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Racism Quotes

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Racism Quotes

“Ain't Good People (The Sonnet) Ain't no good people we, If goodness means blindness. Ain't no practical folks we, If practicality means selfishness. Ain't no sane citizens we, If sanity means indifference. Ain't no smart bunch we, If smartness brings arrogance. Ain't no articulate minds we, If articulation means mindless accuracy. Ain't no civilized society we, If civilization means hypocrisy. We are the force capable of mastering a planet. Let's live not as machines but conscience incarnate.”

CompassionRacismConscienceHuman RightsIntellectSelfishnessExistentialismBigotrySonnetFreethought
Book:When Call The People: My World My Responsibility
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“When Pope Pius XII died, LIFE magazine carried a picture of him in his private study kneeling before a black Christ. What was the source of their information? All white people who have studied history and geography know that Christ was a black man. Only the poor, brainwashed American Negro has been made to believe that Christ was white, to maneuver him into worshiping the white man. After becoming a Muslim in prison, I read almost everything I could put my hands on in the prison library. I began to think back on everything I had read and especially with the histories, I realized that nearly all of them read by the general public have been made into white histories. I found out that the history-whitening process either had left out great things that black men had done, or some of the great black men had gotten whitened.”

TruthChristHistoryRacismEqualityWhite SupremacyBlack HistoryAmericanBlack NationalismMalcolm X
Author:Malcolm X
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“There is a distinction I am beginning to make in my living between pain and suffering. Pain is an event, an experience that must be recognized, named and then used in some way in order for the experience to change, to be transformed into something else, strength or knowledge or action. Suffering, on the other hand, is the nightmare reliving of unscrutinized and unmetabolized pain. When I live through pain without recognizing it self-consciously, I rob myself of the power that can come from using that pain, the power to fuel some movement beyond it. I condemn myself to reliving that pain over and over and over whenever something close triggers it. And that is suffering, a seemingly inescapable cycle.”

PainSufferingFeminismRacism
Book:Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Essays and Poems
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“Malkiel often considered telling his father about her. But Elhanan would have taken it badly. He would have cried “What? You, a Jew, with a Muslim woman? I'm sure she hates Israel….” And indeed she did. Leila, a future follower of the PLO, was already anti-Israel. Between her and Malkiel, argument followed endless and sometimes violent argument. Yes, yes, Israel has suffered, she would say; but does that give them the right to make Palestinians suffer? Malkiel: You know very well it isn't Israel making them suffer! You can blame the Arab governments for their tragedy; why did they exhort them to flee their homes in 1948? And then let them live in refugee camps? Leila: You Jews did all you could to uproot those people and drive them from their land, and now you blame the Arabs? If you hadn't come along, there would have been no tragedy! He: We didn't come along, We came back. Easy enough for you to forget! She: I'm not forgetting anything, but you forget that the Palestinians have been living on that land for centuries, and you abandoned it two thousand years ago! Malkia lost his temper: Abandoned? You dare say we abandoned the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? And shown to Moses? And conquered by Joshua? Aren't you ashamed to falsify history? They expelled us from that land, but we never repudiated it, or forgot it, or abandoned it! Since King David there have always been Jews in Jerusalem, and Galilee, and Gaza. She: Oh yes? And the big cities? He: The big cities? Do you mean Haifa, Netanya and Tel Aviv? Do you want to tell me who built them? You, maybe? You were a smattering of people in the desert—do you dare deny that? She: That's the Afrikaner argument in South Africa. He: I forbid you to compare us to those racists and their apartheid! Racism and Judaism are incompatible! We suffered too much from racism to use it against others. She: There you go again with your suffering! As if you were the only people who ever knew hardship!”

SufferingRacismIsraelHardshipPalestineJewishJewsPalestiniansPalestine Israeli ConflictPalestinian Israeli Conflict
Book:The Forgotten
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“Take lightly what you hear about individuals. We need not distort trust for our paltry little political agendas. We tend to trust soulless, carried information more than we trust soulful human beings; but really most people aren't so bad once you sit down and have an honest, one-on-one conversation with them, once, with an open heart, you listen to their explanations as to why they act the way they act, or say what they say, or do what they do.”

PeopleLoveHumansHeartSoulFeelingsTruthSuccessFaithHumanityPoliticsBeliefFearPeaceUnderstandingFriendshipEmotionCompassionTechnologyPsychologyGraceRelationshipMediaHonestyInformationAcceptanceTrustCommunicationConversationJudgmentNewsEmpathyRacismForgivenessMercyPrejudiceProsperityGenuineAuthenticityFearlessPropagandaAgendasBigotryGossipBullyingFeelingSympathySincerityFearfulBiasMisunderstandingRidiculeMisunderstoodDiscernmentOpen MindPsychiatristFearlessnessDistortionSlanderOpen HeartPersonalUnderstanding OthersSoulfulTrustworthinessLibelIndividualsSoullessCyber BullyingExplanationsEmotionlessPrejudgmentTrustfulHear Say
Book:Healology
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“Instinctively I had followed Mama’s caution against strangers, but she had also taught me to treat everyone the same no matter what or how different they were or what race they were. “These are only visible images,” Mama said, “like the colors and shapes of a painting. You need to look deeper to discover what the painting is about or how it affects you. It’s the same with people.””

SufferingRelationshipsDarkRacismMysteriousThrillerComing Of Age21st CenturyIntrigueFast Paced
Book:The Ascension of Mary
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“Jimmy and his activist friends were there to tell Bobby about the suffering that had scarred each black person in that room; that had scarred or killed people they loved; that had buried their communities in poverty; that had withheld their right to vote; that had lynched their grandfathers, raped their grandmothers, set the dogs on their children, called them “nigger” for daring to sit at a lunch counter; that had tried to deprive their children of education, their mothers of dignity in domestic labor, their fathers the dignity of being called “sir” and not “boy” at the age of 60. Bobby did not want the responsibility of bearing witness to their pain and their rage. Witness often exposes the unspoken claims of whiteness—its privilege to hide, its ability to deflect black suffering into comparatively sterile discussions of policy that take the heat off of “me” and put it on “that.”

SufferingRacismCivil RightsAfrican AmericanCivil Rights MovementWhitenessWhite PrivilegeAfrican American Experience
Book:What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America
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“People of Earth know nothing about the heart. And the ones who do, address love as the need to bleed. And it is indeed so. This materialistic world of mentally-obsessed humanoids will never allow true love to show itself. The ones who possess a better understanding often walk alone, love alone, and feel alone, with their partners, groups and the world itself. Altruism is not a disease, a curse or a punishment, although it usually feels that way. Altruism is not even a price we pay for being spiritually free. Altruism, as death or birth, is just what it is. It just happens. The feelings attached to it are merely an awakening to the realization of the gap between oneself and the remaining of his prehistoric ancestors. One moves apart, into the future, in his evolution, and looks back at his brothers and sisters, trapped in the dogmas of the past, not realizing one can’t travel in time in body but only in spirit. And in this sense, none of us ever escapes the prison. Not in body. Only in mind. The mind has the key we look for outside ourselves. The heart helps the blind of spirit find it. And when humanity, as a whole, realizes this, it will ascend. But for now, unfortunately, many will have to suffer and pay with their own life, before this realization becomes common sense. Before the many books that have been written, are finally read by the masses and understood as they were intended by the creators. Before we realize that all the wars are being fought in our mind and merely being represented in the material playground like a theatrical play to which we all contribute with our own mental script, daily written and adjusted by the collective conscience and its concepts of right and wrong, true and false, justice and injustice, real and unreal.”

SufferingDepressionRacismAngerInjusticeBullyingAggressionWars
Author:Robin Sacredfire
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“What has stayed constant between us is this cycle of losing and finding, this unending transference of vitality, without which we might feel directionless. Love of this sort, however, isn't about making a roadmap to an other who then becomes your compass. It is a proposition to nest in the unrepayable and every-mounting debt of care that stands in opposition to the careless and transactional practices of state power that mire the lives of NDNs and other minoritized populations. Having inherited your philosophy of love, which is also a theory of freedom, nôhkom, I can write myself into a narrative of joy that troubles the horrid fiction of race that stalks me as it does you and our kin.”

LoveCareFreedomFamilyRacismIndigeneity
Book:A History of My Brief Body
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“There's nothing wrong with your color, being you," he said firmly. "Nothing wrong with what the good Lord gives us in His world, Cussy Mary." He didn't know, couldn't know, the load I'd carried as a Blue, the scorn and hatred and gruesome marriage. How dare Pa call me vain and now Jackson. How dare he too? "Nothing wrong—" Jackson repeated. I stepped back and shot out a shaky hand. "No, Jackson Lovett, you're wrong. There is nothing wrong with your color in your world, a world that wants only whiteness.”

DiversityEmpathyRacismBigotryMarginalism
Book:The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
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“Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the welder, the doctor, and the environmentalist -- not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist.”

PoliticsStrongPresidentLeadershipRaceLeaderTeacherTeachingMilitaryHumilityDiversityWeaponsRacismVoteIntelligentEnvironmentalCorruptionHumbleOilPresidentialLeadership QuotesHealthcareFarmingElectionsCorruptDoctorEnvironmentalistConfidentBribeLeader QuotesSlyPharmaceuticalInsuranceFarmerWashingtonWeldingTycoonLobbyistPharmaWeapons DealerWelder
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“I'm flattered to belong to a race, that causes heartburn to the heartless. I'm flattered to belong to a religion, that causes brain-damage to the brainless. A race rooted in rights not ritual, I belong to the Race called Human. A faith centered on people not doctrine, I belong to the Order of Integration.”

DiversityRacismPrejudiceSocial JusticeDiscriminationCivil RightsHuman RaceBigotryFundamentalismInclusive
Book:Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper
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“Letter from The Mountaintop (Sonnet 2252) Cosmos is colored, all color is kin. Scarlight makes the mind, sunlight makes the skin. Life is nonbinary, existence is nonbiblical. When 'sacred' is anagram for 'scared', to sin is our Earth Gospel. Churchill and Columbus belong in the jungle, loudmouth karens belong in mental institution. Those who've been to the mountaintop, grow too human for the dunghills of dogma. Here at the mountaintop, we're just humans - no black, no white, no believer, nonbeliever - here at the mountaintop, we're each other's keeper.”

DiversityRacismPrejudiceEqualityCivil RightsGenocideMulticulturalismInclusiveWhite PrivilegeNonbinary
Book:Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper
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“I Too Am A Racist (Sonnet) I too am a racist, except my racism is rooted in evolution, not ignorance and fear - to me, human race is the mightiest animal, which is why, our responsibility is far greater. I too am a bigot, but my bigotry is tolerance, I don't accept anyone as human who's intolerant. I too am a fundamentalist, but my faith is choice, every human is free to choose what's best for them. I too am a traditionalist, except I walk the tradition of acceptance, not a secondhand host to dividing lineage. I too am an extremist, except my extreme is annihilation, my culture don't exist, nor religion, or native language. I am native of the earth, yet I'm immigrant to humankind, for I come from a valley, alien to the states of the world. I am not interested in building bridges, I am the bulldozer, out to demolish convention that makes divisions possible.”

DiversityRacismPrejudiceToleranceBigotryIntoleranceFundamentalismMulticulturalismInterfaithInclusive
Book:Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper
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“I have heard a lot of white people say they don't see color. I used to think that was a good thing, as in we don't consider the color of someone's skin when deciding how we feel about them. But then I started to realize it's okay to acknowledge our differences. Also, it's a lie. We all see race, and that's fine. If we deny someone's race, we're denying a part of who they are as a person and not acknowledging the person as a whole, and that can slip into dangerous territory. If we ignore someone's race, we're ignoring the different perspectives they bring.”

RaceDiversityRacism
Book:That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America
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“Black, white, brown, red, yellow, hetero, homo, trans, poor, rich, literate, illiterate, weak, strong – all are my sisters and brothers. My life is their life. And till the last breath in my body, I shall be serving you with all the power in my veins. And beyond death, my ideas shall be serving you for eternity.”

DiversityRacismToleranceOnenessService Of HumanityBigotryIntoleranceAdvaitaMulticulturalismHumanitarianism
Book:I Am The Thread: My Mission
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“By hiding behind the overarching term “white privilege,” the small percentage of privileged whites have ensured the following: first, they remain disguised behind the veil of whiteness and thus maintain the status quo. Second, they ensure that most marginalized white people remain defensive—and come to their defense—whenever their wealth and power are threatened. Third, through the structure of “whiteness,” privileged whites ensure that a large percentage of disadvantaged white people see other groups fighting against similar socio-economic ills as enemies, not allies to unite with in their battle. As such, the first bold proposal I make, if we are serious about social change, is to replace “white privilege” with “privileged whites” to account for the many whites who are not privileged and distinguish them from those who are. The huge number of disadvantaged white people are allies in this battle against the privileged, wealthy ruling class who utilize countless “isms” and “phobias” as sorting devices, while using the term “white privilege” as a tool to prevent any potential allyship between many white people who are not part of their club, yet are misled to think that the problem is everyone else in society except the privileged whites…Precision in language makes a huge difference to ensure all social groups who need to unite and work together have clarity on what kind of changes are needed, and who exactly is blocking change and transformation. [From "Understanding the DEI Dismantlement” published on Counterpunch on January 31, 2025]”

DiversityRacismPropagandaEquityWhite SupremacyDiversity And InclusionWhite PrivilegeDivide And ConquerEquity And InclusionWhitness
Author:Louis Yako
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“Many DEI trainings and narratives have indeed enabled or produced types of people who seem to be looking for excuses to be offended and to construe, sometimes genuine human slips, as intentional micro and macro aggressions. Even worse, the way things have been done has resulted in people who are quick to play identity cards anytime they are confronted with totally unrelated matters like being incompetent in doing their work or other unrelated professional and personal matters. I am in no way condoning or denying the existence of racism, sexism, and countless other forms of exclusions, marginalization, and even violence against so many vulnerable groups and individuals, but I also can’t in good faith ignore the darker side of this coin. For one side to be true, it doesn’t negate the other darker side. In many workplaces and university campuses, we have armies of people who overuse and even abuse the language of ‘feeling violated’ over things like someone mistakenly not referring to them as “they,” but they remain completely silent and unmoved by countless injustices on campus or at work, let alone about atrocities and genocides in the outside world. We have a type that wastes so much time giving themselves and others the ‘permission’ to indulge in selfish acts of complicity, indifference, and silence under the guise of ‘self-care.’ [From "Understanding the DEI Dismantlement” published on Counterpunch on January 31, 2025]”

DiversityRacismElitesEquityDiversity And InclusionMisinformationEquity And InclusionRuling ClassInstitutional Oppression
Author:Louis Yako
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“At the same time that the Mayor and City Council acted courageously and progressively in ridding the city of those monuments to a loathsome past, the new regime that removal celebrates, as some skeptics note, rests on commitments to policies that intensify economic inequality on a scale that makes New Orleans one of the most unequal cities in the United States. ... Local government contributes to this deepening inequality through such means as cuts to the public sector, privatization of public goods and services, and support of upward redistribution through shifting public resources from service provision to subsidy for private, rent-intensifying redevelopment (commonly but too ambiguously called "gentrification"). These processes, often summarized as neoliberalization, do not target blacks as blacks, and, as in other cities, coincided with the emergence of black public officialdom in and after the elder Landrieu's mayoralty and continued unabated through thirty-two years of black-led local government between two Landrieus and into the black-led administration that succeeded Mitch. Both the processes of neoliberalization and racial integration of the city's governing elite accelerated in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It may seem ironic because of how the visual imagery of dispossession and displacement after Katrina came universally to signify the persistence of racial injustice, but a generally unrecognized feature of the post-Katrina political landscape is that the city's governing class is now more seamlessly interracial than ever. That is, or should be, an unsurprising outcome four decades after racial transition in local government and the emergence and consolidation of a strong black political and business class, increasingly well incorporated into the structures of governing. It has been encouraged as well by the city's commitment to cultural and heritage tourism, which, as comes through in Mayor Landrieu's remarks on the monuments, is anchored to a discourse of multiculturalism and diversity. And generational succession has brought to prominence cohorts among black and white elites who increasingly have attended the same schools; lived in the same neighborhoods; participated in the same voluntary associations; and share cultural and consumer tastes, worldviews, and political and economic priorities.”

DiversityRacismInequalityIntegrationMulticulturalismNew OrleansNeoliberalismEconomic InequalityHurricane KatrinaGentrification
Book:The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives
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“English is my work language, Turkish is my love language, Spanish is my play language, Telugu is my leisure language. This would probably be different for you - perhaps for you, it all happens in one language - English, and that's perfectly fine. Different people are inspired in different ways - it's alright - as long as all our inspirations converge into one result - a better world for all - where there is no interracial dialogue, there is no intercultural communication, there is no interreligious relations - because - there is but one race, humanity - there is but one culture, humanity - there is but one religion, humanity.”

DiversityRacismInclusionMulticulturalismCultural IntegrationPolyglotInterfaith DialogueMulticultural PoetIntercultural CommunicationInterracial
Book:Yaralardan Yangın Doğar: Explorers of Night are Emperors of Dawn
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“Offsprings of Africa (Black History Sonnet) If a black family lives long enough in a cold climate, in about 100 generations or so, their descendants will be born white. This is how the white people were born, Because we all come from a black mother. No matter where we live on earth, We're all Africans - our homeland, Africa. Till you get this anthropological fact, You are but a traitor to earth. Black History is World History, We are all offsprings of Africa.”

MankindDiversityRacismHuman RaceAfricaWhite SupremacyBlack HistoryRace RelationsAnthropologyAfrican
Book:Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch
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“I'm about as American as chicken korma, apple pie, and chai, but even after forty years I'm still told to "go back." Where, exactly? In America, who (and what) are you when you're both "us" and "them"? When I'm a native but seen as a foreigner? When I'm a citizen but also seen as a perpetual suspect? When I'm your neighbor but also seen as an invader? When I'm a cultural creator but also seen as an eraser of white identity and European civilization?”

AmericaUnited StatesDiversityRacismImmigrantsDifferenceNativism
Book:Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
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“As the rich get richer, the rest of us will be left in increasingly precarious situations. In the global recession that is upon us, the powerful will double down on their control of state and cultural apparatus, They will be determined to repress, or co-opt, the tremulous expressions of resistance that are gaining volume as the people rise of against death. The issue of co-option is pertinent. Our articulations of dissent too often mirror the parameters of our oppression, reproducing oppressive systems, unwittingly reinforcing them, or indeed 'diverse' them, to make them more 'inclusive' when in truth the need to dissolve.”

RaceDiversityRacismInclusionWhite SupremacyAntiracismSystems Of Oppression
Book:What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition – An Empowering Guide to Interrogating Whiteness and Creating Justice
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