Quotes about ethnicity
A collection of quotes on the topic of ethnicity, people, nation, nationality.
Quotes about ethnicity
Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) Austrian esotericist
Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path. A Philosophy of Freedom (GA 4), Hudson (1894)/1995.
Andrea Dworkin book Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation
Source: Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation (2000), p. 246.
Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion
Source: The God Delusion (2006)
Context: The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. (p. 31 of the hardcover edition and p. 51 of the paperback edition; see also: Dan Barker, God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction, foreword by Richard Dawkins, 2016)
Aga Khan IV (1936) 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailism
Address by His Highness the Aga Khan at the Leadership and Diversity Conference, Gatineau, Canada (19 May 2004)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Town Hall (April 2014)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2008, A More Perfect Union (March 2008)
Ali Khamenei (1939) Iranian Shiite faqih, Marja' and official independent islamic leader
Message of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei To the Youth in Europe and North America http://english.khamenei.ir//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2001, Khamenei.ir (January 21, 2015) <br class="br">2015
“One culture, one civilization, one language, and one ethnic group.”
Tarō Asō (1940) 92nd Prime Minister of Japan
About Japan, as quoted in "Ghosts of Wartime Japan Haunt Koizumi's Cabinet" http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=f6f50bd7a1687ece711a7ef721bb6fb8 (3 November 2005), by Christopher Reed, New America Media.
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2016, United Nations Address (September 2016)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Address to European Youth (March 2014)
Chandrika Kumaratunga (1945) President of Sri Lanka
Gunasekara, quoted on BBC News, What is the Kumaratunga Legacy? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4452714.stm, November 19, 2005. <br class="br">About
Ratko Mladić (1943) Commander of the Bosnian Serb military
From interview with PTC Б1, 1992
Interviews (1993 – 1995)
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer
Interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=18090&title=kurt-vonnegut/ (13 September 2005) <br class="br">Various interviews
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2016, Upholding the Legacy of Those We Lost on September 11th (September 2016)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Groundbreaking Ceremony (13 November 2006)
2006
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, Remarks to the People of Africa (July 2015)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2016, United Nations Address (September 2016)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Address to European Youth (March 2014)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Address to European Youth (March 2014)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, Remarks to the Kenyan People (July 2015)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, Young African Leaders Initiative Presidential Summit Town Hall speech (August 2015)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Town Hall Speech (November 2014)
Context: There is no example of a country that is successful if its people are divided based on religion or ethnicity. If you look at the Middle East right now and the chaos that’s taking place in a place like Syria, so much of that is based on religious differences. Even though they’re all Muslim, Shia and Sunni are fighting each other. If you look in Northern Ireland, then Catholics and Protestants fought for decades and only now have arrived at peace. So in this globalized world where people of different faiths and cultures and races are going to meet each other inevitably -- because nobody just lives in a village anymore; people are constantly getting information from different places and new ideas and meeting people who are different from them –- it is critical for any country to abide by the basic principle that all people are equal, all people are deserving of respect, all people are equal under the law, all people can participate in the life of their country, all people should be able to express their views without fear of being repressed. And those attitudes start with each of us individually. It’s important that government play a role in making sure that it applies laws fairly, not arbitrarily, not on the basis of preferring one group over another.
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Town Hall Speech (November 2014)
Context: But what I said to the civil society groups is, yes, it is important to protect specific ethnic groups from discrimination. And it is natural in a democracy that ethnic groups organize among themselves to be heard in the halls of power. So in the United States, for example, as its democracy developed, the Irish in big cities, they came together and they built organizations, and they were able to promote the interests of Irish Americans. And African Americans, when they were seeking their freedom, you had organizations like the NAACP that promoted the interests of African Americans. So there's nothing wrong with groups organizing around ethnic identity, or around economic interests, or around regional concerns. That's how a democracy naturally works. You get with people who agree with you or who are like you to make sure that your concerns are heard. But what I said is that it is important for a democracy that people's identities are also a national identity. If you walk down the streets of New York City, you will see people looking more different than this group right here. You'll see blue-eyed, blonde people. You'll see dark-skinned, black people. You'll see Asians. You'll see Muslims. You'll see -- but if you ask any of those people, “What are you?” -- I'm American. Now I may be an African American or an Asian American or an Irish American, but the first thing I'll say is, I'm an American. And if you don't have that sense of national unity, then it's very hard for a country to succeed -- particularly a small country like Myanmar. If people think in terms of ethnic identity before national identity, then I think over time the country will start breaking apart and democracy will not work. So there has to be a sense of common purpose. But that's not an excuse then for majority groups to say, don’t complain, to ethnic minorities -- because the ethnic minorities may have some real complaints. And part of what is important for the majority groups to do -- if, in fact, you have a national identity, that means that you've got to be concerned with a minority also because it reflects badly on your country if somebody from a minority group is not being treated fairly. America could not live up to its potential until it treated its black citizens fairly. That's just a fact, that that was a stain on America when an entire group of people couldn't vote, or didn't have legal protections. Because it made all [[United States Declarations of Independence|the Declarations of Independence and Constitution and rule of law, it made that seem like an illusion. And so when the Civil Rights Movement happened in the United States, that wasn't just a victory for African Americans, that was a victory for America because what it showed was that the whole country was going to be concerned about everybody, not just about some people. And it was a victory for America's national identity that it was treating minorities fairly. And that's I think how every country in ASEAN, including Myanmar, needs to think about these problems. You need to respect people's differences. You need to be attentive to the grievances of minorities that may be discriminated against. But both the majority and the minority, the powerful and the powerless, also have to have a sense of national identity in order to be successful.
Wesley Clark (1944) American general and former Democratic Party presidential candidate
Twenty Year Vision for America (2004)
Context: As with science and technology, there could be a dark side of globalization, in which progress for some means poverty for others, as jobs and opportunities ebb and flow, securities and currencies fluctuate in value, and the tension between private profit and public good persists. But surely these are risks that we can manage in a world with an America more attuned to its larger purpose and responsibilities.
The final frontier is perhaps the most difficult, but it's also the most important — and that's the frontier of the human spirit. For too long, people have allowed differences on the surface — differences of color, ethnicity, and gender — to tear apart the common bonds they share. And the human spirit suffers as a result.
Imagine a world in which we saw beyond the lines that divide us, and celebrated our differences, instead of hiding from them. Imagine a world in which we finally recognized that, fundamentally, we are all the same. And imagine if we allowed that new understanding to build relations between people and between nations.
Our goal for the next twenty years should be to finally recognize that our differences are our greatest strength. That's true not only here in America, but in all parts of the world, where we've allowed historic rifts to poison the well of opportunity. They've arisen from the natural prides and passion of humanity. Only when we recognize that — when we respect the human spirit — will we be a great nation and a great world. These are the steps we must take in the next twenty years, as we reach out for the newest frontiers.
Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008) American political scientist
Source: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), Ch. 1: The New Era in World Politics, § 2 : A Multipolar, Multicivilizational World
Context: In the post-Cold War world, for the first time in history, global politics has become multipolar and multicivilizational. During most of human existence, contacts between civilizations were intermittent or nonexistent. Then, with the beginning of the modern era, about A. D. 1500, global politics assumed two dimensions. For over four hundred years, the nation states of the West — Britain, France, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Germany, the United States, and others — constituted a multipolar international system within Western civilization and interacted, competed, and fought wars with each other. At the same time, Western nations also expanded, conquered, colonized, or decisively influenced every other civilization. During the Cold War global politics became bipolar and the world was divided into three parts. A group of mostly wealthy and democratic societies, led by the United States, was engaged in a pervasive ideological, political, economic, and, at times, military competition with a group of somewhat poorer communist societies associated with and led by the Soviet Union. Much of this conflict occurred in the Third World outside these two camps, composed of countries which often were poor, lacked political stability, were recently independent, and claimed to be nonaligned.
In the late 1980s the communist world collapsed, and the Cold War international system became history. In the post-Cold War world, the most important distinctions among peoples are not ideological, political, or economic. They are cultural. Peoples and nations are attempting to answer the most basic question humans can face: Who are we? And they are answering that question in the traditional way human beings have answered it, by reference to the things that mean most to them. People define themselves in terms of ancestry, religion, language, history, values, customs, and institutions. They identify with cultural groups: tribes, ethnic groups, religious communities, nations, and, at the broadest level, civilizations. People use politics not just to advance their interests but also to define their identity. We know who we are only when we know who we are not and often only when we know whom we are against.
Nation states remain the principal actors in world affairs. Their behavior is shaped as in the past by the pursuit of power and wealth, but it is also shaped by cultural preferences, commonalities, and differences. The most important groupings of states are no longer the three blocs of the Cold War but rather the world’s seven or eight major civilizations. Non-Western societies, particularly in East Asia, are developing their economic wealth and creating the basis for enhanced military power and political influence. As their power and self-confidence increase, non-Western societies increasingly assert their own cultural values and reject those “imposed” on them by the West.
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
As quoted in "Ronald Reagan and Race" https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/ronald-reagan-and-race-richard-nixon-tape/ (August 2019), by Jay Nordlinger, National Review <br class="br">1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Vine Deloria Jr. (1933–2005) American writer
Source: God Is Red (1973), p. 293
“Musicals gave the U.S. an ethnic culture that undoubtedly influenced ballet.”
Rudolf Nureyev (1938–1993) Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer
Source: Gervaso, Roberto. La mosca al naso, Rizzoli Editore (1980)
Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008) American political scientist
Ch. 12 : The West, Civilizations, and Civilization, § 2 : The West In The World, p. 310
Source: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), Ch. 12 : The West, Civilizations, and Civilization, § 2 : The West In The World, p. 308
Context: Normatively the Western universalist belief posits that people throughout the world should embrace Western values, institutions, and culture because they embody the highest, most enlightened, most liberal, most rational, most modern, and most civilized thinking of humankind.
In the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is false; it is immoral; and it is dangerous.
Context: Cultural and civilizational diversity challenges the Western and particularly American belief in the universal relevance of Western culture. This belief is expressed both descriptively and normatively. Descriptively it holds that peoples in all societies want to adopt Western values, institutions, and practices. If they seem not to have that desire and to be committed to their own traditional cultures, they are victims of a “false consciousness” comparable to that which Marxists found among proletarians who supported capitalism. Normatively the Western universalist belief posits that people throughout the world should embrace Western values, institutions, and culture because they embody the highest, most enlightened, most liberal, most rational, most modern, and most civilized thinking of humankind.
In the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is false; it is immoral; and it is dangerous. … The belief that non-Western peoples should adopt Western values, institutions, and culture is immoral because of what would be necessary to bring it about. The almost-universal reach of European power in the late nineteenth century and the global dominance of the United States in the late twentieth century spread much of Western civilization across the world. European globalism, however, is no more. American hegemony is receding if only because it is no longer needed to protect the United States against a Cold War-style Soviet military threat. Culture, as we have argued, follows power. If non-Western societies are once again to be shaped by Western culture, it will happen only as a result of the expansion, deployment, and impact of Western power. Imperialism is the necessary logical consequence of universalism. In addition, as a maturing civilization, the West no longer has the economic or demographic dynamism required to impose its will on other societies and any effort to do so is also contrary to the Western values of self-determination and democracy. As Asian and Muslim civilizations begin more and more to assert the universal relevance of their cultures, Westerners will come to appreciate more and more the connection between universalism and imperialism.
Context: A world in which cultural identities — ethnic, national, religious, civilizational — are central, and cultural affinities and differences shape the alliances, antagonisms, and policies of states has three broad implications for the West generally and for the United States in particular.
First, statesmen can constructively alter reality only if they recognize and understand it. The emerging politics of culture, the rising power of non-Western civilizations, and the increasing cultural assertiveness of these societies have been widely recognized in the non-Western world. European leaders have pointed to the cultural forces drawing people together and driving them apart. American elites, in contrast, have been slow to accept and to come to grips with these emerging realities.
Barney Frank (1940) American politician, former member of the House of Representatives for Massachusetts
Response to questioner at a town-meeting in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, broadcast on CNN (18 August 2009); YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGX-2oTNens.
Joni Madraiwiwi (1957–2016) Fijian politician
Opening address, Fiji Week celebrations, 7 October 2005.
Geoffrey Blainey (1930) Australian historian
"Immigration: Australia's Rag Doll,", The Weekend Australian (June 2-3, 1990)
Warren Farrell book The Myth of Male Power
Source: The Myth of Male Power (1993), Part III: Government as substitute husband, p. 289.
Alfred de Zayas (1947) American United Nations official
United Nations General Assembly - Promotion of a democratic and equitable international order http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/IntOrder/A-68-284_en.pdf. <br class="br">2013
Dinesh D'Souza (1961) Indian-American political commentator, filmmaker, author
Articles, 10 Things to Celebrate: Why I'm an Anti-Anti-American (June 2003)
Anthony D. Smith (1939–2016) British academic
Chosen Peoples (2003)
Melanie Phillips (1951) British journalist
"The Country That Hates Itself" http://www.melaniephillips.com/the-country-that-hates-itself (June 16, 2006)
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Concepts
J. Bradford DeLong (1960) American economist
Making Sense of Friedrich A. von Hayek: Focus/The Honest Broker for the Week of August 9, 2014 http://equitablegrowth.org/making-sense-friedrich-von-hayek-focusthe-honest-broker-week-august-9-2014/ (2014)
Aberjhani (1957) author
(Civilization and Human Nature, p. 4).
Book Sources, The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois (2003)
Raymond Poincaré (1860–1934) 10th President of the French Republic
Welcoming Address http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/parispeaceconf_poincare.htm at the Paris Peace Conference (18 January 1919).
Anthony D. Smith (1939–2016) British academic
As cited by Eric G.E. Zuelow " Anthony D. Smith, Nationalism and the Reconstruction of Nations http://www.nationalismproject.org/what/smith1.htm" on nationalismproject.org. 1999-2007. <br class="br">Gastronomy or Geology? The Role of Nationalism in the Reconstruction of Nations. (1994)
Stephen Harper (1959) 22nd Prime Minister of Canada
1990s, Speech to the Council for National Policy (1997)
Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer
Non-Fiction, Homage to QWERT YUIOP: Selected Journalism 1978-1985 (1986)
Joseph Alois Schumpeter The Theory of Economic Development
The Theory of Economic Development (1934), Ch. 6 : The Business Cycle
Victor Davis Hanson (1953) American military historian, essayist, university professor
2010s, America: One Nation, Indivisible (2015)
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (1933–2011) Nigerian politician and military leader
9 July, 2001, as quoted by Rudolph Okonkwo, My Last Interview With Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu - Rudolf Okonkwo http://saharareporters.com/column/my-last-interview-dim-chukwuemeka-ojukwu-rudolf-okonkwo, Sahara Reporters (26 November, 2011)
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
1920s, Viereck interview (1929)
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893–1972) Indian scientist
Quote, Professor P.C. Mahalanobis and the Development of Population Statistics in lndia
“A man's ethnic identity has more to do with a personal awareness than with geography.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer
"The Armenian and the Armenian".
Inhale and Exhale (1936)
Mark Satin (1946) American political theorist, author, and newsletter publisher
Source: Radical Middle (2004), Chapter 2, "The Caring Person," pp. 17–18.
Epeli Ganilau (1951) Fijian politician
Speech at the launch of the NAP campaign for the 2006 election, Rakiraki, 6 August 2005
Alan Coren (1938–2007) humorist and writer from the United Kingdom
"All You Need To Know About Europe", Germany.
The Sanity Inspector (1974)
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist
Christopher Hitchens vs. George Galloway debate http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2005/09/galloway_vs_hit.html, New York City (2005-09-14): On the 2003 invasion of Iraq <br class="br">2000s, 2005
“(Bartender Harry) What's your ethnic background? (Sylvia) Woman.”
Nicole Hollander (1939) Cartoonist
(p. 215
Sylvia cartoon strip
David Cameron (1966) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
2010s, 2015, Speech on (20 July 2015)
Anthony D. Smith (1939–2016) British academic
Source: Myths and Memories of the Nation (1999), Chapter: Greeks, Armenians and Jews.
John Ashcroft (1942) American politician
Source: Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice (2006), p. 179
W. Cleon Skousen (1913–2006) ex FBI agent, conservative United States author and faith-based political theorist
The 5,000 Year Leap (1981)
Geoffrey Blainey book All for Australia
All for Australia (1984)
Eugene N. Borza (1935) American historian
The Eye Expanded By Frances B. Titchener, Richard F. Moorton
Linda Smith (1958–2006) comedian
Stand-up
Joni Madraiwiwi (1957–2016) Fijian politician
Siwati Memorial Lecture, Honiara, Solomon Islands, 24 September 2004 http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0409/S00253.htm.
Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician
As quoted in "Government and Racism" http://archive.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul381.html (18 April 2007). <br class="br">2000s, 2006-2009
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) American linguist
Introduction
The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962])
Koenraad Elst (1959) orientalist, writer
Hinduism, Environmentalism and the Nazi Bogey -- A preliminary reply to Ms. Meera Nanda, In: Return of the Swastika: Hate and Hysteria versus Hindu Sanity (2007), chapter 3.
2000s, Return of the Swastika (2007)
Raid Jahid Fahmi (1950) Iraqi politician
Interview with Al Jazeera (25 May 2018)
Eugene M. Kulischer (1881–1956) American sociologist
Source: The Displacement Of Population In Europe, 1943, p. 25 as cited in: David L. Sills (1968) International encyclopedia of the social sciences - Volumes 13-14. p. 363
Epeli Ganilau (1951) Fijian politician
Guest speech to the conference of the Fiji Labour Party, Lautoka, 30 July 2005
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) 15th Prime Minister of Canada
As quoted in Prime Ministers (2000) by Rennay Craats
Anthony D. Smith (1939–2016) British academic
Source: Nationalism and Modernism (1998), p. 150.
Gancho Tsenov (1870–1949) Bulgarian historian
quotations for him
Source: prof. dr. Antonio Baldaci, член на Италианската АН, сп. „Светоглас”, юни (June), 1937 г., стр. 6
José Ángel Gutiérrez (1944) American academic
interview with In Search of Aztlán on August 8, 1999 http://www.insearchofaztlan.com/gutierrez.html
Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
First talk as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 3,1995.
Joni Madraiwiwi (1957–2016) Fijian politician
Opening address to the Tourism Forum at the Sheraton Resort, 7 July 2005.
Winston Peters (1945) New Zealand politician
2005 speech on immigration policy, entitled "Securing Our Borders and Protecting Our Identity."
Mark Steyn (1959) Canadian writer
Battered Westerner Syndrome inflicted by myopic Muslim defenders (2002)
Joni Madraiwiwi (1957–2016) Fijian politician
Speech to the Lautoka Rotary Club (Centenary Dinner), 12 March 2005 http://www.fiji.gov.fj/publish/printer_4326.shtml.
John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States
Twitter post https://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain/status/951892337692684291 (12 January 2018) <br class="br">2010s, 2018
Stephen Miller (1985) political advisor for policy
Exchanges with CNN's Jim Acosta https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0izucPBY4k during a briefing on legislation that would seek to curtail legal immigration and create a new points-based green card system (2 August 2017) <br class="br">2010s
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman (1961) British philosopher
Daily Mail, 30th December 2011 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2080445/Oxbridge-Labour-elitist-fails-connect-working-classes-says-Miliband-aide.html#ixzz1icmLbpsx
Alfred Denning, Baron Denning (1899–1999) British judge
Denning judged in the Court of Appeal at the time, and held that Sikhs were not a racial or ethnic group. His ruling was overturned in the House of Lords, notably by Ian Fraser, Baron Fraser of Tullybelton, who outlined seven points by which ethno-religious groups were to be defined.
Judgments
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American evolutionary biologist
"Baseball : Joys and Lamentations", p. 309; originally published in The New York Review of Books (1993-11-04)
Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville (2003)
Epeli Ganilau (1951) Fijian politician
Excerpts from a speech to the Fiji Institute of Accountants, 28 April 2005
Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States
Remarks to the 54th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (September 21, 1999)
1990s
“But that has nothing to do with ethnicity. Who's by the way Swedish and who's an immigrant?”
Mona Sahlin (1957) Swedish politician
Mona Sahlin answers a question about increased crime and immigration in the Ungt val (eng. Young Election/Choice) section of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, March 15, 2002.
Anthony D. Smith (1939–2016) British academic
Source: Myths and Memories of the Nation (1999), Chapter: Greeks, Armenians and Jews.