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

“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
Create image

“For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject. The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country; one's life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own.”

PeopleIfsGivingCountryLife IsCertainWhiteVirtueDoorsSubjectsGiving UpRacismPressurePrivilegeMythElusiveWhite PrivilegeFugitiveMeritocracyFree Country
Author:Peggy McIntosh
Create image

“The new racism, like God, works in mysterious ways and is quite effective in maintaining white privilege. For example, instead of saying as they used to say during the Jim Crow era that they do not want us as neighbors, they say things nowadays such as 'I am concerned about crime, property values and schools.'”

WayWantSchoolUsedValuesWhiteCrimeExampleRacismConcernedPropertyPrivilegeNeighborMysteriousErasMaintainingWant UCrowWhite PrivilegeJim CrowGod Works In Mysterious WaysMysterious Ways
Author:Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Create image

“White privilege is the other side of racism. Unless we name it, we are in danger of wallowing in guilt or moral outrage with no idea of how to move beyond them. It is often easier to deplore racism and its effects than to take responsibility for the privileges some of us receive as a result of it... Once we understand how white privilege operates, we can begin to take steps to dismantle it on both a personal and institutional level.”

IdeasMovingNamesIndividualSidesWhiteResultsResponsibilityMoralEffectsDangerEasierRacismBasesGuiltPrivilegeNo IdeaTaking ResponsibilityOutrageWhite PrivilegeWallowingMoral Outrage
Author:Paula Rothenberg
Create image

“The rest of us, on the ·other hand-we members of the protected classes-have grown increasingly· dependent on our welfare programs. In 2020 the federal government spent more than $193 billion on homeowner subsidies, a figure that far exceeded the amount spent on direct housing assistance for low income families ($53 billion). Most families who enjoy those subsidies have six-figure incomes and are white. Poor families lucky enough to live in government-owned apartments of often have to deal with mold and even lead paint, while rich families are claiming the mortgage interest deduction on first and second homes. The lifetime limit for cash welfare to poor parents is five years, but families claiming the mortgage interest deduction may do so for the length of the mortgage, typically thirty years. A fifteen-story public housing tower and a mortgaged suburban home are both government subsidized, but only one looks (and feels) that way. If you count all public benefits offered by the federal government, America's welfare state (as a share of its gross domestic product) is the second biggest in the world, after France's. But that's true only if you include things like government-subsidized retirement benefits provided by employers, student loans and 529 college savings plans, child tax credits, and homeowner subsidies: benefits disproportionately flowing to Americans well above the poverty line. If you put aside these tax breaks and judge the United States solely by the share of its GDP allocated to programs directed at low-income citizens, then our investment in poverty reduction is much smaller than that of other rich nations. The American welfare state is lopsided.”

PovertyRacismWhite Privilege529 PlansMortgage DeductionSubsidized Housing
Book:Poverty, by America
Create image

“If we analyze white supremacy from the philosophical lens of Star Wars, then it is all the Sith Lords, the Empire, and the First Order commanded by the Dark Side of the Force. It wants to dominate and impose its will on all galaxies, even those far, far away. Let’s just call this insidious force THE WHITENESS. The Whiteness’s ability to inspire fear and anger is so strong that it corrupted many well-​intentioned people, including people of color, to vote for an incompetent vulgarian in 2016 and 2020. It deludes many liberal and “moderate” whites into believing that they are the “good” ones who are committed to social justice as they talk about white privilege but never actually give up any of it. Still, they’ll have these discussions about racial equality with their white friends in establishments with white patrons from white neighborhoods—​without including the rest of us. The Whiteness has always played for all the marbles. It’s not interested in diplomacy, a representative government, free and fair elections, equitable pay, and a delicious buffet of meals from a multitude of countries. It needs a border wall, a Muslim Ban, and affirmative action for wealthy white students at Yale University. It’s a system, a structure, a paradigm, an ideology whose ultimate goal is domination and submission by any means necessary.”

FearRacismAngerWhite SupremacyModeratesSystemic RacismWhitesDonald TrumpWhite Privilege
Book:Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
Create image

“Jimmy and his activist friends were there to tell Bobby about the suffering that had scarred each black person in that room; that had scarred or killed people they loved; that had buried their communities in poverty; that had withheld their right to vote; that had lynched their grandfathers, raped their grandmothers, set the dogs on their children, called them “nigger” for daring to sit at a lunch counter; that had tried to deprive their children of education, their mothers of dignity in domestic labor, their fathers the dignity of being called “sir” and not “boy” at the age of 60. Bobby did not want the responsibility of bearing witness to their pain and their rage. Witness often exposes the unspoken claims of whiteness—its privilege to hide, its ability to deflect black suffering into comparatively sterile discussions of policy that take the heat off of “me” and put it on “that.”

SufferingRacismCivil RightsAfrican AmericanCivil Rights MovementWhitenessWhite PrivilegeAfrican American Experience
Book:What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America
Create image

“Letter from The Mountaintop (Sonnet 2252) Cosmos is colored, all color is kin. Scarlight makes the mind, sunlight makes the skin. Life is nonbinary, existence is nonbiblical. When 'sacred' is anagram for 'scared', to sin is our Earth Gospel. Churchill and Columbus belong in the jungle, loudmouth karens belong in mental institution. Those who've been to the mountaintop, grow too human for the dunghills of dogma. Here at the mountaintop, we're just humans - no black, no white, no believer, nonbeliever - here at the mountaintop, we're each other's keeper.”

DiversityRacismPrejudiceEqualityCivil RightsGenocideMulticulturalismInclusiveWhite PrivilegeNonbinary
Book:Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper
Create image

“By hiding behind the overarching term “white privilege,” the small percentage of privileged whites have ensured the following: first, they remain disguised behind the veil of whiteness and thus maintain the status quo. Second, they ensure that most marginalized white people remain defensive—and come to their defense—whenever their wealth and power are threatened. Third, through the structure of “whiteness,” privileged whites ensure that a large percentage of disadvantaged white people see other groups fighting against similar socio-economic ills as enemies, not allies to unite with in their battle. As such, the first bold proposal I make, if we are serious about social change, is to replace “white privilege” with “privileged whites” to account for the many whites who are not privileged and distinguish them from those who are. The huge number of disadvantaged white people are allies in this battle against the privileged, wealthy ruling class who utilize countless “isms” and “phobias” as sorting devices, while using the term “white privilege” as a tool to prevent any potential allyship between many white people who are not part of their club, yet are misled to think that the problem is everyone else in society except the privileged whites…Precision in language makes a huge difference to ensure all social groups who need to unite and work together have clarity on what kind of changes are needed, and who exactly is blocking change and transformation. [From "Understanding the DEI Dismantlement” published on Counterpunch on January 31, 2025]”

DiversityRacismPropagandaEquityWhite SupremacyDiversity And InclusionWhite PrivilegeDivide And ConquerEquity And InclusionWhitness
Author:Louis Yako
Create image