“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.” PeopleStatesHandsSeemsActionChoicesWhiteUnitedNumbersUnited StatesGroupsRacismAdvantageDemocraticMalesAvailableMythPropsWhite PrivilegeSmall NumbersMeritocracy Author:Peggy McIntosh
“... patriarchy creates megapatterns that affect us all--even as we forge different individual choices within them--just as do themegapatterns of nationalism or racism.” DifferentChoicesIndividualRacismNationalismSexismPatriarchyIndividual Choice Author:Gloria Steinem
“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.” KnowsMenRealSometimesFormChoicesBeliefWomenBlackCommunityWhitePracticeDoubtPossibilitySonRacismDaughterMen And WomenSlaveryForgivingLoyaltyConfusionDividedWhite ManBlack WomenOur CommunityOur DaughterDubious Book:Saving Our Sons Source: Saving Our Sons
“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.” AmericaChoicesWishCan DoMemoriesPowerfulRacismHatredPrejudiceSocial JusticeIndifferenceApathyDissentMistrustRacism And Prejudice Author:Thurgood Marshall
“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time. I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices.” MayRealFacesPoliticalChoicesGamesHouseDifferencesOur LivesConditionsMastersBeatsRacismToolsTerrorGenuineUrgesHomophobiaLoathingOur ChoicesPlace And Time Author:Audre Lorde
“There was no mistake in us making abortion legal and available on demand. That was what we call progress. Just like it was no mistake that we abolished institutional racism in this country around the same time. The easy thing to do is lay low, but then are we who we say we are? Do we actually stand for anything, if what we do stand for is under attack and we say nothing? There is nothing to be ashamed of here except to allow a radical and recessive group of people to bully and intimidate our mothers and sisters and daughters for exercising their right of choice.” PeopleIfsCountryMotherChoicesEasyMistakeProgressGroupsExerciseDemandRacismLowsDaughterLaysAvailableRadicalThings To DoAbortionAshamedBullyIntimidatingEasy ThingsInstitutional Racism Author:Mark Ruffalo
“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.” PeopleSometimesChoicesBlackCommunityColorRacismSkinsAgreeIgnorantAfrican AmericanBlack Racism Author:Maya Angelou
“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.” PeopleGovernmentPoliticalChoicesLeftViolenceCenturyPolicyColorRacismSlavePersecution20th CenturyRepression Author:Assata Shakur
“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.” PeopleWayDifferentWholeBeautifulChoicesUniverseEvilFeltPovertyChildhoodWeaponsRacismGunCamerasPrisonHatedKnivesIntoleranceSomething BeautifulDifferent LifeChildhood Friend Author:Gordon Parks
“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.” PeopleIfsChildrenLongMatterChoicesJusticeColorDependsSurvivalRacismSocial JusticeEverydayMy ChildrenMy Future Author:Tim Wise
“I picked up a camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty.” ChoicesUniversePovertyWeaponsRacismCamerasHatedIntoleranceChildhood Friend Author:Gordon Parks
“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.” ArtIdeasMatterCharacterValuesChoicesCultureRaceIdentitySkillsDiversityJudgmentRacismDetermineCrowdsConvictionDeterminedRacistCustomsPolitically CorrectMembershipYesteryear Author:Walter E. Williams
“Looking back on the past four hundred years, this nation's story of racism can seem almost inevitable. But it didn't have to be this way. At critical turning points throughout history, people made deliberate choices to construct and reinforce a racist America. Our generation has the opportunity to make different choices, ones that lead to greater human dignity and justice, but only if we pay heed to our history and respond with the truth and courage that confronting racism requires.” AmericaChoicesHistoryUnited StatesRacism Book:Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 Source: Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019