quotations about racism
Racism serves as the cutting edge of the most reactionary movements. An ideology that starts by declaring one human being inferior to another is the slope whose end is at Auschwitz.
KEN LIVINGSTONE
commentary, The Guardian, March 4, 2005
What age is a black boy when he learns he's scary?
JONATHAN LETHEM
The Fortress of Solitude
I do not know many Negroes who are eager to be "accepted" by white people, still less to be loved by them; they, the blacks, simply don't wish to be beaten over the head by the whites every instant of our brief passage on this planet.
JAMES BALDWIN
"Letter from a Region of My Mind", The New Yorker, November 17, 1962
Even the most blatant bigots, when made aware of their racism, can change.
CHARLES R. RIDLEY
Overcoming Unintentional Racism in Counseling and Therapy
It is impossible to eliminate racism without first acknowledging all of its perpetrators.
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
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
Racism is a social disease that thrives on willful ignorance.
TIMOTHY MCGETTIGAN & EARL SMITH
A Formula for Eradicating Racism
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
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
Racism is a social-psychological disorder with an appalling mortality rate.
TIMOTHY MCGETTIGAN & EARL SMITH
A Formula for Eradicating Racism
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
Racists always try to make you think they are the majority, but they never are.
TONI MORRISON
interview with Eugene Redmond, Toni Morrison: Conversations
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
The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.
ELDRIDGE CLEAVER
Soul on Ice
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