Racial Discrimination Quotes

• Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Men, Racism, Hatred

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1955). “Insecurity of Freedom”, p.86, Macmillan

  229 Copy quote

  Show source

• The exploitation of women, mass hunger, disregard for freedom of conscience and for freedom of speech, widespread and racial discrimination all these evils are far too prevalent to be overlooked.

  Rene Cassin

  Racism, Evil, Freedom Of Speech

  16 Copy quote

• How can I be expected to believe that this same racial discrimination which has been the cause of so much injustice and suffering right through the years, should now operate here to give me a fair and open trial?....consider myself neither morally nor legally obliged to obey laws made by a Parliament in which I am not represented. That the will of the people is the basis of the authority of government, is a principle universally acknowledged as sacred throughout the civilized world.

  Nelson Mandela

  Believe, Government, Years

  16 Copy quote

• The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something.

  John Lewis

  Rights, Movement, Saws

  19 Copy quote
• 

  I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Faith, Peace

  "50 years after receiving Nobel Prize, do Martin Luther King's peace prophecies still resonate?", www.foxnews.com. October 12, 2014.

  128 Copy quote

  Show source

• Racism isn't born, folks, it's taught. I have a two-year-old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list.

  Denis Leary

  Powerful, Hate, Son

  106 Copy quote

• As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, he is trash.

  Harper Lee

  Respect, Black And White, Men

  To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 23 (1960)

  42 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sexual, racial, gender violence and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture.

  Charlotte Bunch

  Racism, Domestic Violence, Against Violence

  55 Copy quote

• The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.

  Joseph Conrad

  Peace, Mean, Racism

  Heart of Darkness ch. 1 (1902)

  38 Copy quote

  Show source

• The conviction that all men are equal by reason of their natural dignity has been generally accepted. Hence racial discrimination can no longer be justified.

  Pope John XXIII

  Men, Racism, Dignity

  19 Copy quote

• I refuse to accept the view . . . that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Kings, Unconditional Love

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.116, Beacon Press

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Kings, Truth

  Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 10 Dec. 1964

  123 Copy quote

  Show source

• To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

  William Faulkner

  Life, Equality, Alaska

  William Faulkner (2011). “Essays, Speeches & Public Letters”, p.101, Modern Library

  161 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have the disgrace of racial discrimination, or we have prejudice against people because of their religion. We have not had the courage to uproot these things, although we know they are wrong.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  People, Prejudice, Discrimination

  90 Copy quote

• I hate racial discrimination most intensely and all its manifestations. I have fought all my life; I fight now, and will do so until the end of my days. Even although I now happen to be tried by one, whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest most violently the set-up that surrounds me here. It makes me feel that I am a Black man in a White man's court. This should not be I should feel perfectly at ease and at home with the assurance that I am being tried by a fellow South African, who does not regard me as an inferior, entitled to a special type of justice.

  Nelson Mandela

  Hate, Home, Fighting

  Nelson Mandela (1963*). “We Accuse: The Trial of Nelson Mandela”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• If a white man falls off a chair drunk, it's just a drunk.
  If a Negro does, it's the whole damn Negro race.

  Bill Cosby

  Fall, Men, Race

  7 Copy quote

• I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.

  Jimmy Carter

  Time, Racism, Discrimination

  Jimmy Carter (2016). “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety”, p.101, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• A racially integrated community is a chronological term timed from the entrance of the first black family to the exit of the last white family.

  Saul Alinsky

  Black And White, Racism, Community

  Quoted in Jonathon Green, Morrow's International Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1982)

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• A man with a long history of racial discrimination should never run our government.

  Hillary Clinton

  Running, Men, Long

  Source: abcnews.go.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The unhappy persistence of both the practice and the lingering effects of racial discrimination ...is an unfortunate reality...and the government is not disqualified from acting in response to it.

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Persistence, Reality, Government

  6 Copy quote

• My parents told me in the very beginning as a young child when I raised the question about segregation and racial discrimination, they told me not to get in the way, not to get in trouble, not to make any noise.

  John Lewis

  Children, Parent, Noise

  "Rep. John Lewis Looks Back On The Struggle For Voting Rights". "Fresh Air" with David Bianculli, www.npr.org. November 18, 2016.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• And affirmative action is a very nice term for racial discrimination against better-qualified white people in jobs, employment, promotions and scholarships, and college admittance.

  David Duke

  Jobs, Nice, College

  "David Duke's View Of An Obama Presidency". Interview with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. October 31, 2008.

  65 Copy quote

  Show source

• John Lennon imagined a world filled with peace and love. Martin Luther King dreamt of a world free from racial discrimination and oppression. The guy who invented the Frisbee, dreamt of a world where people would throw a fat, circular object at each other in order to pass the time. He succeeded.

  Jon Lajoie

  Kings, Order, People

  58 Copy quote

• Racial discrimination is illegal. It's illegal in the United States. It's illegal in Arizona. It has been and it will continue to be.

  Jan Brewer

  United States, Arizona, Discrimination

  Interview with John King, www.realclearpolitics.com. July 27, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The NYPD with the unconditional support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg has stopped-and-frisked more black men than there are black men in New York City. Institutionalized racial discrimination in the United States is alive and well.

  Chris Hayes

  New York, Men, Cities

  7 Copy quote