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Famous Ijeoma Oluo Quotes

“Do not let people convince you that you are being oversensitive, that you are being disruptive or divisive.”

Change Strength Confidence

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“What keeps a poor child in Appalachia poor is not what keeps a poor child in Chicago poor—even if from a distance, the outcomes look the same. And what keeps an able-bodied black woman poor is not what keeps a disabled white man poor, even if the outcomes look the same.”

Poverty Chicago Black Women Disabled Intersectionality Appalachia Women Of Color

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“this is the conversation I’ve been having since the 2016 election ended and liberals and progressives have been scrambling to figure out what went wrong. What was missing from the left’s message that left so many people unenthusiastic about supporting a Democratic candidate, especially against Donald Trump? So far, a large group of people (mostly white men paid to pontificate on politics and current events) seem to have landed on this: we, the broad and varied group of Democrats, Socialists, and Independents known as ‘the left,’ focused on ‘identity politics’ too much. We focused on the needs of black people, trans people, women, Latinx people. All this specialized focus divided people and left out working-class white men. That is the argument, anyways.”

Women Racism Black People Transgender Identity Politics Latinx

Author:Ijeoma Oluo

“If you wanted to avoid our rage, perhaps you shouldn’t have left us with so little to lose.”

Men Feminism Anger Rage

Author:Ijeoma Oluo

“It is important to learn how to fail, to learn how to be wrong in a way that minimizes the pain to you and others and maximizes what you can learn from experience.”

Learning Failure Experience

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“Get used to that uncomfortable feeling that arises when you discover that perhaps your privilege is hindering your ability to truly understand or address an issue. Get used to that pang of guilt that comes with realizing yet another area of life where you've benefited at the expense of others. It will not kill you. You can withstand it . . . listen and learn.”

Learning Privilege Discomfort Benefit

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“. . . language has been one of the first tools deployed in efforts to oppress others. Words are how we process the world, how we form our societies, how we codify our morals . . . All oppression in race, class, gender, ability, religion -- it all began with words.”

Language Words Oppression Morals

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“This is the same for our role as the adult generation in society. It is our role not to shape the future, but to not fuck things up so badly that our kids will be too busy correcting the past to focus on the future. It is our job to be confused and dismayed by the future generation, and trust that if we would just stop trying to control them, and instead support them, they will eventually find their way.”

Children Support Youth Future Generation

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“White women will heap praise on my words calling for the destruction of the patriarchy, and then turn around and ask why I have to ‘be so divisive’ or say dismissively that I ‘sound like Al Sharpton’ when I dare bring up race.”

Feminism Racism Intersectionality Al Sharpton

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“I am a Black woman. True, I have been told time and time again that my best chance of success is to emulate the preferred traits of white maleness as much as possible. Still, mine is not the image of the great leaders in our history books, nor that of the heroes in our stories. For someone like me to expect any greatness without having exceptional talent and luck was, at best, foolish and, at worst, dangerous. This is not my birthright.”

Feminism Racism Sexism White Feminism

Book:Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America

Source: Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America

“We live in a society where race is one of the biggest indicators of your success in life. There are sizable racial divides in wealth, health, life expectancy, infant mortality, incarceration rates, and so much more. We cannot look at a society where racial inequality is so universal and longstanding and say, 'This is all the doing of a few individuals with hate in their hearts.' It just doesn't make sense.”

Racism Black Lives Matter Race And Racism In America Blm People Of Color

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“...it is always a bit of a gut punch to realize that someone you have been sitting next to for months or even years secretly harbors view that deny your basic humanity as a black woman. No matter how many times it happens, I have yet to get used to it. ...I really really wanted this to be just a matter of misunderstanding. I really wanted this to be a case where he just didn't know how harmful everyday racism is, and once he did, he would change his mind...It seemed far more important to him that the white people who were spreading and upholding racism be spared the effects of being called racist, than sparing his black friend the effects of that racism. ...That was when I learned that this was not a friend I could take to about this really important part of my life. I couldn't be my full self around him, and he would never truly have my back. He was not safe. I wasn't angry, I was heartbroken.”

Racism Black Lives Matter Race And Racism In America Blm People Of Color

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“You can’t ‘get over’ something that is still happening. Which is why black Americans can’t ‘get over’ slavery or Jim Crow. It may be quite a while—likely past all of our lifetimes—before white people will be able to say ‘nigger’ without harming black people.”

Racism Slavery Jim Crow Get Over It Racial Slur

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“You have to get over the fear of facing the worst in yourself. You should instead fear unexamined racism. Fear the thought that right now, you could be contributing to the oppression of others and you don't know it. But do not fear those who bring that oppression to light. Do not fear the opportunity to do better.”

Social Justice White Supremacy Racism In America Racism Quotes White Privilege Racial Justice White People

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“I know that it's hard to believe that the people you look to for safety and security are the same people who are causing us so much harm. But I'm not lying and I'm not delusional. I am scared and I am hurting and we are dying. And I really, really need you to believe me.”

Race Equality Police Brutality Racial Justice

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“A lot of people want to skip ahead to the finish line of racial harmony. Past all this unpleasantness to a place where all wounds are healed and the past is laid to rest.”

Racism Equality Equity Racism In America Racial Justice Racial Injustice

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“Our humanity is worth a little discomfort, it's actually worth a lot of discomfort.”

Race Equality Racial Justice

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“Act now, because people are dying now in this unjust system. How many lives have been ground up by racial prejudice and hate? How many opportunities have we already lost? Act and talk and learn and fuck up and learn some more and act again and do better. We have to do this all at once. We have to learn and fight at the same time. Because people have been waiting far too long for their chance to live as equals in this society.”

Racism White Supremacy Racism In America White Privilege Racial Justice White People Call To Action

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“I gave my son a brief history of the pledge of allegiance. He asked a few questions and I answered them (with a Google check or two on my phone). Then he took a deep breath and said, “Mom, I don’t think I should say the pledge of allegiance anymore. Would that be okay?” All activists want their kids to magically turn into badass activists, but I wanted to make sure that this was a decision my son had come to after some thought, and that he had the reasoning to be able to defend that decision. I asked him why he didn’t want to say the pledge. “Because I’m an atheist, so I don’t like pledging under god. I don’t believe in pledging to countries, I think it encourages war. And I don’t think this country treats people who look like me very well so the ‘liberty and justice for all’ part is a lie. And I don’t think that every day we should all be excited about saying a lie.”

Injustice Protest Pledge Of Allegiance

Author:Ijeoma Oluo

“In order for a police force to be effective, it has to earn the trust of its people. But to those who only scratch the surface, to those who do not investigate their simplistic opinions about the root cause of crime in inner cities and the animosity between police forces and communities of color, the answer is simply more policing. But what we need is different policing. Policing not steeped from root to flower in the need to control people of color.”

Justice Racism Police Equality Equity Policing

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“I remember once after sharing an article on Twitter about racism in the US, when a white Canadian tweeted back, ‘You should move to Canada, we aren’t racist here.’ I pointed out that, according to recent news of the reluctance of government officials to fully investigate the murders of dozens of indigenous women, the controversy over ‘carding’ of black Canadians by police, and the testimony of my Canadian friends of color—Canada was plenty racist. This white Canadian stranger kept insisting that no, there was no racism in Canada because he had not seen it. When some of my Canadian friends chimed in with helpful links about high-profile incidences of racism and investigations into systemic racism in Canada, the white Canadian continued to insist that they were wrong, and that racism doesn’t exist in Canada.”

Racism Canada Racist First Nations First Nation Black Canadians

Author:Ijeoma Oluo

“When we identify where our privilege intersects with somebody else's oppression, we'll find our opportunities to make real change.”

Social Justice Privilege Oppression Privileges Social Justice Power

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“He was not safe. I wasn't angry, I was heartbroken. We couldn't talk about the ways in which race and racism impacted my life, because he was unwilling to even acknowledge the racism that was impacting my life and he was unable to prioritize my safety over his comfort - which meant that we couldn't talk about me.”

Racism Denial Of Racism

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“Everyone gets hurt from time to time. While the world ignores, the rest of our bodies are covered with scars.”

Hurt

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“No matter what our intentions, everything we say and do in the pursuit of justice will one day be outdated, ineffective, and yes, probably wrong. That is the way progress works. What we do now is important and helpful so long as what we do now is what is needed now.”

Race Activism Racial Justice

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“For all of the pedestals MLK is now put on, far above the reach of ordinary black Americans, Martin was in his life viewed as the most dangerous man in America.”

Social Justice Activism Civil Rights Martin Luther King Jr Mlk

Book:So You Want to Talk About Race

Source: So You Want to Talk About Race

“Trump and others on the right want to make sure that working-class white men don’t want to go to college and distrust those who do, and conservative educators want to make sure that people from marginalized communities don’t want to go either. All of this works by design. It is to ensure that enough of us keep our heads down, focus on surviving our nine-to-five jobs, don’t ask questions, and don’t demand more from a system that owes us a lot. The death of American higher education will harm the most vulnerable of us first, but its goal is not to harm or oppress only us—that work is fully implanted in all our systems. Its goal is to continue to oppress and exploit white supremacy’s most powerful tool: the angry white working-class man.”

College Apathy White Supremacy Alienation Higher Education Angry White Males

Book:Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America

Source: Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America

About the Author

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Quotes: 27

Books & Sources

So You Want to Talk About RaceRelated source material

Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male AmericaRelated source material