issues. Popular music is like a mirror of culture, of who we are. – Nick Broomfield

My belief system is that you laugh at racism, and that’s how it goes away. – Sung Kang

My brother and sister had a much worse childhood, I think, because they were older, and they had to deal with a lot more racism because they grew up in the ’70s and I grew up more in the ’80s. So they had to deal with crosses being burned on their lawn and their dogs being poisoned. – Mariah Carey

My dad prepared me for the worst of times while also enabling me to succeed in the best. He taught me to confront the insidiousness of racism head on, no matter what the ramification, so it will not fester. Defeat it and get past it. That was The Talk. Nothing scared me after that. – Wendell Pierce

My dad worked two jobs and moved us to the suburbs, and just being a black person, I went through a lot of racism and being called names and being bullied every single day. And it was hard. I didn’t have any friends. – Sherri Shepherd

My definition of good is that you understand that this is a question of power. That you be willing to give up some power. That you be willing to give up some resources. That you be willing to pay Black people reparations for our years and years of service in this country. That you be willing to go home and tell your white mother and father about white racism and how it affects and kills Black people in our communities. That’s my definition of good white people, and I haven’t met any like that. – Sister Souljah

My dream was I was going to be an actor. Racism occurred to me. It dawned on me that I would not be an actor. It occurred to me that I was not white. It occurred to me that being what they call colored, being a Negro, was some kind of a disadvantage.Ruby Dee

My encounters with racism are sort of second-hand situations where I might be standing around with a group of white friends and someone makes a comment that they wouldn’t make at my family reunion. – Wentworth Miller

My generation of Americans was the first to really care about racism and sexism, not to mention the I Ching, plus, of course, the Earth.J. – O’Rourke

My generation’s apathy. I’m disgusted with it. I’m disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whining about for years. – Kurt Cobain

My grandmother though, began to prepare in her own neurotic – and I think psychotic – way to face racism. So she taught us to be racist, which is something I had to undo later when I got to Michigan, you know. – James Earl Jones

My kids speak of both subtle slights and blatant racism. It’s a narrative I never imagined for them. – Jacqueline Woodson

My message is really that racism has no place in the hearts and minds of our children. – Ruby Bridges

My mom experienced racism. She was harassed by the KKK several times. And I experienced racism myself, growing up. In New Jersey, we had trash thrown on our lawn every day. And we had the lines to our Christmas lights cut three years in a row. We just stopped putting up Christmas lights after that. That’s probably why I still don’t put up any lights during the holidays. – Aldis Hodge

My mother and father taught me about black excellence and dynasty. They experienced racism personally, and when something like that happens to you and not around you, you develop a different perception than someone who has never experienced racism a day in their lives. – Lizzo

My mother is an African-American from the South Side of Chicago who married a white guy in 1978. She was hyper aware of racism and made me aware of that. – Hannah Bronfman

My point is you can fight racism and sexism and homophobia more effectively if you’re doing it from the position that you’re standing for the dignity of all people, and that you’re actually standing for the underdog in the red states and the blue states. I think it’s more effective when you’re anti-racism and anti-sexism and anti-homophobia and that is the centerpiece for a project to uplift all humanity, and frankly to defend and uplift the children of all species. – Van Jones

My values – going back to my childhood – were always based on respect for all people and rejection of bigotry and racism. – Keith Ellison

My whiteness, economic privilege, able-bodied privilege, family support, and so many other factors shield me from some of the worst possible consequences – often fatal ones – that result from the toxic combination of misogyny, racism, and anti-trans sentiment. – Sarah McBride

Negro servants have been smuggling odds and ends out of white homes for generations, and white people have been delighted to have them do it, because it has assuaged a dim guilt and testified to the intrinsic superiority of white people. – James A. Baldwin

Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free. Never forget that for 250 years black people were born into chains — whole generations followed by more generations who knew nothing but chains. . . . The enslaved were not bricks in your road, and their lives were not chapters in your redemptive history. They were people turned to fuel for the American machine. – Ta-Nehisi Coates in Between the World and Me

never
trust anyone
who says
they do not see color.
this means
to them,
you are invisible. – Nayyirah Waheed

News footage came on the TV during dinner of bloody bodies coming back from battle in Vietnam, or the race riots in the South, people getting hosed in Selma, Alabama, or the Biafra war, where I got my name. In my household, it was explained and discussed with the children, as a way of educating us from when we first started grade school why racism and war were wrong, what this all really means. – Jello Biafra

No amount of outer technology, no amount of computers and biotechnology and nanotechnology is going to stop the continuation of warfare and racism and environmental destruction. What’s called for on the Earth at this time is really a change of heart … the question is really not the future of humanity, but the presence of eternity. – Jack Kornfield

No case of libel by a negro against a white would even reach a southern court. – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

No matter what vision one has of South Africa, the first thing that must be done is to destroy racism. – Joe Slovo

No one needs to be reminded of racism in soccer: the xenophobia, the nativism and, yes, nationalism. – Rabih Alameddine

No other creative field is as closed to those who are not white and male as is the visual arts. After I decided to be an artist, the first thing that I had to believe was that I, a black woman, could penetrate the art scene, and that, further, I could do so without sacrificing one iota of my blackness or my femaleness or my humanity. – Faith Ringgold

No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion. – Booker T. Washington

Not all police are bad. Not all black people are criminals, not all white people are racist. – Anonymous

Not every alt-right thinker or activist is a white nationalist, by far, but there’s a sense that political correctness is a bigger problem than racism, and that racism is used as a cudgel for silencing. – David Weigel

Not only did we survive AIDS, Reaganomics, poverty, racism, gang violence, police brutality, substance abuse – not only did we survive that, we created something endured. And whatever you might think of commercial hip hop now, there’s a lot there to like and there’s a lot there to critique and there’s a lot of things you could say both about. But we created something that endured when we ourselves were not supposed to endure. When we ourselves were not supposed to survive and thrive. So I think that is worthy of respect and preservation and it’s US history. – Sofia Quintero

Not only do we suffer from racism and sexism, but we also suffer from ageism. And that is that once you reach a certain age, you’re not allowed to be adventurous, you’re not allowed to be sexual and I think that’s rather hideous. […] I mean, is there a rule? Are you just supposed to die when you’re 40? – Madonna Ciccone

Nothing better protects a human being against the stupidity of prejudice, racism, religious or political sectarianism, and exclusivist nationalism than this truth that invariably appears in great literature: that men and women of all nations and places are essentially equal, and only injustice sows among them discrimination, fear, and exploitation. – Mario Vargas Llosa

Obama a ‘light-skinned’ African-American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one. – Harry Reid

Obama’s a nice person, he’s very articulate this is what’s been used against him, but he couldn’t sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic. – Dan Rather

Of all the injuries inflicted by racism on people of colour, the most corrosive is the wound within, the internalized racism that leads some victims, at unspeakable cost to their own sense of self, to embrace the values of their oppressors. – H. Jack Geiger

Of course I’ve felt racism. – John David Washington

Of course there’s racism in this country, and we have a terrible history of that in this nation. – Kellyanne Conway

Of course there’s systemic misogyny in certain parts of our culture and systemic racism and a wider range of insults women have to face. – Jon Ronson

Of course, hate speech and racism have no place on Facebook. – Mark Zuckerberg

Often in red states you find racism, and where you find racism, you also find sexism. – Lynda Carter

Often their rage erupts because they believe that all ways of looking that highlight difference subvert the liberal belief in a universal subjectivity (we are all just people) that they think will make racism disappear. They have a deep emotional investment in the myth of sameness even as their actions reflect the primacy of whiteness as a sign informing who they are and how they think. – Bell Hooks

Often white people hear blame whenever the issue of racism is brought up, whether or not blame has been placed on whites. As beneficiaries of racism and white privilege, you sometimes take a defensive posture even when you are not being individually blamed. You may personalize the remarks, not directed personally at you. It is the arrogance of your privilege that drags the focus back to whites. When whites are being blamed or personally accused of racist behavior, this defensiveness and denial further alienate you and may preclude you from examining your possible racist behavior. – Debra Leigh

On the field, blacks have been able to be super giants. But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again. – Hank Aaron

One cannot understand how racism functions in the U.S. today if one ignores group power relations. – Robin DiAngelo

One consequence of racism and segregation is that many American whites know little or nothing about the daily lives of African Americans. Black America’s least-understood communities are those poor, hyper-segregated places we once called ghettos. These neighborhoods are not far away, but they might as well be on the moon. – James Forman, Jr.

One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings. – Franklin Thomas

One of the big mistakes they made in Europe is that the circumstances in which you most frequently read or hear the word “race” or “racism” in Europe applies to Muslims. Which is not a race. It is a religion. You can convert to this. You cannot convert your race. I could become a Muslim. I could not become a Chinese person or a black person. So they constantly use that in Europe. – Fran Lebowitz

One of the founding tenets of racism: a society that will never allow white people to think that because they are white, they won’t succeed. – Jenny Zhang

One of the funny things about the racism of the system, when I started 30 years ago, I’m in an area called Koreatown and most of the kids were Asian. And when the kids did well, people said, “Well, of course, they did well. They’re Asians.” But when we had this huge influx of Latino children from Central America, they said, “Oh, you’re gonna have problems now.” – Rafe Esquith

One of the less dismaying aspects of race relations in the United States is that their improvement is not a matter of a few people having a great deal of courage. It is a matter of a great many people having just a little courage.Margaret Halsey

One of the most important misunderstandings for white people to get over to move forward is this idea that racism is a good-bad proposition – that if we’re good we can’t be part of it, that being uncomfortable means you’re a terrible person. We have to let go of that and understand it as a system we all live in. – Robin DiAngelo

One of the most subtle but aggressive ways racism exists is through our education system. – Jaylen Brown

One of the ongoing crises in America is institutional racism. We have a very broken criminal justice system. We live in a country where there are more people in jail than any other country on Earth. There are some 2.2 million people currently incarcerated and they are disproportionally African American and Hispanic. Unarmed African Americans have been abused and sometimes killed while in police custody. Clearly these are issues that must be dealt with and changed. – Bernie Sanders

One of the popular views in the liberal circles of the West is that we are actually ‘all victims of capitalism’. I disagree. This savage global capitalism is only one of the most terrible bi-products of the dominant Western culture of racism, greed, brutality and unbridled desire to control the world. – Andre Vltchek

One of the tragedies of the struggle against racism is that up to now there has been no national organization which could speak to the growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghetto. – Stokely Carmichael

One of the ways [racism] pops up is when they turn a comic into a live-action movie and there’s this temptation to make Asian characters white. – Gene Luen Yang

One of the worst things about racism is what it does to young people. – Alvin Ailey

One ought to be against racism and sexism because they are wrong, not because one is black or one is female. – Eleanor Holmes Norton

One question for me and others like me is whether … we will get truly distressed, even outraged, about unearned race advantage and conferred dominance and, if so, what we will do to lessen them. – Peggy McIntosh

Our babies know nothing about hate or racism. But soon they begin to learn – and only from us. – Ruby Bridges

Our Christian faith stands fundamentally opposed to racism in all its forms, which contradict the good news of the gospel. The ultimate answer to the question of race is our identity as children of God, which we so easily forget applies to us all. . . . It’s time for white Christians to be more Christian than white — which is necessary to make racial reconciliation and healing possible. – Jim Wallis in America’s Original Sin

Our country must abandon all the habits of racism because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time. – George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 2005

Our global community has come a long way in helping to eliminate discrimination, but we still have far to go. – Robert Alan Silverstein

Our goal is to have a country that’s not divided by race. And my impression, as I travel around the country, is that that’s the kind of country that most people want, as well, and that we all have prejudice, we all have certain suspicions or stereotypes about people who are different from us, whether it’s religious or racial or ethnic, but what I think I found in the American people, I think there’s a core decency there, where if they take the time, if they get the time to know individuals, then they want to judge those individuals by their character. – Barack Obama

Our theme for this year’s festivities, Dreams and Challenges of Asian Pacific Americans, speaks to the many generations of Asian Pacific Americans who worked hard to overcome economic hardship, racism and other barriers in their pursuit of the American dream. – Lucille Roybal-Allard

Our thoughts are unseen hands shaping the people we meet. Whatever we truly think them to be, that’s what they’ll become for us. – Richard Cowper

Part of our identity is the idea that racism is still there and that we are vulnerable to it. So, the question is, ‘How vulnerable?’ In other words, is it really a problem for us, or is it just a small thing. How do you evaluate racism in America on a scale of 1 to 10? My suspicion is that most blacks overrate it a bit. Not to say it’s not there, but we overrate it because this masking is part of our relationship to the larger society. This is a way we keep whites on the hook. We keep them obligated, and we keep ourselves entitled. There’s an incentive, you see, to inflate it a little bit. – Shelby Steele

Part of the desire to live in a post-racial world includes the desire not to have to talk about racism, which includes a false perception that if you are talking about race, then you’re perpetuating the notion of race. I reject that. – Jordan Peele

Part of the reason might be that I was born in 1954 and I look upon my youth with great fondness, like many old men. And, though my work doesn’t focus much on good things, I see that period as America’s heyday. True, we had many problems, like racism and Vietnam, but we still weren’t quite as nuts as we seem to be now. – Donald Ray Pollock

Part of the sin of Pride is a subtle but deep racism. – K.P. Yohannan

Patriarchy creates mega patterns that affect us all–even as we forge different individual choices within them–just as do the mega patterns of nationalism or racism. – Gloria Steinem

Patriarchy, like any system of domination (for example, racism), relies on socializing everyone to believe that in all human relations there is an inferior and a superior party, one person is strong, the other weak, and that it is therefore natural for the powerful to rule over the powerless. To those who support patriarchal thinking, maintaining power and control is acceptable by whatever means. – Bell Hooks

Patriotism at the expense of another nation is as wicked as racism at the expense of another race. . . Let us resolve to be patriots always, nationalists never. Let us love our country, but pledge allegiance to the earth and to the flora and fauna and human life that it supports – one planet indivisible, with clean air,… soil and water; with liberty, justice and peace for all. – William Sloane Coffin

Patriotism can flourish only where racism and nationalism are given no quarter. We should never mistake patriotism for nationalism. A patriot is one who loves his homeland. A nationalist is one who scorns the homelands of others. – Johannes Rau

Peace does not fare well where poverty and deprivation reign. It does not flourish where there is ignorance and a lack of education and information. – Frederik Willem de Klerk

Peddling to racism is just as bad as being a racist. – Ana Navarro

People don’t talk about small-town racism in Illinois or upstate New York. They’re like, ‘It’s the South.’ And it is. It’s there. But it’s everywhere. But everywhere, there are also amazing people. – Tig Notaro

People have accused me of many things: racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, intolerance, anti-Darwinism and anti-homosexualism [sic]. Well, I tell those people that there was someone else who was accused of things…our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I rest my case. – Jerry Falwell

People have been killing because of racial differences since the time of Adam and Eve, but in this country racism has been primarily aimed at African Americans. – Bob Cousy

People huddle together in doctrinaire herds, and the same jackasses who, without the slightest risk, now scream against racism are the same conformist personality types who would have carried torches in lynch mobs a century ago. – Jim Goad

People know about the Klan and the overt racism, but the killing of one’s soul little by little, day after day, is a lot worse than someone coming in your house and lynching you. – Samuel L. Jackson

People like to act like we don’t have a legacy of racism here. I think people get really uncomfortable with it. We know that we can’t change it unless we address that. – DeRay Mckesson

People of color have to do this work as a mater of everyday survival. And so long as they have to, who am I to act as if I have a choice in the matter? Especially when my future and that of my children in large part depends on the eradication of racism? There is no choice. – Tim Wise

People of color, women, and gays — who now have greater access to the centers of influence that ever before — are under pressure to be well-behaved when talking about their struggles. There is an expectation that we can talk about sins but no one must be identified as a sinner: newspapers love to describe words or deeds as “racially charged” even in those cases when it would be more honest to say “racist”; we agree that there is rampant misogyny, but misogynists are nowhere to be found; homophobia is a problem but no one is homophobic. One cumulative effect of this policed language is that when someone dares to point out something as obvious as white privilege, it is seen as unduly provocative. Marginalized voices in America have fewer and fewer avenues to speak plainly about what they suffer; the effect of this enforced civility is that those voices are falsified or blocked entirely from the discourse. – Teju Cole

People of conscience are compelled to oppose racism, sexism, and intolerance of people with different sexual identities and orientation wherever and whenever they see it. – Stan Van Gundy

People often get racism mixed up with bigotry or prejudice. We need to get our terminology straightened out. We obviously have racial problems that need solving. The first step in solving a problem is to identify it. If we keep mis-identifying bigotry and prejudice as racism we’ll never make any headway. – Neal Boortz

People sometimes hold themselves back because they want to use racism as an excuse for them not being able to achieve what they want to achieve. – Herman Cain

People thought once Obama got into office that racism was over with. But, what we ended up learning was that it just came more into the light. – Lil Rel Howery

People were nicer to me when I was in the arts. I experienced extreme racism in small-town New Zealand. Racism which really went away when I got into the arts. – Cliff Curtis

People would write me hate letters. How dare I try to represent Hispanics when I was so white? I tried to make them see it was racism. – Cristina Saralegui

Perhaps for the purposes of war racial differences had been buried, but certainly in no deep grave.Josephine Lawrence

Political division, based on color, is entirely artificial; and when it disappears, so will the domination of one color group by another. – Nelson Mandela

Political hypocrisy and racism make me hot under the collar. – Walt Handelsman

Poor minorities live in a new age of Jim Crow, one in which the ravages of segregation, racism, poverty and dashed hopes are amplified by the forces of privatization, financialization, militarization and criminalization, fashioning a new architecture of punishment, massive human suffering and authoritarianism. – Henry Giroux

Poverty. Racism. Isn’t it strange, only the homeless are begging for change? – Bo Burnham

Precisely because white denial has long trumped claims of racism, people of color tend to underreport their experiences with racial bias rather than exaggerate them. – Tim Wise

Prejudice is the child of ignorance. – William Hazlitt

Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart. – Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington

Preparing oneself for the possibility of confronting racism triggers something that slowly chips away at physical and emotional well-being. – Clint Smith

Psychotherapy makes every problem a subjective, inner problem. And that’s not where the problems come from. They come from the environment, the cities, the economy, the racism. They come from architecture, school systems, capitalism, exploitation. They come from many places that psychotherapy does not address. Psychotherapy theory turns it all on you: you are the one who is wrong. – James Hillman

Race in itself means nothing–the markers of race, skin color, hair texture, the things that we identify as the racial markers, mean nothing unless they are given social meaning and unless there’s public policy and private actions that act upon those kinds of characteristics. That creates race. – Melvin L. Oliver

Race is about the American story, and about each of our own stories. Overcoming racism is more than an issue or a cause — it is also a story, which can be part of each of our stories, too. The story about race that was embedded into America at the founding of our nation was a lie; it is time to change the story and discover a new one. Understanding our own stories about race, and talking about them to one another, is absolutely essential if we are to become part of the larger pilgrimage to defeat racism in America. – Jim Wallis in America’s Original Sin

Race is such a contentious issue because of the painful history of racism. Race didn’t create racism, but racism created race. – Rachel Dolezal

Race prejudice is not only a shadow over the colored it is a shadow over all of us, and the shadow is darkest over those who feel it least and allow its evil effects to go on. – Pearl S. Buck

Racial oppression of black people in America has done what neither class oppression or sexual oppression, with all their perniciousness, has ever done: destroyed an entire people and their culture. – Eleanor Holmes Norton

Racial problems can’t be easily reconciled with a pat account about racism and discrimination that lets us sort of relax into saying when we finally get this right, when we get rid of racism, when we reach the post-racial society, everything is going to be okay. Well, no, because along the way here, as we’ve not yet been in this racial nirvana, facts on the ground have been created. – Glenn Loury

Racial superiority is a mere pigment of the imagination. – unknown

Racial terrorism affects the lives of white people and black people and everyone, everything. Racism is contaminating. It can affect the dogs in the street. So the process of beginning to rid the country of prejudice was in itself a kind of nation-building. – Ayana Mathis

Really, when you get down to racism, in or out of the church, it’s a heart issue. It’s not a head issue. When we actually get to experience each other’s ministry, and each other’s struggle, and each other’s pain, there’s a much greater sensitivity. – T. D. Jakes

Redlining went beyond FHA-backed loans and spread to the entire mortgage industry, which was already rife with racism, excluding black people from most legitimate means of obtaining a mortgage. – Ta-Nehisi Coates

Regardless of who I am, racism against anyone, anywhere should be appalling to everyone, everywhere. – Cary Kennedy

Religion has failed us. Christ was not a Christian. Buddha was not a Buddhist. Mohammed was not a Mohammedan. And yet ever since the dawn of history, we have engaged in conflict and war and terrorism and murder and racism and ethnocentrism and bigotry and prejudice in the name of God. – Deepak Chopra

Religious discrimination is not like racial discrimination. One you choose for yourself, the other God chose for you. – Habeeb Akande

Rescind the appointment of [Steve] Bannon. We will not be involved in the expansion of bigotry, of racism, sexism, homophobia. – Bernie Sanders

Rest assured that our work is not over because our work has never been only hunting Nazi war criminals. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an institution, a worldwide institution, engaged in combating anti-Semitism, bigotry, racism. And unfortunately, did we say goodbye to genocide after Hitler died in the bunker? No, we didn’t. So in such a world, I’m afraid there will always be a need for organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center. – Marvin Hier

Richard exhaled. It was like somebody sprinkling pepper on his wound: Thousands of Biafrans were dead, and this man wanted to know if there was anything new about one dead white man. Richard would write about this, the rule of Western journalism: One hundred dead black people equal to one dead white person. – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Science could never get you to make alcohol and tobacco legal and marijuana illegal. Only racism can do that. – Maia Szalavitz

Scots they’re either nice or they’re horrid and these two are horrid. The Scots wont like that Eamon, thats bordering on racism. Its not racism its ethnic criticism Bill. – Eamon Dunphy

Screaming racism is the last refuge of leftist intellectuals who’ve completely lost their mojo. – Neal Boortz

Seems to me that the institutions that function in this country are clearly racist, and that they’re built upon racism. – Stokely Carmichael

Sex and racism have always been tied together. Look at the thousands of black men who got lynched and castrated. The reason the Klan came into being was to protect white southern women. – Spike Lee

Sexism, racism, and other forms of discrimination are being built into the machine-learning algorithms that underlie the technology behind many ‘intelligent’ systems that shape how we are categorized and advertised to. – Kate Crawford

Sexist language, racist language, theistic language – all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not, permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas. – Toni Morrison

Shouldn’t the American leadership be addressing what is happening in America, with its domestic policies on racism, discrimination, illegal monitoring, solitary confinement, torture, Guantanamo Bay and any other social and political issues related to the American society not directly connected to Islam? American Muslims must speak out and be involved as well in international policies and, through their institutions, they should raise their voice. This is the way. – Tariq Ramadan

Simple peck-order bullying is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other ‘isms’ that cause so much suffering in the world. – Octavia E. Butler

Since the end of slavery, there has always been a black underclass. What is significant now is the size of it, the social gravity of it, and the frightening and terrifying responses to it. – Cornel West in Hope on a Tightrope

Slaveholders deployed so-called scientific racism to justify racial slavery. – Manisha Sinha

Slavery remained in the Deep South by other names – in prison programs with charges over nothing and eternal debt that threatened every African-American in the South right up through World War II. And that was after killing three-quarters of a million people, destroying cities, and creating hostility that exists to this day over the the Confederate flag and the racism it symbolizes, all brewing out of bitterness over a war that didn’t have to happen. – David Swanson

Slavery, racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry, subordination, and human rights abuse transform and adapt with the times. – John Prendergast

Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds. – Albert Einstein

So here comes this black guy from the Bay Area talking about peace, feminism, challenging racism, challenging the priorities of the country, and talking about preserving the fragile nature of our ecological system. People looked at me as if I was a freak. – Ron Dellums

So join with me in this campaign. Lend me your strength and your support-and together, we will call America home to the ideals that nourished us in the beginning.
From secrecy, and deception in high places, come home, America…
From military spending so wasteful that it weakens our nation, come home, America.
From the entrenchment of special privilege and tax favoritism-
From the waste of idle hands to the joy of useful labor-
From the prejudice of race and sex-
From the loneliness of the aging poor and the despair of the neglected sick, come home, America.
Come home to the affirmation that we have a dream.
Come home to the conviction that we can move our country forward.
Come home to the belief that we can seek a newer world.
And let us be joyful in the homecoming,
for:’ this land is your land, this land is my land.
From California to the New York Islands.
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters.
This land was made for you and me.’
May God grant us the wisdom to cherish this good land and to meet the great challenge that beckons us home. This is the time. – George McGovern

So people thought once Obama got into office that racism was over with. But, what we ended up learning was that it just came more into the light. – Lil Rel Howery

So why would I want to call myself a conservative after the way them white racist thugs have used that word to hide behind? They call themselves new Republicans. – Dick Gregory

Social evils are dangerously contagious. The fixed policy of persecution and injustice against a class of women who are weak and defenseless will be necessarily hurtful to the cause of all women. – Fannie Barrier Williams

Solving the population problem is not going to solve the problems of racism, of sexism, of religious intolerance, of war, of gross economic inequality. But if you don’t solve the population problem, you’re not going to solve any of those problems. Whatever problem you’re interested in, you’re not going to solve it unless you also solve the population problem. Whatever your cause, it’s a lost cause without population control. – Paul R. Ehrlich

Some of the most destructive forms of racism – like being denied a home loan or being passed on for a job where you are the most qualified candidate – are hard to measure in real time. – Shaun King

Some of the technologies that were created during the Industrial Revolution were appalling, such as capitalization, investment, social hierarchy, sexism, racism, and ecological destruction. – Chellis Glendinning

Some people have said Brother Khalid was a villain, but we know he was a victim in a world that is evil. Racism and injustice are the real villains here.Khalid Abdul Muhammad

Some people think racism has dissipated or no longer exists. But it’s hidden in more strategic places. – Jaylen Brown

Some people think racism is if you say the n-word, so homophobia is if you call someone… – Nate Parker

Sometimes change comes not in the first round, but at the second, third or fourth. Change starts with one person questioning, challenging, speaking up and doing something to make a difference. We can each make a difference…because each of us is already part of the community where racism exists & thrives. – Paul Kive

Sometimes I think that if we have to go back, then it certainly won’t be to Jerusalem. Not to the Jerusalem beset with racism that we left at the height of the last Gaza war. – Sayed Kashua

Sometimes we say we want an end to hate or racism or sexism. But we all participate in keeping these structures alive. If everyone decided to relinquish the past what would happen to people who feel that there hasn’t been proper atonement made to them? And what happens to the person who feels that the constant atonement is their identity? – Chris Abani

Sometimes, recently Israeli-Palestinian conflict is indeed a clash between wrong and wrong. It is not as simple as fascism was. Every decent man had to be against fascism, period. It is not as simple as apartheid or colonialism or racism or misogyny. It is not simple because the Palestinians have no other land. They are absolutely right about this. The Israeli Jews also have no other land and they are absolutely right about this. It is a tragedy of two peoples claiming the same very small country, about the size of New Jersey. – Amos Oz

Sometimes, the fact that you’re a footballer makes you think that racism can’t happen to you because you bring that passion and you express a lot of things. When it happened to me, I couldn’t believe it, and in that moment, I decided to walk off the pitch. – Samuel Eto’o

Southerners are the more lonely and spiritually estranged, I think, because we have lived so long in an artificial social system that we insisted was natural and right and just – when all along we knew it wasn’t. – Carson McCullers

Spatial racism, the erasure of black faces in a predominantly white city, is in full effect in both Crown Heights and Center City Philadelphia. This racism demands that bodies that don’t conform to a mandated ‘white’ status quo can be redlined out of a space. – Anthea Butler

Speak out, educate, do not be intimidated by the apologists, and do not let extreme racism be mainstreamed. Hopefully there will come a time when we don’t need to tell our kids that Halloween is no excuse for hate, and that blackface has no place in a civilized society. – Christine Pelosi

Stadiums can be places where people of different colour come to support their teams, or they can be seen as stagnant areas where healthy people will be infected by racism. – Kevin-Prince Boateng

Still, it’s clear that there are lots of people out there who are uncomfortable [about racism]. The Civil War was a long time ago but there are aspects of it that remain unsettled. – Randy Newman

Sure, I’ve felt racism. I think everybody has prejudice. When I was growing up, the dark Mexican kids weren’t allowed in the public swimming pool in Dallas. My light-skinned friend got in, and he laughed at us. It didn’t seem like a big deal, because we didn’t know any different. So I never ran into anything that actually scarred me. – Lee Trevino

Sure, there’s a chunk of African-Americans out there who associate the Republican Party with racism, frankly particularly in the Deep South. It’s an unfair perception, but it exists. Over a period time, that perception will die away if Republicans are focusing on issues that happen to impact African-Americans. – Artur Davis

Symbolic racism is hurtful and it is especially hurtful to Black children who get called Black Pete in school and grow up with the sense that they are inferior to white kids. – Roger Ross Williams

Systemic racism always takes a toll, whether it be by bullet or by blood clot. – Clint Smith

Systemic racism is something that diminishes all of us. Of course its worst effects are for its victims, but our entire country is held back through the inequality and the mistrust that it creates. – Pete Buttigieg

Tainting the Tea Party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. There’s no evidence that Tea Party adherence are any more racist than other Republicans and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats in November, having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness. – Mary Frances Berry

Take us generally as a people, we are neither lazy nor idle; and considering how little we have to excite or stimulate us, I am almost astonished that there are so many industrious and ambitious ones to be found – although I acknowledge, with extreme sorrow, that there are some who never were and never will be serviceable to society. And have you not a similar class among yourselves? – Maria W. Stewart

That feeling of hopelessness and racism has been looming over Detroit ever since I was a kid. – Robert Hood

That notion that we’re in the post-racism, post-sexism world is so not true. – Margaret Cho

That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained. – Haile Selassie

That’s just how white folks will do you. It wasn’t merely the cruelty involved; I was learning that black people could be mean and then some. It was a particular brand of arrogance, an obtuseness in otherwise sane people that brought forth our bitter laughter. It was as if whites didn’t know they were being cruel in the first place. Or at least thought you deserved of their scorn. – Barack Obama

That’s unfortunately common – to blame immigrants, to blame the African-Americans who are being helped by federal programs, to blame anyone available, to direct attention away from the roots of the distress which you’re suffering. This combines with xenophobia, white supremacy, racism, misogyny, and other quite unpleasant phenomena which are far from being eradicated. All of this makes for a pretty dangerous brew. But economic issues are right in the center of it. And you can see this in the fact that so many former Obama voters now voted for Trump, or just didn’t bother voting. – Noam Chomsky

That’s what is always fascinating about racism – how it is allowed, if not encouraged, to flourish freely in public spaces, the way racism and bigotry are so often unquestioned. – Roxane Gay

The “r” word [racism] is a scary word to me – I don’t like to say it. I’m not trying to say it doesn’t exist. It’s incredibly inflammatory and invites a lot of awful mistakes and injustices that have happened and still do happen. It’s a word that has been thrown around in a way that incites a lot of bad feelings in most people. – Brandi Chastain

The American Catholic Church made statements on racism as far back as the 1940s and ’50s. ‘Colored’ Catholic girls could not live in the dorms at Catholic University – the bishops’ university – up into the 1940s. – Anthea Butler

The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities – he is only reacting to 400 years of the conscious racism of the American whites. – Malcolm X

The arrogance of race prejudice is an arrogance which defies what is scientifically known of human races. – Ruth Benedict

The basic premise of math is about efficiency. And when you’ve got racism, sexism, and bigotry, that’s just standing in the way of efficiency in our own progress. – Glen Powell

The Belgians tend to downplay the cultural divide issue, and the far-right issue, but there’s a staggering degree of casual racism in Belgium, much worse than in the UK. – Nicholas Royle

The best cure for racism is to have somebody shoot at you. Man, it does not matter then what color the arse is that comes to save yours-black or white, you’re ready to give it a big fat kiss. – Wilbur Smith

The biggest thing is we need to stop acting like racism don’t exist. – Lil Rel Howery

‘The Birth of a Nation’ occupies a view of the South not far from Scarlett O’Hara’s in ‘Gone With the Wind,’ and modern audiences have to wrestle with that beloved movie’s romanticizing of racism. – Richard Corliss

The black community sees itself as one group, and they are all experiencing the same experiences as a group with racism and whatnot, growing up in this country. – Andrea Navedo

The black conservative is responsible for making people question an idea that racism must be extinct before black people can overcome. Understanding that our goal is to thrive despite racism rather than fetishizing it is, in fact, the central ideological plank of people deemed “black conservatives.” This is a coherent position, but that can be hard to perceive, given the way that race has been discussed in our land over the past 40 years or so. – John H. McWhorter

The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power. The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors and deserves respect if not enthusiastic admiration. – Maya Angelou

The black man continues on his way. He plods wearily no longer-he is striding freedom road with the knowledge that if he hasn’t got the world in a jug, at least he has the stopper in his hand. – Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

The black people’s struggle has vanquished racism. It was God who created colour. Today Obama, a son of Kenya, a son of Africa, has made it in the United States of America. – Muammar al-Gaddafi

The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness. – Marcus Garvey

The blind spot for the in the Southern Progressive Movement – as for that matter in the national [progressive] movement – was the Negro, for the whole movement in the South coincided paradoxically with the crest of the wave of racism. Still more important to the association of the two movements was the fact that their leaders were often identical. In fact, the typical Progressive reformer rode to power in the South on a disenfranchising or white-supremacy movement. – Vann Woodward

The book, ‘Citizen,’ begins with daily encounters, little moments, places where language reveals how racism determines how we interact. – Claudia Rankine

The camera could be a very powerful instrument against discrimination, against poverty, against racism. – Gordon Parks

The caste system, in all its various forms, is always based on identifiable physical characteristics – sex, color, age. – Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

The challenge throughout has been to tell what I view as the truth about racism without causing disabling despair. – Derrick Bell

The Charleston shooting is a result of an ingrained culture of racism and a history of terrorism in America. It should be covered as such. – Anthea Butler

The civil rights situation is like a pregnancy. It will get worse, I believe, before it gets better. What the usual pregnancy comes to is a decent baby. That is what we all hope will be the end product of this stress. It is customary, at the end of a pregnancy, to have for your pains a decent baby. – Gwendolyn Brooks

The color of the skin is in no way connected with strength of the mind or intellectual powers. – Benjamin Banneker

The colored woman of to-day occupies, one may say, a unique position in this country. In a period of itself transitional and unsettled, her status seems one of the least ascertainable and definitive of all the forces which make for our civilization. She is confronted by both a woman question and a race problem. – Anna Julia Cooper

The concept ‘a bit racist’ doesn’t exist. There are no tolerable quantities of racism. It’s unacceptable regardless of where it happens or the form that it takes.Kevin-Prince Boateng

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it. – Joseph Conrad

The conviction that all men are equal by reason of their natural dignity has been generally accepted. Hence racial discrimination can no longer be justified. – Pope John XXIII

The core of racism is the notion that the individual is meaningless and that membership in the collective – the race – is the source of his identity and value. … The notion of ‘diversity’ entails exactly the same premises as racism – that one’s ideas are determined by one’s race and that the source of an individual’s identity is his ethnic heritage. – Peter Schwartz

The core of the culture is racism and how black men are viewed. They’ve always been demonized and seen as threats in our culture. Another holdover from slavery. We’ve got to deal with that core root of racism and demonization of the upbringing of black men. Black women are not exempt by any means. – Marian Wright Edelman

The criterion for racism is either objective or it’s meaningless: If liberals get to decide for themselves who is or isn’t a racist according to their political lights, conservatives will be within their rights to ignore them. – Bret Stephens

The denial of racism is a form of racism itself. – Tim Wise

The different ness of races, moreover, is no evidence of superiority or of inferiority. This merely indicates that each race has certain gifts which the others do not possess. – Carter Woodson

The doors of churches, hotels, concert halls and reading rooms are alike closed against the Negro as a man, but every place is open to him as a servant. – Ida B. Wells

The drug war has nothing to do with making communities livable or creating a decent future for black kids. On the contrary, prohibition is directly responsible for the power of crack dealers to terrorize whole neighborhoods. And every cent spent on the cops, investigators, bureaucrats, courts, jails, weapons, and tests required to feed the drug-war machine is a cent not spent on reversing the social policies that have destroyed the cities, nourished racism, and laid the groundwork for crack culture. – Ellen Willis

The essence of American racism is disrespect. – Ta-Nehisi Coates

The essential contradiction at the heart of America’s problems: if we were a democracy and if we truly enjoyed free speech, we would be able to study and speak about the CIA. We would confront our institutionalized racism and sadism. But we can’t, and so our agency’s history remains unknown, which in turn means we have no idea who we are, as individuals or as a nation. We imagine ourselves to be things we are not. Our leaders know bits and pieces of the truth, but they cease being leaders once they begin to talk about the truly evil things the CIA is doing. – Douglas Valentine

The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

The fact is that racism, despite all the doomsayers, has diminished. – Constance Baker Motley

The fact that hardly anyone is ever prepared to admit to racist behaviour is perhaps a sort of strength: it speaks to the fact that racism is socially inadmissible. – Martin Jacques

The fact that there’s a more open discussion about everything from feminism to racism … I look at my two boys … this is their future I’m talking about. When I’ll be long gone, it’ll be them and their kids. I know that sometimes the darkest times are followed by the lightest. Sometimes bad things have to happen for good things to happen. At the very worst, we’re having very open discussions, discussions about things we didn’t even know f-king existed. I talk to my friends about it and they are absolutely shocked. They didn’t even know. – Michael Buble

The fantastic thing about ‘Jasper Jones’ is that although it’s set in 1969, the themes are still so topical. We’re still struggling with racism and sexism and domestic violence and abuse. – Angourie Rice

the fear of fat works … because it’s being manipulated in us to enforce class divisions, racisms, womyn-hatred. And we give it the room to work because it’s so close to us, it’s our own bodies, that we don’t see it as coming from outside ourselves, we don’t name it for the weapon it is. – Elana Dykewomon

The FHA literally drew up the redlining map and then basically distributed – I’m sorry, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation actually did it, and then distributed to banks who used that as policy to determine how they would lend and who they would lend to. The racism in the system was pervasive and total. – Ta-Nehisi Coates

The first thing that Black Lives Matter had to do was remind people that racism existed in this country because when we had Obama, people thought we were post-racial. That was the debate. Is racism over? And very quickly, we understood that it was not over. – Patrisse Cullors

The first who attracts the eye, the first in enlightenment, in power and in happiness, is the white man, the European, man par excellence; below him appear the Negro and the Indian. These two unfortunate races have neither birth, nor face, nor language, nor mores in common; only their misfortunes look alike. Both occupy an equally inferior position in the country that they inhabit; both experience the effects of tyranny; and if their miseries are different, they can accuse the same author for them. – Alexis de Tocqueville

The First World War was a war devoid of any virtue. It arose from the quagmire of European tribalism: a complex interplay of nation-state destinies overlaid by notions of cultural superiority peppered with racism. – Paul Keating

The funniest racism is the racism between minorities. It’s something you don’t see dramatized, but almost every minority I know who’s my age, they have these funny stories about their parents stereotyping other minorities.Mindy Kaling

The glory of this land has been its capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past. For example, the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights, once a source of disunity and civil war, is now a point of pride for all Americans. We must never go back. There is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country. – Ronald Reagan

The great thing about 2017 is that, because of the terrible political state that we’re in and that America is in, young people are so vocal at the moment about so many issues, from racism to LGBT rights to beyond. I feel like – especially when I look at my fan-base – people are so vocal about their opinions and so vocal about spreading love. That’s really important, and I think it’s really amazing that people are talking about that. I just want that to keep happening. – Charli XCX

The great white city of brotherhood, Washington. – Christina Stead

The greatest number of drug addicts are to be found in Teheran and in Karachi, not in the West. Not in New York believe it or not. It’s the same with the roles of slavery, racism and imperialism in the world. These institutions were present in other cultures. However, it was Western civilization which did something about slavery, about racism and voluntarily dissolved its empires leaving behind a very positive legacy of institutions not to mention buildings and roadways. – Ibn Warraq

The greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong. If the Government or majorities think an individual is right, no one will interfere with him; but when agitators talk against the things considered holy, or when radicals criticise, or satirize the political gods, or question the justice of our laws and institutions, or pacifists talk against war, how the old inquisition awakens, and ostracism, the excommunication of the church, the prison, the wheel, the torture-chamber, the mob, are called to suppress the free expression of thought. – Harry Weinberger

The hardest thing I had to overcome in life? I think racism. That’s so difficult because I don’t think anyone can ever understand it. It’s not that people don’t want to understand it, but they don’t want to touch it. – Herschel Walker

The heart of racism was and is economic, though its roots are also deeply cultural, psychological, sexual, religious, and of course, political. Due to 246 years of brutal slavery and an additional 100 years of legal segregation and discrimination, no area of relationship between black people and white people in the United States is free from the legacy of racism. – Jim Wallis in America’s Original Sin

The historian’s distortion is more than technical, it is ideological; it is released into a world of contending interest, where any chosen emphasis supports some kind of interest, whether economic or political or racial, or national or sexual. – Howard Zinn

The historical legacies of resistance to racism, militarism, privatization and panoptical surveillance have long been forgotten and made invisible in the current assumption that Americans now live in a democratic, post-racial society. – Henry Giroux

The history of African-American repression in this country rose from government-sanctioned racism. Jim Crow laws were a product of bigoted state and local governments. – Rand Paul

The Holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism and stereotyping on a society. It forces us to examine the responsibilities of citizenship and confront the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction. – Tim Holden

The idea of making a film – a film that I had certainly never seen before – about the slave experience was a huge responsibility. It’s a project that requires a wider understanding of the geopolitical nature of the slave trade, of historical and modern-day racism. – Chiwetel Ejiofor

The impact of racism has changed our look at ourselves because basically racism was meant to make us look unfaithfully at ourselves, and to not treasure our institutions. – John Henrik Clarke

The imperialistic or capitalistic system occupies areas. It occupies Vietnam now. They occupy them by sending soldiers there, by sending policeman there. The policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishments hand. They make the racist secure in his racism. The gun in the establishment’s hand makes the establishment secure in its exploitation. – Huey Newton

The infamy of n – – is – it’s a word that has been used to terrorize people, to put people down. But it has also been used in other ways. It’s also been used as a way of putting a mirror up to racism. – Randall Kennedy

The internal sexism within womanhood is very ­predominant in Hollywood, because we all want to be ­successful. There’s a plug to it: You all have to be skinny! You all have to be pretty! You all have to be likable, because that’s the ­formula that works. On an ­executive level. On a power level. And it’s not always the same working with black people, because of the internalized racism. The colorism. – Viola Davis

The Internet has provided small communities for racism online, and people feel free to do it. Ultimately, there should be some consequence – if you promote your racism online then there should be a consequence. – Issa Rae

The issue of racism and racial prejudice. It is very, very difficult to discuss. It is difficult to discuss the issue of apartheid. Many have made the observation that it is very difficult to find anyone in SA who ever supported apartheid because everyone was opposed, it was against our will and so on. – Thabo Mbeki

The issue of racism happens all over the world. Granted, people – especially Americans – don’t know the the Canadian culture. But if you look outside this country, it’s a problem all around the planet. – Stephan James

The Left always promote their fake news and conspiracy theories – pushing the lies of ‘racism,’ ‘sexism,’ ‘homophobi-ism,’ ‘Islamophobi-ism.’ They support NFL thugs lying about so-called ‘police brutality,’ which doesn’t exist. – Jesse Lee Peterson

The lessons of the past suggest that racism and resentment against people of color will continue to flourish in America as long as the history that is taught transposes the heroes and the villains. That is the unspoken truth at the heart of the nation’s racial divide. – Susan L. Taylor

The main barrier between East and West today is that the white man is not willing to give up his superiority and the colored man is no longer willing to endure his inferiority. – Pearl S. Buck

The mainstream media choose to flaunt story lines that make white America appear guilty of continued institutional racism, while black racism against whites is ignored as an acceptable disposition given our nation’s history. – Andrew Breitbart

The media loves nothing more than when there is a racial scandal or something. Racism, bigotry, these are just such hot button issues, and the media loves it. – John Rocker

The minute you understand racism, you’re responsible for being racist. It’s like eating from the tree of knowledge. – Lynda Barry

The modern definition of ‘racist’ is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal. – Peter Brimelow

The more afraid we are of the shadow of racism, the more conscious we might become of our own unsuspected biases. – Bret Stephens

The Mormon mission to Africa, as to other dark-skinned parts of the world, was for a long time hobbled by the racism of the movement’s scripture. – James Fenton

The most effective adaptation of racism over time is the idea that racism is conscious bias held by mean people. – Robin DiAngelo

The national conversation around white entitlement, around institutionalized racism, the Black Lives Matter movement, I think, came about in large part because of the widening and broadening of our understanding of inequality. That conversation was begun by Occupy. – Cathy O’Neil

The nature of racism is that it grinds down the soul of the man more finely than it does the soul of the woman. When you want to conquer a people or subject it, you destroy the male component. – Ruby Dee

The new racism is anything that might hurt a Democrat politically. – Glenn Reynolds

The new racism, like God, works in mysterious ways and is quite effective in maintaining white privilege. For example, instead of saying as they used to say during the Jim Crow era that they do not want us as neighbors, they say things nowadays such as ‘I am concerned about crime, property values and schools.’ – Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

The new racism: Racism without ‘racists.’ Today, racial segregation and division often result from habits, policies, and institutions that are not explicitly designed to discriminate. Contrary to popular belief, discrimination or segregation do not require animus. They thrive even in the absence of prejudice or ill will. It’s common to have racism without racists. – Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

The norm is white, apparently, in the view of people who see things in that way. For them, the only reason you would introduce a black character is to introduce this kind of abnormality. Usually, it’s because you’re telling a story about racism or at least about race. – Octavia E. Butler

The notion that black folks have nothing to learn from scholarship that may reflect racial or racist biases is dangerous. It promotes closed-mindedness and a narrow understanding of knowledge to hold that “race” is such an overwhelming concept that it negates the validity of any insights contained in a work that may have some racist or sexist aspects. – Bell Hooks

The Nova Scotian black community always remembered Viola Desmond – they didn’t lose track of her, ever. Her memory was very much alive there, but the rest of us didn’t know anything about her. It’s just so typical of Canadians that we know Rosa Parks, in that “bad country to the south of us” – they needed this lovely, courageous woman to sit down in the front of the bus – but we wouldn’t know ours, because of course we “don’t have racism in Canada.” – Constance Backhouse

The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box. – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

The one thing that the racist can never manage is anything like discrimination: he is indiscriminate by definition. – Christopher Hitchens

The only antidote to racism – and the Italians are anything but racist – is to return to a respect for laws and regulations and monitor who enters and who leaves this country. – Matteo Salvini

The only truth is face to face, the poem whose words become your mouth and dying in black and white we fight for what we love, not are. – Frank O’Hara

The only way not to worry about the race problem is to be doing something about it yourself. When you are, natural human vanity makes you feel that now the thing is in good hands. – Margaret Halsey

The only way we can challenge Islamism is to engage with one another. We need to make it as abhorrent as racism has become today. Only then will we stem the tide of angry young Muslims who turn to hate. – Maajid Nawaz

The other thing about the Nights is that it is quite racist. One parentheses is that I think this is one of the negative things that appeal to people, that The Arabian Nights could be used as a disguise for racism. It suited the West. You could smuggle racism into children’s literature, you see. The African magician in the story of Aladdin, he’s labeled explicitly as the “African Magician.” He’s not a character but a stereotype, and a lot of this got into nursery literature in this Oriental disguise. – Marina Warner

The parallel between antifeminism and race prejudice is striking. The same underlying motives appear to be at work, namely fear, jealousy, feelings of insecurity, fear of economic competition, guilt feelings, and the like. Many of the leaders of the feminist movement in the nineteenth-century United States clearly understood the similarity of the motives at work in antifeminism and race discrimination and associated themselves with the anti slavery movement. – Ashley Montagu

The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person. – Barack Obama

The police can go to downtown Harlem and pick up a kid with a joint in the streets. But they can’t go into the elegant apartments and get a stockbroker who’s sniffing cocaine. – Noam Chomsky

The policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishments hand. They make the racist secure in his racism. – Huey Newton

The positive value of anger is not limited to peace activists, but is relevant to all who work for social change. It may be argued that anger is the personal fuel in the social motor that resolves the institutional contradictions that arise in the course of history. As such. it applies to the activists who rid the world of slavery, and who moved the political economic systems from feudalism to capitalism and from capitalism to socialism, and who are fighting today to rid the world of racism and sexism. – David Adams

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less. – Eldridge Cleaver

The problem is that my generation was pacified into believing that racism existed only in our history books. – Chance The Rapper

The problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line, — the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. – E. B. Du Bois

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old – is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. – Barack Obama

The profound nature of our existence is that we are able at any moment to connect to anyone, anywhere. History is there to remind us of how far weve come, and every day our journey is to continue with that progress of becoming more wise, more compassionate and more considerate human beings. Remembering Emmett though song is way to remind people that there is no need to continue with senseless crimes. Race and racism do no go hand in hand. We are only one race: human. – Melody Gardot

The protesters, in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv, revealed an open and raw wound at the heart of Israeli society, the pain of a community crying out over a sense of discrimination, racism, and of being unanswered. – Reuven Rivlin

The question of whether one alleges the Superiority or Inferiority of any given race is irrelevant; racism has only one psychological root: the racist’s sense of his own Inferiority. – Ayn Rand

The question that white people need to ask ourselves is not if we were shaped by the forces of racism, but how. – Robin DiAngelo

The racism in Europe takes the form of anti-immigrant extremism – which is bad enough here – I think it’s hard to measure, but my guess is that it’s probably worse there. – Noam Chomsky

The racism in South Asia is the most specific racism in the world. It’s like racism against a slightly different language group. It’s like micro-racism. – Riz Ahmed

The racism is so profound and the recognition – the kind of deep recognition that you have to humiliate. It’s not about to killing or torture. It’s to humiliate. So the oppressed feel degraded. And both the oppressed understand and the oppressors understand. It’s constant. – Noam Chomsky

The racism of the Nazis threatened to make whatever we had experienced look like child’s play. If they could be so brutal to the Jews, what would they do to the blacks? So large numbers of black young men and women rallied to the defence of the empire. – Peter Abrahams

The racism, the sexism, I never let it be my problem, it’s their problem. If I see a door comin’ my way, I’m knockin’ it down. And if I can’t knock down the door, I’m sliding through the window. I’ll never let it stop me from what I wanna do. – Rosie Perez

The reality is that anti-black racism is a global phenomenon, and it looks different in each context, but if you look at the outcomes, if you listen and look at the experiences, you will see that it’s clear, and it’s happening across the globe. – Opal Tometi

The reality is that race in the United States operates on a spectrum from black to white. Doesn’t mean that people who are in between don’t experience racism, but it means that the closer you are to white on that spectrum, the better off you are. And the closer to black that you are on that spectrum, the worse off your are. – Alicia Garza

The really important victory of the civil rights movement was that it made racism unpopular, whereas a generation ago at the turn of the last century, you had to embrace racism to get elected to anything. – Carol Moseley Braun

The reason I have been so outspoken on antisemitism is that racism is racism – and my family have been victims of it. – Chuka Umunna

The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire an influence among the people that will soon be too much for simple honesty and plain sense, in a house of representatives. The most illustrious of them must, therefore, be separated from the mass, and placed by themselves in a senate; this is, to all honest and useful intents, an ostracism. – John Adams

The roots of racism lie deep in man’s nature, wounded and bruised by original sin. – Sargent Shriver

The sad and tragic fact is that the civil rights movement, despite its honorable and courageous past, has over the years degenerated into a demagogic hustle, promoting the mindless racism they once fought against. – Thomas Sowell

The same way that racism is a white person’s problem, violence against women is a men’s problem. – Gloria Steinem

The scars and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in the American society. – John Lewis

The Scriptures have been misused to defend bloody crusades and inquisitions; to support slavery, apartheid, and segregation; to sanction the physical and emotional abuse of women and children; to persecute Jews and other non-Christian people of faith; to support the holocaust of Hitler’s Third Reich; to oppose medical science; to condemn inter-racial marriage; to execute women as witches; to excuse the violent racism of the Ku Klux Klan; to mobilize militias, white supremacy and neo-nazi movements; and to condone intolerance and discrimination against sexual minorities. – Mel White

The social pressure from friend and acquaintance to collude, to not notice racism, can be quite powerful. – Beverly Daniel Tatum

the solution to racism lies in our ability to see its ubiquity but not to concede its inevitability. It lies in the collective and institutional power to make change, at least as much as with the individual will to change. It also lies in the absolute moral imperative to break the childish, deadly circularity of centuries of blindness to the shimmering brilliance of our common, ordinary humanity. – Patricia J. Williams

The statement that I made and that I think I will continue to make is that racism and bigotry isn’t just relegated to the Southern region; it permeates the history of our nation. It’s not to say that we haven’t made progress. Obviously we have with our first African American president, and I never thought that would happen in my lifetime. – Octavia Spencer

The struggle against patriarchy and racism must be substantively robust and inextricably intertwined. – Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end. Its time seems to have nearly run its course—it no longer serves the needs of men or women and in its inextricable linkage to militarism, hierarchy, and racism it threatens the very existence of life on earth. What will come after, what kind of structure will be the foundation for alternate forms of social organization we cannot yet know. We are living in an age of unprecedented transformation. We are in the process of becoming. – Gerda Lerner

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority. – Ralph W. Sockman

The thing is that racism is systematic, so of course it sometimes manifested itself within the clubs. But I have certainly experienced racism outside of the clubs as well. – Craig Seymour

The thing is, getting rid of racism is a cultural thing that takes decades. It’s not something we can solve immediately. Structural changes have to happen in our culture. – Shervin Pishevar

The thing people have to remember is there’s nothing natural about racism as it exists in America. I mean, we know this historically. We can look at 1619, when Africans first came here, and how early African slaves intermixed pretty indiscriminately with indentured white servants. – Ta-Nehisi Coates

The thing with racism is it’s rare you can really prove racism. – Charlamagne tha God

The times when black women have been successful in confronting and overcoming the structural and institutional sexism and racism that persists in our society have been when we are thoughtful and strategic about speaking up. It’s when we’ve done what it takes to introduce and implement our ideas and our plans to make things better. – Marcia Fudge

The truth is, no one wants to face the fact that there was a huge double standard in baseball, and white athletes like Mark McGwire, Cal Ripken Jr., and Brady Anderson were protected and coddled in a way that an outspoken Latino like me never would be. The light-eyed and white-skinned were declared household names. Canseco the Cuban was left out in the cold, where racism and double standards rule. – Jose Canseco

The U. S. is becoming more hostile to Black people and other people of color. Racism is running rampant and xenophobia is on the rise. – Assata Shakur

The underpinning of immigration concerns is xenophobia and racism and nationalism. – David Cross

The United States Justice Department, in my opinion, hasn’t done a damn thing to alleviate this horrible manifestation of racism, bigotry and hate against blacks – the first African American President has done nothing. Even if he were inclined to do something to rectify what we are experiencing as a nation, I don’t know if can go as far as an artistic expression can go, as salve for the collected suffering of the people. – Harry Lennix

The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice. – Mark Twain

The very notion of blindness about color constitutes an ideological confusion at best, and denial at its very worst. – Patricia J. Williams

The violence inherent in our systems and structures of power is a part of who we are – our thoughts, sensibilities, imaginations, language. We live in manifestations of it – permanent war, environmental destrucution, poverty, racism, misogyny, the assault on labor, torture in our prisons, capital punishment – a corporate capitalist state controlled by oligarchical interests for their own private profit and gain. – Lawrence Joseph

The War on Drugs, cloaked in race-neutral language, offered whites opposed to racial reform a unique opportunity to express their hostility toward blacks and black progress, without being exposed to the charge of racism. – Michelle Alexander

The way racism works in Canada, it’s very subtle. You may feel you’re a victim of racism or have experienced racism, but you can’t necessarily prove it – unless you get a [white] friend to go check out that rental, go check out that job, whatever. Unless you’re willing to really dig to prove you’re a victim of racism, it might be difficult to do that. And so what you’re dealing with then is feeling, it’s emotion. – George Elliott Clarke

The way that one feels about the story line of ‘Deterrence’ can tell us, I believe, about each person’s conservatism or liberalism and precisely how tolerant he or she is of racism. – Rod Lurie

The way we have to measure progress is not, “Is there ever going to be an incident of racism in the country?” It’s, “How does the majority of our country respond?” – Barack Obama

The welfare state has done to Black Americans what slavery (and Jim Crow and racism) could not have done. . .break up the black family. Today, just slightly over 30 percent of black kids live in two-parent families. Historically, from the 1870s on. . . 75-90 percent of black kids lived in two-parent families. – John StosselKids

The white Christian church never raised to the heights of Christ. It stayed within the limit of culture. – Jesse Jackson

The white man’s happiness cannot be purchased by the black man’s misery. – Frederick Douglass

The whole system has not one redeeming quality; its very virtues, as they are termed, are vices of great magnitude. Its charities, so called, are gross acts of injustice and deception. Its instructions are to rivet ignorance in the mind and, if possible, render it perpetual. It supports, in all manner of extravagance, idleness, presumption, and uselessness; and oppresses, in almost every mode which ingenuity can devise, industry, integrity and usefulness. It encourages superstition, bigotry and fanaticism; and discourages truth, commonsense and rationality. It generates and cultivates every inferior quality and base passion that human nature can be made to receive; and has so disordered all the human intellects, that they have become universally perplexed and confused, so that man has no just title to be called a reasonable and rational being. It generates violence, robbery and murder, and extols and rewards these vices as the highest of all virtues. Its laws are founded in gross ignorance of individual man and of human society; they are cruel and unjust in the extreme, and, united with all the superstitions in the world, are calculated only to teach men to call that which is pre-eminently true and good, false and bad; and that which is glaringly false and bad, true and good. In short, to cultivate with great care all that leads to vice and misery in the mass, and to exclude from them, with equal care, all that would direct them to true knowledge and real happiness, which alone, combined, deserve the name of virtue. – Robert Owen

The woman power of this nation can be the power which makes us whole and heals the rotten community, now so shattered by war and poverty and racism. I have great faith in the power of women who will dedicate themselves whole-heartedly to the task of remaking our society. – Coretta Scott King

The word ‘racism’ is like ketchup. It can be put on practically anything – and demanding evidence makes you a ‘racist.’ – Thomas Sowell

The world and man are identical. This is why racism is the most stupid thing in the world. – Paul Virilio

The worst moment in my life was when I was seven years old and I discovered that there was a thing such as racism. You don’t know you’re different until someone lets you know. – Sanjeev Bhaskar

Them Jews aren’t going to let (Obama) talk to me. I told my baby daughter, that he’ll talk to me in five years when he’s a lame duck, or in eight years when he’s out of office. …They will not let him talk to somebody who calls a spade what it is. – Jeremiah Wright

Them white people made hate. They made hate just like they had a formula for it and followed that formula down to the last exact gallon of misery put in. Well … that’s what they made and that’s what they got. – California Cooper

There are a lot of readers who pride themselves on not paying attention to the identities of their favorite writers. Some of them think this means they’re not prejudiced. I don’t know anyone who isn’t, myself included. But let’s say for argument’s sake that those particular readers in fact are not prejudiced. How many books by writers of color do you think you’ll find on their bookshelves? I’d lay odds that if there are any at all, they will be far outnumbered by the books by white authors. Not necessarily because those readers are deliberately choosing mostly white/male authors. They don’t have to. The status quo does it for them. So those readers’ self-satisfied “I don’t know” is really an “I don’t care enough to look beyond my nose.” And that’s cool. So many causes, so little time. But don’t pretend that indifference and an unwillingness to make positive change constitute enlightenment. – Nalo Hopkinson

There are definitely – there is definitely an element of Donald Trump’s support that has its basis in racism or xenophobia. But a lot of these folks are just really hardworking people who are struggling in really important ways. – D. Vance

There are levels of outrage, and there’s a point at which you can’t be trespassed upon anymore. – Marian Wright Edelman

There are lots of statements that have been made and haven’t led to change and reform. For me, the broader discussion around racism – education is key. – Gareth Southgate

There are many different types of racism from people of different colours and nationalities. There is no vaccine to fight this and no antibiotics to take. It’s a dangerous and infectious virus which is strengthened by indifference and inaction. – Kevin-Prince Boateng

There are not grades of racism. There’s racism. – Dede Gardner

There are places and spaces for black writers to write about race as a central thing. It’s important. We’re still dealing with the remnants of slavery. We’re still dealing with racism on a daily basis. For me, I choose to write books about black people where we are normal. I was raised to believe that I deserve to be in a room just like anybody else. I try to write books like that. – Kwame Alexander

There are so many people, FIFA or whatever, that can do something against this. They should wake up and do it. If there is a racism, those people should be banned from the stadium forever. They should not even enter the stadium anymore. Never again. That’s the first thing they can do. – Kevin-Prince Boateng

There are some things for which there is no apology, and on the question of slavery, there is no adequate apology for ripping people out of their homeland and bringing them here in chains. There is no adequate apology for the ongoing horrific legacy of racism. – Harriet Lerner

There are still generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, and they just have to die. – Oprah Winfrey

There are things about the South – the politics, the classism, the racism – that I hate, and I want to be here to fight those things. I don’t want to be in California or Michigan just complaining about them. I’m here trying to make a difference in the way I can, writing about it. And I want younger people, especially kids from my community, to see that being successful doesn’t have to mean leaving a place like this. You don’t have to trade in your family or your sense of belonging for that. – Jesmyn Ward

There are those who would keep us slipping back into the darkness of division, into the snake pit of racial hatred, of racial antagonism and of support for symbols of the struggle to keep African-Americans in bondage. – Carol Moseley Braun

There are three things, and it depends on the group that we’re talking about, but there’s history, there’s culture, and then there’s social networks. So, you know, historically black and white, they worship together until about the end of slavery, and people started moving out into separate churches. But it was because of discrimination and racism and such that blacks began to establish their own denominations and their own churches. – Michael Emerson

There are, however, those who have called the book [The Kite Runner] divisive and objected to some of the issues raised in the book, namely racism, discrimination, ethnic inequality etc. – Khaled Hosseini

There can be no assumption that today’s majority is “right” and the Amish or others like them are “wrong.” A way of life that is odd or even erratic but interferes with no right or interests of others is not to be condemned because it is different. – Justice Warren Burger

There can be no assumption that today’s majority is “right” and the Amish or others like them are “wrong.” A way of life that is odd or even erratic but interferes with no right or interests of others is not to be condemned because it is different. – Warren E. Burger

There can be racism in a system even if a particular episode of injustice is not a manifestation of that racism. Every single thing in the criminal justice system is not a manifestation of racism, but many things are. – James Forman, Jr.

There can’t be reverse racism against a group that is not at a disadvantage. – Justin Simien

There has been no more principled opposition to racism than Jeremy Corbyn: he was getting arrested for protesting against Apartheid when the rest of them were doing deals and calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist. – Ken Loach

There is a certain amount of racist behaviour, a certain amount of this mindset, in the darker recesses of every community. It needs to be called what it is, which is vile and hateful. It’s starting a national conversation, which is probably long overdue. Because we do, as a country, have an awkward problem with a certain amount of racism in the hearts of I believe a small number of people, but I still believe we have to chase it out. – Don Iveson

There is a difference between being offended and being prejudiced and even being bigoted against. There’s a difference between that and racism. – Justin Simien

There is a good deal of evidence that the United States is moving to the right, and that the main force behind the movement is a resurgence, in a new form, of racial prejudice. – Shirley Chisholm

There is a strange kind of tragic enigma associated with the problem of racism. No one, or almost no one, wishes to see themselves as racist; still racism persists, real and tenacious. – Albert Memmi

There is a theory behind the culture of victimhood: It’s called “intersectionality.” This theory posits that racism, sexism, classism, ableism, etc. are interconnected, overlapping, and mutually reinforcing. Together they form a “matrix of oppression.” – Christina Hoff Sommers

There is always the fear of unknown – racism comes from people when they don’t know something, they are strangers to the other side. – Berhan Ahmed

There is bias and sexism everywhere, just like there are problems of racism and homophobia stemming from the whole notion that we’re arranged in a hierarchy, that we’re ranked rather than linked. – Gloria Steinem

There is much institutionalized racism in The Netherlands and the non-White population is just now beginning to fight for their rights. – Roger Ross Williams

There is no birthright in the white skin that it shall say that wherever it goes, to any nation, amongst any people, there the people of the country shall give way before it, and those to whom the land belongs shall bow down and become its servants. – Annie Besant

There is no easy way to create a world where men and women can live together… But if such a world is created in our lifetime, it will be done by rejecting the racism, materialism, and violence that has characterized Western civilization and especially by working toward a world of brotherhood, cooperation, and peace. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is no racism in Italy. – Clarence Seedorf

There is only one person who represents all Americans. We need a president who speaks out and condemns racism and anti-Semitism. We need a president who recognizes everyone is equal. We are not perfect, but we all deserve respect. – Brad Schneider

There is only one remedy for ignorance and thoughtlessness, and that is literacy. Millions and millions of children would today stand in no need of sex education or consumer education or anti-racism education or any of those fake educations, if they had had in the first place ‘an’ education. – Richard Mitchell

There is power in naming racism for what it is, in shining a bright light on it, brighter than any torch or flashlight. A thing as simple as naming it allows us to root it out of the darkness and hushed conversation where it likes to breed like roaches. It makes us acknowledge it. Confront it. – Jesmyn Ward

There is racism all over the United States. Most Southerners I know, we definitely find ourselves defending our heritage. – Octavia Spencer

There is, of course, no larger mass hysteria in American history than the epidemic of racism. – Kevin Young

There should be a class on drugs. There should be a class on sex education-a real sex education class-not just pictures and diaphragms and ‘un-logical’ terms and things like that…..there should be a class on scams, there should be a class on religious cults, there should be a class on police brutality, there should be a class on apartheid, there should be a class on racism in America, there should be a class on why people are hungry, but there are not, there are classes on gym, physical education, let’s learn volleyball. – Tupac Shakur

There should be no discrimination against languages people speak, skin color, or religion. – Malala Yousafzai

There was funky Chinamen from funky China town. – Carl Douglas

There was no racism; there was no problem [in Mecca]. – Malcolm X

There was not one cause for our internment, but many – a deep-seated racial prejudice working on top of fear, distrust, and greed. So how is one to say exactly where history begins or ends? It is all slow oscillations, curves, and waves which take so long to reveal themselves … like watching a tree grow. – Gretel Ehrlich

There was so much racism when I was a kid, but it was also ignorant. – Art Malik

There’s still racism. Western Europe… has taken the native cultures of the Americas, the African cultures, the Asian civilization and lumped them together into The Others. – Hans Rosling

There’s a difference between racism and “I don’t know any better. I’m clueless.” Racism is like, “I’m trying to make you feel bad.” That’s racism. – Chris Rock

There’s a difference between racism and people making a joke about something. There is true racism going on, and people should be able to identify what that is, comparatively. – Chelsea Handler

There’s a lot more hypocrisy than before. Racism has gone back underground. – Richard Pryor

There’s a lot of racism still alive and still active. – Richard Sherman

There’s a lot of racism when I was in the Navy, and I had to deal with that. – Charlie Murphy

There’s always someone who’s going to interpret my material as racist, but it’s not. Racism comes from intent and power. A racist will tell a joke about a group of people only when they’re not in the room. I’ll talk about a group of people only when they’re in the room. – Russell Peters

There’s more outrage on Twitter about a One Direction split or about what one band member said to another than there is about institutionalized racism and something huge. – Trevor Noah

There’s more than just racism. There’s ageism and sexism as well. – Brandon Marshall

There’s no great, white bigot; there’s just about 200 million little white bigots out there. – Julianne Malveaux

There’s no racism with the Internet. – ASAP Ferg

There’s no such thing as reverse racism. – Paul Mooney

There’s racism everywhere in the world; it’s not just Sweden, it’s everywhere, but other than that I had a pretty okay upbringing. – Snoh Aalegra

There’s racism everywhere. – Denzel Washington

There’s sort of a persistent misperception that talking about race is black folk’s burden. Ultimately, only men can end sexism, and only white people can end racism. – Benjamin Todd Jealous

There’s still a really divisive residue in our nation that’s called racism and prejudice and oppression and sexism. – Jurnee Smollett-Bell

There’s still massive racism in the United States today that is rooted in sexual fears, but it’s at least considered unacceptable. In Israel it’s a mainstream phenomenon that’s encouraged and supported by the state because it supports Israel’s demographic imperative in its ethnocratic political structure. – Max Blumenthal

There’s still racism. Western Europe… has taken the native cultures of the Americas, the African cultures, the Asian civilization and lumped them together into The Others. – Hans Rosling

There’s the continuing challenges of racism, of sexism, of discrimination against the LGBT community, of the way that we treat people as opposed to how we want to be treated. – Hillary Clinton

There’s white racist DNA running through the synapses of his or her brain tissue. They will kill their own kind, defend the enemies of their kind or anyone who is perceived to be the enemy of the milky white way of life. – Jeremiah Wright

They put a rifle in my hand, sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the Yellow man. – Bruce Springsteen

They tell us we are all citizens, that we were born in this country. Well, a cat can have kittens in the oven, but that doesn’t make them biscuits! – Malcolm X

They were both academics, but my dad had to get a job on the railway, and my mum had to get a job in the Post Office. It was pretty hard in terms of the racism they had to endure. – Naveen Andrews

Things like racism are institutionalized. You might not know any bigots. You feel like well I don’t hate black people so I’m not a racist,but you benefit from racism. Just by the merit, the color of your skin. The opportunities that you have, you’re privileged in ways that you might not even realize because you haven’t been deprived of certain things. We need to talk about these things in order for them to change. – Dave Chappelle

This film isn’t about “white racism”, or racism at all. DEAR WHITE PEOPLE is about identity. It’s about the difference between how the mass culture responds to a person because of their race and who they understand themselves to truly be. And this societal conflict appears to be one that many share. – Justin Simien

This is a country that was founded on racism. It was built on racism. It still continues to thrive through wealth disparity, and housing disparity is all built on the backs of racism. – Kamau Bell

This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. – Abraham Lincoln

This is an industry rife with racism, sexism and homophobia. It is so closely woven into the fabric of the business that we have become snowblind to the glaring injustices happening every day. – Jessica Chastain

This is appalling. The idea that a person could be punished because of their religious belief and the idea they might be executed is just beyond belief. – John Howard

This is one of the most effective adaptations of racism over time – that we can think of racism as only something that individuals either are or are not ‘doing.’ – Robin DiAngelo

This is the 21st century, and we would all like to think racism is dead in America. Actually, that’s not the case: still there are some racial issues that are out across this nation, and so we have a responsibility as compassionate citizens of America, no matter what our ethnic group happens to be, to confront these issues when they arise – .Alveda King

This is the United States of America and unfortunately, race still matters to a lot of people. The evil head of racism doesn’t hide, it sticks its head up. – Kwame Kilpatrick

This is why I find racism impossible, because this is against humanity. – Chinua Achebe

This is why we have racism, really: because people are confronting the unknown, and they don’t like that. – Holly Hunter

This unprecedented racism, bigotry and proto-fascist agenda that Donald Trump is trying to shove down America’s throat has unleashed the resistance that will dethrone him. – Tom Morello

This was a time when racism was still very rampant, but the music that came out of Sun Studio was absolutely color blind. It was all about feeling. It was music that anybody could understand, and that made a step towards bettering the world for everyone. – Drake Milligan

This was in the ’70s and there was a lot of racism towards South Asians and there was a lot of hazing and bullying and racism that really probably shaped me in some way in terms of, like, wanting to get out of there. – Aasif Mandvi

Those policies [of Jean-Marie Le Pen ]I find repellent. I believe many people right across consist the world do. There is no future in that type of narrow minded racism and nationalism. – Rachel Maddow

Through my school years, I learned more about slavery, anti-black racism, and oppression in the U.S., and my blackness could no longer be an afterthought. I started wearing it proudly, and as my consciousness deepened, so did my love for black folks. – Luvvie Ajayi

Throughout evolution, ostracism was death indeed. – Helen Fisher

Throughout my career and my life, I talk a lot about racism in this country, and if you’re going to talk about it, then you’re going to eventually come to the chapter about the Klan. – Kamau Bell

To a world sick with racism, get well soon. – Janet Jackson

To be a colored man in America … and enjoy it, you must be greatly daring, greatly stolid, greatly humorous and greatly sensitive. And at all times a philosopher. – Jessie Redmon Fauset

To be an American is to be indoctrinated with racism, violence, capitalism and manifest destiny, the principles upon which the land of the free was founded. – Vic Mensa

To be concerned about immigration and the economy is not racist, but I do think there is a virus of racism that runs through Ukip. – Chuka Umunna

To divide along the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American. – Theodore Roosevelt

To judge by what my children are learning in school, you’d think American history was 75 percent slavery and 25 percent everything else (and that 25 percent includes a large dollop of imperialism, racism, sexism and homophobia, leaving little time for Lincoln, Edison, Clay, Holmes, Alcott, Dickinson, Adams, Longfellow or Fulton). – Mona Charen

To like an individual because he’s black is just as insulting as to dislike him because he isn’t white. – E. E. Cummings

To me and to a number of other activists from the U.S., we believe that the human rights movement has to evolve and understand the global implications of structural racism. This means engaging the United Nations and a variety of other human rights bodies. – Opal Tometi

To me, it’s 2016 about to be 2017. I can’t believe there’s still a racism factor. – Ty Dolla Sign

To me, racism is so played out and corny and stupid, especially in music, where you now have Nelly doing songs with Tim McGraw, on the hit single ‘Over and Over.’ Anyone who thinks about that just needs to get a life. – Clinton Sparks

To put it in layman’s terms, crazy is crazy. And crazy will find a way to do something crazy. Racist is racist. And racist people will find a way to project their racism onto the world. – Nia Long

To this day, the only argument against Obama that critics can seem to come up with involves admitting he’s better than them – though they certainly season it with some racism. You know, he’s that lucky black man who actually appeals to the populace. He’s that elitist who got himself off food stamps and into Harvard. – John Ridley

Today in America as in other parts of the world we see a model of a society in which the powerful dominate. They marginalize and they go as far as to eliminate the weakest before the homogenization caused by this system of globalization. Through providence we have the taking of conscious cultural identity. As such the church has a special mission to be the defender and promoter of a culture of life. This culture of life assumes a preferential option for the poor, opposes or puts the globalization of solidarity in opposition to the globalization of the markets. It makes itself a voice for those who have no voice; denounces all violence, all racial discrimination; walks beside those condemned to the land, those that are displaced; is a promoter of integral development in the construction of peace in the search for justice and liberation. This culture of life is what is expressed as a service of hope. This urgency exists in this precise moment in which the indigenous person, conscious of being a subject to their own history, will not opt for a church that submerges them in a conflict where they have to live their faith being aware of expressing it within a dominant culture. – Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia

Today the governments of Latin America should be ashamed of not having exterminated the indigenous, at the end of the twentieth century, because we exist at the end of this century. We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism. – Rigoberta Menchu

Today, nostalgia is almost as unacceptable as racism. – Terry Eagleton

Together we can make a change of the world. Together we can help to stop racism. Together we can help to stop prejudice. We can help the world live without fear. It’s our only hope, without hope we are lost. – Michael Jackson

Transgender casting is a kind of literalism. It is the same with racial casting. This means that you can now only play Othello if you are black. There is something quite tainted about it. It is a form of racism in itself. – Steven Berkoff

Trayvon Martin was the product of a broken home. He was also a victim of the corrupt civil-right leaders who peddle racism infecting the minds of young blacks. – Jesse Lee Peterson

Trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry, trickle-down misogyny, all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America. – Mitt Romney

Trump enabled, allowed, peddled to, and promoted the worst in America – racism, division, discrimination, misogyny – during his campaign. I will never forget or forgive him for that. – Ana Navarro

Trump is literally the epitome of evil, all the evils of this country – be it racism, capitalism, sexism, homophobia. – Patrisse Cullors

Trump, like that canary in the coalmine, makes clear what elements of fascism are really like. Let’s be honest. The racism, the ignorance, the stupidity, the baiting, the great-man affect, this notion that he exists in a circle of certainty that can’t be doubted, this kind of perverse hatred of the other. We’ve seen this before. This legacy is not new. What we have to recognize is the different form that it takes at a different moment in history. – Henry Giroux

Trump’s blatant racism and demonization of Muslims, Mexicans, and immigrants also serves as a foil for white evangelicals. By othering these groups, Trump allows evangelicals to persist in their belief that white Anglo-saxon Protestantism is the default for true American Christianity and is best suited to lead America as a ‘Christian Nation.’ – Anthea Butler

Trump’s racism has clearly driven his policy decisions during his first year in office – from his Muslim ban and his despicable treatment of DREAMers to his ruthless ramp-up of immigration raids and the callous termination of protections for Haitians and Salvadorans who fled natural disaster and violence. – Opal Tometi

Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. – Malcolm X

Tulsa was the kind of place where you could go to any door and borrow a cup of sugar. Everybody knew everybody. Truthfully, I don’t even remember dealing with any racism in our town; we all got along. – Charlie Wilson

‘Ulysses’ is the greatest anti-racist text in the English language, and it challenges right from the beginning the vicious racism which lies near the foundations of the Irish Free State and of the Irish republic. – Tom Paulin

Under the guise of eugenic improvement and racial purity, and what the implementation of eugenic measures could supposedly do to improve human society, notions of racial superiority continued in popularity, but with a purported scientific foundation. – Daniel J. Fairbanks

Under Trump, the US will give its blessing to Israeli imperialism and racism. – Lawrence Davidson

Unfortunately there was one thing that the white South feared more than Negro dishonesty, ignorance, and incompetency, and that was Negro honesty, knowledge, and efficiency. – E. B. Du Bois

Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned… Everything is war. Me say war. That until the’re no longer 1st class and 2nd class citizens of any nation… Until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes, me say war. That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race me say war! – Bob Marley

Until the philosophy which holds one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everything is war, me say war. – Bob Marley

Until we have a serious discussion, this problem [racism] will continue to occur. – Ilyasah Shabazz

Until white people understand that racism is embedded in everything, including our consciousness and socialisation, then we cannot go forward. – Robin DiAngelo

Using a big word like ‘plagiarism’… always causes some damage. It will always do lasting damage, like accusations of racism. – Michel Houellebecq

Using the power you derive from the discovery of the truth about racism in South Africa, you will help us to remake our part of the world into a corner of the globe on which all – of which all of humanity can be proud. – Oliver Tambo

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has been resorting to the ‘It’s racism’ dodge for years now in order to shut down scrutiny of his determined inattention to the catastrophe of Vancouver’s housing crisis. – Terry Glavin

Violence and racism are bad. Whenever they occur they are to be condemned and we should not turn a blind eye to them. – Cate Blanchett

Visions of swastikas in my head, plans for everyone. It’s in the Whites of my eyes. – David Bowie

Voter fraud does just barely exist, while racism, according to the Supreme Court, is a thing of the past. – Aasif Mandvi

Water from the white fountain didn’t taste any better than from the black fountain. – B. King

We – America – have to move past the ideology, the tribalism, that grips this country. As ridiculous as this sounds, I believe ‘Black Panther,’ the film, could help us do that if it addresses issues of tribal polarization and, by extension, racism, xenophobia, and homophobia in an entertaining, non-preachy way. – Christopher Priest

We African Americans have now spent the major part of the 20th Century battling racism. – Constance Baker Motley

We always talk about how, obviously, there is still very in-your-face aggressive racism. But there’s a lot of passive racism that, in the moment, you don’t even realize is racist. You chalk it up as a strange interaction you had, and then you look at the context of it later on and realize the root of it was racism. – Hiro Murai

We are concerned with that curious bunch of nonconformists who explain their participation in negative terms: that bunch of do-gooders that goes under all sorts of names – liberals, leftists, etc. These are the people who argue that they are not responsible for white racism and the country’s ‘inhumanity to the black man.’ – Steven Biko

We are growing up. We are growing up! Out of the idiocies – the ignorances of racism and sexism and ageism and all those ignorances. – Maya Angelou

We are in the year 2013, and racism is still amongst us and is still a problem. It’s not simply an argument for the History Channel or something that belongs to the past or something that only happens in other countries. – Kevin-Prince Boateng

We are never racist against somebody who is very far away. I don’t know any racism against the Eskimos. To have a racist feeling, there must be an other who is slightly different from us – but is living close to us. – Umberto Eco

We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There’s no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where their mouth is…We’re being pushed into a wrong direction in every way. – Helen Thomas

We are social beings who make communities with an urgency, and it is a stern charge to make us take refuge in the lonely world of oneself. …Racism attempts to occlude our cosmopolitanism (of the songs in and out of our bones), and it often appropriates our mild forms of xenophobia into its own virulent project. Difference among peoples is something that we negotiate in our everyday interactions, asking questions and being better informed of our mutual realities. To transform difference into the body is an act of bad faith, a denial of our shared nakedness. – Vijay Prashad

We are still conditioning people in this country and, indeed, all over the globe to the myth of white superiority. We are constantly being told that we don’t have racism in this country anymore, but most of the people who are saying that are white. White people think it isn’t happening because it isn’t happening to them. – Jane Elliott

We black women must forgive black men for not protecting us against slavery, racism, white men, our confusion, their doubts. And black men must forgive black women for our own sometimes dubious choices, divided loyalties, and lack of belief in their possibilities. Only when our sons and our daughters know that forgiveness is real, existent, and that those who love them practice it, can they form bonds as men and women that really can save and change our community. – Marita Golden

We can go deeper to understand ourselves not only as members of one race against another but as fellow citizens with common dream for our future, hopes for our children, and commitments to better nation. In the end, we can and must shed ourselves of our racial idols and divisions that have bound and separated us, and find our dignity together as the children of God all made in the image of the One who loves us all. – Jim Wallis in America’s Original Sin

We can go on talking about racism and who treated whom badly, but what are you going to do about it? Are you going to wallow in that or are you going to create your own agenda? – Judith Jamison

We cannot educate white women and take them by the hand. Most of us are willing to help but we can’t do the white woman’s homework for her. That’s an energy drain. More times than she cares to remember, Nellie Wong, Asian American feminist writer, has been called by white women wanting a list of Asian American women who can give readings or workshops. We are in danger of being reduced to purvey­ors of resource lists. – Gloria Anzaldúa

We cannot reform institutional racism or systemic policies if we are not actively engaged. It’s not enough to simply complain about injustice; the only way to prevent future injustice is to create the society we would like to see, one where we are all equal under the law. – Al Sharpton

We can’t allow racism and xenophobia to gain traction. – Bernie Sanders

We can’t throw the worst part of racism into the dustbin of history. – Kamau Bell

We couldn’t have known – who could’ve predicted what happened in American politics in the 2016? The rise of racism again, or the peeling back of the onion and seeing racism again, was a bit of a surprise in the last couple years. – George Pelecanos

We do not believe in the notion of God’s chosen people. We laugh at this people’s fancies and weep over its misdeeds. To act as God’s chosen people is not only stupid and arrogant, but a crime against humanity. We call it racism. – Jostein Gaarder

We do not put enough emphasis on early childhood years. We neglect children in this society; as a society we’re guilty of child neglect. If we could eliminate the vestiges of racism, if we could develop a more powerful agenda for child care, child development, and a more powerful education system, we could prevent a lot of the incapacities which in turn tend to generate structural unemployment. – Bruce Babbitt

We don’t come out of the womb filled with prejudice, racism, and homophobia. Kids are taught to hate, so we have to protect our young people’s minds from those evils. – Kerry Washington

We don’t have a refugee crisis in America; we have a racism crisis here. – Phyllis Bennis

We don’t know anything about racism. We’ve never experienced it. If words can make a difference in your life for seven minutes, how would it affect you if you heard this every day of your life? – Jane Elliott

We don’t realize how much racism has tainted our self-image as human beings. – Ruby Dee

We got a wonderful present from Stalin and Hitler that they never meant to give us. We were immune for 60 years or so to aggression, racism and militarism. They made us partly immune to these things. Now it appears this Stalin-Hitler present has reached its expiration date. We were spoiled by this. So maybe we are just emerging out of a relatively golden age. – Amos Oz

We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up business and dirty shops. They ought to go. – Marion Barry

We had a Judeo-Christian ethic hanging around a couple thousand years that didn’t help erase racism at all. So the notion of the little half-hour comedy changing things is something I think is silly. – Norman Lear

We have a fair amount of racism. – Trevor Noah

We have a right to expect a police force that protects our citizens and behaves in a responsible manner… in the American conscience there is no room for bigotry and racism. – George H. W. Bush

We have gaps that are rooted in systemic racism. – Hillary Clinton

We have made enormous progress in teaching everyone that racism is bad. Where we seem to have dropped the ball… is in teaching people what racism actually IS. – Jon Stewart

We have this long history of racism in this country, and as it happens, the criminal justice system has been perhaps the most prominent instrument for administering racism. But the racism doesn’t actually come from the criminal justice system. – Ta-Nehisi Coates

We have to be honest, we have to be truthful and speak to the one dirty secret in American life, and that is racism. – Henry Cisneros

We have to face up to systemic racism. We see it in jobs, we see it in education, we see it in housing. But let’s be really clear; it’s a big part of what we’re facing in the criminal justice system. – Hillary Clinton

We have to recognize that there is a radical continuity between the killing fields of the plantations, the bodies hanging from the trees, police brutality, the prison industrial complex, and the Superdome in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. – Cornel West in Hope on a Tightrope

We have to stop making excuses. One of the things that I’m careful to show is the horrendous effects of institutional and structural racism, but in the end, you can’t wait for white man or a Black man to come riding in on a white horse to save you. We have to save ourselves, and that’s the lesson of “The African Americans.” – Henry Louis Gates

We hide our racism. We just go on about our lives – may I say, white Canadians go on about their lives. African-Canadians understand racism, Indigenous Canadians understand racism: they see it all the time, they live with it. – Constance Backhouse

We inherited these principles and these freedoms and we here highly resolve that we shall pass them on, as we will pass on an undivided Republic purged of racism and slavery, to our descendants. The popgun discharges of a few pathetic sectarians and crackpot revisionists are negligible, and will be drowned by the mounting chorus that demands: ‘Mr Jefferson! BUILD UP THAT WALL’. – Christopher Hitchens

We keep racism alive. We pass it on to our children. I think that is very sad. – Ruby Bridges

We know longer live in a homogenous society, it is not black, white, Asian or Latin, it is a melting pot. Until we learn to assimilate and learn about other cultures, we will continue to have racism problems. Of course, there are other ‘-isms’ as our ills. We have sexism, ageism, elitism, homophobia-ism, there are many -isms we have to overcome. – Octavia Spencer

We know that racism and white privilege are both very much alive today. – Eric Reid

We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Racism is not genetical. It has everything to do with power. – Jane Elliot

We live in a racist world. Everywhere there is racism. We say to White people, “You really have to examine how you behave in the world. You are responsible for deconstructing internalized racism and being part of a ongoing process of decolonizing yourself. – Eve Ensler

We live in a world where racism hasn’t changed at all. It’s that old thing of, you know, the more things change, the more things remain the same. – Joe Morton

We live in a world where sports have the potential to bridge the gap between racism, sexism and discrimination. The 2012 Olympic Games was a great start but hopefully what these games taught us is that if women are given an opportunity on an equal playing field the possibilities for women are endless. – Jackie Joyner-Kersee

We live surrounded by white images, and white in this world is synonymous with the good, light, beauty, success, so that, despite ourselves sometimes, we run after that whiteness and deny our darkness, which has been made into the symbol of all that is evil and inferior. – Paule Marshall

We should have learnt by now that laws and court decisions can only point the way. They can establish criteria of right and wrong. And they can provide a basis for rooting out the evils of bigotry and racism. But they cannot wipe away centuries of oppression and injustice — however much we might desire it. – Hubert Humphrey

We should treat each other better. Why in the hell would you still have racism? This ancient, moronic hatred? Why does our foreign policy have to always involve so much death and so much death of innocent people as a matter of course, to the point to where no one bothers to say anything. I guess a lot of people don’t want to move forward. It’s frustrating at times. – Henry Rollins

We still have to struggle against the impact of racism, but it doesn’t happen in the same way. I think it is much more complicated today than it ever was. – Angela Davis

We talk of regional conflicts, of economic and social crises, of political instability, of abuses of human rights, of racism, religious intolerance, inequalities between rich and poor, hunger, over-population, under-development and. I could go on and on. Each and every one of these impediments to humanity’s pursuit of well-being are also among the root causes of refugee problems. – Poul Hartling

We tend to think of racism as this interpersonal verbal or physical abuse, when in truth, that is only one way that racism manifests itself. The reality of contemporary racism is that it while it is ubiquitous, it is often invisible, subsequently making it more difficult to name and identify. – Clint Smith

We used to be “shiftless and lazy,” now we’re “fearsome and awesome.” I think the black man should take pride in that. – James Earl Jones

We want to believe racism is an artifact of the past, and if you have a political massacre, that contradicts that.Ta-Nehisi Coates

We were in denial about the extent to which Britain had cured itself of the poison of racism. – Nish Kumar

We were made to believe / our faces betrayed us. / Our bodies were loud / with yellow / screaming flesh / needing to be silenced / behind barbed wire. – Janice Mirikitani

We were not talking about the average white person: we was talking about the corporate money rich and the racist jive politicians and the lackeys, as we used to call them, for the government who perpetuate all this exploitation and racism. – Bobby Seale

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. – Martin Luther King, Jr

We will live with racism for ever. But senses of self, senses of belonging, senses of us and of others? Those are up for grabs. – Richard Powers

We would solve a lot of huge problems that are causing massive suffering. Poverty, violence, homophobia, heterosexism, racism, the environment – all these things that are crippling us. We need big, bold, dangerous, crazy ideas to solve these problems. When failure is not an option, innovation and creativity are not options. – Brené Brown

Weakness is what brings ignorance, cheapness, racism, homophobia, desperation, cruelty, brutality, all these things that will keep a society chained to the ground, one foot nailed to the floor. – Henry Rollins

We’d better not speak against misogyny if, in the same breath, we’re not also speaking against transphobia and homophobia and racism and classism and poverty. This is one fight. It always has been. – Glennon Doyle Melton

Welfare now erodes work and family and thus keeps poor people poor. Accompanying welfare is an ideology – sustaining a whole system of federal and state bureaucracies – that also operates to destroy their faith. The ideology takes the form of false theories of discrimination and spurious claims of racism and sexism as the dominant forces in the lives of the poor. – George Gilder

Well, because the Arabs who were involved in 9/11 cooperated with the Zionists, actually. It was a cooperation. They gave them the perfect excuse to denounce all Arabs. It’s a racist sort of thing, really racist – you know, picking out these 19 or 20 terrorists – they were terrorists – and saying all the Arabs are like them.James Abourezk

Well, I’ve been politically involved for a really long time. Growing up in the segregated South, it was a very painful experience for me to live through the open racism of the time.Cybill Shepherd

We’re a social species, and we want to get along with the people we like and who are like us. That’s just good adaptive behaviour. We’re more likely to accept something if we hear it from a friend, whereas we’re sceptical of people who are not like us – which is what leads to racism, nationalism, sexism and all forms of bigotry.Daniel Levitin

We’re doing a bunch of shoots with kids about the election, about politics, about racism. I like to talk about heavy topics with kids because you find out what their parents are feeding them at home, and then you find out their quick reactions to things. It’s so refreshing when kids are so honest. – Chelsea Handler

We’re not a racist organization, because we understand that racism is an excuse used for capitalism, and we know that racism is just – it’s a byproduct of capitalism. – Fred Hampton

We’ve been conditioned to be incredibly avoidant. ‘I’m afraid I’ll be called a racist if I say something wrong,’ is the familiar retort. Well, okay, that’s scary and difficult, but staying silent, avoiding the issue, doesn’t mean that racism goes away. – Marjorie Liu

We’ve come a long way from the days of Jim Crow, and yes, we elected a black president, but racism lives. – Bob Beckel

We’ve got to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system. – Hillary Clinton

We’ve got to stand with those people who are being attacked today, but at the same time, it’s not good enough to say that racism and xenophobia is bad. We’ve got to reach those people today who are so angry, who are so hateful and say, yes, you have a right to be angry, don’t take it out on the Muslims. Work with us to create an agenda and political movement that will make your life better, not just other people’s life worse. – Bernie Sanders

We’ve seen hate groups rise across the country. But we’ve also seen an increase in the average person, who looks like your doctor, your lawyer, your mechanic, your dentists, starting to say the same types of rhetoric. Sometimes it’s a little bit more polished, something the average person who has underlying racism can attach himself to. I’m less concerned about skinheads and Klansmen now than the average person who feels emboldened, and the militia and sovereign-citizen groups who are certainly tied to white supremacist organizations, training in paramilitary camps. – Christian Picciolini

What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice. – Albert Einstein

What age is a black boy when he learns he’s scary? – Jonathan Allen Lethem

What characterized the whole punk scene for me in 1977 was there was no racism or sexism. It was an anarchy of -isms, and a matter of abolishing it all. – Chrissie Hynde

What is it you most dislike? Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition. – Christopher Hitchens

What I’ve always said is that I’m opposed to institutional racism, and I would’ve, had I’ve been alive at the time, I think, had the courage to march with Martin Luther King to overturn institutional racism, and I see no place in our society for institutional racism. – Rand Paul

What stands out to me in America was all the police vs. citizens turmoil. It’s decades of bad policing, bad schooling, racism, bigotry and other factors finally spilling into mainstream culture. I would like to see America evolve on how the laws are enforced on the streets – .Henry Rollins

What surprises me is-even though discrimination against women and racial discrimination still exist, they have improved a lot, especially among artists. And just when I felt I could finally take a break, I encounter the age discrimination. I turned 72 and started noticing a drastic difference in people’s attitudes. I started with racism and sexism in the beginning and fought them so hard and was finally ready to relax. Then, here comes ageism, and I feel like, “Give me a break!” – Yoko Ono

What we have got to do immediately is to say that racism and xenophobia is totally unacceptable and we will stand with the 1 percent of our population who are Muslims, for undocumented people in this country. Absolutely, we will stand. – Bernie Sanders

What would a racist call werewolves? Wargs? She kind of liked that one, but suspected that racist bastards didn’t read Tolkien. – Patricia Briggs

Whatever the color of a man’s skin, we are all mankind. So every denial of freedom, of equal opportunity for a livelihood, or for an education, diminishes me. – Everett Dirksen

Whatever their intentions … eighteenth-century ethnologists opened the way to a secular or scientific racism by considering human beings part of the animal kingdom rather than by viewing them in biblical terms as children of God endowed with spiritual capacities denied to other creatures. – George M. Fredrickson

Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves. – James Baldwin

What’s sometimes called the ‘browning’ of the American Catholic church is very much on the minds of many U.S. bishops – and the pope. Unlike evangelicals who have stayed strong in their support of President Trump, the USCCB knows that it cannot afford to lose their Hispanic and African American population because of a weak stance on racism. – Anthea Butler

What’s wrong with leading the way? We’ve played that role before, after all. We gave the world the secret ballot… that did so much to raise living standards and improve conditions for workers worldwide. We were a leader in extending to women the right to vote. We were barely a nation when we set the bar for bravery and sacrifice by common soldiers in foreign wars. We grew up out of racism and misogyny and homophobia to become a mostly tolerant, successful multicultural society. We did these great things because we know we are in it together. It is our core value as Australians. – Geraldine Brooks

When a black Jacksonian looks about his home community, he sees a city of over 150,000, of which 40% is Negro, in which there is not a single Negro policeman or policewoman, school crossing guard, or fireman. – Medgar Evers

When a black man is stopped by a cop for no apparent reason, that is covert racism. When a black woman shops in a fancy store and is followed by security guards, that is covert racism. It is more subtle than 1960s racism, but it is still racism. – Bob Beckel

When feminism does not explicitly oppose racism, and when anti-racism does not incorporate opposition to patriarchy, race and gender politics often end up being antagonistic to each other, and both interests lose. – Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

When I did a year-long study in 2005 of European countries integrating Muslims into their cultures, France came in the lowest of the rank. Sweden was not far behind, though, which is worrying, as racism in France is much closer to the bone. – Janine di Giovanni

When I go back to Essex, where I grew up, I’m still appalled by the homophobia and casual racism and aggression. I live in Lewisham, in south London, and though it might look a bit rough, it’s a diverse, friendly neighbourhood. – Sara Pascoe

When I moved to London in the 1990s, it had changed a great deal. Racism had become deeply uncool. But there has been a return of racism in the guise of “antiterrorism.” People who look like myself are immediately suspect. I’ve become extremely self-conscious about going into crowded public places. – Pankaj Mishra

When I pitched head foremost into the world I landed in the crib of Negroism. – Zora Neale Hurston

When I think of the standing, the importance and the erudition of all these people who see nothing about racism in Heart of Darkness, I’m convinced that we must really be living in different worlds. – Chinua Achebe

When I was a kid growing up in New York, I was pretty unaware of racism. I think when we’re young – before we lose our innocence – we’re sort of unaware of the more flawed qualities of each other. – Dave Matthews

When I was a kid in Ireland, there were not very many black people. I was very much like the strange brown thing, intriguing and cute. I didn’t experience racism there. The first time I did was in London. It was that moment that you realize you’re black. A kind of lifting of the veil. – Ruth Negga

When I was growing up, I never heard the word ‘racism.’ It was only in Paris I encountered that. – Azzedine Alaia

When I wasn’t famous, I had a lot of friends, almost all of them Italian. The racism only started when I started to play football. – Mario Balotelli

When I wrote ‘The Giver,’ it contained no so-called ‘bad words.’ It was set, after all, in a mythical, futuristic, and Utopian society. Not only was there no poverty, divorce, racism, sexism, pollution, or violence in the world of ‘The Giver’; there was also careful attention paid to language: to its fluency, precision, and power. – Lois Lowry

When is the Democratic Party going to apologize for being the biggest slave-holding-supporting institution on the planet and sticking with racism for the century after the abolition of slavery? – Mark Steyn

When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power to shock. To acknowledge human nature, many think, is to endorse racism, sexism, war, greed, genocide, nihilism, reactionary politics, and neglect of children and the disadvantaged. Any claim that the mind has an innate organization strikes people not as a hypothesis that might be incorrect but as a thought it is immoral to think. – Steven Pinker

When it comes to racism, discrimination, corruption, public lies, dictatorships, and human rights, you have to take a stand as a reporter because I think our responsibility as journalist is to confront those who are abusing power. – Jorge Ramos

When it’s time for the revolution, I’m a click, click, click. – Willie D

When love of one’s people becomes an absolute, it turns into racism. When love of equality turns into a supreme thing, it can result in hatred and violence toward anyone who has led a privileged life. It is the settled tendency of human societies to turn good political causes into counterfeit gods. – Timothy Keller

When one group rules another, the relationship between the two is political. When such an arrangement is carried out over a long period of time it develops an ideology (feudalism, racism, etc.). All historical civilizations are patriarchies: their ideology is male supremacy. – Kate Millett

When one in three Black men are in prison, those larger systemic injustices become a part of what it means to love our neighbor as ourself. We care about dismantling institutional racism. That begins in relationships when you see injustice happen. – Shane Claiborne

When people are not sure about their future, when their economies are suffering, when their personal fortunes are flagging, we have often in this country turned to nativism and xenophobia and racism and anti-immigrant sensibilities and passions to express our sense of outrage at what we can’t control – and to forge a kind of fitful solidarity that turns out to be rather insular – we look inward and not outward. – Michael Eric Dyson

When people like me, they tell me it is in spite of my colour. When they dislike me, they point out that it is not because of my colour. – Frantz Fanon

When people today say ‘racism,’ they mean it’s a nationalism they don’t like. Racialism used to be a good thing, a looking-out for what was best for one group… Israel comes out of that 19th-century idea of nationalism. Many Arab states also have preferences. It’s fundamentally unfair to decide that one is racism and the others aren’t. – Ian Lustick

When someone else’s safety and acceptance in society is on the line, your personal discomfort comes in a very distant second. – Courtney Milan

When we look at that jingoism and the sexism and the racism and the homophobia, that’s not who we are, and that’s not the country that I want my daughter to grow up in. – Chelsea Clinton

When we’re unemployed, we’re called lazy; when the whites are unemployed it’s called a depression. – Jesse Jackson

When white and black meet today, sometimes there is a ready understanding that there has been an encounter between two human beings. But often there is only, or chiefly, an awareness that Two Colors are in the room. – Gwendolyn Brooks

When you discriminate against anyone, you discriminate against everyone. – Alan Dershowitz

When you discuss racism, it’s almost a no-win scenario – but I don’t think that means we shouldn’t be discussing it. – Brad Paisley

When you look at the Justice Department’s report talking about the Ferguson Police Department’s rampant pattern of discrimination and its excessive use of force against African-American citizens, it’s hard to try to rationalize how this cesspool of racism doesn’t spill over onto the individual officers. – Benjamin Crump

When you’re young, your world is pretty limited. My parents, my family, my church dominated my world. And because Birmingham was so segregated, I didn’t really have to encounter the slings and arrows of racism on a daily basis. Obviously, from time to time I did, like when my parents took me to see Santa Claus and he wasn’t letting black children sit on his knee. But my parents tried to insulate me as much as they could. – Condoleezza Rice

When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. But when you’re right, you’re wrong anyhow. – Bayard Rustin

Whenever someone accuses someone of being a racist – which is rare, you have to admit, considering how much racism there is – there is an incredible outrage. I realized that we live in an environment that it seems to be worse to call someone a racist than to be one. – Fran Lebowitz

Wherever black people are in America, criminalization exists. Wherever there is a white-dominant space, deep racism exists as well – no matter how progressive. If you cut too far into that progressive, if you do something that’s too radical, white racism will emerge. – Patrisse Cullors

Whether it is tribalism, racism, xenophobia, or anti-Muslim backlash we’re talking about, we spend so much time and energy fighting ways to divide ourselves from others. – Loretta Lynch

Whether that’s racism, whether it’s bigotry, whether it’s gender inequality – whatever it is, it’s all stemming from “me against you.” And, like, how do you stop it? I just want to do my little part in helping try to stop it. – Draymond Green

While having friends of color is better than not having them, it doesn’t change the overall system or prevent racism from surfacing in our relationships. The societal default is white superiority, and we are fed a steady diet of it 24/7. To not actively seek to interrupt racism is to internalize and accept it. – Robin DiAngelo

While I was able to pass as white as soon as I came to America, this was not really possible while I was growing up, as it was pretty obvious that I wasn’t ‘all German.’ So my privilege was that in America, I could conveniently withhold one of my bloodlines and avoid racism and discrimination. That is not a privilege most people of color have. – Lexi Alexander

While individual whites may be against racism, they still benefit from the distribution of resources controlled by their group. – Robin DiAngelo

While the old spiritual ‘Slavery Chain Done Broke at Last’ was sung by blacks in the hours following the Appomattox surrender, racism sadly continues to be a crippling national scourge. – Douglas Brinkley

While white women and men of color also experience discrimination, all too often their experiences are taken as the only point of departure for all conversations about discrimination. Being front and center in conversations about racism or sexism is a complicated privilege that is often hard to see. – Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

White folks still in the lead. – Louis Armstrong

White folks was in the caves while we [blacks] was building empires … We built pyramids before Donald Trump ever knew what architecture was … we taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it. – Al Sharpton

White hate crimes, white hate speech. I still try to claim I wasn’t brought up to hate. But hate isn’t the half of it. I grew up in the vast encircling presumption of whiteness – that primary quality of being which knows itself, its passions, only against an otherness that has to be dehumanized. I grew up in white silence that was utterly obsessional. Race was the theme whatever the topic. – Adrienne Rich

White people are so unappreciative, they don’t even acknowledge and understand what it means to be white in Canada, and all the layers of privilege that come with that. So they’re shocked when somebody says, ‘What just happened is racist,’ and they said, ‘Oh no, couldn’t possibly be.’ They see racism as people with KKK gowns and pointy hoods with eyes cut out. And we had those too. – Constance Backhouse

White people don’t like to believe that they practice identity politics. The defining part of being white in America is the assumption that, as a white person, you are a regular, individual human being. Other demographic groups set themselves apart, to pursue their distinctive identities and interests and agendas. Whiteness, to white people, is the American default. – Tom Scocca

White people must speak out against black racism, no matter where it rears its ugly head. – Jesse Lee Peterson

White privilege is the other side of racism. – Paula Rothenberg

White privilege is the other side of racism. Unless we name it, we are in danger of wallowing in guilt or moral outrage with no idea of how to move beyond them. It is often easier to deplore racism and its effects than to take responsibility for the privileges some of us receive as a result of it… Once we understand how white privilege operates, we can begin to take steps to dismantle it on both a personal and institutional level. – Paula Rothenberg

Whites must be made to realize that they are only human, not superior. Same with blacks. They must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior. – Steve Biko

Whites often respond defensively when linked to other whites as a group or ‘accused’ of collectively benefiting from racism, because as individuals, each white person is ‘different’ from any other white person and expects to be seen as such. – Robin DiAngelo

Whites who otherwise were able to tolerate a black president, Obama, because on certain issues he appealed to them on substance, Trump was able to reach down into some of those same people and pull out this racism inside them. – Allan Nairn

Who are you without your girls? I truly believe that. Who are you without the people who help you make sense of the misogyny, the racism, the economic struggle, all of it? You need those people saying you’re a good mom, a great writer. You’re a great dresser. You cook well. Whatever the beauty is that you need to hear. – Jacqueline Woodson

Who’s counting? It was, of course, the minority who were counting. It always is. Most of the women I know today would dearly like to use their fingers and toes for some activity more enthralling than counting. They have been counting for so long. But the peculiar problem of the new math is that every time we stop adding, somebody starts subtracting. At the very least (the advanced students will understand this) the rate of increase slows. … The minority members of any group or profession have two answers: They can keep score or they can lose. – Ellen Goodman

Why can’t we have racism that’s ignorant but nice? You could have stereotypes that are positive about race. You could say, “Those Chinese people, they can fly!” “You know about the Puerto Ricans? They’re made of candy!” – Louis C. K.

Why don’t we hear more about and from Asians when it comes to race in America? Are Asians the new Invisible Man – there but not there? In some ways, yeah. Blacks and whites are always carping about the metrics of racism. And any conversation about immigration reform is immediately flipped into a referendum on Hispanics. – John Ridley

Why is it so difficult for many white folks to understand that racism is oppressive not because white folks have prejudicial feelings about blacks (they could have such feelings and leave us alone) but because it is a system that promotes domination and subjugation? – Bell Hooks

Why should we think nudity is such a revolting thing in a land where there is so much violence and corruption and racism and hatred? Nudity seems like a welcome relief from all the bullshit in life. – Anthony Kiedis

Willow trees are kind, Dear God. They will not bear a body on their limbs. – Alice Dunbar Nelson

Within the context of the clubs, and perhaps the sex business as a whole, the issue of race becomes very complicated because you can’t force someone to pay for something – or someone – that they don’t want, whether their desire – or lack thereof – is motivated by racism or not. – Craig Seymour

Without centuries of Christian antisemitism, Hitlers passionate hatred would never have been so fervently echoed.Robert Runcie

Women are dirt searchers; their greatest worth is eradicating rings on collars and tables. Never mind real-estate boards’ corruption and racism, here’s your soapsuds. Everything she is doing is peripheral, expendable, crucial, and non-negotiable. Cleanliness is next to godliness. – Florynce Kennedy

Writing about racism requires a directness that writing a love story does not. – Vivek Shraya

Yeah, race exists. Racism is still here, and it’s doing well. Turn on the news. I don’t think me and my comedy can really change that. – Tracy Morgan

Yes, for blacks, racism functions without the actual presence of whites, just as for whites it functions without the actual presence of blacks! Beliefs, conventions, history do the work. – Margo Jefferson

Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another, and so on. – Scott Woods

Yes, there is racism. There is discrimination. Mr. Trump may have the most powerful job in the world, but that does not make him a respectful person. – Carmen Yulin Cruz

You and I both know, deep in your heart, you agree with me. And I will prove it with one hypothetical scenario: you are alone in a closet of your home. There’s a bright red button. You can push that button and presto all Negroes and Jews and all other colored people are instantly removed from the North American continent and returned to their native countries. You’d push it, wouldn’t you whitey? See? See? See? in the final analysis, you agree with me. But of course, you wouldn’t do anything to bring that scenario about, or any other scenario favorable to your Race. – Frazier Glenn Miller

You cannot appease fascism by meeting it in the middle; you cannot beat racism by indulging or excusing it. – Mehdi Hasan

You cannot be responsible for Jim Crow. You can not be responsible for racism. This is much more a problem for the person exercising racism.You are confronted with the reality of racism when you go in the streets, when the eyes of others come upon you. [James] Baldwin goes back with you to all the experiences you went through and gives a name to them, and explains why it is like this. – Raoul Peck

You can’t delete racism. It’s like a cigarette. You can’t stop smoking if you don’t want to, and you can’t stop racism if people don’t want to. But I’ll do everything I can to help. – Mario Balotelli

You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree. – Malcolm X

You could feel America starting to ease up a little bit on racism, against blacks in certain pockets, and then suddenly The Cosby Show bubbled up and it was the right time for it. – Adam McKay

You expect to cop a bit wherever you go. In the past there hasn’t been any racism or any racist comments that I’ve seen. I’m expecting a tough time, as we get everywhere we go, but racism hasn’t been a problem before. – Glenn McGrath

You face racism in small and large ways. – Jayson Blair

You factor in racism as a reality and you keep moving. – Jewell Jackson McCabe

You get racism crossing the street; it’s in the very fabric of American society. – Nina Simone

You grow up and recognise that in an educated, secular society, there’s no excuse for ignorance. You have to recognise in yourself, and challenge yourself, that if you see racism or homophobia or misogyny in a secular society, as a member of that society, you should challenge it. You owe it to the betterment of society. – Hozier

You had eight years before President Trump, a situation where the opposition party basically ran in opposition to the president on a platform of thinly based racism. That doesn’t mean that the politicians themselves were outright racist, but when charges of birtherism came up, no one repudiated it. – Ta-Nehisi Coates

You have to assess every situation that you’re in and you have to decide, is this happening because I’m black? Is this happening because I’m a woman? Or is this happening because this is how it happens? – Charlayne Hunter-Gault

You have to be in accountable relationships across race. Accountable means that they’re authentic, they’re sustained, and that you do talk about racism, and you are able to be given feedback. – Robin DiAngelo

You have to decide what those issues are for you. What do you think disqualifies a person from holding public office? I believe that the endorsement of the right to kill unborn children disqualifies a person from any position of public office. It’s simply the same as saying that the endorsement of racism, fraud, or bribery, would disqualify him – except that child-killing is more serious than those. – John Piper

You have to look beyond race because as a human being you have to experience the person from the inside first. – Henrik Edward Larsson

you have to realize the white-supremacy boys are spoiled children. ‘I want my way,’ they scream, and like all spoiled children, they advance no justification for it except that it is their way. – Margaret Halsey

You have to talk about the issue of race, but I can talk to white constituents about racism, if I at least acknowledge that life is not a crystal stair for them either. – Keith Ellison

You have two choices, two paths to take as a comedian. You can tackle the difficult subjects and be harsh about it, be brash, be abrasive. But adding hatred to racism is not going to help everybody. So I like to have fun around it. – Trevor Noah

You know what? As a black person, you see so much racism. Films are no different than the government, politics – it’s everywhere. It’s not exclusively film. It’s infuriating to see it in film. But my being in film changes things. – Elvis Mitchell

You know, my goal is not to convince you that I’m right or that you’re wrong. About homophobia. Gun violence. Racism. Whatever the issue. I’m really trying hard with you – and others – to have a respectful discussion, debate about these issues. – Steven Petrow

You might not agree with something, but it doesn’t mean you don’t need to listen to it. White people have to accept that they don’t always know about racism. – Kamau Bell

You mix the affluence of the white and the poverty of the black and you do not get a civilized society. Integration on an equal level is one thing. Mixing on an unequal level is another. – Marya Mannes

You never really saw the racism in Europe in the past because it was so homogeneous. When everyone is blonde and blue-eyed, you don’t see racism. But as soon as there was the beginnings of immigration, it just came out very dramatically. – Noam Chomsky

You should always be prepared to win. But as much as I tell myself that, I’ve accepted another kind of role. Racism undercuts expectation, something like that. I’m not saying that to excuse myself from anything, but I’ve lived all this time, and things don’t happen. – Ruby Dee

You’d never know that listening to people in the UN but tribalism is the father of racism. – Stanley Crouch

Young black men are guilty of criminal behavior not because of the alleged crimes they might commit but because they are the product of a collective imagination paralyzed by the racism of a white supremacist culture they can only view them as a dangerous nightmare. – Henry Giroux

Your decision to place your law enforcement resources in these communities is racism, but nobody has called people out on this. The law itself is not racist. But people’s decision about where we’re going to place our efforts, who we’re going to prosecute, who we’re not going to prosecute, is racism. And nobody’s calling them on it. – Carl Hart

Fighting Against Racism

As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you’re going to be a second-rate artist. I don’t mean there’s never any overlap. You learn things in one area and bring them into another area. But giving a speech against racism is not the same as writing a novel. The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you’re opposed to it. But when you’re writing a novel, you don’t want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view. – Margaret Atwood

At times we feel wounded, hurt, disappointed, disgusted, resentful, sick of it all. At other times we feel skeptical, outraged, robbed, beaten. We chafe, hate, overlook. Then again we feel like ignoring, defying and fighting for every right that belongs to us as human beings. – Nannie Helen Burroughs

Black Lives Matter was created as a response to state violence and anti-black racism and a call to action for those who want to fight it and build a world where black lives do, in fact, matter. – Alicia Garza

Education is the key solution for change, for peace, and for help in the fight against racism and discrimination in general. – Clarence Seedorf

I came from a war-torn country and I was a victim of that racism because within tribes, within political lines, people were fighting. The first thing that I like to fight is racism because I know what it means, how it destroys the fabric of my society, of my wellbeing. – Pearl Tan

I fight against racism and bigotry because I care about the people who are experiencing it. – Shaun King

I have not been animated in my life to fight against race and sex discrimination simply because of my own identity. That would mean that one must be South African to fight apartheid, or a poor white in Appalachia to fight poverty, or Jewish to fight anti-Semitism. And I just reject that conception of how struggles should be waged. – Eleanor Holmes Norton

I have suffered racial prejudice, and I know how painful it is. People need to take this issue more seriously and engage in this fight against racism. – Roberto Firmino

I think what I came through is great, but my son can take it to another level, not having to fight racism. His mother’s a Norwegian and I’m mixed up four or five times, so he can face the world. – James Brown

I want some help on this. I’m being very honest, i want some ideas, as somebody who was arrested 50 years ago fighting for Civil Rights trying to desegregate schools in Chicago, who spent his whole life fighting against racism, I want your ideas. What do you think we can do? What can we do? – Bernie Sanders

My instinct was that it was Sidney’s childhood in the Bahamas that gave him the fearlessness to fight racism. So this documentary was a kind of rounding out of what had begun in that scene in In the Heat of the Night. – Lee Grant

Of course, intersectionality theory is a confused muddle. It fights racism and sexism by classifying everyone according to race and sex. It views race and gender privilege as the root of all evil, while ignoring the role played by dogmatic ideologies held by all genders. And it is unfalsifiable – to its adherents, criticism and rejection of the theory actually demonstrate its truth, by showing how deeply we all have internalized our oppression. – Christina Hoff Sommers

Punk rock seemed to make sense. I was listening to The Clash and I really loved their social messages and they have a great history of fighting racism. – Justin Sane

Racism is a global problem and it is as damaging to Whites as it is to non-Whites. Everyone must fight against it. – Roger Ross Williams

Racism is a human problem and a crime that is absolutely so ghastly that a person who is fighting racism is well within his rights to fight against it by any means necessary until it is eliminated. – Malcolm X

The fight for freedom is combined with the fight for equality, and we must realize that this is the fight for America – not just black America but all America. – James Farmer

We have a duty to face racism and to fight it. – Kevin-Prince Boateng

We have laws on the books. If somebody’s discriminating against you, I strongly advocate suing them. That’s the most effective thing you can do in terms of fighting racism. People understand that they’re vulnerable to lawsuit. – Shelby Steele

We have to bridge and join our struggles and understand how we can’t fight violence against women without looking at racism, we can’t fight violence against women without looking at economic deprivation or climate change. All these struggles are interconnected. – Eve Ensler

We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism. – Huey Newton

We must fight intolerance, racism and the far-Right. – David Lagercrantz

We must put an end to the corruption and systemic racism in our justice system, and that starts by electing progressive district attorneys who will fight for real justice across the country. – Shaun King

We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity. We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism. – Fred Hampton

We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity. – Fred Hampton

When I played for Ghana, I learned how to fight malaria. Simple vaccines are not enough. You also have to dry out infected areas where the carriers proliferate. I think that racism and malaria have a lot in common. – Kevin-Prince Boateng

You don’t fight fire with fire. You fight fire with water. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity. We’re not gonna fight capitalism with Black capitalism. We’re gonna fight capitalism with socialism. Socialism is the people. If you’re afraid of socialism, you’re afraid of yourself. – Fred Hampton

You don’t fight racism with racism, the best way to fight racism is with solidarity. – Bobby Seale

love one another

End Racism

End Racism

[I] educate people to be kinder to each other, and to other life-forms. There has been racism, sexism and now there is ‘species-ism.’ People think that they are better than other creatures. – Alicia Silverstone

A rattlesnake, if cornered will become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is – a biting of oneself. We think we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves. – E. Stanley Jones

A vision of cultural homogeneity that seeks to deflect attention away from or even excuse the oppressive, dehumanizing impact of white supremacy on the lives of black people by suggesting black people are racist too indicates that the culture remains ignorant of what racism really is and how it works. It shows that people are in denial. Why is it so difficult for many white folks to understand that racism is oppressive not because white folks have prejudicial feelings about blacks (they could have such feelings and leave us alone) but because it is a system that promotes domination and subjugation? – Bell Hooks, Killing Rage: Ending Racism

A white person listens to my act and he laughs and he thinks, ‘Yeah, that’s the way I see it too.’ Okay. He’s white. I’m Negro. And we both see things the same way. That must mean that we are alike….. So I figure I’m doing as much for good race relations as the next guy. – Bill Cosby

Accomplishments have no color. – Leontyne Price

Achievement has no color. – Abraham Lincoln

Affirmative action is the most important modern anti-discrimination technique ever instituted in the United States. It is the one tool that has had a demonstrable effect on discrimination. No one who knows anything about the subject would say it hasn’t worked. It has certainly done something, or else it wouldn’t have provoked so much opposition. – Eleanor Holmes Norton

All human beings bear God’s image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one’s being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination. – Bishop John Shelby Spong

An intensive human rights education for all communities needs to be provided to overcome the old prejudices. – Ruth Manorama         

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding. – Mahatma Gandhi

Anti-Semitism has no historical, political and certainly no philosophical origins. Anti-Semitism is a disease. – Daniel Barenboim

Antisemitism is just another form of racism. It’s the same sickness, whether it’s about Christians, about Islamophobia, which is horrible. It’s all wrong. It’s all the same. – Russell Simmons

As believers we all have an opportunity and moral obligation to recognize our spiritual common ground; to rise above our differences; to combat prejudice and intolerance. – Queen Noor of Jordan

As long as you hate, there will be people to hate. – George Harrison

At the heart of the problem is the fact that the United States is a racially divided nation where extreme racial inequalities continue to persist. – Robert Bullard

Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth. – Edwin Hubbell Chapin

Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both. – Thomas Jefferson

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd. – Bertrand Russell

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. –  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Despite the threat of global terror hanging over all of us, there is only one path: to pursue the Millennium Development Goals with fresh resolve –confronting violence, bigotry and hatred with the same determination that we attack the causes from which they spring – conflict, ignorance, poverty and disease. The world we seek, where every child can grow to adulthood in health, peace and dignity – in short, a world fit for children – has remained a dream for more years than we can count. But we at UNICEF are convinced that working together with committed partners, and with an appropriate plan of action and a commitment to resources, we can make that dream a reality for each and every child on earth. – Carol Bellamy

Don’t be a racist. Be like the panda. They’re black, white and Asian. – Anonymous

Education is the key solution for change, for peace, and for help in the fight against racism and discrimination in general. –  Clarence Seedorf

End Racism Day … is a perfect opportunity to help our communities celebrate human unity and the diversity of the human race rather than allow our differences to become an excuse for racial separation. – Robert Alan Silverstein

End Racism Day, officially known as The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, is a perfect opportunity to help our communities celebrate human unity and the diversity of the human race rather than allow our differences to become an excuse for racial separation. It’s a chance to recognize prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination in our society, and how each of us may have our own prejudices and may be making people feel excluded without our even realizing it. It’s a chance to reaffirm our commitment to eliminate all forms of discrimination and help create communities and societies where all citizens can live in dignity, equality and peace. – Robert Alan Silverstein

Every artist, every scientist, must decide now where he stands. He has no alternative. There is no standing above the conflict on Olympian heights. There are no impartial observers. Through the destruction, in certain countries, of the greatest of man’s literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of racial and national superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged. The struggle invades the formerly cloistered halls of our universities and other seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. And I saw, too, that the struggle for Negro rights was an inseparable part of the anti-fascist struggle and I said: The artist must elect to fight for Freedom or for Slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative. – Paul Robeson

Every day we all make mistakes ourselves, but, and we all sometimes have some…harbor some prejudices and all, but we have to know in our heart it’s wrong. And we all want to remember that we are connected. And that any kind of racism is wrong. – Russell Simmons

Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. – Oprah Winfrey

Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin. – Wendell Wilkie

Grassroots groups challenge the business-as-usual environmentalism that is generally practiced by the more privileged wildlife-and conservation-oriented groups. The focus of activists of color and their constituents reflects their life experiences of social, economic, and political disenfranchisement. – Robert Bullard

Hating people because of their color is wrong and it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just wrong. – Muhammad Ali

How I wish we lived in a time when laws were not necessary to safeguard us from discrimination. – Barbra Streisand

I am going to stop calling you a white man and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. – Morgan Freeman

I believe all Americans who believe in freedom, tolerance and human rights have a responsibility to oppose bigotry and prejudice… – Coretta Scott King

I do believe that part of us ending racism is us seeing each other’s humanity and learning to love each other, even if we look different or worship differently or live differently. – John Legend

I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don’t think there is anything such as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you’re happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven’t reached that stage yet. – Rosa Parks

I feel closer to my country than ever. There is no longer a feeling of lonesome isolation. Instead -peace. I return without fearing prejudice that once bothered me . . . for I know that people practice cruel bigotry in their ignorance, not maliciously – Paul Robeson

I hate racial discrimination most intensely and all its manifestations. I have fought all my life; I fight now, and will do so until the end of my days. Even although I now happen to be tried by one, whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest most violently the set-up that surrounds me here. It makes me feel that I am a Black man in a White man’s court. This should not be I should feel perfectly at ease and at home with the assurance that I am being tried by a fellow South African, who does not regard me as an inferior, entitled to a special type of justice. – Nelson Mandela

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. – Martin Luther King

I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse. – Mark Twain

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. – James Baldwin

I know we can’t abolish prejudice through laws, but we can set up guidelines for our actions by legislation. – Belva Ann Lockwood

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality…. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. – Martin Luther King, Jr

I refuse to allow prejudice to defeat me. – Dionne Warwick

I resolutely believe that respect for diversity is a fundamental pillar in the eradication of racism, xenophobia and intolerance. There is no excuse for evading the responsibility of finding the most suitable path toward the elimination of any expression of discrimination against indigenous peoples. – Rigoberta Menchu

I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to. – Alice Walker

I want to reach young women and to get them involved in the mission of the YWCA, economic empowerment of women and girls, and ending racism. – Patricia Ireland

If blaming can solve this racism problem, then blame on. The fact of the matter is, blaming does nothing but to perpetuate the cycle of hate among each other. – Anonymous

If only closed minds come with closed mouth. – Anonymous

If parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out
If you as parents cut corners, your children will too. If you lie, they will too. If you spend all your money on yourselves and tithe no portion of it for charities, colleges, churches, synagogues, and civic causes, your children won’t either. And if parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out. – Marian Wright Edelman

If the moderates of the white South fail to act now, history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

If tolerance, respect and equity permeate family life, they will translate into values that shape societies, nations and the world. – Kofi Annan

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything … that smacks of discrimination or slander. – Mary McLeod Bethune

If we talk about the environment, for example, we have to talk about environmental racism – about the fact that kids in South Central Los Angeles have a third of the lung capacity of kids in Santa Monica. – Danny Glover

If you judge people you have no time to love them. – Mother Teresa

If you want to address racial disparity in the juvenile justice system, everybody has to have a role in it. Everybody has some responsibility. – James Bell

I’m in favor of everything with regards to ending institutional racism. – Rand Paul

In this century of knowledge, being racist only proves how low in society you really are. – Anonymous

It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity not to teach your child to hate. –  James Baldwin

It is a good moment to repeat that a war is never won. Never mind that history books tell us the opposite. The psychological and material costs of war are so high that any triumph is a pyrrhic victory. Only peace can be won and winning peace means not only avoiding armed conflict but finding ways of eradicating the causes of individual and collective violence: injustice and oppression, ignorance and poverty, intolerance and discrimination. We must construct a new set of values and attitudes to replace the culture of war which, for centuries, has been influencing the course of civilization. Winning peace means the triumph of our pledge to establish, on a democratic basis, a new social framework of tolerance and generosity from which no one will feel excluded. – Federico Mayor

It is never too late to give up our prejudices. – Henry David Thoreau

I’ve been in this struggle for many years now. I understand racism. I understand that there are a lot of people in this country who don’t care about the problems of the inner city. We have to fight every day that we get up for every little thing that we get. And so I keep struggling. – Maxine Waters

I’ve written 18 books, mostly dealing with issues of social justice, ending racism, feminism, and cultural criticism. – Bell Hooks

Jingoism, racism, fear, religious fundamentalism: these are the ways of appealing to people if you’re trying to organize a mass base of support for policies that are really intended to crush them. – Noam Chomsky

Laundry is the only thing that should be separated by color. – Anonymous

Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us. – Marianne Williamson

Man has but little heeded the advice of the wise men. He has been – fatefully, if not willingly – less virtuous, less constant, less rational, less peaceful than he knows how to be, than he is fully capable of being. He has been led astray from the ways of peace and brotherhood by his addiction to concepts and attitudes of narrow nationalism, racial and religious bigotry, greed and lust for power. – Ralph J. Bunche       

My answer to those who oppose my appointment as CEO is that this is really a decision of the YWCA. They want to strengthen their grassroots to advocate on behalf of women’s and children’s empowerment and ending racism. – Patricia Ireland

My work cuts through racial, class, geographic, and ethnic separations to directly connect to the heart, mind, and emotion with people. – Lily Yeh

No matter your social status or how powerful you feel you are, we are all equal. We came here by birth and will leave in death. – Anonymous

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love for love comes more naturally to human heart than its opposite. – Nelson Mandela

No racism! We all have been white. – Anonymous

Nobody could have said it better than Morgan freeman. Stop judging a person until you get to know him or her. The definition of racism – the belief that all members of each race ( any race, not just white) possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. – Anonymous

Non-violence can truly flourish when the world is free of poverty, hunger, discrimination, exclusion, intolerance and hatred – when women and men can realize their highest potential and live a secure and fulfilling life. Until then, each and every one of us would have to contribute – collectively and individually – to build peace through non-violence. – Anwarul Chowdhury

Not all police are bad. Not all black people are criminals, not all white people are racist. – Anonymous

O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand. – William Penn

Our goal is to have a country that’s not divided by race. – Barack Obama

Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples. – Rigoberta Menchu

Peace does not fare well where poverty and deprivation reign. It does not flourish where there is ignorance and a lack of education and information. Repression, injustice and exploitation are inimical with peace. Peace is gravely threatened by inter-group fear and envy and by the unleashing of unrealistic expectations. Racial, class and religious intolerance and prejudice are its mortal enemies. – Frederik W. de Klerk

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. – Maya Angelou

Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction, homelessness, a weapon of mass destruction… racism, a weapon of mass destruction, fear, a weapon of mass destruction. We must disarm these weapons and renew our commitment to quality public schools and dedicated teachers and good housing and quality health care and decent jobs and stronger neighborhoods. – Dennis Kucinich

Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom. – Merry Browne

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible. – Maya Angelou

Race is the great taboo in our society. We are afraid to talk about it. White folks fear their unspoken views will be deemed racist. People of color are filled with sorrow and rage at unrighted wrongs. Drowning in silence, we are brothers and sisters drowning each other. Once we decide to transform ourselves from fearful caterpillars into courageous butterflies, we will be able to bridge the racial gulf and move forward together towards a bright and colorful future. – Eva Paterson

Racism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it’s perhaps far more terrible than it’s ever been. – Angela Davis

Racism is a social disease that thrives on willful ignorance. –  Tim McGettigan and Earl Smith, A Formula for Eradicating Racism

Racism is a social-psychological disorder with an appalling mortality rate. –  Tim McGettigan and Earl Smith, A Formula for Eradicating Racism

Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make. – Ruth Fulton Benedict

Racism is cruel and unjust. It cuts deep and lingers long in individual and community memories. And it is not a thing of the past….We all have a duty to do what we can to turn this around. – William Deane

Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome. –  Rosa Parks

Racism is the refuge for the ignorants. – Anonymous

Racism isn’t born, folks, it’s taught. I have a two-year-old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list. –  Denis Leary

Racism isn’t born, it’s taught! – Anonymous

Racism must be fought – there are no two ways about it. – Marine Le Pen

Right-wing propagandists like Limbaugh and Coulter are essentially entertainers, entertainers who stimulate prejudice, selfishness and meanness the way a comedian works for laughs or a tragedian plays for tears. Theirs is a new art form, exclusive to America and bewilderingly successful. In place of traditional conservative ideology, they offer their audience partisan belligerence and a complete package of mail-order hatreds, designed for the conceptually and ethically impaired. – Hal Crowther

Several million Sarvodaya adherents in Sri Lanka have proved that they can transcend racial, religious, linguistic and ethnic barriers to accept a common state of ideals, principles, and constructive programs to build a new society as collectively envisioned by them. – Dr. Ari Ariyaratne

Sexual, racial, gender violence and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture. – Charlotte Bunch

Sometimes I feel like rap music is almost the key to stopping racism. – Eminem

The best way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. –  John Roberts

The exploitation of women, mass hunger, disregard for freedom of conscience and for freedom of speech, widespread and racial discrimination – all these evils are far too prevalent to be overlooked. – René Samuel Cassin

The greatest problem in the world today is intolerance. –  Princess Diana

The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people’s expense, whether whites know/like it or not. Racism is an insidious cultural disease. It is so insidious that it doesn’t care if you are a white person who likes black people; it’s still going to find a way to infect how you deal with people who don’t look like you. Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another. And so on. So while I agree with people who say no one is born racist, it remains a powerful system that we’re immediately born into. It’s like being born into air: you take it in as soon as you breathe. It’s not a cold that you can get over. There is no anti-racist certification class. It’s a set of socioeconomic traps and cultural values that are fired up every time we interact with the world. It is a thing you have to keep scooping out of the boat of your life to keep from drowning in it. I know it’s hard work, but it’s the price you pay for owning everything. – Scott Woods

The ugliness of bigotry stands in direct contradiction to the very meaning of America. – Hubert Humphrey

The United States of America is a nation where people are not united because of those three glaring frailties: racism, injustices and inequities. – Yuri Kochiyama

The way you start to break down systemic racism is to start building individual relationships with people who are not like you. – Killer Mike

This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labour in which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism. – Gloria Steinem

To exclude groups of people because of their faith, this isn’t worthy of the free state in which we live. It isn’t compatible with our essential values. And its humanly reprehensible, xenophobia, racism, extremism have no place here. We are fighting to ensure that they don’t have a place elsewhere either. – Angela Merkel

To finish building the free society dreamed of by Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, we must draw upon the resources of the enlightened imagination, which can be systematically developed by the spiritual sciences of India and Tibet. We have not yet tamed our own demons of racism, nationalism, sexism, and materialism. We have not yet made peace with a land we took by force and have only partly paid for. We are a teeming conglomeration of people from different tribes who have yet to embrace fully the humanness in one another. And none of us can be really free until all of us are. – Robert Thurman    

Unconditional love will have the final word in reality. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Violence is destroying us. You know, we’re seeing violence growing every day in our streets, in our homes, in our towns, in our cities, in the world itself. Everywhere we turn, we see violence and hate and prejudice and anger and all of these negative emotions that are destroying humanity. And we have to wake up and take note of this and try to change our course, so that we can create a world of peace and harmony where future generations can live happily together. – Arun Gandhi

We all bleed the same color. – Anonymous

We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism. – Rigoberta Menchu

We continue to confront racism from our past and our present, which is why we must hold everyone, from the highest offices to our own families, accountable for racist words and deeds and call racism what it is – wrong. – Stacey Abrams

We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate hem. – Charles Caleb Colton

We have ancient habits to deal with, vast structures of power, indescribably complicated problems to solve. But unless we abdicate our humanity altogether and succumb to fear and impotence in the presence of the weapons we have ourselves created, it is as possible and as urgent to put an end to war and violence between nations as it is to put an end to poverty and racial injustice. – Martin Luther King, Jr

We have been basically persuaded that we should not talk about racism. – Angela Davis

We have come a long way in America because of Martin Luther King, Jr. He led a disciplined, nonviolent revolution under the rule of law, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas. We’ve come a long way, but we still have a distance to go before all of our citizens embrace the idea of a truly interracial democracy, what I like to call the Beloved Community, a nation at peace with itself. – John R. Lewis

We have to build things that we want to see accomplished, in life and in our country, based on our own personal experiences … to make sure that others … do not have to suffer the same discrimination. – Patsy Mink

We must acknowledge that issues like systemic racism, economic inequality, and the achievement gap are the result of manmade policies. – Ayanna Pressley

We must confront our own racism. Discriminatory housing and employment policies are nothing more than institutionalised racism. – Tariq Ramadan

We must continue to insist to our better off brothers and sisters that they are in the same racial boat as their less better off kin. Even elevated class status and superior financial standing cannot ward off the effects and consequences of racism. – Michael Eric Dyson

We must heal the divisions caused by intolerance and bigotry. – Janet Reno

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. – Martin Luther King Jr.

We must never remain silent in the face of bigotry. We must condemn those who seek to divide us. In all quarters and at all times, we must teach tolerance and denounce racism, anti-Semitism and all ethnic or religious bigotry wherever they exist as unacceptable evils. We have no place for haters in America — none, whatsoever. – Ronald Reagan

We must overcome…all forms of racism. The problem of intolerance should be dealt with as a whole: every time a minority is persecuted and marginalized…the good of the whole society is in danger. – Pope Francis

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentors, not the tormented Wherever anyone is persecuted for their race or political views, that place must become the center of the universe. – Elie Wiesel

We must treat the disease of racism. This means we must understand the disease. – Sargent Shriver

We need to make sure that we have an honest, honest conversation and that we engage honest practices around how racism operates in this country. It’s not just about people being mean to each other. – Alicia Garza

We need to organize ourselves and protest against existing order – against war, against economic and sexual exploitation, against racism, etc. But to organize ourselves in such a way that means correspond to the ends, and to organize ourselves in such a way as to create kind of human relationship that should exist in future society. That would mean to organize ourselves without centralize authority, without charismatic leader, in a way that represents in miniature the ideal of the future egalitarian society. – Howard Zinn

We need to raise our sons more like our daughters. We need to relieve them of this burden of the idea that to be masculine they have to be superior, which is what they get addicted to, and why both racism and sexism are crimes that I call superiority crimes. – Gloria Steinem

We need to realize that we have a role to play in overcoming our own discrimination which is sometimes very subtly held… – Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia

We need to recognize that racism has never been subtle, though it has gone underreported. – Ilhan Omar

We often think of peace as the absence of war; that if the powerful countries would reduce their arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds – our prejudices, fears, and ignorance. Even if we transported all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the reasons for bombs would still be here, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we would make new bombs. Seek to become more aware of what causes anger and separation, and what overcomes them. Root out the violence in your life, and learn to live compassionately and mindfully. – Thich Nhat Hanh

We were all human until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us and wealth classified us. – Anonymous

What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice. – Carter Woodson

What we need to do is learn to respect and embrace our differences until our differences don’t make a difference in how we are treated. – Yolanda King     

Whatever community organization, whether it’s a women’s organization, or fighting for racial justice … you will get satisfaction out of doing something to give back to the community that you never get in any other way. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg      

Where are the unusual individuals, the daring pioneers, who will devote their lives to making a better history for humanity? In order to create a new history for mankind, human beings will first have to create a new history within themselves. They will have to liberate themselves from national, religious, racial, and class prejudices and from enslavement to honor, fame, and pleasure… – Frederick Kettner

While the legal, material, and even superficial requirements to eradicate racism are well known, its psychological and more deeply spiritual requirements have been persistently neglected-namely, the oneness of the human family. It is this principle of oneness that needs to be the driving force behind the struggle of uniting the races. – Sara Harrington

You cannot cure racism with more racism. – Edwin A. Locke

Typography Type Text Words Boy Emblem Gender

Equality

On Equality

I do not think white America is committed to granting equality to the American Negro… this is a passionately racist country; it will continue to be so in the foreseeable future. – Susan Sontag

I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream – a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man’s skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality. – Martin Luther King, Jr

It is up to us to take care of this planet, it is our only home. To betray nature is to betray us. To save nature is to save us. Because whatever you’re fighting for, racism or poverty. Feminism, gay rights or any type of equality. It won’t matter in the least. Because if we don’t all work together to save the environment, we will be equally extinct. – Prince Ea

Let America be America, where equality is in the air we breathe. – Langston Hughes

My dad’s from that generation like a lot of immigrants where he feels like if you come to this country, you pay this thing like the American dream tax: like you’re going to endure some racism, and if it doesn’t cost you your life, well hey, you lucked out. Pay it; there you go, Uncle Sam. I was born here, so I actually had the audacity of equality. – Hasan Minhaj

Racism oppresses its victims, but also binds the oppressors, who sear their consciences with more and more lies until they become prisoners of those lies. They cannot face the truth of human equality because it reveals the horror of the injustices they commit. – Alveda King

To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow. – William Faulkner

Unfortunately, the greater consciousness among Whites about Black equality has not carried over to the new victims of racism – Muslims and Immigrants. There is no racial enlightenment for these groups, which are huge. Millions of Muslims and an equal number of immigrants, who whether legal or illegal, face discrimination both legally from the government and extra-legally from White Americans – and sometimes Black and Hispanic Americans. The Democratic Presidential candidates are avoiding these issues in order to cultivate support among White Americans. – Howard Zinn

We are currently in an era of mass incarceration and excessive punishment in which the politics of fear and anger . . . reinforce the narrative of racial different. We imprison people of color at record levels by making up new crimes, which are disproportionally enforced against those who are black or brown. We are the nation with the highest rate of incarceration in the world, a phenomenon that is inexorably linked to our history of racial inequality. – Bryan Stevenson in America’s Original Sin by Jim Wallis

We are not now, nor will we ever be a ‘postracial’ society. We are instead a society on a journey toward embracing our ever-greater and richer diversity, which is the American story. The path forward is the constant renewal of our nation’s ideal of the equality of all citizens under the law—which makes the American promise so compelling, even though it is still so far from being fulfilled. – Jim Wallis in America’s Original Sin

Women have been oppressed for so long in any industry, it just takes time for a shift to happen to create more equality in any field, but I feel like it’s slowly happening now. It’s just things don’t change over night. It’s the same for racism, homophobia, xenophobia etc. If you think back even just 15 years and see how different people’s mentalities were then, think how much more progress and equality we cab reach in another 15 years. – Maya Jane Coles

You can call it institutionalized racism or institutionalized inequality, but what I say is that any system that operates to maintain inequality is a corrupt system and must be addressed. – Robert D Bullard

On Diversity and Inclusion

A diverse mix of voices leads to better discussions, decisions, and outcomes for everyone. –  Sundar Picha

A lot of different flowers make a bouquet. – Muslim Origin

Achievement has no color. – Abraham Lincoln

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so called ‘diversity’ actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist. – Ron Paul

Diversity in the world is a basic characteristic of human society, and also the key condition for a lively and dynamic world as we see today. – Jintao Hu

Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together. –  Jacqueline Woodson

Diversity is the magic. It is the first manifestation, the first beginning of the differentiation of a thing and of simple identity. The greater the diversity, the greater the perfection. – Thomas Berry

Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common. Celebrate it every day. –  Author Unknown

Diversity strengthens our innovative capacity, unleashes the potential of Siemens’ employees and thereby directly contributes to our business success. – Janina Kugel

Diversity: the art of thinking independently together. – Malcolm Forbes

For the multiculturist/diversity crowd, culture, ideas, customs, arts and skills are a matter of racial membership where one has no more control over his culture than his race. That’s a racist idea, but it’s politically correct racism. It says that one’s convictions, character and values are not determined by personal judgment and choices but genetically determined. In other words, as yesteryear’s racists held: race determines identity. – Walter E. Williams

Hatred, racism, and extremism have no place in this country. –  Angela Merkel

Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival. –  René Dubos

I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls. –  Martin Luther King Jr.

In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction. –  Audre Lorde

Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth. –  Jesse Jackson

Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people? –  Desmond Tutu

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. – Maya Angelou

Men build too many walls and not enough bridges. – Joseph Fort Newton

No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them –  Elie Wiesel

Our true nationality is mankind. –  H.G. Wells

Parents and schools should place great emphasis on the idea that it is all right to be different. Racism and all the other ‘isms’ grow from primitive tribalism, the instinctive hostility against those of another tribe, race, religion, nationality, class or whatever. You are a lucky child if your parents taught you to accept diversity. – Roger Ebert

Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death. –  Billy Graham

Racism is a form of hate. We pass it on to our young people. When we do that, we are robbing children of their innocence. –  Ruby Bridges

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities. –  Stephen Covey

The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord. –  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

There is one place left in which open racism can be practiced institutionally in the U.S. today, that is through this diversity/equity movement, in which it appears to be that you can be openly anti-white, openly anti-straight, openly anti-male, and this is considered progressive. – Eric Weinstein

We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. –  Anne Frank

We are all different, which is great because we are all unique. Without diversity life would be very boring. – Catherine Pulsifer

We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community—and this nation. – Cesar Chavez

When we listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become a wiser, more inclusive, and better organization. –  Pat Wadors

But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

Bible Verses About Racism and Prejudice

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. – John 13:34

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. – Revelation 7:9

Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism. – Colossians 3:25

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. – 1 John 3:15-16

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. – Ephesians 4:32

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. – Colossians 3:13

But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. – 1 John 2:11

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. – 1 Samuel 16:7

Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. – Exodus 22:21

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. – Philippians 2:3-4

For God does not show favoritism. – Romans 2:11

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, – Romans 10:12

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. – Romans 10:12-13

For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. – 1 Corinthians 12:13

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. – Acts 17:26

have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? – James 2:4

He told them, “Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for mere mortals but for the LORD, who is with you whenever you give a verdict. 7 Now let the fear of the LORD be on you. Judge carefully, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery. – 2 Chronicles 19:6-7

I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism. – 1 Timothy 5:21

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. – James 2:8-9

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. – James 2:1

Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly. – John 7:24

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these. – Mark 12:31

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:26-27

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. – Revelation 14:6

Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism
but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.
You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. – Acts 10:34-36

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:28

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, – Matthew 28:19

These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judging is not good: – Proverbs 24:23

We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. – 1 John 4:19-21

‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.
The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’ – Leviticus 19:33-34

Racism Race Ethnicity Human People Persons Hate

Racism

Racism Quotes from Wikiquote

  • Even after decades of affirmative action, black and Hispanic students are more underrepresented at the nation’s top colleges and universities than they were 35 years ago, according to a New York Times analysis.
    • Jeremy Ashkenas, Haeyoun Park and Adam Pearce,“Even With Affirmative Action, Blacks and Hispanics Are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 Years Ago”, New York Times, (Aug. 24, 2017).
  • Being a racist monster isn’t a mental illness – in fact, you can be one and be a very stable genius.
    • Samantha Bee; Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, (August 7, 2019); as qtd. in Adrian Horton, “Samantha Bee: ‘Being a racist monster isn’t a mental illness'”, The Guardian, (8 Aug 2019).
  • Racism is not something that is designated as an illness that can be treated by mental health professionals.
    • Renee Binder, doctor and Chairwoman of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Psychiatry and Law, as quoted in “They Hate. They Kill. Are They Insane?”, Alvin F. Poussaint, The New York Times, (1999).
  • Sexual racism is a specific form of racial prejudice enacted in the context of sex or romance. Online, people use sex and dating profiles to describe racialized Sexual attraction through language such as “Not attracted to Asians.” Among gay and bisexual men, sexual racism is a highly contentious issue. Although some characterize discrimination among partners on the basis of race as a form of racism, others present it as a matter of preference. In May 2011, 2177 gay and bisexual men in Australia participated in an online survey that assessed how acceptably they viewed online sexual racism. Although the men sampled displayed diverse attitudes, many were remarkably tolerant of sexual racism. We conducted two multiple linear regression analyses to compare factors related to men’s attitudes toward sexual racism online and their racist attitudes more broadly. Almost every identified factor associated with men’s racist attitudes was also related to their attitudes toward sexual racism. The only differences were between men who identified as Asian or Indian. Sexual racism, therefore, is closely associated with generic racist attitudes, which challenges the idea of racial attraction as solely a matter of personal preference.
    • Callander, D., Newman, C. E., & Holt, M. (2015). “Is sexual racism really racism? Distinguishing attitudes toward sexual racism and generic racism among gay and bisexual men.”, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44(7), 1991-2000.
  • In the first place, an unjust law exists in this Commonwealth, by which marriages between persons of different color is pronounced illegal. I am perfectly aware of the gross ridicule to which I may subject myself by alluding to this particular; but I have lived too long, and observed too much, to be disturbed by the world’s mockery… In the first place, the government ought not to be invested with power to control the affections, any more than the consciences of citizens. A man has at least as good a right to choose his wife, as he has to choose his religion. His taste may not suit his neighbors; but so long as his deportment is correct, they have no right to interfere with his concerns… I do not know how the affair at Canterbury is generally considered; but I have heard individuals of all parties and all opinions speak of it—and never without merriment or indignation. Fifty years hence, the black laws of Connecticut will be a greater source of amusement to the antiquarian, than her famous blue laws.
    • Lydia Maria Child, An Appeal on Behalf of That Class of Americans Called Africans (1833), Chapter VIII.
  • Racism tends to attract attention when it’s flagrant and filled with invective. But like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping – positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gay do not simply want to marry; they want to convert our children into sin. The Jews do not merely want to be left in peace; they actually are plotting world take-over. And the blacks are not actually victims of American power, but beneficiaries of the war against hard-working whites. This is a respectable, more sensible, bigotry, one that does not seek to name-call, preferring instead change the subject and straw man. Thus segregation wasn’t necessary to keep the niggers in line; it was necessary to protect the honor of white women.
    • Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The NAACP is Right” (15 July 2010), The Atlantic.
  • The colonization of the Southern economy by capitalists from the North gave lynching its most vigorous impulse. If Black people, by means of terror and violence, could remain the most brutally exploited group within the swelling ranks of the working class, the capitalists could enjoy a double advantage. Extra profits would result from the superexploitation of Black labor, and white workers’ hostilities toward their employers would be defused. White workers who assented to lynching necessarily assumed a posture of racial solidarity with the white men who were really their oppressors. This was a critical moment in the popularization of racist ideology.
    • Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class (1983)
  • That there have been in all ages and in all countries, in every quarter of the habitable globe, especially among those nations laying the greatest claim to civilization and enlightenment, classes of people who have been deprived of equal privileges, political, religious and social, cannot be denied, and that this deprivation on the part of the ruling classes is cruel and unjust, is also equally true. Such classes have even been looked upon as inferior to their oppressors, and have ever been mainly the domestics and menials of society, doing the low offices and drudgery of those among whom they lived, moving about and existing by mere sufferance, having no rights nor privileges but those conceded by the common consent of their political superiors. These are historical facts that cannot be controverted.
    • Martin Delany, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (1852), Chapter 1
  • Wherever there is arbitrary rule, there must be necessity, on the part of the dominant classes, superiority be assumed. To assume superiority, is to deny the equality of others.
    • Martin Delany, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (1852), Chapter 1
  • You speak of racism, for example, and I tell you that there’s no such thing as race. The point is that racism is the product of tribalism and ignorance and both are falling victim to communications and world-around literacy.
    • Buckminster Fuller as quoted in “The View from the Year 2000” by Barry Farrell in LIFE magazine (26 February 1971)
  • According to the Women in The Workplace 2018 survey, women of color are not only significantly underrepresented, they are far less likely than others to be promoted to manager, more likely to face everyday discrimination and less likely to receive support from their managers.
    The researchers surveyed 279 companies employing more than 13 million people and talked to 64,000 employees on their workplace experiences. More than 90 percent of the companies polled said prioritizing gender and racial diversity leads to better business results. Yet only 42 percent of employees surveyed said they see gender diversity as a company priority and only 22 percent see racial diversity as a company priority.

    • Leslie Hunter-Gadsden “Report: Black women less likely to be promoted, supported by their managers”, PBS News Hour, (Nov 12, 2018).
  • In the study, black, Hispanic, Asian and white home seekers called up housing agents and asked to set up an appointment to see advertised properties. These testers were all the same gender, the same age and all equally well-qualified to rent or own the properties. At this step, nearly every tester managed to get an appointment.
    But after that, not everyone was treated the same. The testers met with their agents, who told them about and then showed them properties. As it turns out, the number of properties some agents have available depends on who you are.
    In nearly all cases, whether renting or buying, minorities were told about and shown fewer properties than white people. Blacks were told about and shown about 17 percent fewer homes than whites, while Asians were told about 15.5 percent fewer homes and shown nearly 19 percent fewer properties.

    • Ilyce Glink, “Racism is alive and well in housing”, Money Watch’ CBS News, June 12, 2013).
  • And if we are to open employment opportunities in this country for members of all races and creeds, then the Federal Government must set an example…. The President himself must set the key example. I am not going to promise a Cabinet post or any other post to any race or ethnic group. That is racism in reverse at its worst. So I do not promise to consider race or religion in my appointments if I am successful. I promise only that I will not consider them.
    • John F. Kennedy, campaign speech, Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio (October 17, 1960); Freedom of Communications, final report of the Committee on Commerce, United States Senate, part 1 (1961), p. 635. Senate Rept. 87–994.
  • When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered. We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force.
    • Robert F. Kennedy, speech given the day after the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination. Delivered at the City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, 5 April 1968.
  • No ally is better than one’s own race.
    • Kim Young-sam, as quoted in “What the West gets wrong about North Korea’s motives, and why some South Koreans admire the North” (8 September 2017), The Conversation
  • Racial discrimination in the United States is a product of the colonialist and imperialist system. The contradiction between the Black masses in the United States and the U.S. ruling circles is a class contradiction. Only by overthrowing the reactionary rule of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class and destroying the colonialist and imperialist system can the Black people in the United States win complete emancipation. The Black masses and the masses of white working people in the United States have common interests and common objectives to struggle for. Therefore, the Afro-American struggle is winning sympathy and support from increasing numbers of white working people and progressives in the United States. The struggle of the Black people in the United States is bound to merge with the American workers’ movement, and this will eventually end the criminal rule of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class.
    • Mao Zedong, “A New Storm Against Imperialism” (1968)
  • It would be a great mistake to look upon racism as an irrational doctrine: racism is not a doctrine of irrationalism, it is the very surging up of irrationalism as an elemental force, getting rid of all doctrine, truth and rational structure.
    • Jacques Maritain (1939), The Twilight of Civilization (La crépuscule de la civilisation), translated by Lionel Landry. London: Sheed & Ward, 1946, p. 21.
  • All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action. You know that every Muslim is the brother of another Muslim. Remember, one day you will appear before Allah and answer for your deeds. So beware, do not astray from the path of righteousness after I am gone.
    • Muhammad The Last Sermon of Muhammad delivered on the Ninth Day of Dhul Hijjah 10 A.H (c. 630 AD)
  • The inequity of minority imprisonment is not only one of greater numbers, it is also one of greater duration of confinement once imprisoned. It has become increasingly evident that, proportionally, minority group members convicted of crimes are at greater risk of being: (a) sentenced to a term of imprisonment, (b) sentenced to a longer term of imprisonment, and (c) forced to serve a longer portion of any given term of imprisonment.
    • National Minority Advisory Council, “The Inequality of Justice: A Report on Crime and the Administration of Justice in the Minority Community”, Office of Justice Assistance, Research and Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., September 1980, p. 243), as qtd. in Joan Petersilia, “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System”, National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice, (June 1983), p. 63.
  • The emotions between the races could never be pure; even love was tarnished by the desire to find in the other some element that was missing in ourselves. Whether we sought out our demons or salvation, the other race would always remain just that: menacing, alien, and apart.
    • Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father (1995)
  • The colonists are by the law of nature free born, as indeed all men are, white or black… Does it follow that tis right to enslave a man because he is black? Will short curl’d hair like wool, of christian hair, as tis called by those, hearts are as hard as the nether millstone, help the argument? Can any logical inference in favour of slavery, be drawn from a flat nose, a long or a short face.
    • James Otis Jr., The Rights of the British Colonies (1764).
  • Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike: as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called “diversity” actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist. The true antidote to racism is liberty. Liberty means having a limited, constitutional government devoted to the protection of individual rights rather than group claims. Liberty means free-market capitalism, which rewards individual achievement and competence, not skin color, gender, or ethnicity.
    • Ron Paul, “Government and Racism” (16 April 2007), United States House of Representatives.
  • We are led to believe that racism is prejudicial behavior of one party against another rather than the coagulation of socioeconomic injustice against groups. If the state acts without prejudice (this is, if it acts equally), then that is proof of the end of racism. Unequal socioeconomic conditions of today, based as they are on racisms of the past and of the present, are thereby rendered untouchable by the state. Color-blind justice privatizes inequality and racism, and it removes itself from the project of redistributive and anti-racist justice. This is the genteel racism of our new millennium.
    • Vijay Prashad, Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity (2002), p. 38
  • Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage—the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors.
    • Ayn Rand, “Racism”, The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
  • Racism claims that the content of a man’s mind (not his cognitive apparatus, but its content) is inherited; that a man’s convictions, values and character are determined before he is born, by physical forces beyond his control. This is the caveman’s version of the doctrine of innate ideas—or of inherited knowledge—which has been thoroughly refuted by philosophy and science. Racism is a doctrine of, by and for brutes. It is a barnyard or stock-farm version of collectivism, appropriate to a mentality that differentiates between various breeds of animals, but not between animals and men.
    • Ayn Rand, “Racism”, The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
  • Hispanic American men have lower average wage rates than white non-Hispanics. In 1975 the average white non-Hispanic male wage-earner in the United States earned $5.97 an hour. Mexican men earned $4.31, 72% as much as white non-Hispanics;Puerto Rican men earned $4.52, 76% as much; and Cuban men earned $5.33, 89% as much as white non-Hispanics. By way of comparison, black men’s average wages in 1975 were $4.65, 78% of the white male wage.
    • Cordelia W. Reimers, “Labor Market Discrimination Against Hispanic and Black Men”, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Nov., 1983), p. 570.
  • We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions, bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities. Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races. Whoever seeks to set one religion against another, seeks to destroy all religion.
    • Franklin D. Roosevelt, campaign address, Brooklyn, New York (1 November 1940); The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940 (1941), p. 53
  • I cannot consent to take the position that the door of hope — the door of opportunity — is to be shut upon any man, no matter how worthy, purely upon the grounds of race or color. Such an attitude would, according to my convictions, be fundamentally wrong.
    • Theodore Roosevelt, letter to James Adger Smythe (26 November 1902)
  • The real tragedy is that there are some ignorant brothers out here. That’s why I’m not on this all-white or all-black shit. I’m on this all-real or all fake shit with people, whatever color you are. Because niggas will do you. I mean, there’s some niggas out there; the same niggas that did Malcolm X, the same niggas that did Jesus Christ; every ‘brother’ ain’t a brother. They will do you. So just because it’s black, don’t mean it’s cool; and just because it’s white don’t mean it’s evil.
    • Tupac Shakur, from an interview, as quoted in Tupac: Resurrection (2003)
  • The effects of sexism and racism on popular attitudes and behavior have long been recognized.More recently, another prevalent, bias, ageism, has become a topic off concern and inquiry (see, e.g., Butler, 1969; Harris and Associates, 1975). However, surprisingly little is known about the impacts of sexism, racism,and ageism on political behavior, and more specifically on voting decisions, These are issues of growing concern as women and members of racial minorities become increasingly active in electoral politics; the issue of age was also brought to the fore recently by the presidential candidacy of the 69-year-old Ronald Reagan. This paper uses an experimental approach to explore the extent to which and the manner in which the sex, race, and age of candidates for political office affect voters’ decisions and the extent to which such influences are contingent on characteristics of the voters.
    Most of what is known about the relationship between candidate characteristics and voter preferences is derived from opinion surveys in which respondents have been asked questions like “If your party nominated a woman for President, would you vote for her if she were qualified for the job?” These surveys reveal an increased willingness over the least 25 years to vote for a qualified black or woman for President, with indications that voting discrimination against blacks began to fade somewhat earlier than it did against women (Ferree, 1974; Schreiver, 1978).

    • Lee Sigelman and Carol K. Sigelman, ‘Sexism, Racism, and Ageism in Voting Behavior: An Experimental Analysis’, Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Dec., 1982), p. 263.
  • Several studies have shown a positive correlation between perceived experiences with discrimination and measures of psychological distress. Indeed, perceived discrimination predicted psychiatric symptoms related to depression and anxiety better than age, gender, education, social class, or general stressors. Other studies have shown a positive correlation between self-reported perceptions of discrimination and poor physical health outcomes including stroke, heart attack, diabetes, cancer, and lower birth weight babies. In addition, several studies have shown a positive correlation between perceptions of racial/ethnic discrimination and physiological outcomes, including resting BP, BP reactivity, and hypertensive status.29–36 Such correlational evidence, however, is not sufficient to conclude that perceived discrimination per se causes increases in BP.
    • Jason Silverstein, “How Racism Is Bad for Our Bodies”, The Atlantic, (Mar 12, 2013).
  • A terrorist act is the logical if extreme outcome of white supremacy and intolerance. Apparently, reasons this particular white supremacist gunman, ‘if you can’t own them, exploit them, or remove them, you kill them’.
    • Brooks D. Simpson, “Charleston: White Supremacy, Black Lives, and Red Blood” (21 June 2015), Crossroads.
  • We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.
    • Texas Declaration of Secession (1861).
  • Among these widely differing families of men, the first that attracts attention, the superior in intelligence, in power, and in enjoyment, is the white, or European, the MAN pre-eminently so called, below him appear the Negro and the Indian… The most formidable of all the ills that threaten the future of the Union arises from the presence of a black population upon its territory; and in contemplating the cause of the present embarrassments, or the future dangers of the United States, the observer is invariably led to this as a primary fact… You may set the Negro free, but you cannot make him otherwise than an alien to the European. Nor is this all we scarcely acknowledge the common features of humanity in this stranger whom slavery has brought among us. His physiognomy is to our eyes hideous, his understanding weak, his tastes low; and we are almost inclined to look upon him as a being intermediate between man and the brutes.
    • Alexis de Tocqueville (1835) Democracy in America part 1, chapter 18.
  • As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause.
    • William T. Thompson, Savannah Morning News (23 April 1863), as quoted in “The Birth of the Stainless Banner” (13 May 2013), by John M. Coski, The New York Times, New York: The New York Times Company.
  • I have black guys counting my money! I hate it. … The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … Laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that.
    • Donald Trump, “Recalled” by John “Jack” O’Donnell, former president of Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino in “Trumped!: The Inside Story of the Real Donald Trump -His Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall”, (1991-01-01), John R. O’Donnell, James Rutherford, Simon & Schuster, New York, cited in “Ignoring Trump’s Record of Racism”, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (2011-05-06).
  • A person’s birthplace or bloodline or bone structure or sex does not dictate his capacity to exercise reason in the service of making fair and informed judgments.
    • Ian Tuttle, “Trump’s Outrageous Attack on Judge Curiel” (6 June 2016), The National Review Online
  • Nearly all black and brown skins are beautiful, but a beautiful white skin is rare.
    • Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World (1899).
  • According to a CNN/Kaiser Family Foundation poll on race in America, 69% of blacks and 57% of Hispanics say past and present discrimination is a major reason for the problems facing people of their racial or ethnic group. And 26% of blacks and 15% of Hispanics said they felt that they had been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity at their place of work in the past 30 days.
    But proving discrimination is another thing. In 2014 alone, the EEOC received 31,073 charges alleging race-based discrimination, but dismissed 71.4% of them due to a lack of reasonable cause.
    While workplace discrimination can be as overt as moving an employee off of a key assignment, or failing to promote them even though they are qualified, it can also be very subtle and very difficult to prove, experts say.

    • Tanzina Vega, “Working while brown: What discrimination looks like now”, CNN Money, (November 25, 2015).
  • According to Williams’ study, 41% of Asian women said they felt pressure to behave in “feminine ways,” while just 8% of black women said they did. In addition, 36% of white women and 28% of Latinas reported pressure to behave in “traditionally feminine roles.” When a Latina is assertive or “behaves in ways that don’t conform with expectations of femininity, she triggers a racial stereotype,” that she is “hot-blooded,” irrational,” “crazy” or “too emotional,” Williams said. In fact, 60% of Latinas surveyed said they experienced backlash when they expressed anger or weren’t deferential.
    • Tanzina Vega, “Working while brown: What discrimination looks like now”, CNN Money, (November 25, 2015).
  • When one thinks of American blackness, there is the unsaid ugly truth that nearly all American blacks who have descended from the historical African diaspora in America have one (or several) rapacious white slave owners in their family tree at some point.
    Here, in the early days of the United States, was the invention of racism for economic necessity. From 1619 until 1865, white male Americans chose to breed a black enslaved workforce through the state-sanctioned rape of black women to build the new nation and support their white supremacist class. Race became the single unifying identifier — determining everything about one’s life starting with this most basic division: enslaved or free.
    The American law was that the “condition of the child followed that of the mother,” backed up by the “one drop rule,” the legal framework that dictated even one drop of blackness made an individual black, never white. The idea of blackness as a pollutant, a taint that would erode the purity of whiteness, was seized by politicians around the world then — and now.
    Because of this legacy of sexual violence and anti-blackness, black and white mixed individuals have long been considered black in America.
    To a much larger degree than many people would like to admit, race still determines a vast part of one’s life — social networks and mobility, birth and other medical care, employment opportunities and so on. Indeed, there is an entire genre of literature and film, popularized in the late 1800s and early 1900s, composed of blacks “passing” for white to avoid this racism. Some of the most famous examples are Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, Passing; James Weldon Johnson’s 1912 opus, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; and the 1959 film The Imitation of Life.

    • Hope Wabuke, “When I Was White’ Centers On The Formation Of Race, Identity And Self”, (August 8, 2019); reviewing “When I Was White: A Memoir”, by Sarah Valentine
  • There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification. The fact that Virginia prohibits only interracial marriages involving white persons demonstrates that the racial classifications must stand on their own justification, as measures designed to maintain White Supremacy. We have consistently denied the constitutionality of measures which restrict the rights of citizens on account of race. There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause.
    • Earl Warren, Loving v. Virginia (1967).
  • Ethnic cleansing was orthodox socialism for a century or more… So the socialist intelligentsia of the western world entered the first world war publicly committed to racial purity and white domination, and no less committed to violence.
    • George G. Watson “The Lost Literature of Socialism” (1998), UK: Lutterworth Press, Cambridge, pp. 78-79
  • The authority of science … promotes and encourages the activity of observing, comparing, measuring and ordering the physical characteristics of human bodies.… Cartesian epistemology and classical ideals produced forms of rationality, scientificity and objectivity that, though efficacious in the quest for truth and knowledge, prohibited the intelligibility and legitimacy of black equality…. In fact, to “think” such an idea was to be deemed irrational, barbaric or mad.
    • Cornel West (2002), Prophesy Deliverance!.
  • For decades, black parents have told their children that in order to succeed despite racial discrimination, they need to be “twice as good”: twice as smart, twice as dependable, twice as talented. This advice can be found in everything from literature to television shows, to day-to-day conversation. Now, a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that when it comes to getting and keeping jobs, that notion might be more than just a platitude.
    There’s data that demonstrates the unfortunate reality: Black workers receive extra scrutiny from bosses, which can lead to worse performance reviews, lower wages, and even job loss. The NBER paper, authored by Costas Cavounidis and Kevin Lang, of Boston University, attempts to demonstrate how discrimination factors into company decisions, and creates a feedback loop, resulting in racial gaps in the labor force.

    • Gillian B. White, “Black Workers Really Do Need to Be Twice as Good”, The Atlantic, (Oct 7, 2015).
  • Racism should be viewed as an intervening variable. You give me a set of conditions and I can produce racism in any society. You give me a different set of conditions and I can reduce racism. You give me a situation where there are a sufficient number of social resources so people don’t have to compete for those resources, and I will show you a society where racism is held in check. If we could create the conditions that make racism difficult, or discourage it, then there would be less stress and less need for affirmative action programs. One of those conditions would be an economic policy that would create tight labor markets over long periods of time. Now does that mean that affirmative action is here only temporarily? I think the ultimate goal should be to remove it.
    • William Julius Wilson, interview with Mother Jones magazine, September/October 1996 issue. [1].
  • In the past, yes, I have made sweeping indictments of all white people. I will never be guilty of that again — as I know now that some white people are truly sincere, that some truly are capable of being brotherly toward a black man. The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket indictments against blacks.
    • Malcolm X, as quoted in Malcolm X: The Seeker of Justice (2003); also quoted at “Malcolm X – An Islamic Perspective”

Joan Petersilia, “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System”, National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice, (June 1983)

  • Earlier studies have shown that arrests depend heavily on witnesses’ or victims’ identifying or carefully describing the suspect (Greenwood, Petersilia, Chaiken, 1978). Prosecutors may have a more difficult time making cases against minorities “beyond a reasonable doubt” because of problems with victim and witness identifications. Frequently, witnesses or victims who were supportive at the arrest stage become less cooperative as the’ case proceeds. Defenders of the system argue that the statistics do not lie, and that the system does not discriminate but simply reacts to the prevalence of crime in the black community.
    • Joan Petersilia, “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System”, National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice, (June 1983), p. xxiii
  • When the’ crime is murder, forcible rape, robbery, or aggravated assault, a judge has less latitude in deciding about probation, sentence length, or whether the sentence will be served in jail or prison-no matter what color a man is. As we move down the line to lesser crimes, disparity emerges. The most striking example is larceny; Blacks make up only 30 percent of the arrest population, but 51 percent of the prison population. Why the disparity for these crimes? One explanation may be that judges can exercise more discretion in dealing with offenders convicted of these crimes.
    • Joan Petersilia, “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System”, National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice, (June 1983), p. 2
  • There were few’ clear trends, but statistically significant racial differences. Hispanics strongly preferred knives and were more likely to report doing grievous harm to their victims. It seems possible that this behavior could legitimately lead to harsher sentences and longer time served. Blacks were much less likely than Hispanics to use a knife, and less likely than whites to use a gun. Indeed, when the study combined all crime types and looked at the overall percent of racial groups armed during a crime, there was only one statistically significant difference: Blacks were less likely to be armed in a burglary. Nevertheless, blacks make up a larger percent of the prison than of the arrest population for burglary.
    • Joan Petersilia, “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System”, National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice, (June 1983), p. 88.
  • For critics of the criminal justice system, the arrest and imprisonment rates for blacks and other minorities suggest that the system discriminates against those groups. They argue, for example, that blacks, who make up 12 percent of the national population, could not possibly commit 48 percent of the crime: Yet that is exactly what arrest and imprisonment rates imply about black criminality. Defenders of the system argue that the arrest and imprisonment rates do not lie; the system simply reacts to the prevalence of crime in the black community. As we have noted repeatedly, prior research has not. settled this controversy. For every study that finds discrimination in arrests, convictions, sentencing, prison treatment, or parole, another denies it.
    • Joan Petersilia, “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System”, National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice, (June 1983), p. 89.
  • Research on sentence patterns lends support to the contention that the system “values” whites more than it does minorities. For example, Zimring, Eigen, and O’Malley (1976) found that black defendants who killed whites received life imprisonment or the death sentence more than twice as often as blacks who killed blacks. Other research has found this relationship for other crimes as well: Defendants receive harsher sentences if the victim is white and lesser sentences if he or she is black. If harsher sentences do indicate that minority status equals lower status in the criminal justice system, that equation may also help explain why minorities serve longer terms, all other things held equal, than white prisoners.
    • Joan Petersilia, “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System”, National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice, (June 1983), p. 95-96.
  • A minority male is almost four times more likely than a white male to have an index arrest in his lifetime: One in every two nonwhite males in large U.S. cities can expect to have at least one index arrest. However, the RIS data indicate that, once involved in crime, whites and minorities in the sample have virtually the same annual crime commission rates. This accords with Blumstein and Graddy’s (1981) finding that the recidivism rate for index offenses is approximately .85 for both whites and nonwhites. Thus, the data suggest that large racial differences in aggregate arrest rates must be attributed primarily to differences in involvement, and not to different patterns among those who do participate. Under these circumstances, any empirically derived indicators of recidivism should target a roughly equal number of whites and minorities. In other words, even if recidivism among whites had different causes or correlates than recidivism among non-whites, they should at least balance one another. They should not consistently identify nonwhites as more appropriate candidates for more severe treatment.
    • Joan Petersilia, “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System”, National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice, (June 1983), p. 98.
Racism is NOT patriotism

Racism is NOT patriotism

Racism in the United States

Racism in the United States has existed since the colonial era, when white Americans were given legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights denied to other races or minorities. Major racially and ethnically structured institutions include slavery, segregation, Native American reservations, Native American boarding schools, immigration and naturalization law, and internment camps. In his 2009 visit to the US, the [UN] Special Rapporteur on Racism noted that “Socio-economic indicators show that poverty and race and ethnicity continue to overlap in the United States. During the 2010s, American society continues to experience high levels of racism and discrimination. One new phenomenon has been the rise of the “alt-right” movement: a white nationalist coalition that seeks the expulsion of sexual and racial minorities from the United States.

  • We must make the Negro our friend… We can do this if we will. Should we make him our enemy under the prompting of the Yankees, whose aim is to force us to recognize him on a basis of equality, then our path lies through a way red with blood and damp with tears…
    • James Alcorn, letter to Amelia Alcorn, as quoted in After Appomattox: How the South Won the War, by Stetson Kennedy, p. 28.
  • ‘Race’ and ‘ethnicity’ categories have changed significantly over time to reflect changes in the American population. Since 1900, 26 different racial terms have been used to identify populations in the U.S. Census. Preserving outdated terms for the sake of questionable continuity is a disservice to the nation and the American people.
    • American Anthropological Association, “Response to OMB Directive 15” (September 1997), Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting, Arlington County, Virginia: American Anthropological Association.
  • Yet the concept of race has become thoroughly, and perniciously, woven into the cultural and political fabric of the United States. It has become an essential element of both individual identity and government policy. Because so much harm has been based on ‘racial’ distinctions over the years, correctives for such harm must also acknowledge the impact of ‘racial’ consciousness among the U.S. populace, regardless of the fact that ‘race’ has no scientific justification in human biology. Eventually, however, these classifications must be transcended and replaced by more non-racist and accurate ways of representing the diversity of the U.S. population. This is the dilemma and opportunity of the moment. It is important to recognize the categories to which individuals have been assigned historically in order to be vigilant about the elimination of discrimination. Yet ultimately, the effective elimination of discrimination will require an end to such categorization, and a transition toward social and cultural categories that will prove more scientifically useful and personally resonant for the public than are categories of ‘race’. Redress of the past and transition for the future can be simultaneously effected.
    • American Anthropological Association, “Response to OMB Directive 15” (September 1997), Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting, Arlington County, Virginia: American Anthropological Association.
  • Negroes are American citizens. First class taxpayers, but so often treated as second class citizens, if there is such. In our hearts, we would like to know what it is that the white man has against the negro. What can we do to make peace with the white man? We have to live on this earth together. We cannot do without each other. We as a group, want your friendship, won’t you accept?
    • Floy J. Anderson, letter to Dwight David Eisenhower (15 October 1957), San Francisco, California.
  • No Distinction of Race! No Distinction of Color!
    • Anonymous Unionist, as quoted in Richmond Daily Dispatch (13 November 1863).
  • Even after decades of affirmative action, black and Hispanic students are more underrepresented at the nation’s top colleges and universities than they were 35 years ago, according to a New York Times analysis.
    • Jeremy Ashkenas, Haeyoun Park and Adam Pearce,“Even With Affirmative Action, Blacks and Hispanics Are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 Years Ago”, New York Times, (Aug. 24, 2017).
  • Identify yourself as Americans… I don’t identify myself as white or a white American.
    • Glenn Beck, Glenn Beck, Fox News, 13 November 2009
    • “Beck: I don’t identify as white, why do black people identify as black?”, Media Matters for America, 13 November 2009
  • Racism is the independent variable, the enduring value in American politics and society.
    • Herman Belz, “Review Essay” (2004), Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, University of Illinois Press
  • The advancement of minorities in the U.S. is not insignificant, but has not ended, let alone reversed, their circumstances. I acknowledge that things I have said as well as my actions have been harmful to people of color, people of Jewish descent, activists striving for opportunity and fairness for all, and others affected… I can’t support a movement that tells me I can’t be a friend to whomever I wish or that other people’s races requires me to think about them in a certain way or be suspicious of their advancements… Minorities must have the ability to rise to positions of power, and many supposed ‘race’ issues are in fact issues of structural oppression, poor educational prospects, and limited opportunity. The differences I thought I observed didn’t go nearly as deeply as I imagined. I believe we can move beyond the sort of mind-boggling emphasis white nationalism puts on maintaining an oppressive, exclusive sense of identity; oppressive for others and stifling for our society.
    • Derek Black, letter to Mark Potok of Hate Watch (15 July 2013).
  • When white terrorists bomb a black church and kill five black children, that is an act of individual racism, widely deplored by most segments of the society. But when in that same city—Birmingham, Alabama—five hundred black babies die each year because of the lack of proper food, shelter and medical facilities, and thousands more are destroyed and maimed physically, emotionally and intellectually because of conditions of poverty and discrimination in the black community, that is a function of institutional racism.
    • Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation (1967)
  • In the years after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the dynamics of race changed once again. Millions of new immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, along with Asia, came to the United States. Many of the Europeans were Catholic or Jewish, spoke languages relatively foreign to American ears, and had festivals and rituals that seemed strange or frightening. Who was “white” became a prominent issue. At the same time, the United States formed its first overseas empire after the Spanish-American War. It now had to determine whether people in Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and elsewhere could be full citizens. Nativist groups emerged that wanted to define who was “white” and who was a “citizen.”
    • Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey, “The Contested Color of Christ”, Chronicle, (SEPTEMBER 17, 2012).
  • America is an exceptional nation in large part because we’ve aspired to rise above such prejudices and guarantee life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to everyone.
    • David Boaz, “Conservatives Against Trump” (21 January 2016), National Review.
  • When they laid down their arms, we murdered them. We lied to them. We cheated them out of their lands. We starved them into signing fraudulent agreements that we called treaties which we never kept. We turned them into beggars on a continent that gave life for as long as life can remember. And by any interpretation of history, however twisted, we did not do right. We were not lawful nor were we just in what we did. For them, we do not have to restore these people, we do not have to live up to some agreements, because it is given to us by virtue of our power to attack the rights of others, to take their property, to take their lives when they are trying to defend their land and liberty, and to make their virtues a crime and our own vices virtues.
    • Marlon Brando speech for the Academy Awards protesting the treatment of American Indians, written by Brando, as it appeared in the New York Times,(March 30, 1973)
  • The U.S. contains a highly diverse population, the product of numerous and sustained waves of immigration. Ethnic and racial diversity – the ‘melting pot’ – is celebrated as a core element of the American ideology. The 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed racial and other discrimination.
    • British Broadcasting Corporation, “United States country profile: Overview” (29 October 2015), BBC News, United Kingdom.
  • An artist using statistics as a brush could paint two very different pictures of our country. One would have warning signs: increasing layoffs, rising energy prices, too many failing schools, persistent poverty, the stubborn vestiges of racism. Another picture would be full of blessings: a balanced budget, big surpluses, a military that is second to none, a country at peace with its neighbors, technology that is revolutionizing the world, and our greatest strength, concerned citizens who care for our country and care for each other… Too many of our citizens have cause to doubt our nation’s justice when the law points a finger of suspicion at groups, instead of individuals. All our citizens are created equal and must be treated equally… End racial profiling. It is wrong, and we will end it in America. It is wrong.
    • George W. Bush, State of the Union address (27 February 2001).
  • I ask you to uphold the values of America, and remember why so many have come here. We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them. No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith. Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail.
    • George W. Bush, address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People (20 September 2001).
  • Beyond all differences of race or creed, we are one country, mourning together and facing danger together. Deep in the American character, there is honor, and it is stronger than cynicism.
    • George W. Bush, State of the Union Address (29 January 2002).
  • America rejects bigotry. We reject every act of hatred… We are one country. Every immigrant can be fully and equally American because we’re one country. Race and color should not divide us, because America is one country.
    • George W. Bush, speech at Parkside Hall (30 April 2002), San Jose, California.
  • Any suggestion that a segregated past was acceptable or positive is offensive and it is wrong… Comments by Senator Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country. He has apologized and rightly so. Every day our nation was segregated was a day that America was unfaithful to our founding ideals, and the founding ideals of our nation, and in fact the founding ideals of the political party I represent, was and remains today the equal dignity and equal rights of every American.
    • George W. Bush, regarding comments made by Trent Lott (12 December 2002), as quoted in “Lott’s Remarks on Segregation ‘Wrong and Offensive'” (13 December 2002), The Irish Times.
  • Americans have upheld the ideals of America by exposing laws and habits contradicting those ideals… Americans share a belief in the values of liberty and dignity; we must share in the labor of advancing those values… In the struggle of the centuries, America learned that freedom is not the possession of one race. We know with equal certainty that freedom is not the possession of one nation. This belief in the natural rights of man, this conviction that justice should reach wherever the sun passes, leads America into the world. With the power and resources given to us, the United States seeks to bring peace where there is conflict, hope where there’s suffering, and liberty where there’s tyranny.
    • George W. Bush, Hope and Conscience Will Not Be Silenced (8 July 2003), speech at Goree Island, Senegal.
  • Our country must abandon all the habits of racism because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time.
    • George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address (20 January 2005).
  • Rapper Kanye West told a prime-time T.V. audience, ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people’. Jesse Jackson later compared the New Orleans Convention Center to the ‘hull of a slave ship’. A member of the Congressional Black Caucus claimed that if the storm victims had been ‘white, middle-class Americans’ they would have received more help. Five years later, I can barely write those words without feeling disgusted. I am deeply insulted by the suggestion that we allowed American citizens to suffer because they were black. As I told the press at the time, ‘the storm didn’t discriminate, and neither will we. When those coast guard choppers, many of whom were first on the scene, were pulling people off roofs, they didn’t check the color of a person’s skin’. The more I thought about it, the angrier I felt. I was raised to believe that racism was one of the greatest evils in society. I admired dad’s courage when he defied near-universal opposition from his constituents to vote for the Open Housing Bill of 1968. I was proud to have earned more black votes than any Republican governor in Texas history. I had appointed African Americans to top government positions, including the first black woman national security adviser and the first two black secretaries of state. It broke my heart to see minority children shuffled through the school system, so I had based my signature domestic policy initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act, on ending the soft bigotry of low expectations. I had launched a $15 billion program to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa. As part of the response to Katrina, my administration worked with Congress to provided historically black colleges and universities in the Gulf Coast with more than $400 million in loans to restore their campuses and renew their recruiting efforts.
    • George W. Bush, Decision Points (November 2010), p. 325, Chapter 10: Katrina.
  • Our identity as a nation — unlike many other nations — is not determined by geography or ethnicity, by soil or blood. Being an American involves the embrace of high ideals and civic responsibility. We become the heirs of Thomas Jefferson by accepting the ideal of human dignity found in the Declaration of Independence. We become the heirs of James Madison by understanding the genius and values of the U.S. Constitution. We become the heirs of Martin Luther King, Jr., by recognizing one another not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. This means that people of every race, religion, and ethnicity can be fully and equally American. It means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed. And it means that the very identity of our nation depends on the passing of civic ideals to the next generation.
    • George W. Bush, remarks at Bush Institute Summit, “The Spirit of Liberty: At Home, In The World” at the Bush Institute Summit in New York City (October 2017), as quoted in The Washington Post (October 2017)
  • O’Malley said flatly that winter he didn’t want any more colored players on the team. It was complicated, but it was a combination of what he thought the fans would accept, what he thought the team could handle and the fact that he got heat from some of his partners who worried that the more integrated the Dodgers became, the more pressure they felt to hire blacks in their own businesses.” Bavasi said that Jackie Robinson himself expressed misgivings about Clemente. […] In the case of Clemente, Bavasi said that Robinson was concerned that if the Dodgers activated him, he would take the roster position of George “Shotgun” Shuba – a journeyman outfielder and pinch-hitter who was popular, white, and once Robinson’s 1946 teammate on the Montreal Royals.
    • Buzzie Bavasi, on why Brooklyn opted not to keep Clemente on its 1954 major league roster (leading to his acquisition by the Pittsburgh Pirates at the 1954 Winter Meetings), as quoted and paraphrased in “Gil, Jackie, Pee Wee, and a Parable of Race” from Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family’s Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers (July 1, 2005) by Thomas Oliphant, p. 59
  • In the first place, an unjust law exists in this Commonwealth, by which marriages between persons of different color is pronounced illegal. I am perfectly aware of the gross ridicule to which I may subject myself by alluding to this particular; but I have lived too long, and observed too much, to be disturbed by the world’s mockery. In the first place, the government ought not to be invested with power to control the affections, any more than the consciences of citizens. A man has at least as good a right to choose his wife, as he has to choose his religion. His taste may not suit his neighbors; but so long as his deportment is correct, they have no right to interfere with his concerns.
    • Lydia Maria Child, An Appeal on Behalf of That Class of Americans (1833).
  • The Black offender is not tried and judged by the Black community itself but by the machinery of the white community, … whose interests are served by the systematic subjugation of all Black people. Thus, the trial or conviction of a Black prisoner regardless of his offense, his guilt or his innocence, cannot be a democratic judgment of him by his peers, but a political action against him by his oppressors.
    • Robert Chrisman, “Black Prisoner, White Law,” The Black Scholar, April-May 1971, p. 46, as cited in The Death of White Sociology, p. 171
  • It is essential to just government we recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that it is the duty of government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political.
    • Civil Rights Act of 1875.
  • If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America.
    • Eldridge Cleaver, as quoted in Soul on Ice (1968), Part II: “The White Race and Its Heroes”.
  • Som’ co-lored people I understand saying “Clemente, he do not like co-lored people.” This is not the truth at all. Look at me. Look at my skin. I am not of the white people. I hav’ color the skin. That is the first theeing I straighten out. I like all the people, both co-lored and white; and since I am co-lored myself, I would be seely hate myself. Thees’ people tell me I don’t like colored people. Well, I use this time to tell deeferent. I like myself, so I also like the people who are like me.
    • Roberto Clemente, as quoted by Bill Nunn, Jr. in the New Pittsburgh Courier (June 25, 1960); reproduced in Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero” (2006) by David Maraniss, p. 97
  • In Canada they no have much segregation. But one day I am signing autographs and talking to white man and his wife outside park, and this other man say, “You not supposed to talk to white woman.” I say, “No, I talk to the one I want. I talk to my friends. You believe in that stuff if you want. I don’t do it.”
    • Roberto Clemente, as quoted in “The Man in the Pirate Uniform: Clemente is Spectacular” by Myron Cope, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Tuesday, August 23, 1960), p. 29
  • The first thing the average white Latin American player does when he comes to the States is associate with other whites. He doesn’t want to be seen with Latin Negroes, even from his own country, because he’s afraid people might think he’s colored.
    • Roberto Clemente, as quoted in “Roberto Clemente: Man of Paradox” by Arnold Hano, in Sport (May 1965)
  • When I came here, you seldom saw a black player get together with a white player and go someplace together after a ball game. Now it is more common. Yes, there has been improvement but some things still remain the way they were. I cannot, for example, go up to a white player and say to him, “Are you for real?” or “Are you concerned with me at all?” But now, once in a while, they will come to you and ask you about it. They don’t turn their backs on you like they used to.
    • Roberto Clemente, as quoted in “Sports Parade” by Milton Richman, in The Hendersonville Times-News (Wednesday, April 21, 1971), p. 9
  • My greatest satisfaction comes from helping to erase the old opinion about Latin American and black ballplayers. People had the wrong opinion. They never questioned our ability but they considered us inferior in our station of life. Simply because many of us were poor, we were thought to be low class. Even our integrity was questioned. I don’t blame the fans for that; I blame the writers. They made it look like we were something different entirely from the white players. We’re not. We’re the same.
    • Roberto Clemente, as quoted in “”Sports Parade”
  • White racism in America … is a part of the spirit of the age, the ethos of the culture, so embedded in the social, economic, and political structure that white society is incapable of knowing its destructive nature.
    • James Cone, Black Theology and Black Power (1969), p. 41
  • Washington made it clear that a person did not have to be of a certain religion or have a particular ethnic background to be an American patriot.
    • Craig Considine, Saluting Muslim American Patriots.
  • Numbered among our population are some 12,000,000 colored people. Under our Constitution their rights are just as sacred as those of any other citizen. It is both a public and a private duty to protect those rights.
    • Calvin Coolidge, State of the Union Address (6 December 1923).
  • The propaganda of prejudice and hatred which sought to keep the colored men from supporting the national cause completely failed. The black man showed himself the same kind of citizen, moved by the same kind of patriotism, as the white man. They were tempted, but not one betrayed his country. Among well-nigh 400,000 colored men who were taken into the military service, about one-half had overseas experience. They came home with many decorations and their conduct repeatedly won high commendation from both American and European commanders.
    • Calvin Coolidge, commencement address at Howard University (6 June 1924), Washington, D.C.
  • During the war 500,000 colored men and boys were called up under the draft, not one of whom sought to evade it. They took their places wherever assigned in defense of the nation of which they are just as truly citizens as are any others. The suggestion of denying any measure of their full political rights to such a great group of our population as the colored people is one which, however it might be received in some other quarters, could not possibly be permitted by one who feels a responsibility for living up to the traditions and maintaining the principles of the Republican Party. Our Constitution guarantees equal rights to all our citizens, without discrimination on account of race or color. I have taken my oath to support that Constitution. It is the source of your rights and my rights. I propose to regard it, and administer it, as the source of the rights of all the people, whatever their belief or race.
    • Calvin Coolidge, letter to Charles F. Gardner (9 August 1924).
  • Yet in time of stress and public agitation we have too great a tendency to disregard this policy and indulge in race hatred, religious intolerance, and disregard of equal rights. Such sentiments are bound to react upon those who harbor them. Instead of being a benefit they are a positive injury. We do not have to examine history very far before we see whole countries that have been blighted, whole civilizations that have been shattered by a spirit of intolerance. They are destructive of order and progress at home and a danger to peace and good will abroad. No better example exists of toleration than that which is exhibited by those who wore the blue toward those who wore the gray. Our condition today is not merely that of one people under one flag, but of a thoroughly united people who have seen bitterness and enmity which once threatened to sever them pass away, and a spirit of kindness and good will reign over them all.
    • Calvin Coolidge, “Ways to Peace”, speech at Arlington (31 May 1926).
  • Let it never be forgotten that the cause of the United States is the cause of human nature, not of white men nor black men nor red men nor brown men, but of man, of mankind.
    • George William Curtis, “The Present Aspect of the Slavery Question” (18 October 1859), New York City.
  • The United States was made by men of all races and colors, not for white men, but for the refuge and defense of man. If it does not rest upon the natural rights of man, it rests nowhere. If it does not exist by the consent of governed then any exclusion is possible, and it is a shorter step from an exclusive white man’s government to an exclusively rich white man’s government, than it is from a system for mankind to one for white men. The spirit which excludes some men today because they are of a certain color, may exclude others tomorrow because they are of a certain poverty or a certain church or a certain birthplace. There is no safety, no guarantee, no security in a prejudice. If we build strong and long, we must build upon moral principle… The truest American president we have ever had, the companion of Washington in our love and honor, recognized that the poorest man, however outraged, however ignorant, however despised, however black, was, as a man, his equal… Manhood in America is to be measured not by the color of the skin, but by the quality of the soul.
    • George William Curtis, “The Good Fight” (1865).
  • As to the doctrine of slavery and the right of Christians to hold Africans in perpetual servitude, and sell and treat them as we do our horses and cattle, that, it is true, has been heretofore countenanced by the Province Laws formerly, but nowhere is it expressly enacted or established. It has been a usage–a usage which took its origin from the practice of some of the European nations, and the regulations of British government respecting the then-colonies, for the benefit of trade and wealth. But whatever sentiments have formerly prevailed in this particular or slid in upon us by the example of others, a different idea has taken place with the people of America, more favorable to the natural rights of mankind, and to that natural, innate desire of liberty, with which Heaven, without regard to color, complexion, or shape of noses-features, has inspired all the human race. And upon this ground our constitution of government, by which the people of this Commonwealth have solemnly bound themselves, sets out with declaring that all men are born free and equal, and that every subject is entitled to liberty, and to have it guarded by the laws, as well as life and property–and in short is totally repugnant to the idea of being born slaves. This being the case, I think the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and constitution; and there can be no such thing as perpetual servitude of a rational creature, unless his liberty is forfeited by some criminal conduct or given up by personal consent or contract.
    • William Cushing, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Jennison (1783).
  • Political repression in the United States has reached monstrous proportions. Black and Brown peoples especially, victims of the most vicious and calculated forms of class, national and racial oppression, bear the brunt of this repression. Literally tens of thousands of innocent men and women, the overwhelming majority of them poor, fill the jails and prisons.
    • Angela Davis, If They Come in The Morning (1971)
  • The colonization of the Southern economy by capitalists from the North gave lynching its most vigorous impulse. If Black people, by means of terror and violence, could remain the most brutally exploited group within the swelling ranks of the working class, the capitalists could enjoy a double advantage. Extra profits would result from the superexploitation of Black labor, and white workers’ hostilities toward their employers would be defused. White workers who assented to lynching necessarily assumed a posture of racial solidarity with the white men who were really their oppressors. This was a critical moment in the popularization of racist ideology.
    • Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class (1983)
  • That there have been in all ages and in all countries, in every quarter of the habitable globe, especially among those nations laying the greatest claim to civilization and enlightenment, classes of people who have been deprived of equal privileges, political, religious and social, cannot be denied, and that this deprivation on the part of the ruling classes is cruel and unjust, is also equally true. Such classes have even been looked upon as inferior to their oppressors, and have ever been mainly the domestics and menials of society, doing the low offices and drudgery of those among whom they lived, moving about and existing by mere sufferance, having no rights nor privileges but those conceded by the common consent of their political superiors. These are historical facts that cannot be controverted.
    • Martin Delany, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (1852), Chapter 1
  • Wherever there is arbitrary rule, there must be necessity, on the part of the dominant classes, superiority be assumed. To assume superiority, is to deny the equality of others.
    • Martin Delany, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (1852), Chapter 1
  • We deem it a settled point that the destiny of the colored man is bound up with that of the white people of this country. … We are here, and here we are likely to be. To imagine that we shall ever be eradicated is absurd and ridiculous. We can be remodified, changed, assimilated, but never extinguished. We repeat, therefore, that we are here; and that this is our country; and the question for the philosophers and statesmen of the land ought to be, What principles should dictate the policy of the action toward us? We shall neither die out, nor be driven out; but shall go with this people, either as a testimony against them, or as an evidence in their favor throughout their generations.
    • Frederick Douglass, essay in North Star (November 1858); as quoted in Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism (1992) by Derrick Bell, p. 40.
  • The Constitution itself. Its language is ‘we the people’. Not we the white people, not even we the citizens, not we the privileged class, not we the high, not we the low, but we the people. Not we the horses, sheep, and swine, and wheel-barrows, but we the people, we the human inhabitants. If Negroes are people, they are included in the benefits for which the Constitution of America was ordained and established. But how dare any man who pretends to be a friend to the Negro thus gratuitously concede away what the Negro has a right to claim under the Constitution?
    • Frederick Douglass, “The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?” (26 March 1860), Glasgow, United Kingdom.
  • There is something too mean in looking upon the Negro, when you are in trouble, as a citizen, and when you are free from trouble, as an alien. When this nation was in trouble, in its early struggles, it looked upon the Negro as a citizen. In 1776 he was a citizen. At the time of the formation of the Constitution the Negro had the right to vote in eleven States out of the old thirteen. In your trouble you have made us citizens. In 1812 General Jackson addressed us as citizens; ‘fellow-citizens’. He wanted us to fight. We were citizens then! And now, when you come to frame a conscription bill, the Negro is a citizen again. He has been a citizen just three times in the history of this government, and it has always been in time of trouble. In time of trouble we are citizens. Shall we be citizens in war, and aliens in peace? Would that be just?
    • Frederick Douglass, “What the Black Man Wants”, speech in Boston, Massachusetts (1865).
  • In regard to the colored people, there is always more that is benevolent, I perceive, than just, manifested towards us. What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us… I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! … And if the negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! If you see him on his way to school, let him alone, don’t disturb him! If you see him going to the dinner table at a hotel, let him go! If you see him going to the ballot box, let him alone, don’t disturb him! If you see him going into a work-shop, just let him alone, — your interference is doing him positive injury.
    • Frederick Douglass, “What the Black Man Wants”, speech in Boston, Massachusetts (1865).
  • Races and varieties of the human family appear and disappear, but humanity remains and will remain forever. The American people will one day be truer to this idea than now, and will say with Scotia’s inspired son, “A man’s a man for a’ that.” When that day shall come, they will not pervert and sin against the verity of language as they now do by calling a man of mixed blood, a negro; they will tell the truth.
    • Frederick Douglass, “The Future of the Colored Race” (May 1886).
  • I am especially to speak to you of the character and mission of the United States, with special reference to the question whether we are the better or the worse for being composed of different races of men. I propose to consider first, what we are, second, what we are likely to be, and, thirdly, what we ought to be. Without undue vanity or unjust depreciation of others, we may claim to be, in many respects, the most fortunate of nations. We stand in relations to all others, as youth to age. Other nations have had their day of greatness and glory; we are yet to have our day, and that day is coming. The dawn is already upon us. It is bright and full of promise. Other nations have reached their culminating point. We are at the beginning of our ascent. They have apparently exhausted the conditions essential to their further growth and extension, while we are abundant in all the material essential to further national growth and greatness. The resources of European statesmanship are now sorely taxed to maintain their nationalities at their ancient height of greatness and power. American statesmanship, worthy of the name, is now taxing its energies to frame measures to meet the demands of constantly increasing expansion of power, responsibility and duty. Without fault or merit on either side, theirs or ours, the balance is largely in our favor. Like the grand old forests, renewed and enriched from decaying trunks once full of life and beauty, but now moss-covered, oozy and crumbling, we are destined to grow and flourish while they decline and fade.
    • Frederick Douglass, Our Composite Nationality (7 December 1869), Boston, Massachusetts.
  • We have for a long time hesitated to adopt and carry out the only principle which can solve that difficulty and give peace, strength and security to the republic, and that is the principle of absolute equality. We are a country of all extremes, ends and opposites. The most conspicuous example of composite nationality in the world. Our people defy all the ethnological and logical classifications. In races we range all the way from black to white, with intermediate shades which, as in the apocalyptic vision, no man can name or number… America is no longer an obscure and inaccessible country. Our ships are in every sea, our commerce is in every port, our language is heard all around the globe, steam and lightning have revolutionized the whole domain of human thought, changed all geographical relations, make a day of the present seem equal to a thousand years of the past, and the continent that Columbus only conjectured four centuries ago is now the center of the world… A liberal and brotherly welcome to all who are likely to come to the United States is the only wise policy which this nation can adopt. It has been thoughtfully observed that every nation, owing to its peculiar character and composition, has a definite mission in the world. What that mission is, and what policy is best adapted to assist in its fulfillment, is the business of its people and its statesmen to know, and knowing, to make a noble use of this knowledge. I need not stop here to name or describe the missions of other or more ancient nationalities. Our seems plain and unmistakable. Our geographical position, our relation to the outside world, our fundamental principles of government, world-embracing in their scope and character, our vast resources, requiring all manner of labor to develop them, and our already existing composite population, all conspire to one grand end, and that is, to make us the perfect national illustration of the unity and dignity of the human family that the world has ever seen.
    • Frederick Douglass, Our Composite Nationality (7 December 1869), Boston, Massachusetts.
  • In whatever else other nations may have been great and grand, our greatness and grandeur will be found in the faithful application of the principle of perfect civil equality to the people of all races and of all creeds. We are not only bound to this position by our organic structure and by our revolutionary antecedents, but by the genius of our people. Gathered here from all quarters of the globe, by a common aspiration for national liberty as against caste, divine right govern and privileged classes, it would be unwise to be found fighting against ourselves and among ourselves, it would be unadvised to attempt to set up any one race above another, or one religion above another, or prescribe any on account of race, color or creed.
    • Frederick Douglass, Our Composite Nationality (7 December 1869), Boston, Massachusetts.
  • All great qualities are never found in any one man or in any one race. The whole of humanity, like the whole of everything else, is ever greater than a part. Men only know themselves by knowing others, and contact is essential to this knowledge. In one race we perceive the predominance of imagination; in another, like the Chinese, we remark its almost total absence. In one people we have the reasoning faculty; in another the genius for music; in another exists courage, in another great physical vigor, and so on through the whole list of human qualities. All are needed to temper, modify, round and complete the whole man and the whole nation. Not the least among the arguments whose consideration should dispose us to welcome among us the peoples of all countries, nationalities and colors, is the fact that all races and varieties of men are improvable. This is the grand distinguishing attribute of humanity, and separates man from all other animals. If it could be shown that any particular race of men are literally incapable of improvement, we might hesitate to welcome them here. But no such men are any where to be found, and if they were, it is not likely that they would ever trouble us with their presence. The fact that the Chinese and other nations desire to come and do come is a proof of their capacity for improvement and of their fitness to come.
    • Frederick Douglass, Our Composite Nationality (7 December 1869), Boston, Massachusetts.
  • When the architect intends a grand structure, he makes the foundation broad and strong. We should imitate this prudence in laying the foundations of the future republic. There is a law of harmony in all departments of nature. The oak is in the acorn. The career and destiny of individual men are enfolded in the elements of which they are composed. The same is true of a nation. It will be something or it will be nothing. It will be great, or it will be small, according to its own essential qualities. As these are rich and varied, or pure and simple, slender and feeble, broad and strong, so will be the life and destiny of the nation itself. The stream cannot rise higher than its source. The ship cannot sail faster than the wind. The flight of the arrow depends upon the strength and elasticity of the bow, and as with these, so with a nation… If we would reach a degree of civilization higher and grander than any yet attained, we should welcome to our ample continent all the nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples, and as fast as they learn our language and comprehend the duties of citizenship, we should incorporate them into the American body politic. The outspread wings of the American eagle are broad enough to shelter all who are likely to come. As a matter of selfish policy, leaving right and humanity out of the question, we cannot wisely pursue any other course. Other governments mainly depend for security upon the sword; ours depends mainly upon the friendship of the people. In all matters, in time of peace, in time of war, and at all times, it makes its appeal to the people, and to all classes of the people. Its strength lies in their friendship and cheerful support in every time of need, and that policy is a mad one which would reduce the number of its friends by excluding those who would come, or by alienating those who are already here.
    • Frederick Douglass, Our Composite Nationality (7 December 1869), Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Our republic is itself a strong argument in favor of composite nationality. It is no disparagement to the Americans of English descent to affirm that much of the wealth, leisure, culture, refinement and civilization of the country are due to the arm of the negro and the muscle of the Irishman. Without these, and the wealth created by their sturdy toil, English civilization had still lingered this side of the Alleghanies, and the wolf still be howling on their summits. To no class of our population are we more indebted for valuable qualities of head, heart, and hand, than to the German. Say what we will of their lager, their smoke, and their metaphysics, they have brought to us a fresh, vigorous and child-like nature; a boundless facility in the acquisition of knowledge; a subtle and far-reaching intellect, and a fearless love of truth. Though remarkable for patient and laborious thought, the true German is a joyous child of freedom, fond of manly sports, a lover of music, and a happy man generally. Though he never forgets that he is a German, he never fails to remember that he is an American… We shall spread the network of our science and our civilization over all who seek their shelter, whether from Asia, Africa, or the isles of the sea. We shall mold them all, each after his kind, into Americans. Indian and Celt, Negro and Saxon, Latin and Teuton, Mongolian and Caucasian, Jew and gentile, all shall here bow to the same law, speak the same language, support the same government, enjoy the same liberty, vibrate with the same national enthusiasm, and seek the same national ends.
    • Frederick Douglass, Our Composite Nationality (7 December 1869), Boston, Massachusetts.
  • It was once said by Abraham Lincoln that this Republic could not long endure half slave and half free; and the same may be said with even more truth of the black citizens of this country. They cannot remain half slave and half free. They must be one thing or the other. And this brings me to consider the alternative now presented between slavery and freedom in this country. From my outlook, I am free to affirm that I see nothing for the negro of the South but a condition of absolute freedom, or of absolute slavery. I see no half-way place for him. One or the other of these conditions is to solve the so-called negro problem. There are forces at work in both of these directions, and for the present that which aims at the re-enslavement of the negro seems to have the advantage. Let it be remembered that the labor of the negro is his only capital. Take this from him, and he dies from starvation. The present mode of obtaining his labor in the South gives the old master-class a complete mastery over him. I showed this in my last annual celebration address, and I need not go into it here. The payment of the negro by orders on stores, where the storekeeper controls price, quality, and quantity, and is subject to no competition, so that the negro must buy there and nowhere else–an arrangement by which the negro never has a dollar to lay by, and can be kept in debt to his employer, year in and year out–puts him completely at the mercy of the old master-class. He who could say to the negro, when a slave, you shall work for me or be whipped to death, can now say to him with equal emphasis, you shall work for me, or I will starve you to death… This is the plain, matter-of-fact, and unexaggerated condition of the plantation negro in the Southern States today.
    • Frederick Douglass, “The Nation’s Problem” (September 1890).
  • There is no conceivable reason why all colored people should not be treated according to the merits of each individual. It is not only the plain duty, but also the interest of us all, to have every colored man take the place for which he is best fitted by education, character, ability, manners, and culture. If others insist on keeping him in any lower and poorer place, it is not only his injury, but our universal loss. Yet which of our white congregations would take a colored pastor? How many of our New England villages would like to have colored postmasters, or doctors, or lawyers, or teachers in the public schools? A very slight difference in complexion suffices to keep a young man from getting a place as policeman, or fireman, or conductor, even on the horse cars. The trades-unions are closed against him, and so are many of our stores; while those which admit him are obliged to refuse him promotion on account of the unwillingness of white men to serve under him.
    • Frederick Douglass, “The Nation’s Problem” (September 1890).
  • There is no race problem before the country, but only a political one, the question whether a Republican has any right to exist south of Mason and Dixon’s line… I am just as white myself as I am black; and I am not afraid of the negro getting the upper hand in me… If you build the negro a church on every hill, and a schoolhouse in every valley, and endow them all for a hundred years, you will not make up for the wrongs you have done him. Who is it that asks for protection at the polls and for equal education? The men who came forth to clutch with iron fingers your faltering flag, and shed their blood for you, who protected the women and children of the South during the war, who have tilled your soil with their horny hands, and watered it with their tears!
    • Frederick Douglass, speech at “The Nation’s Problem” (September 1890).
  • The ability of the United States to go from legal segregation a half century ago to the election of a black president suggests there is enormous elasticity in the American political system, and that the country has the capacity to deal with what it now faces, both inside and outside its borders.
    • Thomas Edsall, “How Much Does Race Still Matter?” (27 February 2013), The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
  • We are a people born of many peoples. Our culture, our skills, our very aspirations have been shaped by immigrants, and their sons and daughters, from all the Earth. Sam Gompers from England, Andrew Carnegie from Scotland, Albert Einstein from Germany, and Booker T. Washington and Al Smith, Marconi and Caruso. Men of all nations and races and estates, they have made us what we are… So it is that the laws most binding us as a people are laws of the spirit, proclaimed in church and synagogue and mosque. These are the laws that truly declare the eternal equality of all men, of all races, before the man-made laws of our land. And we are profoundly aware that, in the world, we can claim the trust of hundreds of millions of people, across Africa and Asia, only as we ourselves hold high the banner of justice for all.
    • Dwight D. Eisenhower, address at the Philadelphia Convention Hall (1 November 1956).
  • I believe that the United States as a government, if it is going to be true to its own founding documents, does have the job of working toward that time when there is no discrimination made on such inconsequential reason as race, color, or religion.
    • Dwight D. Eisenhower, presidential news conference (13 May 1959).
  • The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
    • Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
  • They appeared all to have made considerable progress in reading for the time they had respectively been in the school, and most of them answered readily and well the questions of the catechism. They behaved very orderly, and showed a proper respect and ready obedience to the mistress, and seemed very attentive to, and a good deal affected by, a serious exhoration with which Mister Sturgeon concluded our visit. I was on the whole much pleased, and from what I then saw, have conceived a higher opinion of the natural capacities of the black race, than I had ever before entertained. Their apprehension seems as quick, their memory as strong, and their docility in every respect equal to that of white children.
    • Benjamin Franklin, letter to Waring (17 December 1783), after visiting a school, as quoted in The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (March 2002), by H.W. Brands, p. 355.
  • The chances of an innocent black man being gunned down by racist cops are vanishingly small. And that is good news indeed… Black Americans will be taught to hate and fear law enforcement, fed on a steady diet of lies about their own country. America is a better place than they’ve been led to believe. Radical racial politics will only make it worse.
    • David A. French, “The Numbers Are in: Black Lives Matter Is Wrong about Police” (29 December 2015), National Review.
  • According to the Women in The Workplace 2018 survey, women of color are not only significantly underrepresented, they are far less likely than others to be promoted to manager, more likely to face everyday discrimination and less likely to receive support from their managers.
    The researchers surveyed 279 companies employing more than 13 million people and talked to 64,000 employees on their workplace experiences. More than 90 percent of the companies polled said prioritizing gender and racial diversity leads to better business results. Yet only 42 percent of employees surveyed said they see gender diversity as a company priority and only 22 percent see racial diversity as a company priority.

    • Leslie Hunter-Gadsden “Report: Black women less likely to be promoted, supported by their managers”, PBS News Hour, (Nov 12, 2018).
  • We do not even inquire whether a black man is a rebel in arms or not; if he is black, be he friend or foe, he is thought best kept at a distance. It is hardly possible God will let us succeed while such enormities are ‘practiced.
    • James A. Garfield, regarding slavery (1862), as quoted in Garfield: A Biography (1978), by Allan Peskin, p. 145.
  • Let us not commit ourselves to the absurd and senseless dogma that the color of the skin shall be the basis of suffrage, the talisman of liberty. I admit that it is perilous to confer the franchise upon the ignorant and degraded; but if an educational test cannot be established, let suffrage be extended to all men of proper age, regardless of color. It may well be questioned whether the negro does not understand the nature of our institutions better than the equally ignorant foreigner. He was intelligent enough to understand from the beginning of the war that the destiny of his race was involved in it. He was intelligent enough to be true to that Union which his educated and traitorous master was endeavoring to destroy. He came to us in the hour of our sorest need, and by his aid, under God, the republic was saved. Shall we now be guilty of the unutterable meanness, not only of thrusting him beyond the pale of its blessings, but of committing his destiny to the tender mercies of those pardoned rebels who have been so reluctantly compelled to take their feet from his neck and their hands from his throat? But someone says it is dangerous at this time to make new experiments. I answer, it is always safe to do justice. However, to grant suffrage to the black man in this country is not innovation, but restoration. It is a return to the ancient principles and practices of the fathers.
    • James A. Garfield, Oration delivered at Ravenna, Ohio (4 July 1865).
  • During the war of the Revolution, and in 1788, the date of the adoption of our national Constitution, there was but one State among the thirteen whose constitution refused the right of suffrage to the negro. That State was South Carolina. Some, it is true, established a property qualification; all made freedom a prerequisite; but none save South Carolina made color a condition of suffrage. The Federal Constitution makes no such distinction, nor did the Articles of Confederation. In the Congress of the Confederation, on the 25th of June, 1778, the fourth article was under discussion. It provided that ‘the free inhabitants of each of these States — paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted — shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States.’ The delegates from South Carolina moved to insert between the words ‘free inhabitants’ the word ‘white’, thus denying the privileges and immunities of citizenship to the colored man. According to the rules of the convention, each State had but one vote. Eleven States voted on the question. One was divided; two voted aye; and eight voted no. It was thus early, and almost unanimously, decided that freedom, not color, should be the test of citizenship. No federal legislation prior to 1812 placed any restriction on the right of suffrage in consequence of the color of the citizen. From 1789 to 1812 Congress passed ten separate laws establishing new Territories. In all these, freedom, and not color, was the basis of suffrage.
    • James A. Garfield, Oration delivered at Ravenna, Ohio (4 July 1865).
  • The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise of 1776 by proclaiming ‘liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.’ The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. NO thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and has opened to each one of them a career of freedom and usefulness… No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance to our Southern communities. This is to be deplored, though it was perhaps unavoidable. But those who resisted the change should remember that under our institutions there was no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen… The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. With unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have “followed the light as God gave them to see the light.” They are rapidly laying the material foundations of self-support, widening their circle of intelligence, and beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of the industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend they shall enjoy the full and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws… Sections and races should be forgotten and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new meaning in the divine oracle which declares that ‘a little child shall lead them’, for our own little children will soon control the destinies of the Republic.
    • James A. Garfield, inaugural address (4 March 1881).
  • In the study, black, Hispanic, Asian and white home seekers called up housing agents and asked to set up an appointment to see advertised properties. These testers were all the same gender, the same age and all equally well-qualified to rent or own the properties. At this step, nearly every tester managed to get an appointment.
    But after that, not everyone was treated the same. The testers met with their agents, who told them about and then showed them properties. As it turns out, the number of properties some agents have available depends on who you are.
    In nearly all cases, whether renting or buying, minorities were told about and shown fewer properties than white people. Blacks were told about and shown about 17 percent fewer homes than whites, while Asians were told about 15.5 percent fewer homes and shown nearly 19 percent fewer properties.

    • Ilyce Glink, “Racism is alive and well in housing”, Money Watch’ CBS News, June 12, 2013).
  • What is black in the United States is not what’s black in Brazil or what’s black in South Africa.
    • Alan Goodman, as quoted in “Episode One: The Difference Between Us” (2003), Race: The Power of an Illusion, California Newsreel.
  • American racial classification is totally cultural. Who’s Tiger Woods? Who’s Colin Powell? Colin Powell’s as Irish as he is African. Being black has been defined as just looking dark enough that anyone can see you are.
    • Stephen Jay Gould, as quoted in “Episode Three: The House We Live In” (2003), Race: The Power of an Illusion, California Newsreel.
  • The present difficulty, in bringing all parts of the United States to a happy unity and love of country grows out of the prejudice to color. The prejudice is a senseless one, but it exists.
    • Ulysses S. Grant, Memorandum: Reasons why Santo Domingo should be annexed to the United States (1870).
  • I have no prejudice against sect or race, but want each individual to be judged by his own merit.
    • Ulysses S. Grant, Letter to Isaac N. Morris (14 September 1868), Galena, Illinois.
  • A measure which makes at once 4,000,000 people voters who were heretofore declared by the highest tribunal in the land not citizens of the United States, nor eligible to become so (with the assertion that “at the time of the Declaration of Independence the opinion was fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race, regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, that black men had no rights which the white man was bound to respect”), is indeed a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free Government to the present day.
    • Ulysses S. Grant, Special message to the Senate and House of Representatives (30 March 1870)
  • Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from the people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism, and industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly enfranchised race to the importance of their striving in every honorable manner to make themselves worthy of their new privilege. To the race more favored heretofore by our laws I would say, Withhold no legal privilege of advancement to the new citizen.
    • Ulysses S. Grant, Special message to the Senate and House of Representatives (30 March 1870)
  • The soil would have soon fallen into the hands of United States capitalists. The products are so valuable in commerce that emigration there would have been encouraged; the emancipated race of the South would have found there a congenial home, where their civil rights would not be disputed and where their labor would be so much sought after that the poorest among them could have found the means to go. Thus in cases of great oppression and cruelty, such as has been practiced upon them in many places within the last eleven years, whole communities would have sought refuge in Santo Domingo. I do not suppose the whole race would have gone, nor is it desirable that they should go. Their labor is desirable—indispensable almost—where they now are. But the possession of this territory would have left the negro ‘master of the situation’, by enabling him to demand his rights at home on pain of finding them elsewhere.
    • Ulysses S. Grant, Special message to the Senate and House of Representatives (30 March 1870)
  • Enjoined by the Constitution ‘to take care that the laws be faithfully executed’, and convinced by undoubted evidence that violations of said act had been committed and that a widespread and flagrant disregard of it was contemplated, the proper officers were instructed to prosecute the offenders, and troops were stationed at convenient points to aid these officers, if necessary, in the performance of their official duties. Complaints are made of this interference by Federal authority; but if said amendment and act do not provide for such interference under the circumstances as above stated, then they are without meaning, force, or effect, and the whole scheme of colored enfranchisement is worse than mockery and little better than a crime. Possibly Congress may find it due to truth and justice to ascertain, by means of a committee, whether the alleged wrongs to colored citizens for political purposes are real or the reports thereof were manufactured for the occasion… Under existing conditions the negro votes the Republican ticket because he knows his friends are of that party. Many a good citizen votes the opposite, not because he agrees with the great principles of state which separate parties, but because, generally, he is opposed to negro rule. This is a most delusive cry. Treat the negro as a citizen and a voter, as he is and must remain, and soon parties will be divided, not on the color line, but on principle. Then we shall have no complaint of sectional interference.
    • Ulysses S. Grant, State of the Union Address (7 December 1874).
  • One thing has struck me as a bit queer. During my two terms of office the whole Democratic press, and the morbidly honest and ‘reformatory’ portion of the Republican press, thought it horrible to keep U.S. troops stationed in the Southern States, and when they were called upon to protect the lives of negroes–as much citizens under the Constitution as if their skins were white–the country was scarcely large enough to hold the sound of indignation belched forth by them for some years. Now, however, there is no hesitation about exhausting the whole power of the government to suppress a strike on the slightest intimation that danger threatens. All parties agree that this is right, and so do I. If a negro insurrection should arise in South Carolina, Mississippi, or Louisiana, or if the negroes in either of these states, where they are in a large majority, should intimidate the whites from going to the polls, or from exercising any of the rights of American citizens, there would be no division of sentiment as to the duty of the president. It does seem the rule should work both ways.
    • Ulysses S. Grant, regarding keeping U.S. Army soldiers stationed in southern U.S. states to protect the safety and civil rights of freed slaves (26 August 1877), as quoted in The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: November 1, 1876-September 30, 1878, by U.S. Grant, pp. 251-252.
  • Most Americans still believe that there is some biological legitimacy to our socially constructed racial categories. However, our modern scientific understanding of human genetic diversity flies in the face of all of our social stereotypes.
    • Joseph Graves, as quoted in “The Biological Case Against Race” (1 January 2002), American Outlook.
  • In view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved. But it is difficult to reconcile that boast with a state of the law which, practically, puts the brand of servitude and degradation upon a large class of our fellow citizens, our equals before the law. The thin disguise of ‘equal’ accommodations for passengers in railroad coaches will not mislead anyone, nor atone for the wrong this day done… I cannot see but that, according to the principles this day announced, such state legislation, although conceived in hostility to, and enacted for the purpose of humiliating, citizens of the United States of a particular race, would be held to be consistent with the constitution.
    • John Marshall Harlan, as quoted in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 559 (1896)
  • When and under what conditions is the black man to have a free ballot? When is he in fact to have those full civil rights which have so long been his in law? When is that equality of influence which our form of government was intended to secure to the electors to be restored? This generation should courageously face these grave questions, and not leave them as a heritage of woe to the next. The consultation should proceed with candor, calmness, and great patience, upon the lines of justice and humanity, not of prejudice and cruelty. No question in our country can be at rest except upon the firm base of justice and of the law… The colored people did not intrude themselves upon us. They were brought here in chains and held in the communities where they are now chiefly found by a cruel slave code. Happily for both races, they are now free. They have from a standpoint of ignorance and poverty—which was our shame, not theirs—made remarkable advances in education and in the acquisition of property. They have as a people shown themselves to be friendly and faithful toward the white race under temptations of tremendous strength. They have their representatives in the national cemeteries, where a grateful Government has gathered the ashes of those who died in its defense. They have furnished to our Regular Army regiments that have won high praise from their commanding officers for courage and soldierly qualities and for fidelity to the enlistment oath. In civil life they are now the toilers of their communities, making their full contribution to the widening streams of prosperity which these communities are receiving. Their sudden withdrawal would stop production and bring disorder into the household as well as the shop. Generally they do not desire to quit their homes, and their employers resent the interference of the emigration agents who seek to stimulate such a desire.
    • Benjamin Harrison, State of the Union Address (3 December 1889)
  • To the extent that 1776 led to the resultant U.S., which came to captain the African Slave Trade—as London moved in an opposing direction toward a revolutionary abolition of this form of property—the much-celebrated revolt of the North American settlers can fairly be said to have eventuated as a counter-revolution of slavery.
    • Gerald Horne, The Counter-Revolution of 1776 (2014), p. x
  • Ironically, the founders of the republic have been hailed and lionized by left, right, and center for—in effect—creating the first apartheid state.
    • Gerald Horne, The Counter-Revolution of 1776 (2014), p. 4
  • To be blind to color and colorism in this context is to license racial injustice and to ignore the historical trajectory of disenfranchisement and exploitation that have landed African Americans and people of color in a subordinate status position. … Whites have inherited wealth that was ostensibly generated on the backs of African Americans. What’s passed down through generations is an abdication of responsibility for this legacy and for the spoils that even working-class whites continue to reap from it. The situation is akin to finding a bloodied bag of money at your doorstep every month and spending it freely without seriously questioning where it came from or whose blood has been spilled to make it possible.
    • David H. Ikard and Martell Lee Teasley, Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama’s Post-Racial America (Indiana University Press: 2012), p. 54
  • As sons of freedom you are now called upon to defend your most inestimable blessing. As Americans, your country looks with confidence on her adopted children, for a valorous support, as a faithful return for the advantages enjoyed under her mild and equitable government.
    • Andrew Jackson, in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1814. As quoted in The Life of Andrew Jackson (1967), by John Spencer Bassett, Archon Books. p. 156-157.
  • There is no southern problem; there is no northern problem. There is only an American problem, and we are met here tonight as Americans. Not as Democrats or Republicans; we are met here as Americans to solve that problem… To deny a man his hopes because of his color or race, his religion or the place of his birth–is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom. Our fathers believed that if this noble view of the rights of man was to flourish, it must be rooted in democracy. The most basic right of all was the right to choose your own leaders. The history of this country, in large measure, is the history of the expansion of that right to all of our people.
    • Lyndon B. Johnson, The American Promise (15 March 1965), Washington, D.C.
  • There are accepted definitions of Americanism. There is none of Americanization. The reason is not hard to find. There is in America a national impulse called Americanization, which was understood as a war necessity before it had developed in time of peace. It acquired a generalization before it had become specific. It was subjected to organization and committed to the achievement of results before it was a branch of knowledge fairly evolved and reduced to practice. There is no science of race assimilation. No nation has had a sufficiently free opportunity with many diverse races to establish its enduring principles and certain procedure. America has this opportunity in her thirty-five different races speaking fifty-four languages, of whom 13,000,000 are foreign-born. One third of her total population has its roots in other soils and in diverse cultures. She has the laboratory for the experiment in her wide expanse of territory, much of it still unsettled; in the elasticity of her institutions; and in the still formative state of her cultural life. The old world is engaged in a struggle to find a way by which each race living on its own soil, separated by definite national boundaries, can be assured freedom and peace in the full development of its national life and in the realization of international opportunities. The task of America is different. It is for her to find the way by which these races, living on one soil, under one form of government, with no territorial lines, can be assimilated and become a part of her integral national life.
    • Frances Kellor, “What is Americanization?” (January 1919), Yale Review.
  • This idea of a post-racial society was quite possibly the most sophisticated racist idea ever created. Because unlike previous racist ideas, that specifically told us how we should think about particular people of color, or how we should think about this particular racial group. What post-racial ideas did was it said to us racism doesn’t exist, racist policy doesn’t exist, in the face of all of these racial inequities. And so then it caused us to say, OK, this inequity, like, the black unemployment rate being twice as high as the white unemployment rate, it can’t exist because of racism. It must exist because there’s something wrong with black workers.
    • Ibram X. Kendi, as interviewed by Rachel Martin in “How Racism Has Evolved Over The Last 2 U.S. Presidencies”, NPR Morning Edition, (August 14, 2019).
  • Remember, boys and girls. Your school, like our country, is made up of Americans of many different races, religions, and national origins. So, if you hear anybody talk against a schoolmate or anyone else because of his religion, race, or national origin, don’t wait. Tell him that kind of talk is un-American.
    • Clark Kent, “Help Keep Your School All-American” (1949), National Comics Publishing, Incorporated.
  • American society, composed of diverse races and ethnicities, has a lot of tolerance of different kinds of people and can embrace them all as Americans.
    • Sae-jung Kim, “South Korea’s Reaction to the Virginia Tech Massacre: Koreans view American feelings through the lens of their own culture” (19 April 2007), OhMyNews: International.
  • Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know now, that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t have enough money to buy a hamburger?
    • Martin Luther King, Jr., Speech in Memphis, Tennessee, March 1968, in The Radical King, p. 249
  • Ordinary Americans, even those in blue states like California, Washington and Michigan, do not like policies of race-based preferences and discrimination… Equal protection of equal rights is the American ideal, enshrined forever in the proposition that all men are created equal, and it is right. Racism is wrong precisely because equality is right.
    • Thomas L. Krannawitter, “Winning Strategy For Republicans: Getting Rid Of Racial Preferences” (18 December 2006), Investors, Investor’s Business Daily, Inc.
  • Remove the word black and say ‘lives matter’… Stop sending mothers back home empty. You can never replace a mother’s child. If we want black lives matter, let’s make it matter to us. That’s the new call.
    • Ray Lewis, as quoted in “Former NFL Player Ray Lewis: ‘Let’s Make Lives Matter'” (2015), by Khorri Atkinson, NBC News.
  • When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government — that is despotism. If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that “all men are created equal,” and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man’s making a slave of another.
    • Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854), Online text Speech at Peoria, Illinois, in Reply to Senator Douglas (16 October 1854); published in The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln (1894) Vol. 2.
  • You enquire where I now stand. That is a disputed point. I think I am a whig; but others say there are no whigs, and that I am an abolitionist. When I was at Washington I voted for the Wilmot Proviso as good as forty times, and I never heard of any one attempting to unwhig me for that. I now do more than oppose the extension of slavery.I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we begin by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.” When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be take pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic].
    • Abraham Lincoln, letter to longtime friend and slave-holder Joshua F. Speed, Esq., (24 August 1855).
  • Let us then turn this Government back into the channel in which the framers of the Constitution originally placed it. Let us stand firmly by each other. If we do not do so we are turning in the contrary direction, that our friend Judge Douglas proposes — not intentionally — as working in the traces tend to make this one universal slave nation. He is one that runs in that direction, and as such I resist him. My friends, I have detained you about as long as I desired to do, and I have only to say, let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man; this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position; discarding our standard that we have left us. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal. My friends, I could not, without launching off upon some new topic, which would detain you too long, continue to-night. I thank you for this most extensive audience that you have furnished me to-night. I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.
    • Abraham Lincoln, Speech in reply to Senator Stephen Douglas in the Lincoln-Douglas debates of the 1858 campaign for the U.S. Senate, at Chicago, Illinois (10 July 1858).
  • Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man, this race and that race and the other race being inferior and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal.
    • Abraham Lincoln, Address to Chicagoan abolitionists (10 July 1858); quoted in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), p. 501.
  • I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year, and I certainly never had a black woman for either a slave or a wife. So it seems to me quite possible for us to get along without making either slaves or wives of negroes.
    • Abraham Lincoln, Fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate (18 September 1858).
  • But it is dreaded that the freed people will swarm forth and cover the whole land. Are they not already in the land? Will liberation make them any more numerous? Equally distributed among the whites of the whole country, and there would be but one colored to seven whites. Could the one in any way greatly disturb the seven? There are many communities now having more than one free colored person to seven whites and this without any apparent consciousness of evil from it. The District of Columbia and the States of Maryland and Delaware are all in this condition. The District has more than one free colored to six whites, and yet in its frequent petitions to Congress I believe it has never presented the presence of free colored persons as one of its grievances. But why should emancipation South send the free people North? People of any color seldom run unless there be something to run from. Hertofore colored people to some extent have fled North from bondage, and now, perhaps, from both bondage and destitution.
    • Abraham Lincoln, Second State of the Union Address (1 December 1862).
  • We have seen the mere distinction of color made, in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man.
    • James Madison, speech at the Constitutional Convention (6 June 1787).
  • I’ve got nothing against any individual American, except that there aren’t any. They’re always Irish-American, African-American–there’s never an American-American you can blame!
    • Simon Munnery, as quoted in Attention Scum.
  • Always, the rulers of an order, consistent with their own interests and solely of their own design, have employed what to them seemed to be the most optimal and efficient means of maintaining unquestioned social and economic advantage. Clear-cut superiority in things social and economic—by whatever means—has been a scruples-free premise of American ruling class authority from the society’s inception to the present. The initial socioeconomic advantage, begotten by chattel slavery, was enforced by undaunted violence and the constant threat of more violence.
    • Huey P. Newton, War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America, Doctoral dissertation submitted to the Faculty of University of California Santa Cruz, June 1, 1980
  • Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America’s founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. It’s a story with a simple truth: violence is a dead end. It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered.
    • Barack H. Obama II, “A New Beginning” (June 2009), Egypt.
  • When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country… We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith… If we give up now, then we forsake a better future. Those with money and power will gain greater control over the decisions that could send a young soldier to war, or allow another economic disaster, or roll back the equal rights and voting rights that generations of Americans have fought, even died, to secure. As frustration grows, there will be voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don’t look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background. We can’t afford to go down that path. It won’t deliver the economy we want, or the security we want, but most of all, it contradicts everything that makes us the envy of the world.
    • Barack H. Obama II, State of the Union address (12 January 2016).
  • Black folks are descendants of slaves that were imported, quote-unquote by slave owners, to the United States for the explicit purpose of cultivating crops. And it was predicated on white supremacy and racial superiority, but we have to understand that white supremacy exists for a reason, and they exist for a very specific cultural and economic reasons. And LBJ talked about this — like, if you can convince a poor white man that he’s superior to a black man, he’ll empty his pockets for you.
    And so it’s not just economic reasons why racism exists but there are economic reasons why racism is perpetuated and incentivized. More of that’s housing, income, et cetera… Until America tells the truth about itself we’re never going to heal…. It’s like this thing that as a culture we hide… it’s like this big wound with a big ugly scab on it, and it’s just going to stay… until we just deal with it….

    • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her First Weeks In Washington, The Intercept (28 January 2019)
  • Acknowledging racism is a really big step… but… it’s nowhere near enough…. the idea that you can be poor and benefit from the color of your skin does not compute for a lot of people… And going through that realization is very painful… for people that are that were born with silver spoons, it’s very painful to admit that you had advantages…
    • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her First Weeks In Washington, The Intercept (28 January 2019)
  • For critics of the criminal justice system, the arrest and imprisonment rates for blacks and other minorities suggest that the system discriminates against those groups. They argue, for example, that blacks, who make up 12 percent of the national population, could not possibly commit 48 percent of the crime: Yet that is exactly what arrest and imprisonment rates imply about black criminality. Defend-ers of the system argue that the arrest and imprisonment rates do not lie; the system simply reacts to the prevalence of crime in the black community. As we have noted repeatedly, prior research has not. set-tled this controversy. For every study that finds discrimination in ar-rests, convictions, sentencing, prison treatment, or parole, another denies it.
    • Joan Petersilia, “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System”, National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice, (June 1983), p. 89.
  • A minority male is almost four times more likely than a white male to have an index arrest in his lifetime: One in every two nonwhite males in large U.S. cities can expect to have at least one index arrest. However, the RIS data indicate that, once involved in crime, whites and minorities in the sample have virtually the same annual crime commission rates. This accords with Blumstein and Graddy’s (1981) finding that the recidivism rate for index offenses is approximately .85 for both whites and nonwhites. Thus, the data suggest that large racial differences in aggregate arrest rates must be attributed primar-ily to differences in involvement, and not to different patterns among those who do participate. Under these circumstances, any empirically derived indicators of recidivism should target a roughly equal number of whites and minorities. In other words, even if recidivism among whites had different causes or correlates than recidivism among non-whites, they should at least balance one another. They should not consistently identify nonwhites as more appropriate candidates for more severe treatment.
    • Joan Petersilia, “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System”, National Institute of Corrections, Department of Justice, (June 1983), p. 98.
  • Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, the document that articulated the principle of human rights endowed by the Creator, thereby ultimately ensuring the end of slavery, and led to the establishment of the country that has served as the beacon of hope for people of every race and ethnicity. More black Africans have voluntarily emigrated to the United States to seek liberty and opportunity than came to America as slaves… Conservatives view America as President Abraham Lincoln viewed it; as the ‘Last Best Hope of Earth’… America gradually became the least-xenophobic, least-racist nation in the world. In no country do people become accepted as full members of the society as do immigrants to America.
    • Dennis Prager, “Why the Left Hates America” (28 July 2015), National Review
  • The problem of the twenty-first century, then, is the problem of the color-blind. This problem is simple: it believes that to redress racism, we need to not consider race in social practice, notably in the sphere of governmental action. The state, we are told, must be above race. … We are led to believe that racism is prejudicial behavior of one party against another rather than the coagulation of socioeconomic injustice against groups. If the state acts without prejudice (this is, if it acts equally), then that is proof of the end of racism. Unequal socioeconomic conditions of today, based as they are on racisms of the past and of the present, are thereby rendered untouchable by the state. Color-blind justice privatizes inequality and racism, and it removes itself from the project of redistributive and anti-racist justice. This is the genteel racism of our new millennium.
    • Vijay Prashad, Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity (2002), p. 38
  • If Malcolm X or the Black Panthers had attempted to set up a separate black state on American soil in the tradition of John Brown, their efforts would have been crushed immediately… A nation which, since its founding, has rejected the idea of hereditary entitlements. Slavery and racial discrimination are exceptions to this tradition. Huge, horrific exceptions, but exceptions nonetheless. For all the hypocrisies and bigotries of its citizens and leaders, the United States does promise liberty, equality and justice. The gap between these promises and realities often yaws wide, but the promises abide. They are part of the ‘American Dream’, the ‘American Creed’, and the American ‘civil religion’, which no amount of ‘realism’ or cynicism seems able to smother… No group in American history has had more reason to disbelieve America’s promises than African Americans… Imbued with Christianity and the American Creed, most black Americans rejected the appeals of socialists in the late nineteenth century, Communists in the 1930s, and neo-Marxist ‘liberationists’ in the 1960s. Rather, when America’s unpaid ‘promissory note’ came due in the 1950s and 1960s, they marched forth from Christian churches to demand fulfillment of the very American promise that ‘all men are created equal’. And faith in the redeemability of America’s promises remains in the African-American community today, sustaining efforts to overcome continued segregation, unjust incarceration and enduring economic inequality.
    • Jeff Pyle, “Race, Equality and the Rule of Law: Critical Race Theory’s Attack on the Promises of Liberalism” (May 1999), Boston College Law Review.
  • Discrimination against the Negro race in this country is unjust, is unworthy of a high-minded people whose example should have a salutary influence in the world.
    • Joseph Hayne Rainey, speech about the Civil Rights Act under consideration which was passed in 1875 (19 December 1873), as quoted in Neglected Voices, New York University School of Law.
  • Hispanic American men have lower average wage rates than white non-Hispanics. In 1975 the average white non-Hispanic male wage-earner in the United States earned $5.97 an hour. Mexican men earned $4.31, 72% as much as white non-Hispanics; Puerto Rican men earned $4.52, 76% as much; and Cuban men earned $5.33, 89% as much as white non-Hispanics. By way of comparison, black men’s average wages in 1975 were $4.65, 78% of the white male wage.
    • Cordelia W. Reimers, “Labor Market Discrimination Against Hispanic and Black Men”, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Nov., 1983), p. 570.
  • We condemn bigots who inject class, racial and religious prejudice into public and political matters. Bigotry is un-American and a danger to the republic. We deplore the duplicity and insincerity of the party in power in racial and religious matters. Although they have been in office as a ‘Majority Party’ for many years, they have not kept nor do they intend to keep their promises. The Republican Party will not mislead, exploit or attempt to confuse minority groups for political purposes. All American citizens are entitled to full, impartial enforcement of Federal laws relating to their civil rights. We believe that it is the primary responsibility of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions, and this power, reserved to the states, is essential to the maintenance of our Federal Republic. However, we believe that the Federal Government should take supplemental action within its constitutional jurisdiction to oppose discrimination against race, religion or national origin..
    • Republican Party Platform of 1952 (7 July 1952).
  • This nation was created to give expression, validity and purpose to our spiritual heritage—the supreme worth of the individual. In such a nation—a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal—racial discrimination has no place. It can hardly be reconciled with a Constitution that guarantees equal protection under law to all persons. In a deeper sense, too, it is immoral and unjust. As to those matters within reach of political action and leadership, we pledge ourselves unreservedly to its eradication… Equality under law promises more than the equal right to vote and transcends mere relief from discrimination by government. It becomes a reality only when all persons have equal opportunity, without distinction of race, religion, color or national origin, to acquire the essentials of life—housing, education and employment. The Republican Party—the party of Abraham Lincoln—from its very beginning has striven to make this promise a reality. It is today, as it was then, unequivocally dedicated to making the greatest amount of progress toward the objective.
    • Republican Party Platform of 1960 (25 July 1960).
  • It has long been a fundamental conviction of the Republican Party that government should foster in our society a climate of maximum individual liberty and freedom of choice. Properly informed, our people as individuals or acting through instruments of popular consultation can make the right decisions affecting personal or general welfare, free of pervasive and heavy-handed intrusion by the central government into the decision-making process. This tenet is the genius of representative democracy. Republicans also treasure the ethnic, cultural, and regional diversity of our people. This diversity fosters a dynamism in American society that is the envy of the world… As the ‘Party of Lincoln’, we remain equally and steadfastly committed to the equality of rights for all citizens, regardless of race. Although this nation has not yet eliminated all vestiges of racism over the years we are heartened by the progress that has been made, we are proud of the role that our party has played, and we are dedicated to standing shoulder to shoulder with black Americans in that cause.
    • Republican Party Platform of 1980 (15 July 1980), Detroit, Michigan.
  • No individual should be victimized by unfair discrimination because of race, sex, advanced age, physical handicap, difference of national origin or religion, or economic circumstance… Republicans deplore growing antisemitism… The Republican Party supports the principle and process of self-determination in Africa. We reaffirm our commitment to this principle… We recognize that much is at stake in Africa and that the United States and the industrial west have vital interests there, economically, strategically, and politically. Working closely with our allies, a Republican administration will seek to assist the countries of Africa with our presence, our markets, our know-how, and our investment. We will work to create a climate of economic and political development and confidence. We will encourage and assist business to play a major role in support of regional industrial development programs, mineral complexes, and agricultural self-sufficiency. Republicans believe that African nations, if given a choice, will reject the Marxist, totalitarian model being forcibly imposed.
    • Republican Party Platform of 1980 (15 July 1980), Detroit, Michigan.
  • The African peoples are convinced that the west is central to world stability and economic growth on which their own fortunes ultimately depend. A Republican administration will adhere to policies that reflect the complex origins of African conflicts, demonstrate that we know what U.S. interests are, and back those interests in meaningful ways. We will recognize the important role of economic and military assistance programs and will devote major resources to assisting African development and stability when such aid is given on a bilateral basis and contributes directly to American interests on the continent. In southern Africa, American policies must be guided by common sense and by our own humanitarian principles. Republicans believe that our history has meaning for Africa in demonstrating that a multi-racial society with guarantees of individual rights is possible and can work. We must remain open and helpful to all parties, whether in the new Zimbabwe, in Namibia, or in the Republic of South Africa. A Republican administration will not endorse situations or constitutions, in whatever society, which are racist in purpose or in effect. It will not expect miracles, but will press for genuine progress in achieving goals consistent with American ideals.
    • Republican Party Platform of 1980 (15 July 1980), Detroit, Michigan.
  • The Republican Party reaffirms its support of the pluralism and freedom that have been part and parcel of this great country. In so doing, it repudiates and completely disassociates itself from people, organizations, publications, and entities which promulgate the practice of any form of bigotry, racism, antisemitism, or religious intolerance… Americans demand a civil rights policy premised on the letter of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law requires equal rights; and it is our policy to end discrimination on account of sex, race, color, creed, or national origin. We have vigorously enforced civil rights statutes. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has recovered record amounts of back pay and other compensation for victims of employment discrimination. Just as we must guarantee opportunity, we oppose attempts to dictate results. We will resist efforts to replace equal rights with discriminatory quota systems and preferential treatment. Quotas are the most insidious form of discrimination: reverse discrimination against the innocent. We must always remember that, in a free society, different individual goals will yield different results. The Republican Party has an historic commitment to equal rights for women. Republicans pioneered the right of women to vote, and our party was the first major party to advocate equal pay for equal work, regardless of sex.
    • Republican Party Platform of 1984 (20 August 1984), Republican National Convention Committee on Resolution.
  • We reaffirm our commitment to the rights of all South Africans. Apartheid is repugnant. In South Africa, as elsewhere on the continent, we support well-conceived efforts to foster peace, prosperity, and stability… Since its inception, the Republican Party has stood for the worth of every person. On that ground, we support the pluralism and diversity that have been part of our country’s greatness. Deep in our hearts, we do believe that bigotry has no place in American life. We denounce those persons, organizations, publications, and movements which practice or promote racism, antisemitism or religious intolerance.
    • Republican Party Platform of 1988 (16 August 1988), Republican National Convention.
  • The protection of individual rights is the foundation for opportunity and security. The Republican Party is unique in this regard. Since its inception, it has respected every person, even when that proposition was not universally popular. Today, as in the day of Lincoln, we insist that no American’s rights are negotiable. That is why we declare that bigotry and prejudice have no place in American life. We denounce all who practice or promote racism, antisemitism, or religious intolerance… We urge peace and justice for Northern Ireland. We welcome the newly begun process of constitutional dialogue that holds so much promise. We encourage investment and reconstruction to create opportunity for all.
    • Republican Party Platform of 1992 (17 August 1992), Republican National Convention.
  • We are the party of individual Americans, whose rights we protect and defend as the foundation for opportunity and security for all. Today, as at our founding in the day of Lincoln, we insist no one’s rights are negotiable. As we strive to forge a national consensus on the divisive issues of our time, we call on all Republicans and all Americans to reject the forces of hatred and bigotry. Accordingly, we denounce all who practice or promote racism, antisemitism, ethnic prejudice, and religious intolerance… Because we are all one America, we oppose discrimination. We believe in the equality of all people before the law and that individuals should be judged by their ability rather than their race.
    • Republican Party Platform of 1996 (12 August 1996), Republican National Convention, San Diego, California.
  • We meet at a remarkable time in the life of our country. Our powerful economy gives America a unique chance to confront persistent challenges. Our country, after an era of drift, must now set itself to important tasks and higher goals. The Republican Party has the vision and leadership to address these issues. Our platform is uplifting and visionary. It reflects the views of countless Americans all across this country who believe in prosperity with a purpose… Since the election of 1860, the Republican Party has had a special calling, to advance the founding principles of freedom and limited government and the dignity and worth of every individual… Equality of individuals before the law has always been a cornerstone of our party. We therefore oppose discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, creed, disability, or national origin and will vigorously enforce anti-discrimination statutes. As we strive to forge a national consensus on the crucial issues of our time, we call on all Americans to reject the forces of hatred and bigotry. Accordingly, we denounce all who practice or promote racism, antisemitism, ethnic prejudice, and religious intolerance. Our country was founded in faith and upon the truth that self-government is rooted… Rule of law is not consistent with state-sponsored brutality. When the Russian government attacks civilians in Chechnya, killing innocents without discrimination or accountability, neglecting orphans and refugees, it can no longer expect aid from international lending institutions. Moscow needs to operate with civilized self-restraint.
    • Republican Party Platform of 2000 (31 July 2000), Republican National Convention, United States of America: Republican National Committee.
  • Individual rights, and the responsibilities that go with them, are the foundation of a free society. From the time of Lincoln, equality of individuals has been a cornerstone of the Republican Party. Our commitment to equal opportunity extends from landmark school-choice legislation for the students of Washington, D.C. to historic appointments at the highest levels of government. We consider discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, creed, disability, or national origin to be immoral, and we will strongly enforce anti-discrimination statutes. We ask all to join us in rejecting the forces of hatred and bigotry and in denouncing all who practice or promote racism, antisemitism, ethnic prejudice, or religious intolerance. As a matter of principle, Republicans oppose any attempts to create race-based governments within the United States, as well as any domestic governments not bound by the constitution or the Bill of Rights. Precisely because we oppose discrimination, we reject preferences, quotas, and set-asides, whether in education or in corporate boardrooms. The government should not make contracts on this basis, and neither should corporations.
    • Republican Party Platform of 2008 (1 September 2008), Republican National Convention, United States of America.
  • Free speech on college campuses is to be celebrated, but there should be no place in academia for antisemitism or racism of any kind… All Americans stand equal before the law. We embrace the principle that all Americans should be treated with respect and dignity. In the spirit of the constitution, we consider discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, creed, disability, or national origin unacceptable and immoral. We will strongly enforce anti-discrimination statutes and ask all to join us in rejecting the forces of hatred and bigotry and in denouncing all who practice or promote racism, antisemitism, ethnic prejudice, or religious intolerance.
    • Republican Party Platform of 2012 (27 August 2012), Republican National Convention, United States of America.
  • I cannot consent to take the position that the door of hope — the door of opportunity — is to be shut upon any man, no matter how worthy, purely upon the grounds of race or color. Such an attitude would, according to my convictions, be fundamentally wrong.
    • Theodore Roosevelt, letter to James Adger Smythe (26 November 1902).
  • As a people we claim the right to speak with peculiar emphasis for freedom and for fair treatment of all men without regard to differences of race, fortune, creed, or color. We forfeit the right so to speak when we commit or condone such crimes as these of which I speak. The nation, like the individual, cannot commit a crime with impunity. If we are guilty of lawlessness and brutal violence, whether our guilt consists in active participation therein or in mere connivance and encouragement, we shall assuredly suffer later on because of what we have done… The cornerstone of this republic, as of all free governments, is respect for and obedience to the law. Where we permit the law to be defied or evaded, whether by rich man or poor man, by black man or white, we are by just so much weakening the bonds of our civilization and increasing the chances of its overthrow, and of the substitution therefore of a system in which there shall be violent alternations of anarchy and tyranny.
    • Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Winfield T. Durbin (6 August 1903), Oyster Bay, New York.
  • There are good men and bad men of all nationalities, creeds and colors; and if this world of ours is ever to become what we hope some day it may become, it must be by the general recognition that the man’s heart and soul, the man’s worth and actions, determine his standing.
    • Theodore Roosevelt, letter (1 September 1903), Oyster Bay, New York.
  • It is unwise to depart from the old American tradition and discriminate for or against any man who desires to come here and become a citizen, save on the ground of that man’s fitness for citizenship… We can not afford to consider whether he is Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile; whether he is Englishman or Irishman, Frenchman or German, Japanese, Italian, or Scandinavian, or Magyar. What we should desire to find out is the individual quality of the individual man.
    • Theodore Roosevelt, message to the U.S. Congress (1905). As quoted in The Business of Transatlantic Migration between Europe and the United States, 1900–1914 (2012), by Drew Keeling, p. 161.
  • Individuals who have been wronged by unlawful racial discrimination should be made whole; but under our Constitution there can be no such thing as either a creditor or a debtor race. That concept is alien to the Constitution’s focus upon the individual. …To pursue the concept of racial entitlement – even for the most admirable and benign of purposes – is to reinforce and preserve for future mischief the way of thinking that produced race slavery, race privilege and race hatred. In the eyes of government, we are just one race here. It is American.
    • Antonin Scalia, Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Mineta, 534 U.S. 103 (1995).
  • This country does not discriminate. No president, no officer in this country should hold office that has any hint of treating people differently because of the color of their skin or where they came from and that kind of thing. We believe in equality and fair treatment and that’s the moral principle that we adhere to as a nation.
    • Jeff Sessions, interview with Matt Murphy (2016)
  • Douglas, no man will ever be President of the United States who spells ‘negro’ with two gs.
    • William H. Seward, a retort to Stephen A. Douglas on the Senate floor, after the Illinois senator used an offensive slur in a speech. As quoted in Team of Rivals (2006), by Doris Kearns Goodwin (New York: Simon and Schuster), p. 163.
  • When George Washington was fighting for freedom in the Revolutionary War, he was fighting for the freedom of “whites only.” Rich whites, at that. After the so-called Revolution, you couldn’t vote unless you were a white man and you owned a plot of land. The Revolutionary War was led by some rich white boys who got tired of paying heavy taxes to the king. It didn’t have anything at all to do with freedom, justice, and equality for all.
    • Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (1988), p. 33
  • Once you’re in prison, there are plenty of jobs, and, if you don’t want to work, they beat you up and throw you in the hole. If every state had to pay workers to do the jobs prisoners are forced to do , the salaries would amount to billions. License plates alone would amount to millions. When Jimmy Carter was governor of Georgia, he brought a Black woman from prison to clean the state house and babysit Amy. Prisons are a profitable business. The are a way of legally perpetuating slavery. In every state more and more prisons are being built and even more are on the drawing board. Who are they for? they certainly aren’t planning to put white people in them. Prisons are part of this government’s genocidal war against Black and Third World people.
    • Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (1988), pp. 64-65
  • American families are in the process of passing along a $9 trillion legacy from one generation to the next. … Hand in hand with this money, I submit, what is really being handed down from generation to generation is the profound legacy of reproducing racial inequality. The legacy is difficult to discern because the language of family heritage hides it from our political consciousness.
    • Thomas M. Shapiro, The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality (2005), p. 32
  • If … the tax scheme allows enormous intergenerational wealth transfers within families, some families will maintain considerable socioeconomic advantages over others, which allows them to provide better educations and better environments (both residential and familial) for their children, and their children’s children. … Even in a constitutional democracy in which each citizen has a publicly recognized claim to all the basic political and civil liberties, these socioeconomic inequalities would create an informal social hierarchy by birth: some would be born into great wealth and other social and political advantages while others would be born into poverty and its associated disadvantages. … If, because a social scheme had the characteristics described above, the life prospects of some children were vastly inferior to those of others, it would be reasonable to regard these disadvantaged children as members of the lowest stratum in a descent-based social hierarchy. When such a hierarchy is, and has long been, marked by racial distinctions, equal citizenship, in any meaningful sense, does not obtain. In a society with an established democratic tradition, such a quasi-feudal order does not warrant the allegiance of its most disadvantaged members, especially when these persons are racially stigmatized. Indeed, the existence of such an order creates the suspicion that, despite the society’s ostensible commitment to equal civil rights, white supremacy has simply taken a new form.
    • Tommie Shelby, “Justice, Deviance, and the Dark Ghetto,” Philosophy & Public Affairs, vol. 35, no. 2 (2007), p. 133
  • Despite making up only 13 percent of the male population of the United States, black men constitute almost half of the male prison population, and on any given day, nearly a third of all black men in their twenties are in prison, on probation, or on parole. These black men are overwhelmingly from ghetto communities. The high levels of police surveillance, racial profiling, stiff penalties for minor parole violations, felon disenfranchisement laws, and general harassment of young urban blacks intensify their hostility toward the criminal justice system, and invite urban blacks to conclude that they are living under a race-based police state whose intent is to prevent them from enjoying all the benefits of equal citizenship and to contain social unrest.
    • Tommie Shelby, “Justice, Deviance, and the Dark Ghetto,” Philosophy & Public Affairs, vol. 35, no. 2 (2007), p. 142
  • The effects of sexism and racism on popular attitudes and behavior have long been recognized. More recently, another prevalent, bias, ageism, has become a topic off concern and inquiry (see, e.g., Butler, 1969; Harris and Associates, 1975). However, surprisingly little is known about the impacts of sexism, racism,and ageism on political behavior, and more specifically on voting decisions, These are issues of growing concern as women and members of racial minorities become increasingly active in electoral politics; the issue of age was also brought to the fore recently by the presidential candidacy of the 69-year-old Ronald Reagan. This paper uses an experimental approach to explore the extent to which and the manner in which the sex, race, and age of candidates for political office affect voters’ decisions and the extent to which such influences are contingent on characteristics of the voters.
    Most of what is known about the relationship between candidate characteristics and voter preferences is derived from opinion surveys in which respondents have been asked questions like “If your party nominated a woman for President, would you vote for her if she were qualified for the job?” These surveys reveal an increased willingness over the least 25 years to vote for a qualified black or woman for President, with indications that voting discrimination against blacks began to fade somewhat earlier than it did against women (Ferree, 1974; Schreiver, 1978).

    • Lee Sigelman and Carol K. Sigelman, ‘Sexism, Racism, and Ageism in Voting Behavior: An Experimental Analysis’, Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Dec., 1982), p. 263.
  • The main contemporary obstacle facing African Americans is neither white racism, as many liberals claim, nor black genetic deficiency… Rather it involves destructive and pathological cultural patterns of behavior: excessive reliance on government, conspiratorial paranoia about racism, a resistance to academic achievement as “acting white,” a celebration of the criminal and outlaw as authentically black, and the normalization of illegitimacy and dependency.
    • Dinesh D’Souza, The End of Racism (1995), Ch. 1.
  • Consistent with Martin Luther King’s vision, the government should stop color-coding its citizens.
    • Dinesh D’Souza, “As I See It”, in Forbes Vol. 158, no. 13 (2 December 1996), p. 48.
  • America has gone further than any other society in establishing equality of rights. There is nothing distinctively American about slavery or bigotry. Slavery has existed in virtually every culture, and xenophobia, prejudice and discrimination are worldwide phenomena… No country expended more treasure and blood to get rid of slavery than the United States. While racism remains a problem, this country has made strenuous efforts to eradicate discrimination, even to the extent of enacting policies that give legal preference in university admissions, jobs, and government contracts to members of minority groups. Such policies remain controversial, but the point is that it is extremely unlikely that a racist society would have permitted such policies in the first place. And surely African Americans like Jesse Jackson are vastly better off living in America than they would be if they were to live in, say, Ethiopia or Somalia.
    • Dinesh D’Souza, “10 things to celebrate: Why I’m an anti-anti-American” (29 June 2003), SFGate.
  • As an immigrant, I am constantly surprised by how much I hear racism talked about and how little I actually see it. Even fewer are the incidents in which I have experienced it directly.
    • Dinesh D’Souza, What’s So Great About America (2003), Ch. 4: The Reparations Fallacy.
  • Racism has never done this country any good, and it needs to be fought against, not put under new management for different groups.
    • Thomas Sowell, “Out of Context”, Jewish World Review (2 June 2009).
  • We favor strengthening our common American identity and loyalty, which includes the contribution and assimilation of different racial and ethnic groups.
    • Texan Republican Party Platform of 2014 (June 2014), by the Republican Party of Texas.
  • Americans and Europeans alike sometimes forget how unique is the United States of America. No other nation has been created so swiftly and successfully. No other nation has been built upon an idea; the idea of liberty. No other nation has so successfully combined people of different races and nations within a single culture.
    • Margaret Thatcher, speech at Hoover Institution lunch (8 March 1991)
  • We were never hyphenated as Arab-Americans. We were American, and I have always rejected the hyphen and I believe all assimilated immigrants should not be designated ethnically. Or separated, of course, by race, or creed either. These are trends that ever try to divide us as a people.
    • Helen Thomas, as quoted in My America: what my country means to me by 150 Americans from all walks of life (2002), Simon & Schuster, p. 238.
  • No California gentleman or lady ever abuses or oppresses a Chinaman, under any circumstances, an explanation that seems to be much needed in the east. Only the scum of the population do it; they and their children. They, and, naturally and consistently, the policemen and politicians, likewise, for these are the dust-licking pimps and slaves of the scum, there as well as elsewhere in America.
    • Mark Twain, Roughing It.
  • I mentioned Grant’s loyalty – remember Harrison, his colored body servant? The whole family hated him, but that did not make any difference, the General always stood at his back, wouldn’t allow him to be scolded; always excused his failures and deficiencies with the one unvarying formula, We are responsible for these things in his race. It is not fair to visit our fault upon them, let him alone. … he was the most lovable great child of the world.
    • Mark Twain, letter to Henry Ward Beecher.
  • In his 2009 visit to the US, the [UN] Special Rapporteur on Racism noted that “Socio-economic indicators show that poverty and race and ethnicity continue to overlap in the United States. This reality is a direct legacy of the past, in particular slavery, segregation, the forcible resettlement of Native Americans, which was confronted by the United States during the civil rights movement. However, whereas the country managed to establish equal treatment and non-discrimination in its laws, it has yet to redress the socioeconomic consequences of the historical legacy of racism.”
    • US Human Rights Network: ‘”From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Implementing US Obligations Under the International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). Universal Periodic Review Joint Reports: United States of America. p. 44. (August 2010)
  • When one thinks of American blackness, there is the unsaid ugly truth that nearly all American blacks who have descended from the historical African diaspora in America have one (or several) rapacious white slave owners in their family tree at some point.
    Here, in the early days of the United States, was the invention of racism for economic necessity. From 1619 until 1865, white male Americans chose to breed a black enslaved workforce through the state-sanctioned rape of black women to build the new nation and support their white supremacist class. Race became the single unifying identifier — determining everything about one’s life starting with this most basic division: enslaved or free.
    The American law was that the “condition of the child followed that of the mother,” backed up by the “one drop rule,” the legal framework that dictated even one drop of blackness made an individual black, never white. The idea of blackness as a pollutant, a taint that would erode the purity of whiteness, was seized by politicians around the world then — and now.
    Because of this legacy of sexual violence and anti-blackness, black and white mixed individuals have long been considered black in America.
    To a much larger degree than many people would like to admit, race still determines a vast part of one’s life — social networks and mobility, birth and other medical care, employment opportunities and so on. Indeed, there is an entire genre of literature and film, popularized in the late 1800s and early 1900s, composed of blacks “passing” for white to avoid this racism. Some of the most famous examples are Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, Passing; James Weldon Johnson’s 1912 opus, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; and the 1959 film The Imitation of Life.

    • Hope Wabuke, “When I Was White’ Centers On The Formation Of Race, Identity And Self”, (August 8, 2019); reviewing “When I Was White: A Memoir”, by Sarah Valentine
  • I believe the preservation of our civil liberties to be the most fundamental and important of all our governmental problems, because it always has been with us and always will be with us and if we ever permit those liberties to be destroyed, there will be nothing left in our system worthy of preservation. They constitute the soul of democracy. I believe that there is grave danger in this country of losing our civil liberties as they have been lost in other countries.
    • Earl Warren, views on civil rights declared in a written statement requested by Robert W. Kenny, read during fund raising luncheon at the Biltmore Hotel, in Los Angeles, in the summer of 1938, as quoted in Lawyers Guild Review Vol. 13-14 (1953), p. 47.
  • We have consistently denied the constitutionality of measures which restrict the rights of citizens on account of race. There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause.
    • Earl Warren, Loving v. Virginia (1967).
  • The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
    • George Washington, letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport (1790).
  • We have abundant reason to rejoice, that, in this land, the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened age, and in this land of equal liberty, it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining & holding the highest offices that are known in the United States.
    • George Washington, letter to The New Church (22 January 1793).
  • I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them, if that’s what you’re asking. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves…Look, I’m sure there have been inequalities. If those inequalities are presently affecting any of the Indians now alive, they have a right to a court hearing. But what happened 100 years ago in our country can’t be blamed on us today…This may come as a surprise to you, but I wasn’t alive when reservations were created — even if I do look that old. I have no idea what the best method of dealing with the Indians in the 1800s would have been. Our forefathers evidently thought they were doing the right thing. – John Wayne, as quoted in Playboy (May 1971).
  • All the leading Founders affirmed on many occasions that blacks are created equal to whites and that slavery is wrong… The whole Revolution was an antislavery movement, for the colonists. The political logic of the Revolution pointed inexorably to the eventually abolition of slavery for the blacks as well… Americans did come to understand the meaning of their principles more fully as the Revolution proceeded. But with respect to slavery, they knew by the end of the founding era exactly what their principles meant. The more they based their arguments on the natural rights of all men, and not just the rights of Englishmen, the more the Americans noticed, by the same logic, that enslavement of blacks was also unjust… Slaves themselves appealed to the natural rights argument. In our time, the principles of the Revolution have been denounced as ‘white’ or ‘Eurocentric’. It is true that a tiny minority of European philosophers, who opposed the convictions of most whites of their day, first published those principles to the world. But whoever may have discovered them, American whites and blacks alike came to believe that the natural rights of mankind, like the laws of gravity discovered by Newton, were not some ethnocentric ideology but God’s own truth.
    • Thomas G. West, Vindicating the Founders (2001), Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., pp. 4–7.
  • The citizenship status of blacks was never quite clear. Obviously, they were not quite resident aliens, for they had no country but the United States. The federal government generally avoided taking a stand on black citizenship when the subject arose. A few blacks got federal passports implying that they were citizens… The Articles of Confederation stated that ‘the free inhabitants of these states… shall be entitled to all privileges of immunities of free citizens in the several states’, and Congress voted down South Carolina’s proposal to insert the word ‘white’ into this clause. Chief Justice Taney, in the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, asserted that blacks had never been, and could never be, citizens of the United States. He was wrong… As a nation based on the idea of equality, America has been a melting pot. It has taken people from diverse traditions and turned them into freedom-loving and decent citizens… When the decision was finally made to accept blacks as full citizens, the founders’ principles provided the theoretical foundation. Lincoln’s revival of the declaration in the 1850s had prepared the way. In principle, people of all races can become citizens of a nation based on the idea that ‘all men are created equal’.
    • Thomas G. West, Vindicating the Founders (2001), Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., p. 27–28.
  • For decades, black parents have told their children that in order to succeed despite racial discrimination, they need to be “twice as good”: twice as smart, twice as dependable, twice as talented. This advice can be found in everything from literature to television shows, to day-to-day conversation. Now, a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that when it comes to getting and keeping jobs, that notion might be more than just a platitude.
    There’s data that demonstrates the unfortunate reality: Black workers receive extra scrutiny from bosses, which can lead to worse performance reviews, lower wages, and even job loss. The NBER paper, authored by Costas Cavounidis and Kevin Lang, of Boston University, attempts to demonstrate how discrimination factors into company decisions, and creates a feedback loop, resulting in racial gaps in the labor force.

    • Gillian B. White, “Black Workers Really Do Need to Be Twice as Good”, The Atlantic, (Oct 7, 2015).
  • If you know the history of the whole concept of whiteness—if you know the history of the whole concept of the white race, where it came from and for what reason—you know that it was a trick, and it’s worked brilliantly. You see, prior to the mid to late 1600s, in the colonies of what would become the United States, there was no such thing as the white race. Those of us of European descent did not refer to ourselves by that term really ever before then.
    • Tim Wise, “The Pathology of Privilege: Racism” (2008), Media Education Foundation.
  • When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his “proper place” and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.The same educational process which inspires and stimulates the oppressor with the thought that he is everything and has accomplished everything worth while, depresses and crushes at the same time the spark of genius in the Negro by making him feel that his race does not amount to much and never will measure up to the standards of other peoples.
    • Carter G. Woodson, The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933)
  • America has a very serious problem. Not only does America have a very serious problem, but our people have a very serious problem. America’s problem is us. We’re her problem. The only reason she has a problem is she doesn’t want us here.
    • Malcolm X, statement in Detroit, Michigan (10 November 1963).
  • I’m not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless you eat some of what’s on that plate. Being here in America doesn’t make you an American. Being born here in America doesn’t make you an American. … No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy.
    • Malcolm X, Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964).
  • It’s impossible for a white person to believe in capitalism and not believe in racism. You can’t have capitalism without racism.
      • Malcolm X, Speech, May 29, 1964, The Harlem Hate-Gang-Scare, p. 69

Ta-Nehisi Coates Makes the Case for Reparations at Historic Congressional Hearing, Democracy Now(20 June 2019)

  • Yesterday, when asked about reparations, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a familiar reply: America should not be held liable for something that happened 150 years ago, since none of us currently alive are responsible… This rebuttal proffers a strange theory of governance, that American accounts are somehow bound by the lifetime of its generations. But well into this century, the United States was still paying out pensions to the heirs of Civil War soldiers. We honor treaties that date back some 200 years, despite no one being alive who signed those treaties… But we are American citizens, and thus bound to a collective enterprise that extends beyond our individual and personal reach.
  • As historian Ed Baptist has written, enslavement, quote, “shaped every crucial aspect of the economy and politics” of America, so that by 1836 more than $600 million, or almost half of the economic activity in the United States, derived directly or indirectly from the cotton produced by the million-odd slaves. By the time the enslaved were emancipated, they comprised the largest single asset in America—$3 billion in 1860 dollars, more than all the other assets in the country combined.
    The method of cultivating this asset was neither gentle cajoling nor persuasion, but torture, rape and child trafficking. Enslavement reigned for 250 years on these shores. When it ended, this country could have extended its hallowed principles—life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—to all, regardless of color. But America had other principles in mind. And so, for a century after the Civil War, black people were subjected to a relentless campaign of terror, a campaign that extended well into the lifetime of Majority Leader McConnell.
    It is tempting to divorce this modern campaign of terror, of plunder, from enslavement. But the logic of enslavement, of white supremacy, respects no such borders, and the god of bondage was lustful and begat many heirs—coup d’états and convict leasing. vagrancy laws and debt peonage, redlining and racist GI bills, poll taxes and state-sponsored terrorism.
  • We grant that Mr. McConnell was not alive for Appomattox. But he was alive for the electrocution of George Stinney. He was alive for the blinding of Isaac Woodard. He was alive to witness kleptocracy in his native Alabama and a regime premised on electoral theft. Majority Leader McConnell cited civil rights legislation yesterday, as well he should, because he was alive to witness the harassment, jailing and betrayal of those responsible for that legislation by a government sworn to protect them. He was alive for the redlining of Chicago and the looting of black homeowners of some $4 billion. Victims of that plunder are very much alive today. I am sure they’d love a word with the majority leader.
    What they know, what this committee must know, is that while emancipation dead-bolted the door against the bandits of America, Jim Crow wedged the windows wide open. And that is the thing about Senator McConnell’s “something.” It was 150 years ago. And it was right now.
    The typical black family in this country has one-tenth the wealth of the typical white family. Black women die in childbirth at four times the rate of white women. And there is, of course, the shame of this land of the free boasting the largest prison population on the planet, of which the descendants of the enslaved make up the largest share.

Ta-Nehisi Coates: Reparations Are Not Just About Slavery But Also Centuries of Theft & Racial Terror, Democracy Now (20 June 2019)

  • You know, the two great crimes in American history is obviously…the near destruction…of this country’s Native American population, the theft of their land, and on to work that land was brought in native Africans into this country, beginning in 1619. Those twin processes profoundly altered the shape of the world and made this country possible. Obviously, first of all, you know, the land on which America and Americans currently reside was the land of Native Americans, but the people brought in to break that land just transformed it.
  • The profits derived from slavery are more extreme than I think are commonly acknowledged. As I said yesterday, in 1860, the combined worth of the 4 million enslaved black people in this country was some $3 billion, nearly $75 billion in today’s share of dollars. Cotton, in 1860, was this country’s largest export—not just its largest export, it was the majority of exports out of this country. So, from a financial perspective, just the economics of it, it’s absolutely impossible to imagine America without enslavement.
  • The onset of the Civil War, the greatest preponderance, the greatest population per capita of millionaires and multimillionaires in this country was in the Mississippi River Valley. It wasn’t in Boston, wasn’t in Chicago, wasn’t in New York. The richest people in this country were slaveholders. Most of our earliest presidents were slaveholders. And the fact that they were presidents is not incidental to the fact that they—to their slaveholding. That was how they built their wealth. That was how Thomas Jefferson built his wealth. That was how George Washington built his wealth. Individual slaves were the equivalent of, say, owning a home today. They were people, but turned into objects of extreme wealth. So, just from the economic perspective, there’s that.
  • The average African-American family in this country making $100,000, which is, you know, decent money, actually lives in the same kind of neighborhood that the average white family making $35,000 a year lives in. That is totally tied to the legacy of enslavement and Jim Crow and the input and the idea in the mind that white people and black people are somehow deserving of different things.
  • If I injure you, the injury persists even after I actually commit the act. If I stab you, you may suffer complications long after that initial actual stabbing. If I shoot you, you may suffer complications long after that initial shooting. That’s the case with African Americans. There are people well within the living memory of this country that are still suffering from the after-effects of that.
  • This whole thing about who should get a check, and should we cut checks, you know, I understand those questions. That’s great. Those people should support H.R. 40, though, because that’s what H.R. 40 does. It tries to get that figured out, and get that math figured out, and figure out the best way to do it. But if we don’t actually have a study, we can’t actually answer those questions. You can’t ask a doctor to make a diagnosis before there’s an actual examination.
  • And in terms of poverty and race in this country, again, you know, one of the things that I really, really wanted to stress is, the level of poverty specifically that you see in the African-American community is not accidental. It’s not accidental. This is part of the process. The process of enslavement involves stealing something from someone. It involves taking something from someone.
  • Jim Crow was theft. First and foremost, it was theft. If I tax you or if tell you you have to be loyal to this country and pledge fealty to its laws, but then I don’t give you the same degree of protection, I don’t give you the same access to resources that I give to another group of people, I have effectively stolen something from you. I have stolen your tax money. I have stolen your fealty.
  • So, when the state of Mississippi, for instance, taxes black people and then builds one facility for education and another for—one facility for education for whites and then an inferior facility for blacks, that’s theft. That’s theft. If I build a public pool system and then tell you you can’t use that public pool system, that’s theft.
  • And so, that is the long history of this country, that doesn’t end, again, conservatively, until 1968. And so, there are people who are very, very much alive who have experienced that, who are suffering the after-effects and effects of that. And that’s what, you know, as far as I’m concerned, the whole movement around reparations is about.
  • Mitch McConnell… does not want to be responsible for enslavement that happened 150 years ago, but, yet and still, wants the right to operate his business or operate his career in a building that was built by enslaved people.
  • I think the testimony was that one should not receive payment that would properly be due to the enslaved. But this country is, to this very day, receiving payment that was due to its enslavers. That’s the way inheritance works in this country, however one might feel about that. If I assemble a mass of money, I have the right to pass that on to my kid. My kid has the right to do whatever and then pass it on to their kid. And so, there’s something fundamentally injust if I have secured that money by taking it from one group, and then I pass that money on to my kid.

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