Racism Quotes - Page 23

• Blacks are supposed to rejoice whenever our way of life becomes more mainstream. We seldom do. For we see in it a sanctioning that can only be granted by white society. In other words: If you're white, it's all right. If you're black, step back.

  Lena Williams

  White, Black, Way

  Lena Williams (2002). “It's the Little Things: Everyday Interactions that Anger, Annoy, and Divide the Races”, p.184, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• In America, racism exists but racists are all gone. Racists belong to the past. Racists are the thin-lipped mean white people in the movies about the civil rights era. Here's the thing: the manifestation of racism has changed but the language has not. So if you haven't lynched somebody then you can't be called a racist. If you're not a bloodsucking monster, then you can't be called a racist. Somebody has to be able to say that racists are not monsters.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Mean, Past, Rights

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• I would get bullied a lot. You know, it was the '70s and '80s, so it was a lot of racism back then towards Indian people. And it wasn't actual hatred, it was just that blind, 'Let's pick on that guy.' You know, and you've got to figure that I was a very small kid. And I had a big mouth, so I'm sure that didn't help.

  Russell Peters

  Kids, People, Hatred

  "Talk Asia", www.cnn.com. May 17, 2013.

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• Comedy can always be taken the wrong way. If I do a bit that is meant to diffuse racism or sexism, Im not going to avoid it on the chance that a small portion of the audience might take it the wrong way.

  Doug Stanhope

  Taken, Might, Way

  "Doug Stanhope on alcohol, politics and killing comedy Bootleggers's families". Interview with Joel Warner and Peter McGraw, www.wired.com. June 11, 2006.

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• I felt pretty good growing up. I didnt feel a lot of prejudice or racism. But I do remember, if there was going to be a movie or a television show with Asian characters, I would go out of my way to avoid them, because they portrayed all Asians as either ridiculously good or ridiculously bad; you know, the whole Charlie Chan-Fu Manchu thing.

  David Henry Hwang

  Growing Up, Character, Asian

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• Capitalism, racism and inhuman technocracy quietly develop in their own way. The causes of misery are no longer to be found in the inner attitudes of men, but have long been institutionalized.

  Jürgen Moltmann

  Attitude, Men, Long

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• Screaming racism is the last refuge of leftist intellectuals who've completely lost their mojo.

  Neal Boortz

  Mojo, Lasts, Lost

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• When I wrote 'The Giver,' it contained no so-called 'bad words.' It was set, after all, in a mythical, futuristic, and Utopian society. Not only was there no poverty, divorce, racism, sexism, pollution, or violence in the world of 'The Giver'; there was also careful attention paid to language: to its fluency, precision, and power.

  Lois Lowry

  Divorce, Attention, World

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• Many voted in 2008 with the desire to see racism and racists humiliated by having a qualified black man elected president.

  Douglas Wilder

  Men, Black, Desire

  "The 'Bradley effect' and Obama" by L.Douglas Wilder, www.politico.com. May 14, 2012.

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• Whenever someone accuses someone of being a racist - which is rare, you have to admit, considering how much racism there is - there is an incredible outrage. I realized that we live in an environment that it seems to be worse to call someone a racist than to be one.

  Fran Lebowitz

  Racist, Environment, Incredibles

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. June 17, 2011.

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• One of the big mistakes they made in Europe is that the circumstances in which you most frequently read or hear the word "race" or "racism" in Europe applies to Muslims. Which is not a race. It is a religion. You can convert to this. You cannot convert your race. I could become a Muslim. I could not become a Chinese person or a black person. So they constantly use that in Europe.

  Fran Lebowitz

  Mistake, Race, Europe

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. June 17, 2011.

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• When I was a kid growing up in New York, I was pretty unaware of racism. I think when we're young - before we lose our innocence - we're sort of unaware of the more flawed qualities of each other.

  Dave Matthews

  New York, Growing Up, Kids

  Source: www.cnn.com

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• It's so hard for me to even acknowledge America without talking about race. If you look at our society, if you look at the prisons, if you look at the poverty and which side of the line the majority of people are, we have to acknowledge how we divide ourselves up, that there's racism alive in this country. And it's not in the law. It's in our minds. And that's what we have to actively battle.

  Dave Matthews

  Country, Race, Talking

  Source: www.cnn.com

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• Religion has failed us. Christ was not a Christian. Buddha was not a Buddhist. Mohammed was not a Mohammedan. And yet ever since the dawn of history, we have engaged in conflict and war and terrorism and murder and racism and ethnocentrism and bigotry and prejudice in the name of God.

  Deepak Chopra

  Christian, Buddhist, War

  "Deepak Chopra: Spiritual healing during times of crisis". CNN.com chat room, www.cnn.com. September 20, 2001.

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• I'm inspired by people like Nelson Mandela. Can you imagine - you know how racist America was back then - imagine how racism was in South Africa when he had to stand up and say what he had to say. That's bravery beyond comprehension.

  Nas

  America, People, Bravery

  Source: www.cnn.com

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• I've always been raised to love everyone, to accept everyone for their differences, and to just be open. But at a young, a very young age, I realized what racism was all about.

  Nia Long

  Differences, Age, Accepting

  "Nia Long Goes Back to 'Big Momma's House'". "News & Notes" with Ed Gordon, www.npr.org. January 26, 2006.

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• My dream was I was going to be an actor. Racism occurred to me. It dawned on me that I would not be an actor. It occurred to me that I was not white. It occurred to me that being what they call colored, being a Negro, was some kind of a disadvantage.

  Ruby Dee

  Dream, White, Actors

  "Remembering Ruby Dee: 'Think Of Me And Feel Encouraged'". "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. June 13, 2014.

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• I talked a lot early on in my career about intersectionality and how racism and classism and sexism and homophobia and capitalism are all connected with each other, and they're these crazy systems that are feeding on each other and are also damaging. I can't even go into the whole spectrum of it. But I feel like kids today are so much more savvy about that conversation. And I'm so thrilled when I get to meet younger people who are doing that so much better than I did.

  Kathleen Hanna

  Crazy, Kids, Careers

  "Kathleen Hanna And Sini Anderson On SXSW’s THE PUNK SINGER". Interview with Meredith Borders, birthmoviesdeath.com. March 20, 2013.

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• 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.

  Toni Morrison

  Pain, Mean, Self

  "Toni Morrison On Human Bondage And A Post-Racial Age". "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. December 26, 2008.

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• Racism will disappear when it's no longer profitable, and no longer psychologically useful. And when that happens, it'll be gone. But at the moment, people make a lot of money off of it, pro and con.

  Toni Morrison

  People, Gone, Moments

  Source: www.npr.org

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• For most Black people there is still poverty and desperation. The Ghettos still exist, and the proportion of Blacks in prison is still much greater than Whites. Today, there is less overt racism, but the economic injustices create an "institutional racism" which exists even while more Blacks are in high places, such as Condoleeza Rice in Bush's Administration and Obama running for President.

  Howard Zinn

  Running, Ghetto, People

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• Unfortunately, the greater consciousness among Whites about Black equality has not carried over to the new victims of racism - Muslims and Immigrants. There is no racial enlightenment for these groups, which are huge. Millions of Muslims and an equal number of immigrants, who whether legal or illegal, face discrimination both legally from the government and extra-legally from White Americans - and sometimes Black and Hispanic Americans. The Democratic Presidential candidates are avoiding these issues in order to cultivate support among White Americans.

  Howard Zinn

  Government, Order, White

  "Zinn Speaks". Interview with Wajahat Ali, www.counterpunch.org. April 19, 2008.

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• We need to organize ourselves and protest against existing order - against war, against economic and sexual exploitation, against racism, etc. But to organize ourselves in such a way that means correspond to the ends, and to organize ourselves in such a way as to create kind of human relationship that should exist in future society. That would mean to organize ourselves without centralize authority, without charismatic leader, in a way that represents in miniature the ideal of the future egalitarian society.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Mean, Order

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• I was never exposed to a great deal of racism, but the Chicago I grew up in was very, very segregated.

  Don Cornelius

  Chicago, Grew Up, Deals

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• The human rainbow had been mutilated by machismo, racism, militarism and a lot of other isms, who have been terribly killing our greatness, our possible greatness, our possible beauty.

  Eduardo Galeano

  Greatness, Rainbow, Isms

  "Eduardo Galeano on Writing, “Historical Amnesia” in Latin America & His Fight Against Cancer". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, www.democracynow.org. May 8, 2013.

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