Best racism & race Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 3

“The core of racism is the notion that the individual is meaningless and that membership in the collective - the race - is the source of his identity and value. ... The notion of 'diversity' entails exactly the same premises as racism - that one's ideas are determined by one's race and that the source of an individual's identity is his ethnic heritage.”

Ideas Values Individual Race Identity Source Diversity Racism Notion Determined Core Collectives Heritage Meaningless Premises Collectivism Membership

Author:Peter Schwartz

“Racism is not dead, but it is on life support -- kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as 'racists'”

People Race Support Alive Politician Racism Racist Superiority

Author:Thomas Sowell

“There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.”

Humans Social Race Racism Function Human Race Constructs

Author:Toni Morrison

“That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained.”

“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.”

“This film isn't about "white racism", or racism at all. DEAR WHITE PEOPLE is about identity. It's about the difference between how the mass culture responds to a person because of their race and who they understand themselves to truly be. And this societal conflict appears to be one that many share.”

People Persons Film Culture Differences White Race Share Identity Conflict Mass Racism Dear Mass Culture White Racism

Author:Justin Simien

“The first who attracts the eye, the first in enlightenment, in power and in happiness, is the white man, the European, man par excellence; below him appear the Negro and the Indian. These two unfortunate races have neither birth, nor face, nor language, nor mores in common; only their misfortunes look alike. Both occupy an equally inferior position in the country that they inhabit; both experience the effects of tyranny; and if their miseries are different, they can accuse the same author for them.”

Source: Democracy in America

“Segregation is a word of the past. Unity is the key to a peaceful future.”

Source: Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“You are not just white, but a rainbow of colors. You are not just black, but golden. You are not just a nationality, but a citizen of the world. You are not just for the right or left, but for what is right over the wrong. You are not just rich or poor, but always wealthy in the mind and heart. You are not perfect, but flawed. You are flawed, but you are just. You may just be human, but you are also a magnificent reflection of God.”

Source: Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Excessive praise arises from the same bigotry matrix as excessive criticism.”

“She got off the train, thinking that she never felt really human until she reached Harlem and thus got away from the hostility in the eyes of the white women who stared at her on the downtown streets and in the subway. Escaped from the openly appraising looks of the white men whose eyes seemed to go through her clothing to her long brown legs. On the trains their eyes came at her furtively from behind newspapers, or half-concealed under hatbrims or partly shielded by their hands. And there was a warm, moist look about their eyes that made her want to run. These other folks feel the same way, she thought—that once they are freed from the contempt in the eyes of the downtown world, they instantly become individuals. Up here they are no longer creatures labeled simply 'colored' and therefore all alike. She noticed that once the crowd walked the length of the platform and started up the stairs toward the street, it expanded in size. The same people who had made themselves small on the train, even on the platform, suddenly grew so large they could hardly get up the stairs to the street together. She reached the street at the very end of the crowd and stood watching them as they scattered in all directions, laughing and talking to each other.”

Race Personality Racism Individuality African Americans Blacks Harassment Harlem Sexual Harassment

Book:The Street

Source: The Street

“Streets like the one she lived on were no accident. They were the North’s lynch mobs, she thought bitterly; the method the big cities used to keep Negroes in their place. And she began thinking of Pop unable to get a job; of Jim slowly disintegrating because he, too, couldn’t get a job, and of the subsequent wreck of their marriage; of Bub left to his own devices after school. From the time she was born, she had been hemmed into an ever-narrowing space, until now she was very nearly walled in and the wall had been built up brick by brick by eager white hands.”

Race Poverty Racism African Americans Blacks Whites Institutional Racism Neighborhoods Ghettos

Book:The Street

Source: The Street

“Mom,' he said, 'why do white people want colored people shining shoes?' She turned toward him, completely at a loss as to what to say, for she had never been able to figure it out for herself. She looked down at her hands. They were brown and strong, the fingers were long and well-shaped. Perhaps because she was born with skin that color, she couldn't see anything wrong with it. She was used to it. Perhaps it was a shock just to look at skins that were dark if you were born with a skin that was white. Yet dark skins were smooth to the touch; they were warm from the blood that ran through the veins under the skin; they covered bodies that were just as well put together as the bodies that were covered with white skins. Even if it were a shock to look at people whose skins were dark, she had never been able to figure out why people with white skins hated people who had dark skins. It must be hate that made them wrap all Negroes up in a neat package labeled 'colored'; a package that called for certain kinds of jobs and a special kind of treatment. But she really didn't know what it was. 'I don't know, Bub,' she said finally. 'But it's for the same reason we can't live anywhere else but in places like this'—she indicated the cracked ceiling, the worn top of the set tub, and the narrow window, with a wave of the paring knife in her hand.”

Race Poverty Racism Inequality African Americans Blacks Inequity

Book:The Street

Source: The Street

“The hard cold facts today indicate that the hope of the people of color in the world may well rest on the American Negro and his ability to reform the structure of racist imperialism from within and thereby turn the technology and wealth of the West to the task of liberating the world from want.”

World Change Race Poverty Racism Need African Americans Imperialism Blacks

Book:Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

Source: Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

“I come from a land whose democracy from the very beginning has been tainted with race prejudice born of slavery, and whose richness has been poured through the narrow channels of greed into the hands of the few. I come to the Second International Writers Congress representing my country, America, but most especially the Negro peoples of America, and the poor peoples of America—because I am both a Negro and poor. And that combination of color and of poverty gives me the right then to speak for the most oppressed group in America, that group that has known so little of American democracy, the fifteen million Negroes who dwell within our borders. We are the people who have long known in actual practice the meaning of the word Fascism—for the American attitude towards us has always been one of economic and social discrimination: in many states of our country Negroes are not permitted to vote or to hold political office. In some sections freedom of movement is greatly hindered, especially if we happen to be sharecroppers on the cotton farms of the South. All over America we know what it is to be refused admittance to schools and colleges, to theatres and concert halls, to hotels and restaurants. We know Jim Crow cars, race riots, lynchings, we know the sorrows of the nine Scottsboro boys, innocent young Negroes imprisoned some six years now for a crime that even the trial judge declared them not guilty of having committed, and for which some of them have not yet come to trial. Yes, we Negroes in America do not have to be told what Fascism is in action. We know. Its theories of Nordic supremacy and economic suppression have long been realities to us.”

America Race Poverty Racism Discrimination Fascism African Americans Blacks Segregation Race Relations

Book:Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings

Source: Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings

“Oh, Lawd, I done forgot Harlem! Say, you colored folks, hungry a long time in 135th Street--they got swell music at the Waldorf-Astoria. It sure is a mighty nice place to shake hips in, too. There's dancing after supper in a big warm room. It's cold as hell on Lenox Avenue. All you've had all day is a cup of coffee. Your pawnshop overcoat's a ragged banner on your hungry frame. You know, downtown folks are just crazy about Paul Robeson! Maybe they'll like you, too, black mob from Harlem. Drop in at the Waldorf this afternoon for tea. Stay to dinner. Give Park Avenue a lot of darkie color--free for nothing!”

Race Poverty Racism Hunger African Americans Blacks Race Relations Harlem Hotels Waldorf Astoria

Book:Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings

Source: Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings

“We Negroes of America are tired of a world divided superficially on the basis of blood and color, but in reality on the basis of poverty and power—the rich over the poor, no matter what their color. We Negroes of America are tired of a world in which it is possible for any group of people to say to another: "You have no right to happiness, or freedom, or the joy of life." We are tired of a world where forever we work for someone else and the profits are not ours. We are tired of a world where, when we raise our voices against oppression, we are immediately jailed, intimidated, beaten, sometimes lynched. Nicolás GuiIlén has been in prison in Cuba, Jacques Roumain, in Haiti, Angelo Herndon in the United States. Today a letter comes from the great Indian writer, Raj Anand, saying that he cannot be with us here in Paris because the British police in England have taken his passport from him. I say, we darker peoples of the earth are tired of a world in which things like that can happen.”

Race Poverty Power Racism Discrimination Oppression African Americans Blacks Race Relations

Book:Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings

Source: Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings

“The problem is everyone, even Black people, believes that Black poverty is the worst poverty in the world, and Black urban poverty, forget it, and all urban Blackness always scans as poverty, which means people only love us as fetish. No one is sentimental about poor Black people unless they're wise and country and you could put a photograph of them on a porch with a quilt behind them in a museum.”

Race Poverty Racism African Americans Blacks Race Relations Urban Life Urban Poverty Black Poverty

Book:The Office of Historical Corrections

Source: The Office of Historical Corrections

“Isn't it...dicey? people our parents' age would say, grimacing, when we told them where we lived, and it took all my willpower not to say, Do you mean black, or just poor? Because it was both.”

Race Poverty Racism African Americans Blacks Neighborhoods Bad Neighborhoods

Book:Florida

Source: Florida

“It comforts everybody to think of all Negroes as dirt poor, and to regard those who were not, who earned good money and kept it, as some kind of shameful miracle. White people liked that idea because Negroes with money and sense made them nervous. Colored people liked it because, in those days, they trusted poverty, believed it was a virtue and a sure sign of honesty. Too much money had a whiff of evil and somebody else's blood.”

Race Poverty Racism Racism In America

Author:Toni Morrison

“Brown v. Board of Education, 1954: I’m sure you’ve heard of this one. If you live in the South and go to a diverse school, this is why. This was the case that said racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The results: The schools began to mix. What’s really interesting about this case, though, something rarely discussed, is that it’s actually a pretty racist idea. I mean, what it basically suggests is that Black kids need a fair shot, and a fair shot is in White schools. I mean, why weren’t there any White kids integrating into Black schools? The assumption was that Black kids weren’t as intelligent because they weren’t around White kids, as if the mere presence of White kids would make Black kids better. Not. True. A good school is a good school, whether there are White people there or not. Oh, and of course people were pissed about this.”

School Race Racism Integration Segregation Racism In America Brown V Board

Book:Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

Source: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

“No one then considered the privilege implied in the fact that white literature was the core curriculum and black literature was the elective. And with no people of color in the student body, it was as if we were studying an ancient civilization with no connection to our lives.”

School Race Racism Race And Racism In America

Book:Stamford '76: A True Story of Murder, Corruption, Race, and Feminism in the 1970s

Source: Stamford '76: A True Story of Murder, Corruption, Race, and Feminism in the 1970s

“Friend, I am thinking about money--which goes beyond race. If all the Negroes in the world had money, the color problem would be solved in the morning.”

Wealth Money Race Racism African Americans Blacks Finances

Book:The Return of Simple

Source: The Return of Simple

“I shall not vote for Sen. Obama and it will not be because he—like me and like all of us—carries African genes. And I shall not be voting for Mrs. Clinton, who has the gall to inform me after a career of overweening entitlement that there is 'a double standard' at work for women in politics; and I assure you now that this decision of mine has only to do with the content of her character. We will know that we have put this behind us when [...] we have outgrown and forgotten the original prejudice.”

Women Race United States Feminism Racism Barack Obama Chauvinism Hillary Clinton 2008 United States Elections 2008

Author:Christopher Hitchens

“Lutie sat down near the back of the room. It was filled with colored women, sitting in huddled-over positions. They sat quietly, not moving. Their patient silence filled the room, made her uneasy. Why were all of them colored? Was it because the mothers of white children had safe places for them to play in, because the mothers of white children didn't have to work?”

Women Race Racism Safety Black Women African Americans Blacks

Book:The Street

Source: The Street

“anyway, the whole world knows, european & non-european alike, the whole world knows that nobody loves the black woman like they love farrah fawcett-majors. the whole world dont turn out for a dead black woman like they did for marilyn monroe. (actually, the demise of josephine baker waz an international event, but she waz also a war hero)”

Death Women Race Racism Celebration Black Women African Americans Blacks Race Relations African American Women

Author:Ntozake Shange

“Only a few days after my encounter with the police, two patrolmen tackled Alton Sterling onto a car, then pinned him down on the ground and shot him in the chest while he was selling CDs in front of a convenience store, seventy-five miles up the road in Baton Rouge. A day after that, Philando Castile was shot in the passenger seat of his car during a police traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, as his girlfriend recorded the aftermath via Facebook Live. Then, the day after Castile was killed, five policemen were shot dead by a sniper in Dallas. It felt as if the world was subsumed by cascades of unceasing despair. I mourned for the family and friends of Sterling and Castille. I felt deep sympathy for the families of the policemen who died. I also felt a real fear that, as a result of what took place in Dallas, law enforcement would become more deeply entrenched in their biases against black men, leading to the possibility of even more violence. The stream of names of those who have been killed at the hands of the police feels endless, and I become overwhelmed when I consider all the names we do not know—all of those who lost their lives and had no camera there to capture it, nothing to corroborate police reports that named them as threats. Closed cases. I watch the collective mourning transpire across my social-media feeds. I watch as people declare that they cannot get out of bed, cannot bear to go to work, cannot function as a human being is meant to function. This sense of anxiety is something I have become unsettlingly accustomed to. The familiar knot in my stomach. The tightness in my chest. But becoming accustomed to something does not mean that it does not take a toll. Systemic racism always takes a toll, whether it be by bullet or by blood clot.”

Grief Race Despair Anxiety Racism Police Mourning Sympathy Bias Law Enforcement African Americans Black Lives Matter Race Relations Policemen Guns Whites Shootings

Author:Clint Smith

“We may claim to judge someone by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin, But our brains as hell note the color, real fast.”

People Race Color Racism Blm Critical Race Theory

Book:Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Source: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

“Privilege is when you contribute to the oppression of others and then claim that you are the one being discriminated against.”

“It's not 'over-sensitivity' to ask to be treated with the same dignity and respect shown to others.”

“Persecution complexes are reaffirming to those who benefit from unearned privileges.”

“In the cause of silence, each of us draws the face of her own fear--fear of contempt, of censure, or some judgment, or recognition, of challenge, of annihilation. But most of all, I think, we fear the very visibility without which we also cannot truly live. Within this country where racial difference creates a constant, if unspoken, distortion of vision, Black women have on one hand always been highly visible, and so, on the other hand, have been rendered invisible through the depersonalization of racism. Even within the women’s movement, we have had to fight, and still do, for that very visibility which also renders us most vulnerable, our Blackness. For to survive in the mouth of this dragon we call america, we have had to learn this first and most vital lesson--that we were never meant to survive. Not as human beings. And neither were most of you here today, Black or not. And that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength. Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak. We can sit in our corners mute forever while our sisters and our selves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned; we can sit in our safe corners mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid.”

Fear Women Race Silence Racism African Americans Blacks Race Relations

Book:The Cancer Journals

Source: The Cancer Journals

“If all men are made in God's reflection, then why do some people continue to acknowledge only what is in their part of the mirror? If every man was created equal and in the image of God, then how can any man claim that one race is better than another?”

People God Religion Spirituality Race Equal Racism Creator Equality Mirror Blind Faith Image Suzy Kassem Image Of God God S Image God S Likeness

Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

Source: Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Racism doesn't always manifest through hostility, but sometimes it manifests through being too nice out of fear.”

Fear Race Racism Prejudice Civil Rights Hostility Too Nice Special Treatment Fear Of Punishment Soft Bigotry Of Low Expectations

Author:Criss Jami

“Needless to say, there are people who hate Arabs, Somalis, and other immigrants from predominantly Muslim societies for racist reasons. But if you can’t distinguish that sort of blind bigotry from a hatred and concern for dangerous, divisive, and irrational ideas—like a belief in martyrdom, or a notion of male “honor” that entails the virtual enslavement of women and girls—you are doing real harm to our public conversation. Everything I have ever said about Islam refers to the content and consequences of its doctrine. And, again, I have always emphasized that its primary victims are innocent Muslims—especially women and girls.”

“When it comes to people… you could aptly say that I am a racist… a human racist. I believe in people. There are good and not-so-good people of all colors and creeds. I’m not here to judge. Period. As people, we draw judgments from others when we behave badly, especially when we try to blame our bad behavior on others. This is not based on race, age, sex, or religion. It’s based on behavior differences.”

People Age Religion Humanity Sex Race Human Nature Behavior Racism Human Judgement Racist Judge

Book:The Bimbo Has Brains: And Other Freaky Facts

Source: The Bimbo Has Brains: And Other Freaky Facts

“As a citizen of the world, I will not confine myself within the gates of one nation or religion. I will not identify with only one species, sex, class or race; for I am a complete being, and that means that I embrace all of humanity, all of nature, every star and universe within the greater universe as a part of me. If we were all created in the image of God, and his love is unconditional, then why can't we love all living things with the same eyes as God? How can anybody say that one race is more superior than another, when we were all created in God's reflection?”

Source: Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“The world is no longer white, black, yellow and brown. Through love, tribes have been intermixing colors to reveal a new rainbow world. And as more time passes, this racial and cultural blending will make it harder for humans to side with one race, nation or religion over another.”

Source: Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“While we maintain the unity of the human species, we at the same time repel the depressing assumption of superior and inferior races of men. There are nations more susceptible of cultivation, more highly civilized, more ennobled by mental cultivation than others—but none in themselves nobler than others.”

Humanity Race Identity Racism Unity Humanism Equality Civilized Homo Sapiens Human Species

Book:Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe: Part One, 1858

Source: Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe: Part One, 1858

“If origin defines race, then we are all Africans – we are all black.”

Source: We Are All Black: A Treatise on Racism

“Sentiments that glorify humanity know no racial distinction.”

Source: We Are All Black: A Treatise on Racism

“In the biological sense, race does not exist.”

Source: We Are All Black: A Treatise on Racism

“It is character that should be the sole measure of judgement in the society of thinking humanity, and nothing short of that would do.”

Source: We Are All Black: A Treatise on Racism

“Call up the ever-pure, the effulgent and the ever-radiant character of true humanism in yourself and in others, and no racism shall have the power to thrive in such society even for a few seconds.”

Source: We Are All Black: A Treatise on Racism

“If not as a true human, let me tell you as a Biologist, color of the skin does not define an individual’s intelligence – it does not define an individual’s ambitions - it does not define an individual’s dreams – and above all, it does not define an individual’s character.”

Source: We Are All Black: A Treatise on Racism

“Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.”

People War Country Wisdom Government Truth School Jobs Politics Strong Peace Understanding President Leadership Justice Freedom Money Race Education Leader Environment Teacher Honest Integrity Republican Speech Diversity Losing Racism Capitalism Doctors Lies Vote Intelligent Election Democrat Environmental Library Equality Corruption Humble Protection Spending Oil Employment Administration Health Care Corporations Presidential Voting Division Leaders Divides Job Human Condition Freedom Of Speech Conservation Lie Diplomacy Banking Incentives Teachers Funding Bankers Political Science Understand Nation Environmentalism Word Elections Lead Schools Corrupt Doctor Leadership Characteristics Diplomatic Big Business Libraries Environmentalist Confident Common Man Families Guide Good Leader Leadership Traits Peacemaker Bipartisan Government Corruption Best Leader Sly Pharmaceutical Banking System Bail Banks Companies Street Voter Foreign Relations Homes Identify Farmer Airlines Divide Make America Great Again Big Pharma Educators We The People Banker Censor Peacekeeper Picking Sides For The People Lobbyist Pharma Heart Driven Bail Out Indentifies Oil Tycoon Pick A Leader Selecting Serves The People Unites Honest Broker Man On The Street Money Driven Mortage Mortages Street Level

Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

Source: Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“and yet there was cement in her soul. It had been there for a while, an early morning disease of fatigue, a bleakness and borderlessness. It brought with it amorphous longings, shapeless desires, brief imaginary glints of other lives she could be living, that over the months melded into a piercing homesickness. She scoured Nigerian websites, Nigerian pro files on Facebook, Nigerian blogs, and each click brought yet another story of a young person who had recently moved back home, clothed in American or British degrees, to start an investment company, a music production business, a fashion label, a magazine, a fast-food franchise She looked at photographs of these men and women and felt the dull ache of loss, as though they had prised open her hand and taken some thing of hers. They were living her life.”

Home Race Travel Racism Immigration Homesickness Homesick Emigration

Book:Americanah

Source: Americanah

“It is the first time I have felt truly South African. When the orchestra strikes up the opening chords of the national anthem, and the entire stadium stands, I have found my voice and I sing ‘Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika!’ I look to the gogo who had earlier taken my arm and I put my hand in hers. My people, I think to myself. My people.”

Home Race Identity Racism South Africa Adoption

Book:Killing Karoline

Source: Killing Karoline

“Some negroes lie, some are immoral, some negro men are not be trusted around women - black and white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.”

Truth Race Racism

Book:To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

“It is also apparent, especially to those familiar with the old order, that all these improvements have evolved from a foundation of social relations and class power built around the architecture of white supremacy. Vestiges of that foundation remain visible within current arrangements, and it can seem commonsensical, therefore, to suspect that it continues to shape the limits of the new structures of routine life. That is one reason, for example, that discussions of the relation between race and life chances in the contemporary United States gravitate so easily toward allusion to the explicit racial hierarchies that defined the Jim Crow era as an alternative to deep examination of the discrete processes that ground and reproduce inequality in the present. But commonsense rests on projection of the familiar and thereby stresses continuity over change. Unquestioned power and deference persist in the region, but their connection to race is no longer straightforward or easily predictable. The tendency to mistake superficially familiar imagery for actual continuity threatens to obscure how the present differs most meaningfully from the past.”

Change Race Racism Common Sense White Supremacy Continuity Jim Crow Political Change

Book:The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives

Source: The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives

Racism Quotes

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Racism Quotes