Best racism & social Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“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.”

Source: No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays

“Claudia Rankine's Citizen comes at you like doom. It's the best note in the wrong song that is America. Its various realities-'mistaken' identity, social racism, the whole fabric of urban and suburban life-are almost too much to bear, but you bear them, because it's the truth. Citizen is Rankine's Spoon River Anthology, an epic as large and frightening and beautiful as the country and various emotional states that produced it.”

“Southerners are the more lonely and spiritually estranged, I think, because we have lived so long in an artificial social system that we insisted was natural and right and just - when all along we knew it wasn't.”

Thinking Long Social Natural Racism Lonely Artificial Social Systems Southerner

Author:Carson McCullers

“If you take racism away from certain people - I mean, vitriolic racism as well as the sort of social racist - if you take that away, they may have to face something really terrible, misery, self-misery, and deep pain about who they are.”

People Ifs Wells May Mean Self Pain Faces Certain Social Terrible Racism Misery Racist Deep Pain

Author:Toni Morrison

“If I had to guess and put a name on it, I'd say that at some point, the drug war was as much a function of class and social control as it was of racism.”

Ifs War Names Social Class Drug Racism Function War On Drugs Social Control

Author:David Simon

“... 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

“Few if any political philosophers have had the courage of tackling the Cold War. Even the best of them have kept silent or have stated some bromides glossing over the serious shortcomings of "our" side, such as racism, social injustice, extreme income disparities, the exploitation of the Third World, and environmental degradation.”

“Some of the technologies that were created during the Industrial Revolution were appalling, such as capitalization, investment, social hierarchy, sexism, racism, and ecological destruction.”

Social Technology Revolution Racism Destruction Investment Sexism Hierarchy Ecological Industrial Revolution Social Hierarchy Capitalization

Author:Chellis Glendinning

“I've written 18 books, mostly dealing with issues of social justice, ending racism, feminism, and cultural criticism.”

Book Social Justice Issues Written Feminism Racism Criticism Social Justice Ending Racism

Author:Bell Hooks

“When there is no such thing as religious culture and moral education, serious social problems such as drug addiction and racism fill the gap.”

Problem Culture Social Religious Education Moral Serious Drug Racism Addiction Gaps Drug Addiction Drug Addict Social Problems Moral Education

Author:Recep Tayyip Erdogan

“It wasn't the intention to do something important, or to even relate about social issues. The ground is so fertile in the justice world, dealing with the death penalty and the Innocence Project, for characters that have a moral ambiguity, which we were both attracted to. It's the idea that everybody has their reasons. Whatever their actions are, whether you agree with them or not, you can understand why they're feeling that way, in terms of racism or even the death penalty.”

“Country must confront what he called institutional racism. [We should] create a country which provides economic, social and environmental justice for all.”

Should Country Social Justice Economic Racism Environmental Institutional Racism Justice For All Environmental Justice

Author:Bernie Sanders

“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.”

“I look at racism as one of the social demons. And, in its worst, it's violent and it's a systemic commitment to oppression.”

Looks Social Worst Racism Commitment Violent Oppression Demon

Author:Jordan Peele

“Shouldn't the American leadership be addressing what is happening in America, with its domestic policies on racism, discrimination, illegal monitoring, solitary confinement, torture, Guantanamo Bay and any other social and political issues related to the American society not directly connected to Islam? American Muslims must speak out and be involved as well in international policies and, through their institutions, they should raise their voice. This is the way you serve the community.”

“Work is valued by the social value of the worker.”

Values Social Racism Workers Reconstruction Social Values

Book:Moving Beyond Words: Essays on Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking the Boundaries of Gender

Source: Moving Beyond Words: Essays on Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking the Boundaries of Gender

“A proper community, we should remember also, is a commonwealth: a place, a resource, an economy. It answers the needs, practical as well as social and spiritual, of its members - among them the need to need one another. The answer to the present alignment of political power with wealth is the restoration of the identity of community and economy. (pg. 63, "Racism and the Economy")”

Needs Should Wells Remember Spiritual Political Social Community Wealth Answers Economy Identity Members Racism Resources Practicals Restoration Alignment Political Power Commonwealth

Book:The Hidden Wound

Source: The Hidden Wound

“Hardly any aspect of my life, from where I had lived to my education to my employment history to my friendships, had been free from the taint of racial inequity, from racism, from whiteness. My racial identity had shaped me from the womb forward. I had not been in control of my own narrative. It wasn’t just race that was a social construct. So was I.”

Social My Own Race Identity Racism Aspect Employment Narrative Constructs Womb My Friendship Whiteness Racial Identity

Book:White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son

Source: White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son

“Being vegan is easy. Are there social pressures that encourage you to continue to eat, wear, and use animal products? Of course there are. But in a patriarchal, racist, homophobic, and ableist society, there are social pressures to participate and engage in sexism, racism, homophobia, and ableism. At some point, you have to decide who you are and what matters morally to you. And once you decide that you regard victimizing vulnerable nonhumans is not morally acceptable, it is easy to go and stay vegan”

“Age-based retirement arbitrarily severs productive persons from their livelihood, squanders their talents, scars their health, strains an already overburdened Social Security system, and drives many elderly people into poverty and despair. Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism.”

People Persons Age Social Poverty Talent Security Despair Racism Aging Productive Retirement Sexism Scar Strain Social Security Elderly Livelihood Ageism Security Systems

Author:Claude Pepper

“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.”

“Grassroots groups challenge the "business-as-usual" environmentalism that is generally practiced by the more privileged wildlife-and conservation-oriented groups. The focus of activists of color and their constituents reflects their life experiences of social, economic, and political disenfranchisement.”

“The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people's expense, whether whites know/like it or not. Racism is an insidious cultural disease. It is so insidious that it doesn't care if you are a white person who likes Black people; it's still going to find a way to infect how you deal with people who don't look like you.”

“More than 2 million people found themselves behind bars at the turn of the twenty-first century, and millions more were relegated to the margins of mainstream society, banished to a political and social space not unlike Jim Crow, where discrimination in employment, housing, and access to education was perfectly legal, and where they could be denied the right to vote.”

Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“To solve the new century's mounting social and environmental problems, people of color activist and white activists need to be able to join forces. But all too often, the unconscious racism of white activists stands in the way of any effective, worthwhile collaboration. The Challenging White Supremacy Workshop is the most powerful tool that I have seen for removing the barriers to true partnerships between people of color and white folks. If the CWS trainings were mandatory for all white activists, the progressive movement in the United States would be unstoppable.”

“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”

“We talk of regional conflicts, of economic and social crises, of political instability, of abuses of human rights, of racism, religious intolerance, inequalities between rich and poor, hunger, over-population, under-development and. I could go on and on. Each and every one of these impediments to humanity's pursuit of well-being are also among the root causes of refugee problems.”

“We are social beings who make communities with an urgency, and it is a stern charge to make us take refuge in the lonely world of oneself. ...Racism attempts to occlude our cosmopolitanism (of the songs in and out of our bones), and it often appropriates our mild forms of xenophobia into its own virulent project. Difference among peoples is something that we negotiate in our everyday interactions, asking questions and being better informed of our mutual realities. To transform difference into the body is an act of bad faith, a denial of our shared nakedness.”

“The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end. Its time seems to have nearly run its course—it no longer serves the needs of men or women and in its inextricable linkage to militarism, hierarchy, and racism it threatens the very existence of life on earth. What will come after, what kind of structure will be the foundation for alternate forms of social organization we cannot yet know. We are living in an age of unprecedented transformation. We are in the process of becoming.”

“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

“Punk rock seemed to make sense. I was listening to The Clash and I really loved their social messages and they have a great history of fighting racism.”

Fighting Social Rocks Listening Messages Racism Make Sense Punk Clash Punk Rock Great History

Author:Justin Sane

“The social pressure from friend and acquaintance to collude, to not notice racism, can be quite powerful.”

Social Justice Powerful Racism Pressure Social Justice Acquaintance Social Pressure

Book:Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

Source: Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

“People say that being a vegan creates a social problem in that others may react negatively. But isnt that the case if you take a principled position on any issue, whether its racism, sexism, heterosexism, violence as a general matter—or speciesism? The key is to educate others about *why* you take the position.”

People Ifs May Matter Problem Social Cases Issues Violence Position Keys Racism Sexism Vegan Educate Social Problems Principled Speciesism

Author:Gary L. Francione

“Bad schools, crime, drugs, high taxes, the social security mess, racism, the health care ? crisis? unemployment, welfare state dependency, illegitimacy, the gap between rich and poor. What do these issues have in common? Politicians, the media, and our so-called leaders lie to us about them. They lie about the cause. They lie about the effect. They lie about the solutions.”

Source: The Ten Things You Can't Say In America

“Feminism isn't simply about being a woman in a position of power. It's battling systemic inequities; it's a social justice movement that believes sexism, racism and classism exist and interconnect, and that they should be consistently challenged.”

Should Believe Social Justice Feminism Movement Position Racism Social Justice Sexism Consistently Being A Woman Classism Position Of Power

Author:Jessica Valenti

“Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage-the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterologic al traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry.”

Source: The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution

“A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be. On basic questions of morality and human decency - issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights - the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious.”

“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

“For many Washington liberals, terrorism was not the instrument of political fanatics and evil men, but was the product of social conditions - poverty, racism and oppression - for which the Western democracies, including Israel were always ultimately to blame.”

Source: How to beat the Democrats, and other subversive ideas

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Racism Quotes