Racial Identity Quotes

• By dismantling the narrow politics of racial identity and selective self-interest, by going beyond 'black' and 'white,' we may construct new values, new institutions and new visions of an America beyond traditional racial categories and racial oppression.

  Manning Marable

  Black And White, Self, America

  Manning Marable (1995). “Beyond Black and White: Transforming African-American Politics”, p.202, Verso

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• Most whites do not have a racial identity, but they would do well to understand what race means for others. They should also ponder the consequences of being the only group for whom such an identity is forbidden and who are permitted no aspirations as a group.

  Jared Taylor

  Mean, Race, Identity

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• I look white to a lot of people. And I'm not. I'm African-American. I'm mixed. I like to call myself Mulatto because that definition fits. So, you know, I've dealt with the conflict my whole life between how I look and my actual ethnic and racial identity.

  Mat Johnson

  White, People, African American

  "Mat Johnson On 'Loving Day' And Life As A 'Black Boy' Who Looks White". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. June 29, 2015.

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• Hardly any aspect of my life, from where I had lived to my education to my employment history to my friendships, had been free from the taint of racial inequity, from racism, from whiteness. My racial identity had shaped me from the womb forward. I had not been in control of my own narrative. It wasn’t just race that was a social construct. So was I.

  Tim Wise

  Race, Racism, Identity

  Tim Wise (2013). “White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son”, p.8, Soft Skull Press

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• I feel like because black Cuban artists don't have the kind of pressure to thematize race in the way that African-American artists do, there's more space for them to do their art without having to discuss it in terms of racial identity.

  Rachael Price

  Art, Race, Space

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Exposing their own humility and vulnerability is one of the most difficult challenges for white antiracist, even after achieving an autonomous white racial identity.

  Eileen O'Brien

  Humility, White, Justice

  Eileen O'Brien (2001). “Whites Confront Racism: Antiracists and their Paths to Action”, p.109, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

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• I grew up having great awareness of who I was in regards to racial identity and socio-economic status. This caused me great frustration until I was about 19 years old at Tuskegee University. My brother became a Christian along with my father and they shared the Gospel with me on occasion.

  Sho Baraka

  Christian, Brother, Father

  Source: www.christianpost.com

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• What the left ends up missing is that politics have always been at the heart of American culture; it's been a white identity that's been rendered invisible and neutral because it's seen as objective and universal. As a result, we don't pay attention to how whiteness is one among many racial identities, and that identity politics have been here since the get-go.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Heart, White, Identity Politics

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• It is ironic that those who seek to blend and destroy individual racial identities are the biggest enemies of diversity, while simultaneously claiming to support diversity. The end result of that form of diversity is the exact opposite of their stated goal: the destruction of individual identities and ultimately, the destruction of diversity.

  Arthur Kemp

  Opposites, Diversity, Goal

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• Ironically enough, if the case involves race, and one claims that race is a disqualifying factor, nobody could hear the case. Everybody comes to these cases with some preconceptions, and the premise of our judicial system is that judges by training and by ethical codes are obligated to set those prejudices aside and to decide on the facts and the law. And to claim that somebody can't simply because of their racial identity is deeply offensive.

  Deborah Rhode

  Race, Law, Judging

  "What Would Brandeis Do?". Interview with Dahlia Lithwick, www.slate.com. June 16, 2016.

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