quotations about racism
A vision of cultural homogeneity that seeks to deflect attention away from or even excuse the oppressive, dehumanizing impact of white supremacy on the lives of black people by suggesting black people are racist too indicates that the culture remains ignorant of what racism really is and how it works. It shows that people are in denial. Why is it so difficult for many white folks to understand that racism is oppressive not because white folks have prejudicial feelings about blacks (they could have such feelings and leave us alone) but because it is a system that promotes domination and subjugation?
BELL HOOKS
Killing Rage: Ending Racism
What age is a black boy when he learns he's scary?
JONATHAN LETHEM
The Fortress of Solitude
It is impossible to eliminate racism without first acknowledging all of its perpetrators.
CHARLES R. RIDLEY
Overcoming Unintentional Racism in Counseling and Therapy
There aren't too many people ready to die for racism. They'll kill for racism but they won't die for racism.
FLORYNCE R. KENNEDY
attributed, This Little Light of Mine
Racism is a word which describes one of the results--perhaps the principal result--of our estrangement from our beginnings, from the universal source.
JAMES BALDWIN
Just Above My Head
Even the most blatant bigots, when made aware of their racism, can change.
CHARLES R. RIDLEY
Overcoming Unintentional Racism in Counseling and Therapy
I don't like people who like me because I'm a Negro; neither do I like people who find in the same accident grounds for contempt.
JAMES BALDWIN
Autobiographical Notes
Racism is a social disease that thrives on willful ignorance.
TIMOTHY MCGETTIGAN & EARL SMITH
A Formula for Eradicating Racism
The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.
HARPER LEE
To Kill a Mockingbird
Racists always try to make you think they are the majority, but they never are.
TONI MORRISON
interview with Eugene Redmond, Toni Morrison: Conversations
Under the guise of eugenic improvement and racial purity, and what the implementation of eugenic measures could supposedly do to improve human society, notions of racial superiority continued in popularity, but with a purported scientific foundation.
DANIEL J. FAIRBANKS
Everyone is African: How Science Explodes the Myth of Race
Racism is a social-psychological disorder with an appalling mortality rate.
TIMOTHY MCGETTIGAN & EARL SMITH
A Formula for Eradicating Racism
If we are to open employment opportunities in this country for members of all races and creeds, then the Federal Government must set an example ... I am not going to promise a Cabinet post or any other post to any race or ethnic group. That is racism in reverse at its worst. So I do not promise to consider race or religion in my appointments if I am successful. I promise only that I will not consider them.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
speech, October 17, 1960
The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.
ELDRIDGE CLEAVER
Soul on Ice
In all manifestations of racism from the mildest to the most severe, what is being denied is the possibility that the racializers and the racialized can coexist in the same society, except perhaps on the basis of domination and subordination.
GEORGE M. FREDRICKSON
Racism: A Short History
I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion, or insult, as pitiable, from the other person. I never absorbed that. I always thought that there was something deficient -- intellectual, emotional -- about such people.
TONI MORRISON
interview with Zia Jaffrey, Toni Morrison: Conversations
If we are to have that harmony and tranquility, that union of spirit which is the foundation of real national genius and national progress, we must all realize that there are true Americans who did not happen to be born in our section of the country, who do not attend our place of religious worship, who are not of our racial stock, or who are not proficient in our language. If we are to create on this continent a free republic and an enlightened civilization that will be capable of reflecting the true greatness and glory of mankind, it will be necessary to regard these differences as accidental and unessential. We shall have to look beyond the outward manifestations of race and creed. Divine providence has not bestowed upon any race a monopoly of patriotism and character.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
speech at American Legion Convention in Omaha, Nebraska, "Toleration and Liberalism", October 6, 1925
Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike: as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called "diversity" actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist. The true antidote to racism is liberty.
RON PAUL
"Government and Racism", speech in United States House of Representatives, April 16, 2007