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Racism Quotes

Browse 3161 quotes about Racism.

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Racism Quotes

“I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions--poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed--which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished.”

WayDoeIdeasProblemCulturePowerfulPovertyRichViolenceConditionsCrimeRacismRootsVictimGreedSolveConvincedEndlessUselessCyclesSubstitutesPretendingUnemploymentDesperationMaintainingHomelessnessRetributionImprisonmentEliminationCycle Of Violence
Author:Howard Zinn
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“The drug war has nothing to do with making communities livable or creating a decent future for black kids. On the contrary, prohibition is directly responsible for the power of crack dealers to terrorize whole neighborhoods. And every cent spent on the cops, investigators, bureaucrats, courts, jails, weapons, and tests required to feed the drug-war machine is a cent not spent on reversing the social policies that have destroyed the cities, nourished racism, and laid the groundwork for crack culture.”

WarWholeKidsCultureSocialBlackCommunityJusticeCitiesPolicyDrugCreatingWeaponsRacismTestsMachinesResponsibleCourtContraryDestroyedDecentNeighborhoodCracksJailCentsCopProhibitionDealerBureaucratsWar On DrugsInvestigatorsGroundworkSocial Policy
Book:No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays
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“Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so--called educational system, whichis nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one's ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the "educational system" are the prime sources of racism in the United States.”

StatesAmericaCultureAbilityWhiteUnitedRaceEducationUnited StatesMediaSourceCitizensRacismRewardsEducationalLoyaltyPunishmentPrimePledgeOathEducational SystemReward And Punishment
Author:Ishmael Reed
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“I'M FRUSTRATED, because pop culture, music and movies glorify these types of police citizen altercations and promote an invincible attitude that continues to get young men killed in real life, away from safety movie sets and music studios.”

MenRealYoungCultureAttitudeTypeCitizensRacismPoliceSafetyStudiosPopsReal LifeYoung ManFrustratedPop CultureInvincibleGlorifyMovie Sets
Book:Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.
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“When I started acting in the film industry when I was 16 years old, in 1980, I was going to all the revival theaters in Los Angeles. They were playing mostly films from the '60s and '70s, some from the early '20s and '30s, before that Hays commission. Those films did question things a lot, and there definitely was a switch in 1934. You can see very distinctly in 1934, it's harder to understand what the real culture was. Films made before 1934, you can really kind of see the racism, sexism, drug use, etc. that was going on at that time. And then it was all stopped.”

YearsKindMadeRealUseFilmCultureActingIndustryDrugRacismHarderTheaterEtcLos AngelesSexismRevivalFilm IndustryHayDrug UseEarly 20s
Author:Crispin Glover
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“The greatest number of drug addicts are to be found in Teheran and in Karachi, not in the West. Not in New York believe it or not. It's the same with the roles of slavery, racism and imperialism in the world. These institutions were present in other cultures. However, it was Western civilization which did something about slavery, about racism and voluntarily dissolved its empires leaving behind a very positive legacy of institutions not to mention buildings and roadways.”

WorldBelieveCultureFoundNumbersBehindsRolesNew YorkBuildingCivilizationDrugRacismInstitutionsSlaveryWestWesternLeavingLegacyEmpiresImperialismAddictWestern CivilizationDrug AddictOther CulturesVery Positive
Author:Ibn Warraq
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“Even if, personally, I'm in a place of contentment or solidity, I feel like it's hard not to look out into American culture and see vast inequity, widespread institutionalized violence and racism and transphobia and environmental destruction. It's hard to be in this world and feel a sense of innate satisfaction at all. There's plenty of things to feel unsettled about.”

IfsWorldFeelsLooksHardCultureViolenceThis WorldRacismDestructionEnvironmentalSatisfactionPlentyContentmentInnateAmerican CultureSolidityEnvironmental Destruction
Author:Carrie Brownstein
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“There are three things, and it depends on the group that we're talking about, but there's history, there's culture, and then there's social networks. So, you know, historically black and white, they worship together until about the end of slavery, and people started moving out into separate churches. But it was because of discrimination and racism and such that blacks began to establish their own denominations and their own churches.”

PeopleKnowsEndsTogetherMovingCultureThreeSocialBlackChurchWhiteTalkingGroupsDependsWorshipRacismSlaveryDiscriminationBlack And WhiteThree ThingsSocial NetworkDenominationsMoving OutDiscrimination And Racism
Author:Michael Emerson
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“I remember after I dated this white man, nobody said anything but there was a couple of men in my family that joked after that. 'Oh yeah, we had a party when y'all broke up. Hee hee hee.' And, you know, they laughed, and it was like light and a joke. But, you know, that's real. That was real and they let me know. And, it's almost acceptable within our culture to be prejudiced toward whites because of our history. This country is loaded with racism .”

KnowsMenSaidRealCountryLightRememberCultureWhitePartyCoupleRacismJokesMy FamilyLet MeYeahBrokeLaughedAcceptableWhite ManLoadedBroke Up
Author:Sanaa Lathan
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“It is sad to witness the persistence in our society of the racism and xenophobia that seems to be a permanent part of our political culture. It is shameful to see politicians exploiting these human weaknesses in order to gain political power. It is most depressing of all to contemplate a future in which politicians who do this will continue to have influence over people's lives.”

PeopleHumansSeemsPoliticalOrderCultureInfluencePoliticianRacismWeaknessGainsWitnessPersistencePermanentOur SocietyContemplatingDepressingShamefulPolitical PowerXenophobiaPolitical CultureMost Depressing
Author:Allen W. Wood
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“I think that in his 39 short years of life, Malcolm X came to symbolize Black urban America, its culture, its politics, its militancy, its outrage against structural racism and at the end of his life, a broad internationalist vision of emancipatory power far better than any other single individual that he shared with DuBois and Paul Robeson, a pan-Africanist internationalist perspective.”

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Author:Manning Marable
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“We know longer live in a homogenous society, it is not black, white, Asian or Latin, it is a melting pot. Until we learn to assimilate and learn about other cultures, we will continue to have racism problems. Of course, there are other '-isms' as our ills. We have sexism, ageism, elitism, homophobia-ism, there are many -isms we have to overcome.”

KnowsProblemCultureCoursesBlackWhiteRacismOvercomingLatinSexismPotAsianMeltingHomophobiaIsmsOther CulturesElitismBlack WhiteMelting PotAgeism
Author:Octavia Spencer
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“Diversity means, when the left teaches it, the people responsible for building America and maintaining it get the short end of the stick from now on. With this singular American culture that people came and wanted to be part of, they were proud, couldn't wait to become Americans, tears in their eyes when it happened. It was a special place. Defending it now, defending that America, defending our cultural, defending our founding, defending all of the things that made this country great is now called racism or xenophobia or hate.”

PeopleMeanMadeEndsCountryEyeWantedAmericaHateCultureLeftWaitingTeachHappenedSpecialTearsBuildingProudDiversityRacismResponsibleSticksFoundingMaintainingAmerican CultureXenophobiaSpecial Places
Author:Rush Limbaugh
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“Music documentaries are hard to tell, but I think they're an amazing vehicle to look at racism, our attitude to sex, the way we judge drugs. There's the ability to get a big audience because of these incredible, iconic, charismatic people. You can look at a number of issues - the challenge is to make sure you choose something that has all those issues. Popular music is like a mirror of culture, of who we are.”

PeopleThinkingCultureChallengesAbilityAttitudeAudienceJudgingDrugMusic IsRacismIncrediblesYou ChooseVehicleIconicCharismaticPopular Music
Author:Nick Broomfield
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“I grew up in traditional black patriarchal culture and there is no doubt that I’m going to take a great many unconscious, but present, patriarchal complicities to the grave because it so deeply ensconced in how I look at the world. Therefore, very much like alcoholism, drug addiction, or racism patriarchy is a disease and we are in perennial recovery and relapse. So you have to get up every morning and struggle against it.”

WorldLooksCultureBlackMorningStruggleDoubtGrewDrugDiseaseGrew UpRacismAddictionGravesTraditionalRecoveryGet UpNo DoubtUnconsciousEvery MorningPatriarchyAlcoholismDrug AddictionComplicityRelapse
Book:Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life
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“Taking the continent as a whole, this religious tension may be responsible for the revival of the commonest racial feeling. Africa is divided into Black and White, and the names that are substituted- Africa south of the Sahara, Africa north of the Sahara- do not manage to hide this latent racism. Here, it is affirmed that White Africa has a thousand-year-old tradition of culture; that she is Mediterranean, that she is a continuation of Europe and that she shares in Graeco-Latin civilization. Black Africa is looked on as a region that is inert, brutal, uncivilized - in a word, savage.”

YearsMayWholeFeelingsCultureNamesBlackReligiousWhiteShareCivilizationThousandRacismEuropeTraditionResponsibleSouthManageTensionRegionsLatinDividedContinentsBlack And WhiteBrutalSavagesThousand YearsRevivalBeing ResponsibleLatentContinuationUncivilizedSaharaOld Traditions
Author:Frantz Fanon
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“It is too often forgotten that when the Europeans gained enough maritime skills and gunpowder to conquer most of the world, they not only colonized the bulk of the world's people but they colonized the interpretation of history itself. Human history was rewritten to favor them at the expense of other people. The roots of modern racism can be traced to this conquest and colonization.”

PeopleWorldHumansEnoughCultureJusticeModernSkillsDiversityRacismRootsSocial JusticeForgottenFavorsConquerInterpretationExpensesConquestHuman HistoryColonizationGunpowderMaritime
Author:John Henrik Clarke
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“Humanity may destroy the possibilities for life on earth unless the freedom and power that we have acquired are channeled in new creative directions by a spiritual awareness and moral commitment that transcend nationalism, racism, sexism, religious sectarianism, anthropocentrism, and the dualism between human culture and nature. This is the great issue for the 1990s and the twenty-first century.”

FirstsHumansMayEarthSpiritualHumanityCultureReligiousMoralCreativeIssuesCenturyAwarenessPossibilityRacismCommitmentTwentiesContemplationNationalismSexismSectarianismSpiritual AwarenessDualismAnthropocentrism
Author:Steven Clark Rockefeller
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“I cannot emphasize enough how wrongheaded this is. Withholding criticism and ignoring differences are racism in its purest form. Yet these cultural experts fail to notice that, through their anxious avoidance of criticizing non-Western countries, they trap the people who represent these cultures in a state of backwardness. The experts may have the best of intentions, but as we all know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

PeopleKnowsMayCountryStatesEnoughFormCultureDifferencesHellFailingRacismCriticismIntentionWesternExpertsCriticizeAnxiousTrapsAvoidanceGood IntentionsWithholding
Author:Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”

PeopleIfsLifeTryingMayIdeasDiesCultureWorryLaughingJourneyCryThis WorldAdventureTravelRacismLaughterWanderAround The WorldBigotryTime TravelIntroducingTraveledTravelerFunny TravelAdventurousTravellerTravel WritingGreat TravelInspiring TravelTravel The WorldTravel AdventureBigotsDemonstratingAdventure And TravelSeeing The WorldOther CulturesNomadLife Is An AdventurePhotography And TravelDream WorldInspirational AdventureRoads TraveledLife AdventureAdventure And LifeWant To TravelBackpackingTravel AbroadNomadicTravel JourneyRoads And JourneysNext AdventureTravel ExperienceRoad LifeTravel And CultureCosta RicaForeign TravelAdventurous SoulsDiscovery And TravelInspiration To OthersUnderstanding Each Other
Book:Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
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“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
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“Someone telling you that you've done something racist can be an act of respect and kindness. In a culture as racist as ours, and given the long history of racism, it's impossible not to say or do something racist from time to time. Someone pointing out our racism gives us a chance to do something useful about that culture and history.”

CultureKindnessHistoryRacismRespectRacistUseful
Book:Speaking of Race: How to Have Antiracist Conversations That Bring Us Together
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“here among them the americans this baffling multi people extremes and variegations their noise restlessness their almost frightening energy how best describe these aliens in my reports to The Counselors disguise myself in order to study them unobserved adapting their varied pigmentations white black red brown yellow the imprecise and strangering distinctions by which they live by which they justify their cruelties to one another charming savages enlightened primitives brash new comers lately sprung up in our galaxy how describe them do they indeed know what or who they are do not seem to yet no other beings in the universe make more extravagant claims for their importance and identity”

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Book:Collected Poems
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