Racism Quotes - Page 2

• Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread and deepseated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Country, Justice, Normal

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.147, Take Root Media

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• The United States of America is a nation where people are not united because of those three glaring frailties: racism, injustices and inequities.

  Yuri Kochiyama

  America, People, United States

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• Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists. And the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House  has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin. And that's despicable.

  Colin Powell

  Real, Party, Character

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• There's no great, white bigot; there's just about 200 million little white bigots out there.

  Julianne Malveaux

  White, Littles, Bigots

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• The police can go to downtown Harlem and pick up a kid with a joint in the streets. But they can't go into the elegant apartments and get a stockbroker who's sniffing cocaine.

  Noam Chomsky

  Kids, White Privilege, Police

  "Noam Chomsky: Smoke and Mirrors, or Civil Liberties Under President Obama". Interview with Mike Stivers, www.truth-out.org. April 24, 2013.

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• In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.

  Toni Morrison

  Inspirational, Country, Mean

  The Guardian, January 29, 1992.

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• Peace does not fare well where poverty and deprivation reign

  Frederik Willem de Klerk

  Doe, Reign, Poverty

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• As much as the world has an instinct for evil and is a breeding ground for genocide, holocaust, slavery, racism, war, oppression, and injustice, the world has an even greateer instinct for goodness, rebirth, mercy, beauty, truth, freedom and love.

  Desmond Tutu

  Dance, War, Evil

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• Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

  Maya Angelou

  Life, Travel, Laughter

  Maya Angelou (2011). “Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now”, p.8, Bantam

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• Racism is a system of power and in the absence of power you cannot be considered a racist.

  Sister Souljah

  Racist, Absence

  "We Are At War". Speech at Cheyney State University, www.blackpast.org. 1994.

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• Racism oppresses its victims, but also binds the oppressors, who sear their consciences with more and more lies until they become prisoners of those lies. They cannot face the truth of human equality because it reveals the horror of the injustices they commit.

  Alveda King

  Lying, Faces, Injustice

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• I hate it when, after I let a white person know they've said something racist, I end up having to listen for hours to their life.

  Toi Derricotte

  Hate, White, Racist

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• Racism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it's perhaps far more terrible than it's ever been.

  Angela Davis

  Time, Kind, Clandestine

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• Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no right to assume otherwise. If we do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world.

  James A. Baldwin

  Country, Hands, History

  "Letter from a Region in My Mind" by James Baldwin, www.newyorker.com. November 17, 1962.

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• 

  The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.

  Marcus Garvey

  Greatness, Black, Skins

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• The question of whether one alleges the Superiority or Inferiority of any given race is irrelevant; racism has only one psychological root: the racist's sense of his own Inferiority.

  Ayn Rand

  Race, Roots, Racist

  Ayn Rand (1999). “The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution”, p.149, Penguin

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• We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Hate, Anger, Hatred

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.63

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• As long as you hate, there will be people to hate.

  George Harrison

  Forgiveness, Hate, Long

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• But suppose God is black? What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?

  Robert Kennedy

  Powerful, White, Political

  Robert F. Kennedy, Edwin O. Guthman (1993). “RFK: collected speeches”, Viking Pr

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• Ignorance and prejudice are the handmaidens of propaganda. Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will, and must be defeated.

  Kofi Annan

  Ignorance, Hands, Generosity

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• Concerning non-violence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.

  Malcolm X

  Men, Gun Control, Criminals

  "Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements". Book by George Breitman (p. 22), 1965.

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• Racism, in the first place, is a weapon used by the wealthy to increase the profits they bring in by paying Black workers less for their work.

  Angela Davis

  Black, Firsts, Racist

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• The policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishments hand. They make the racist secure in his racism.

  Huey Newton

  Gun, Hands, Soldier

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• Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.

  Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington

  Ignorance, Men, Prejudice

  Marguerite Countess of Blessington, Marguerite GARDINER (Countess of Blessington.) (1839). “Desultory Thoughts and Reflections”, p.52

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• At the heart of the problem is the fact that the United States is a racially divided nation where extreme racial inequalities continue to persist.

  Robert D Bullard

  Heart, Facts, United States

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