Racism Quotes - Page 34

• It frightens me to realize that, if I had died before the age of fifty, I would have died a 'Negro' fraction.

  Gwendolyn Brooks

  Age, Fifty, Realizing

  Gwendolyn Brooks (2005). “The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.20, Library of America

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• After the Reagan years, there were only three people of color in the Republican Party. Their slogan was 'Republicans - the Other White Meat.' George [H.] Bush tried to dispel the 'whites only' image of his party, often referring to his Mexican-American grandkids as 'the little brown ones over there,' and nominated Clarence Uncle Thomas to the Supreme Court.

  Kate Clinton

  Uncles, Party, Color

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• There is no birthright in the white skin that it shall say that wherever it goes, to any nation, amongst any people, there the people of the country shall give way before it, and those to whom the land belongs shall bow down and become its servants.

  Annie Besant

  Country, White Privilege, Land

  Annie Besant (1913). “Wake Up, India: A Plea for Social Reform”

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• It is utterly exhausting being Black in America - physically, mentally, and emotionally. While many minority groups and women feel similar stress, there is no respite or escape from your badge of color.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Stress, America, Color

  Marian Wright Edelman (2013). “The Measure of our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours”, p.26, Beacon Press

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• There are levels of outrage, and there's a point at which you can't be trespassed upon anymore.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Levels, Discrimination, Oppression

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• I'm more interested in a feminism that ends discrimination for all people. It's not just about a woman becoming the CEO of a company or something. It's connected to racism and classism and gender issues that go beyond the binary.

  Kathleen Hanna

  Issues, People, Feminism

  "Kathleen Hanna on Bikini Kill, growing up, and being a feminist icon". Interview with Marah Eakin, www.avclub.com. November 20, 2012.

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• If I were a supervillain, I would end capitalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia... but I guess that's a little too obvious and not villain-y enough. Because that's actually being a superhero. I would break down poverty with my machete; I would end world hunger.

  Kathleen Hanna

  Superhero, World, Littles

  "Kathleen Hanna on buffalo chicken, Destiny's Child, and the sketchy things she did to McDonald's apple pies". Interview with Marah Eakin, www.avclub.com. February 10, 2015.

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• There's a difference between racism and "I don't know any better. I'm clueless." Racism is like, "I'm trying to make you feel bad." That's racism.

  Chris Rock

  Clueless, Differences, Trying

  "Chris Rock and Julie Delpy on Their Sundance Romance, On-screen Chemistry, and Racism Versus Stupidity". Interview with Jada Yuan, www.vulture.com. January 26, 2012.

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• Malcolm Fraser, in the marrow of his bones, despised racism. He despised people who discriminated against other people because they were different and in particular because of the colour of their skin, and I don't think there has been a time in Australian politics where there has been more attention to the importance of that value.

  George Brandis

  Thinking, People, Skins

  Source: www.abc.net.au

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• We live in a racist world. Everywhere there is racism. We say to White people, "You really have to examine how you behave in the world. You are responsible for deconstructing internalized racism and being part of a ongoing process of decolonizing yourself.

  Eve Ensler

  White, People, Racist

  Interview with Kevin Powell, bknation.org. May 1, 2014.

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• I think there are so many children being brought up in some form of violence, be it violence of poverty or sexism or racism or homophobia or transphobia. That violence takes a life to transform or overcome. I don't think people should be spending their lives dealing with that. I think people should be thriving, playing, creating, evolving.

  Eve Ensler

  Children, Thinking, Creating

  Source: bknation.org

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• The minute you understand racism, you're responsible for being racist. It's like eating from the tree of knowledge.

  Lynda Barry

  Tree, Racist, Eating

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• There was not one cause for our internment, but many - a deep-seated racial prejudice working on top of fear, distrust, and greed. So how is one to say exactly where history begins or ends? It is all slow oscillations, curves, and waves which take so long to reveal themselves ... like watching a tree grow.

  Gretel Ehrlich

  Curves, Long, History

  Gretel Ehrlich (2017). “Heart Mountain: A Novel”, p.38, Open Road Media

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• apartheid still hangs in the air like a poisonous cloud left over from chemical warfare.

  Dervla Murphy

  Clouds, Air, Warfare

  Dervla Murphy (2001). “South From the Limpopo”, p.55, The Overlook Press

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• a white person who claims to have no impediment of vision in this country is not, I think, telling the whole truth. And when it comes to race relations, not telling the whole truth about the fog one inhabits slows down the work of groping forward.

  Naomi Wolf

  Country, Thinking, Race

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• Discrimination is a disease.

  Roger Staubach

  Disease, Discrimination

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• in race relations, the single gesture and the single individual are more often than not doomed to failure. Only the group and the long-term, undeviating policy make much headway. ... if you want to make the world a better place, the first thing you must accept is the fact that you cannot transcend your limitations as an individual.

  Margaret Halsey

  Race, Long, Groups

  Margaret Halsey (1946). “Color blind: a white woman looks at the Negro”

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• One of the less dismaying aspects of race relations in the United States is that their improvement is not a matter of a few people having a great deal of courage. It is a matter of a great many people having just a little courage.

  Margaret Halsey

  Race, People, United States

  Margaret Halsey (1946). “Color blind: a white woman looks at the Negro”

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• The only way not to worry about the race problem is to be doing something about it yourself. When you are, natural human vanity makes you feel that now the thing is in good hands.

  Margaret Halsey

  Vanity, Race, Hands

  Margaret Halsey (1944). “Some of My Best Friends are Soldiers: A Kind of Novel”, New York : Simon and Schuster

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• you have to realize the white-supremacy boys are spoiled children. 'I want my way,' they scream, and like all spoiled children, they advance no justification for it except that it is their way.

  Margaret Halsey

  Children, Boys, White

  Margaret Halsey (1944). “...Some of My Best Friends are Soldiers: A Kind of Novel”

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• Anger is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change.

  Audre Lorde

  Attitude, Anger, Racist

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.129, Crossing Press

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• The colored woman of to-day occupies, one may say, a unique position in this country. In a period of itself transitional and unsettled, her status seems one of the least ascertainable and definitive of all the forces which make for our civilization. She is confronted by both a woman question and a race problem.

  Anna Julia Cooper

  Country, Unique, Race

  Anna Julia Cooper, Charles C. Lemert, Esme Bhan (1998). “The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper: Including A Voice from the South and Other Important Essays, Papers, and Letters”, p.112, Rowman & Littlefield

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• The profound nature of our existence is that we are able at any moment to connect to anyone, anywhere. History is there to remind us of how far weve come, and every day our journey is to continue with that progress of becoming more wise, more compassionate and more considerate human beings. Remembering Emmett though song is way to remind people that there is no need to continue with senseless crimes. Race and racism do no go hand in hand. We are only one race: human.

  Melody Gardot

  Wise, Song, Journey

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• In the last few years, race relations in America have entered upon a period of intensified craziness wherein fear of being called a racist has so thoroughly overwhelmed fear of being a racist that we are in danger of losing sight of the distinction.

  Florence King

  America, Race, Sight

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• I believe racism has killed more people than speed, heroin, or cancer, and will continue to kill until it is no more.

  Alice Childress

  Cancer, Believe, People

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