Best racism & african-american Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“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.”

People World Seems Nations Community Conditions Racism Crisis African American Poorest Harlem Bangladesh

Author:Johnnetta B. Cole

“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?”

People Littles Found Class Human Nature Sorrow Racism Extremes African American Acknowledge Lazy Ambitious Considering Idle Idleness Industrious

Author:Maria W. Stewart

“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?”

Thinking Men Should Doe Made God Freedom Race Lord Equal Racism Skins Equality African American Inferiors Considering Black Women Worms Equal Rights Hue Anti Racist

Author:Maria W. Stewart

“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.”

Thinking Knows Firsts Problem Causes Racism Decided African American Family Problems

Author:Bebe Moore Campbell

“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.”

May Understanding Black Race Dangerous Racism Concepts Aspect Notion Folks Insight African American Racist Overwhelming Scholarship Validity Sexist

Author:Bell Hooks

“... 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.”

Evil Social Causes Class Policy Racism Weak Injustice African American Fixed Persecution Contagious Hurtful Defenseless African American Women Social Evils

Author:Fannie Barrier Williams

“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.”

White Knowledge One Thing Honesty Ignorance Racism South African American Merit Black People Efficiency Dishonesty Incompetence

Book:The Negro

Source: The Negro

“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.”

War Darkness Support Struggle Racism Hatred Slavery Symbols African American Civil War Division Snakes Bondage Pits Slipping Antagonism

Author:Carol Moseley Braun

“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.”

Long Together America Nations Justice White Long Time Racism Vote African American Tragic Allies Segregation Racism In America Stood Up Lynching

Author:Bernie Sanders

“It is not possible to erase racism just because African-Americans have reached a level of financial success and crossover appeal.”

Levels Racism Financial African American Appeals Erase Crossover Financial Success

Author:Farrah Gray

“Puerto Ricans are Americans. We've been American citizens since 1917. We fought the same battles, made the same sacrifices. We've lost our land in the same way that Native Americans lost their land, and we've been the subject of discrimination and racism in the same way that African Americans have. We've suffered the full spectrum of oppression, and yet we've been off the map 4,000 miles away so we haven't even been able to argue our case.”

“I think there are white alumni out there who wouldn't mind having an African American president of their school, but would be reluctant to have an African American coach, because he represents the school so. I think it's just sheer backward racism.”

Thinking Mind Would Be School President White Racism Coaches African American Sheer Reluctant American President Alumni

Author:Frank Deford

“I don't think you can explain why all these other sports and college basketball have a fair representation of African American coaches, but college football doesn't. You can dig and scramble and scratch, but at the end of the day I think it's just pure, old-fashioned racism.”

Thinking Ends Sports Football College Pure Basketball Racism Fairs Coaches African American The End Of The Day Representation Old Fashioned Scratches College Football College Basketball

Author:Frank Deford

“I refuse to accept the view . . . that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.”

Source: The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“We recriminalized black life. Incarceration rates since the 1908s have gone through the roof, overwhelmingly black males, women and Hispanics to some extent. Essentially re-doing what happened under Reconstruction. That's the history of African Americans - so how can any one say there's no problem. Sure, racism is serious, but it's worse than that.”

Problem Black Gone Happened Serious Racism Males Rate African American Roof No Problem Reconstruction Incarceration Black Lives Black Males

Author:Noam Chomsky

“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.”

“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.”

Ifs Men Facts Young Justice White Racism Criminals African American Addresses White Man Arrested Justice System Criminal Justice Criminal Justice System

Author:Hillary Clinton

“Racism is worse than ever. Violence is worse than ever. The economy's worse than ever. Unemployment's worse than ever. And it's Democrats that have been running the show, with the first African-American president at the top of the heap, and it didn't get any better?”

Firsts Has Beens Shows Running President Economy Violence Racism Democrat African American Unemployment American President

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“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.”

“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.”

“People can tell if you don't like 'em. African Americans can tell we're not welcome in the Republican Party no matter how many times they say we are. All the signals that it's a party that tolerates anti-black racism is very clear.”

People Ifs Matter Black Party Clear Republican Racism Welcome African American Ems Tolerate Republican Party Signals Black Racism

Author:Van Jones

“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.”

People Way Wells Dangerous Citizens Racism West Iraq African American Treatment Asia Palestine Latino American Citizens Dehumanization

Author:Tariq Ramadan

“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.”

“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.”

Firsts Stills Black President Half Poverty Issues Kings Racism Lifetime African American Eras Usa

Author:Tavis Smiley

“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.”

Kind Stories Strong Powerful Situation Racism African American Sexism American Woman African American Women Ageism Muslim Women

Author:Maya Angelou

“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.”

Thinking Believe Heart Wish Situation My Heart Racism African American Sexism

Author:Sara Paretsky

“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.”

Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.

“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.”

“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.”

Fall Fighting Black Community Common Brother Racism Solutions Skins Oppression African American Bigotry Communion 20th Century Brothers And Sisters Fall Back

Author:Michael Eric Dyson

“Barack Obama happens to be the first African-American, and so criticism of him is and always was gonna be racism, and therefore not permitted.”

Firsts Happens Racism Criticism Barack African American

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“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.”

Country States Government Law Products Racism Rose Locals African American Repression Crow Jim Crow Local Government Jim Crow Laws

Author:Rand Paul

“Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.”

“I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life.”

“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.”

Source: Negro Makers of History

“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.”

Source: Three African-American Classics: Up from Slavery, The Souls of Black Folk and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.”

People Doe Matter Inspiration Hate Greatness Color Racism African American Black History Boxers Hate People Famous Boxer Anti Racist Cassius Clay Racism And Prejudice

Author:Muhammad Ali

“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.”

“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.”

People Has Beens Country Differences Basketball Racism Killing African American Adam Adam And Eve

Author:Bob Cousy

“Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.”

Black Racism Excuse African American Do The Best Black History Black History Month African American Women Black History Month Inspirational African American History African American Love African American Inspirational African American History Month Black Racism Ethnic Identity

Author:Arthur Ashe

“Look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin.”

“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.”

Men Firsts Mean Political Guy Nice Stupid Racism Clean African American Racist Mainstream White Racism

Author:Joe Biden

“The whites were really brutishly ignorant, blitheringly, so they killed people sometimes - just came into the African-American community and maimed people because they didn't agree with God's choice for the colors of the people's skin.”

People Sometimes Choices Black Community Color Racism Skins Agree Ignorant African American Black Racism

Author:Maya Angelou

“We African Americans have now spent the major part of the 20th Century battling racism”

Century Majors Racism African American Racist 20th Century

Author:Constance Baker Motley

“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.”

Social Poverty Saws Weapons Racism Cameras Injustice African American Cinema Filmmaker Filmmaking Against Racism

Author:Gordon Parks

“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.”

“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?”

Talking Goes On Racism Treated African American Agendas Philanthropy

Author:Judith Jamison

“Unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

“It's time we become comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations about race...Instead of being color blind, we need to be color brave.”

Needs Race Color Conversation Comfortable Racism Blind Brave African American Uncomfortable

Author:Mellody Hobson

“I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it.”

Ifs Stills Motivational Guy Ability Wonder Racism Slavery African American Inferiors Philanthropy Other Guys Doubted

Author:Hank Aaron

“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.”

Ifs Happens Dies Party Issues Periods Republican Perception Racism Impact South African American Unfair Associates Republican Party Chunks

Author:Artur Davis

Racism Quotes

Related topics

Racism Quotes