Racism Quotes

• Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and to destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped out.

  Pierre Berton

  Inspirational, Motivational, Freedom

  79 Copy quote

• I marvel at the many ways we, as black people, bend but do not break.

  Kristin Hunter

  People, Black, Way

  5 Copy quote

• Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking.

  Nina Simone

  Thinking, America, Slavery

  209 Copy quote

• No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

  Nelson Mandela

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  FaceBook post by Nelson Mandela from Nov 04, 2014

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• We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Life, Motivational, Respect

  Speech at St. Louis, 22 Mar. 1964, in St Louis Post-Dispatch 23 Mar. 1964

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  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.

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  If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

  Desmond Tutu

  Bullying, Peace, Elephants

  FaceBook post by Desmond Tutu from Jan 22, 2014

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• It's time we become comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations about race...Instead of being color blind, we need to be color brave.

  Mellody Hobson

  Race, Color, Brave

  99 Copy quote

• 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

• You don't fight racism with racism, the best way to fight racism is with solidarity.

  Bobby Seale

  Fighting, Brotherhood, Racist

  "Black Panther Co-Founder Bobby Seale condemns Boston terrorism in exclusive interview". Interview with Alan Carlos Hernandez, www.heralddeparis.com. April 22, 2013.

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• Racism is America's greatest disease, racism is a disease of the white man.

  Albert Einstein

  Men, White Man, America

  34 Copy quote

• The lessons of the past suggest that racism and resentment against people of color will continue to flourish in America as long as the history that is taught transposes the heroes and the villains. That is the unspoken truth at the heart of the nation's racial divide.

  Susan L. Taylor

  Hero, Heart, Past

  Susan L. Taylor (2010). “Lessons in Living”, p.159, Anchor

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• The biggest thing is we need to stop acting like racism don't exist.

  Lil Rel Howery

  Acting, Needs

  Source: www.ebony.com

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• Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

  Maya Angelou

  Life, Powerful, Past

  67 Copy quote

• Racial oppression of black people in America has done what neither class oppression or sexual oppression, with all their perniciousness, has ever done: destroyed an entire people and their culture.

  Eleanor Holmes Norton

  Class, America, People

  8 Copy quote

• You can call it institutionalized racism or institutionalized inequality, but what I say is that any system that operates to maintain inequality is a corrupt system and must be addressed.

  Robert D Bullard

  Inequality

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.

  Malcolm X

  Respect, Believe, Color

  Malcolm X (1992). “By any means necessary”, Pathfinder Pr

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• Things like racism are institutionalized. You might not know any bigots. You feel like "well I don't hate black people so I'm not a racist," but you benefit from racism. Just by the merit, the color of your skin. The opportunities that you have, you're privileged in ways that you might not even realize because you haven't been deprived of certain things. We need to talk about these things in order for them to change.

  Dave Chappelle

  Hate, Opportunity, Order

  76 Copy quote

• I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.

  James A. Baldwin

  Forgiveness, Encouragement, Pain

  "Me and My House". Harper's Magazine, November 1955.

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• Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.

  Muhammad Ali

  Hate, Inspiration, Greatness

  FaceBook post by Muhammad Ali from Sep 02, 2013

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• Racism is beyond common sense and has no place in our society.

  Steven Morrissey

  Common Sense, Our Society, Common

  "Morrissey to receive apology from NME" by Alexandra Topping, www.theguardian.com. June 12, 2012.

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• Most middle-class whites have no idea what it feels like to be subjected to police who are routinely suspicious, rude, belligerent, and brutal.

  Benjamin Spock

  Class, Ideas, Rude

  "Decent and Indecent: Our Personal and Political Behavior". Book by Benjamin Spock, p. 103, 1970.

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• Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future.

  Audre Lorde

  Women, Responsibility, Gay

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.115, Crossing Press

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• We are still conditioning people in this country and, indeed, all over the globe to the myth of white superiority. We are constantly being told that we don't have racism in this country anymore, but most of the people who are saying that are white. White people think it isn't happening because it isn't happening to them.

  Jane Elliott

  Country, Thinking, White

  174 Copy quote

• We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Racism is not genetical. It has everything to do with power.

  Jane Elliott

  Racist

  101 Copy quote