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Democracy Quotes

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Democracy Quotes

“No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy.”

Ifs Should Religion Race Principles Democracy Share Dangerous Terrorist Locked Spy Ethnicity Mass Incarceration Internment Race Ethnicity

Author:Fred Korematsu

“And every historic effort to forge a democratic project has been undermined by two fundamental realities: poverty and paranoia. The persistence of poverty generates levels of despair that deepen social conflict the escalation of paranoia produces levels of distrust that reinforce cultural division. Rae is the most explosive issue in American life precisely because it forces us to confront the tragic facts of poverty and paranoia despair, and distrust. In short, a candid examination of race matters takes us to the core of the crisis of American democracy (p. 107).”

Source: Race Matters: With a New Introduction

“We must think of human progress, not as of something going on in the race in general, but as something going on in a small minority, perpetually beleaguered in a few walled towns. Now and then the horde of barbarians outside breaks through, and we have an armed effort to halt the process. That is, we have a Reformation, a French Revolution, a war for democracy, a Great Awakening. The minority is decimated and driven to cover. But a few survive- and a few are enough to carry on.”

“Democracy has not failed; the intelligence of the race has failed before the problems the race has raised”

Problem Race Democracy Raised Intelligence Democracies Have

Author:Robert M. Hutchins

“Many who wave American flags also practice discrimination on the basis of race. Many who wave American flags practice anti-Semitism. We think that betrays the fundamental ideals of our democracy.”

Thinking Race Practice Democracy Ideals Bases Fundamentals Wave Betrayal Discrimination Flags Betray Anti Semitism American Flag

Author:Billy Campbell

“All talks about legacies of white supremacy must be tied to empowering the lives of poor and working people as a whole. The black agenda - from Frederick Douglas to A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr, Fannie Lou Hammer to Ella Baker - has always been tied to race talk inseparable from expanding possibilities of democracy, expanding empowerment of everyday people.”

“Everyone knew that democracy - direct rule by all the people - required such spartan, soul-denying virtue on the part of all the people that it was likely to survive only where poverty made upright behavior necessary for the perpetuation of the race.”

People Made Race Poverty Virtue Democracy Behavior Direct

Author:Bernard Bailyn

“A great wave of humiliation and shame swept over me. Shame that I belonged to a race that could be so dealt with; and shame for my country, that it, the great example of democracy to the world, should be the only civilized, if not the only state on earth, where a human being would be burned alive.”

Source: The Selected Writings of James Weldon Johnson: Social, political, and literary essays

“In the long and dogged crusade that the human race has fought in favor of democracy, the ideal of liberty, of freedom, has always been the goal.”

Humans Long Goal Race Liberty Democracy Ideals Favors Human Race Crusades

Book:The House of Commons at Work

Source: The House of Commons at Work

“It is, the most beautiful truth in morals that we have no such thing as a distinct or divided interest from our race. In their welfare is ours, and by choosing the broadest paths to effect their happiness we choose the surest and the shortest to our own.”

Beautiful Interest Race Moral Democracy Path Effects Welfare Divided

Author:Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

“In baseball, democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rule book. And color, merely something to distinguish one team's uniform from another's.”

Book Matter Race Democracy Team Color Baseball Shining Bags Creeds Uniforms Inspirational Team

Book:Tuned to Baseball

Source: Tuned to Baseball

“The great ideas of the West - rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law, equality before the law, freedom of conscience, thought, and expression, human rights, and liberal democracy- quite an achievement, surely, for any civilization- - remain the best, and perhaps the only, means for all people, no matter of what race or creed, to reach their full potential and live in freedom.”

Source: Virgins? What Virgins?: And Other Essays

“Planetary democracy does not yet exist but our global civilization is already preparing a place for it. It is the very Earth we inhabit linked with Heaven above us. Only in this setting can the mutuality and the commonality of the human race be newly created with reverence and gratitude for that which transcends each of us and all of us together.”

Humans Doe Earth Together Heaven Race Democracy Gratitude Civilization Setting Settings Human Race Reverence Preparing Linked Commonality

Author:Vaclav Havel

“I believe that here in South Africa, with all our diversities of colour and race; we will show the world a new pattern for democracy. There is a challenge for us to set a new example for all. Let us not side step this task.”

World Believe Shows I Believe Sides Challenges Race Steps Democracy Example Diversity Tasks South Patterns Colour South Africa

Author:Albert Lutuli

“To defeat terrorism, we must acknowledge that we are all human beings. It is not our choice to belong to a particular race or family. We should be freed from fear of the other and enjoy diversity within democracy. I believe that dialogue and education are the most effective means to surpass our differences.”

Should Believe Humans Mean Choices I Believe Enjoy Differences Human Beings Race Democracy Particular Diversity Defeat Terrorism Dialogue Acknowledge Our Choices

Author:Fethullah Gulen

“I have just as much right to stay in America - in fact, the black people have contributed more to America than any other race, because our kids have fought here for what was called "democracy"; our mothers and fathers were sold and bought here for a price. So all I can say when they say "go back to Africa," I say "when you send the Chinese back to China, the Italians back to Italy, etc., and you get on that Mayflower from whence you came, and give the Indians their land back, who really would be here at home?"”

People Giving I Can Facts Home Would Be Kids America Mother Father Black Race Democracy Land China Chinese Etc Black People Mother And Father Mayflower

Author:Fannie Lou Hamer