Quotessence
Home / Topics / Racism Quotes

Racism Quotes

Browse 3161 quotes about Racism.

Related topics

PeopleWhiteBlackThinkingIfsKnowsSexismRaceCountryAmericaMenWorldWayProblemDiscriminationWantPersonsBelieveColorHumansStillsPrejudiceBigotryHateHas BeensPoliticalAfrican AmericanHomophobiaFeelsFormMeanPovertyDifferentFightingChildrenLongLooksShouldWarJusticeAnti RacismCommunityCultureEndsKindStatesIssuesNeedsViolenceBlack PeopleHatredMadeSlaveryYearsEvilTryingWellsDoeGroupsFirstsSocialBlack RacismCapitalismIgnoranceSocial JusticeAnti RacistEconomicNationsOppressionClassHeartIndividualKidsRightsTodayWhite RacismFactsGivingMindReasonSeemsSometimesCenturyFacesIdeasMaySkinsSouthXenophobiaCertainImportantInjusticeLittlesMatterPresidentReligiousUnited StatesMightUnitedVictimmore

Racism Quotes

“In America, racism exists but racists are all gone. Racists belong to the past. Racists are the thin-lipped mean white people in the movies about the civil rights era. Here's the thing: the manifestation of racism has changed but the language has not. So if you haven't lynched somebody then you can't be called a racist. If you're not a bloodsucking monster, then you can't be called a racist. Somebody has to be able to say that racists are not monsters.”

PeopleIfsMeanAbleAmericaPastLanguageWhiteGoneRightsHavensChangedRacismMonstersCivil RightsErasManifestationRacist
Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Create image

“We need to organize ourselves and protest against existing order - against war, against economic and sexual exploitation, against racism, etc. But to organize ourselves in such a way that means correspond to the ends, and to organize ourselves in such a way as to create kind of human relationship that should exist in future society. That would mean to organize ourselves without centralize authority, without charismatic leader, in a way that represents in miniature the ideal of the future egalitarian society.”

WayNeedsShouldHumansKindMeanWarEndsOrderLeaderEconomicAuthorityRacismIdealsEtcProtestExploitationOrganizeHuman RelationsHuman RelationshipsCharismaticMiniaturesAgainst WarAgainst RacismFuture Society
Author:Howard Zinn
Create image

“News footage came on the TV during dinner of bloody bodies coming back from battle in Vietnam, or the race riots in the South, people getting hosed in Selma, Alabama, or the Biafra war, where I got my name. In my household, it was explained and discussed with the children, as a way of educating us from when we first started grade school why racism and war were wrong, what this all really means.”

PeopleWayFirstsMeanChildrenWarBodySchoolNamesRaceTvsBattleNewsRacismSouthDinnerGradesVietnamHouseholdBloodyComing BackReally MeanRiotAlabamaGrades In SchoolRace Riots
Author:Jello Biafra
Create image

“I was teasing my brother that he was penniless, homeless, jobless. Right now in his life, racism isn't the central highlighting force: it's the world of work and economics. It doesn't mean that he isn't influenced by racism, but when he wakes up in the morning the thing that's driving his world is really issues of class, economics and power as they articulate themselves.”

WorldMeanForceClassMorningIssuesBrotherRight NowRacismEconomicsWake UpDrivingMy BrotherJoblessHomelessTeaseHighlighting
Author:Bell Hooks
Create image

“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
Create image

“White people are so unappreciative, they don't even acknowledge and understand what it means to be white in Canada, and all the layers of privilege that come with that. So they're shocked when somebody says, 'What just happened is racist,' and they said, 'Oh no, couldn't possibly be.' They see racism as people with KKK gowns and pointy hoods with eyes cut out. And we had those too.”

PeopleMeanEyeCuttingRacismAcknowledgeRacistHood
Author:Constance Backhouse
Create image

“Any racism or barriers that may be put up, you get a tremendous sense of resistance. The more you push me, the greater I am. You can't hold me down. And the church helped me do that. My family helped that. The whole issue of struggle is critical in my life. Resistance, finding ways to resist. That does not mean you do somebody in to get it. No, it means finding ways to be human in what you do, but making sure that you get it done.”

MeanDoneChurchStruggleRacismMy FamilyBarriersHold Me
Author:Cecil Williams
Create image

“I would say that, you know, being Jewish, what has been most significant in my life is understanding what a Hitler - what horrible politics can mean to people and I think that's been one of the motivating factors in my life in fighting against racism and bigotry of all kinds because when it gets out of hand, as we have seen and we are, you know - it's obviously has unbelievable repercussions.”

PeopleThinkingKindMeanFightingUnderstandingRacismSignificantHorribleAll KindsBigotryUnbelievable
Author:Bernie Sanders
Create image

“If we could create the conditions that make racism difficult, or discourage it, then there would be less stress and less need for affirmative action programs. One of those conditions would be an economic policy that would create tight labor markets over long periods of time. Now does that mean that affirmative action is here only temporarily? I think the ultimate goal should be to remove it.”

ThinkingMeanLongActionDifficultGoalEconomicPolicyRacismProgramLaborUltimateStressDiscouragingAffirmative ActionAffirmative
Author:William Julius Wilson
Create image

“As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you're going to be a second-rate artist. I don't mean there's never any overlap. You learn things in one area and bring them into another area. But giving a speech against racism is not the same as writing a novel. The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you're opposed to it. But when you're writing a novel, you don't want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view.”

GivingWritingMeanArtDifferentReasonRealityArtistFightingNovelRacismComplicatedPoint Of ViewLoyaltyVotingYes Or No
Author:Margaret Atwood
Create image

“There are things about the South - the politics, the classism, the racism - that I hate, and I want to be here to fight those things. I don't want to be in California or Michigan just complaining about them. I'm here trying to make a difference in the way I can, writing about it. And I want younger people, especially kids from my community, to see that being successful doesn't have to mean leaving a place like this. You don't have to trade in your family or your sense of belonging for that.”

PeopleWritingTryingMeanKidsHateFightingCommunitySuccessfulRacismI HateTradeLeavingComplainingOur FamilyMaking A DifferenceBeing SuccessfulBelongingI Want YouClassism
Author:Jesmyn Ward
Create image

“It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What you do? You integrate it with cream; you make it weak. If you pour too much cream in, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it’ll put you to sleep.”

IfsKnowsMeanPoliticalUsedStrongBlackSleepToo MuchRacismWeakHotCoffeeUsed To BeCreamMulticulturalismBlack HistoryIntegratingGrassrootsWakes You
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“That's just how white folks will do you. It wasn't merely the cruelty involved; I was learning that black people could be mean and then some. It was a particular brand of arrogance, an obtuseness in otherwise sane people that brought forth our bitter laughter. It was as if whites didn't know they were being cruel in the first place. Or at least thought you deserved of their scorn.”

PeopleIfsKnowsFirstsMeanBlackWhiteParticularInvolvedRacismLaughterFolksCrueltyBitterBrandsArroganceBlack PeopleSaneScorn
Book:Dreams From My Father
Create image

“It must be remembered that in those great days I was considered to be an "integrationist" - this was never, quite, my own idea of myself - and Malcolm was considered to be a "racist in reverse." This formulation, in terms of power - and power is the arena in which racism is acted out - means absolutely nothing: it may even be described as a cowardly formulation. The powerless, by definition, can never be "racists," for they can never make the world pay for what they feel or fear except by the suicidal endeavor which makes them fanatics or revolutionaries, or both.”

WorldFeelsMayMeanIdeasTermMy OwnPayRacismDefinitionsRememberedRevolutionaryRacistEndeavorReversePowerlessSuicidalArenaFanaticsAbsolutely NothingCowardlyGreat Day
Author:James A. Baldwin
Create image

“Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both.”

LifeMeanWarWholeProblemTogetherLife IsEvilFoundIndividualSocialForgetCommunicationHigherRacismCapitalismKingdomsCommunismBrotherhoodTiedExploitationThesisSynthesisAntithesis
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
Create image

“I am obliged to confess that I do not regard the abolition of slavery as a means of warding off the struggle of the two races in the Southern states. The Negroes may long remain slaves without complaining; but if they are once raised to the level of freemen, they will soon revolt at being deprived of almost all their civil rights; and as they cannot become the equals of the whites, they will speedily show themselves as enemies.”

IfsMayMeanLongTwoWarStatesShowsLevelsRaceEnemyStruggleRightsRacismRegardSlaverySlaveRaisedComplainingCivil RightsSouthernDeprivedObligedRevoltAbolitionFreemanAbolition Of Slavery
Book:Democracy in America
Create image

“I mean, let's face it, it's 2000 and people are beginning to wake up on some level. I think that, as I was saying earlier, there's just no denying the impact that showing people the truth can have. It allows people to understand themselves, and when you understand yourself you can understand the people around you. And then you can begin to let go of all the bullshit that leads into things like world wars, racism, stereotypes, and bigotry.”

PeopleThinkingWorldMeanWarFacesLevelsLetting GoRacismWake UpImpactWar Of The WorldsBigotryBullshitStereotype
Author:Gale Harold
Create image

“Feminism involves so much more than gender equality and it involves so much more than gender. Feminism must involve consciousness of capitalism (I mean the feminism that I relate to, and there are multiple feminisms, right). So it has to involve a consciousness of capitalism and racism and colonialism and post-colonialities, and ability and more genders than we can even imagine and more sexualities than we ever thought we could name.”

MeanNamesAbilityConsciousnessImagineFeminismRacismCapitalismGenderSexualityPostsRelateColonialismMultipleGender Equality
Author:Angela Davis
Create image

“Merely because I was black, it seemed, I was supposed to listen to Hugh Maskela instead of Carole King, just as I was expected to be a radical, not a conservative. I no longer cared to play that game ... The black people I knew came from different places and backgrounds - social, economic, even ethnic - yet the color of our skin was somehow supposed to make us identical in spite of our differences. I didn't buy it. Of course we had all experienced racism in one way or another, but that did not mean we had to think alike”

PeopleThinkingWayMeanDifferentPlayCoursesGamesSocialBlackDifferencesEconomicColorKingsRacismSkinsConservativeExpectedBackgroundsOne WayRadicalSpiteBlack PeopleIdenticalDifferent Place
Author:Clarence Thomas
Create image

“As long as there is democracy, there will be people wanting to play jazz because nothing else will ever so perfectly capture the democratic process in sound. Jazz means working things out musically with other people. You have to listen to other musicians and play with them even if you don't agree with what they're playing. It teaches you the very opposite of racism and anti-Semitism. It teaches you that the world is big enough to accommodate us all.”

PeopleIfsWorldMeanLongEnoughPlayBigsProcessSoundTeachDemocracyMusicianRacismOppositesAgreeJazzDemocraticCaptureAccommodateAnti SemitismDemocratic ProcessWorking Things
Author:Wynton Marsalis
Create image

“I feel sorry for Obama because he's still got to fight the innate racism of Americans. I mean, did you see his first speech, when he got made President and they put all that bullet proof glass in front of him? I think that shows you how racist America still is. Just because he's black doesn't mean he's going to shoot anybody.”

ThinkingFeelsFirstsMeanMadeStillsShowsAmericaFightingBlackPresidentFrontsSpeechRacismSorryGlassesProofRacistBulletsInnate
Author:Frankie Boyle
Create image

“Patriarchy, like any system of domination (for example, racism), relies on socializing everyone to believe that in all human relations there is an inferior and a superior party, one person is strong, the other weak, and that it is therefore natural for the powerful to rule over the powerless. To those who support patriarchal thinking, maintaining power and control is acceptable by whatever means.”

ThinkingBelieveHumansMeanPersonsStrongNaturalPowerfulPartySupportExampleRacismWeakRelationSuperiorsRelyAcceptableInferiorsPatriarchyPowerlessDominationMaintainingHuman RelationsSocializingPower And Control
Author:Bell Hooks
Create image