Quotes about racism
page 4

“Eugenics, of course, topples easily into racism. Engels himself wrote of the "racial trash".”

Daniel Hannan (1971) British politician

the groups who would necessarily be supplanted as scientific socialism came into its own. Season this outlook with a sprinkling of anti-capitalism and you often got Leftist anti-Semitism.
2010s, Nazism (2014)

“I deplore racism and all the cruelty and strife it breeds. I am convinced the only long-term solution to every brand of ethnic animus is the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Christ alone are the barriers and dividing walls between people groups broken down, the enmity abolished, and differing cultures and ethnic groups bound together in one new people... It is a startling irony that believers from different ethnic groups, now one in Christ, have chosen to divide over ethnicity. They have a true spiritual unity in Christ, which they seem to disdain in favor of fleshly factions.”

John F. MacArthur (1939) American pastor and author

"Social Injustice and the Gospel" https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B180813/social-injustice-and-the-gospel (13 August 2018), Grace to You 2010s

People, Christ

“We've got to eradicate anti-Semitism, anti-Jewish racism in all its forms [and] for us to address that now, I think he needs to take a personal lead on examining those cases and if necessary, recommend it to our NEC (National Executive Committee) what needs to be done.”

Tom Watson (Labour politician) (1967) British politician

Jeremy Corbyn must take 'personal lead' on anti-Semitism - Watson https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47348617 BBC News (24 February 2019) 2019

Thinking, Personality

“A question for those who mix racism and freedom with the veil debate: who is the racist? he who defends the values of equality, of modernity, as well as the values of the French revolution or the one that advocates a return to medieval values and a dark period in which no equality existed?”

Waleed Al-Husseini (1989) Palestinian essayist and writer

The Islamic veil

Question, Freedom

“"In Nigeria I'm not black…We don't do race in Nigeria. We do ethnicity a lot, but not race. My friends here don't really get it. Some of them sound like white Southerners from 1940. They say, 'Why are black people complaining about race? Racism doesn't exist!'”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) Nigerian writer

It's just not a part of their existence." On how views of race differ in Nigeria than the United States in “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘I Wanted To Claim My Own Name’” https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-novelist-ted-speaker-interview in Vogue (2015 Nov 3)

People

“Racial history lays so heavily on black people – slavery, migration, racism. But I don’t want my characters to be hidden by that…”

Diana Evans (1971) British novelist

Source: On addressing racism in her writings in “Diana Evans: 'There's a ruthlessness in me towards writing'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/19/diana-evans-interview-ordinary-people in The Guardian (2018 Mar 19)

People, History

“Coloured communities would like to see coloured representatives. That is not racism, that is how nature works.”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

Source: As quoted in The Sunday Star (29 November 1991), South Africa

Communication, Nature

“Bad ideologies such as racism or sexism persist due to ignorance far more than malice.”

Mark Manson book Everything Is Fucked

Bad luck

“When white terrorists bomb a black church and kill five black children, that is an act of individual racism, widely deplored by most segments of the society. But when in that same city—Birmingham, Alabama—five hundred black babies die each year because of the lack of proper food, shelter and medical facilities, and thousands more are destroyed and maimed physically, emotionally and intellectually because of conditions of poverty and discrimination in the black community, that is a function of institutional racism.”

Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998) American activist

Black Power: The Politics of Liberation, 1967, p. 4, co-authored with Charles V. Hamilton

Children, Food, Communication, Baby

“Our problem is not a predetermined clash of irreconcilable genomes. Racism is generated and empowered by a flawed worldview that can be corrected with scientific and historical knowledge.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

Knowledge, Problem

“Racism is an avoidable culture clash masquerading as inescapable biological warfare.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

“The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s Source: As quoted in The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and U.S. Foreign Policy https://books.google.it/books?id=DNId6HxkzQwC&pg=PA247&dq=%22The+evils+of+capitalism+are+as+real+as+the+evils+of+militarism+and+evils+of+racism%22 (1968)

Evil

“Folks, this is a time of testing. We face an attack on our democracy and on truth. A raging virus, growing inequity, the sting of systemic racism, a climate in crisis. America′s role in the world. Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is, we face them all at once. Presenting this nation with one of the gravest responsibilities we′ve had. Now we′re going to be tested.Are we going to step up, all of us? It′s time for boldness, for there is so much to do. And this is certain. I promise you, we will be judged, you and I, by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era. We will rise to the occasion, is the question. Will we master this rare and difficult hour?”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, January, Presidential Inaugural Address (2021)

Truth, World, Way, Democracy

“I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days. I know that the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal, and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart.The battle is perennial, and victory is never assured. Through civil war, the great depression, World War, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifices, and setbacks, our better angels have always prevailed. In each of these moments, enough of us have come together to carry all of us forward, and we can do that now.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, January, Presidential Inaugural Address (2021)

War, World, Fear, Angels

“An all-too-common reaction to something like racism is to hate the act so much you dismiss the person. But in [American History X] you're forced to confront the complexity of the character and his tragedy - and the fact, which people don't want to recognise, that someone like him can come out of a normal middle-class home.”

Edward Norton (1969) american actor

" Edward Norton is up for an Oscar. But who is he? https://web.archive.org/web/20190324033705/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/1999/mar/19/awardsandprizes" (archived), theguardian.com, 19 March 1999.

Hate, People, Home, History

“…it’s just another front in the battle against racism. And that’s what it was, because New Mexico was much more colonial than any other area, but it was all the same damn racism. And so I never felt like I was breaking any life pattern; I was just shifting to another front.…”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

On how she joined the Chicano Movement in “ELIZABETH (BETITA) MARTINEZ” https://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/vof/transcripts/MartinezBetita.pdf (Voices of Feminism Oral History Project; 2006)

Life

“Thinking about racism in terms of just black and white is a further "invisibilization."”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

We have to recognize the commonality of experience of racism among people of color. Sometimes racism is based on skin color or other physical features; it can have added components of culture, language and legal status -- as in the case of people of Mexican descent.… On racism in "Unite and Overcome!" https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-1997/unite-and-overcome in Teaching Tolerance (Spring 1997)

Thinking

“… I had my own personal experiences with prejudice. I was the only child of color in primary school, junior high and high school. I went through all those years feeling like a freak in one all-white school after the other. The family next door wouldn't let their daughter play with me because I was Mexican. I got on a bus once in D.C. with my father, who was very dark, and they told us to go to the back of the bus, where black people had to sit in those years. All this created in me a feeling of empathy and solidarity with people of color and formed the roots of my commitment to fighting for social justice and against racism.”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

On becoming a political activist in "Unite and Overcome!" https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-1997/unite-and-overcome in Teaching Tolerance (Spring 1997)

People, School, Family, Justice

“Race and racism is probably the most studied social, economic and political phenomenon in this country, but it's also the least understood. The reality is that race in the United States operates on a spectrum from black to white. Doesn't mean that people who are in between don't experience racism, but it means that the closer you are to white on that spectrum, the better off you are. And the closer to black that you are on that spectrum the worse off your are.”

Alicia Garza (1981) Co-founder of the Black Lives Matter International movement

An Interview with the Founders of Black Lives Matter, Ted Talks, https://www.ted.com/talks/alicia_garza_patrisse_cullors_and_opal_tometi_an_interview_with_the_founders_of_black_lives_matter?language=en (October 2016)

People, Reality, Study, Country

“Religion will eventually become as offensive and unacceptable as racism.”

Chris O'Dowd (1979) Irish actor and comedian (born 1979)

“Racism is rare in Brazil. I'm fed up with this mania of always pitting blacks against whites, gays against heterosexuals. People say I'm homophobic, racist, fascist, xenophobic, but I won the election. [...] If I was racist, what would I have done on seeing a black fall into the water? I'd have folded my arms.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

In an interview to Luciana Gimenez broadcasted on 7 May 2019. Racism 'rare' in Brazil, says far right Bolsonaro https://www.france24.com/en/20190508-racism-rare-brazil-says-far-right-bolsonaro. France 24 (8 May 2019). 2019

People, Water

“We will not shy away from engaging in the hard work to take on the damaging legacy of slavery and our treatment of Native Americans, or from doing the daily work of addressing systemic racism and violence against Black, Native, Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and other communities of color.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

21 March 2021 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/21/statement-by-president-biden-on-the-international-day-for-the-elimination-of-racial-discrimination/ 2021, March 2021

Color, Communication

“In any society built on institutionalized racism, race-mixing doesn't merely challenge the system as unjust, it reveals the system as unsustainable and incoherent. Race-mixing proves that races can mix - and in a lot of cases, want to mix. Because a mixed person embodies that rebuke to the logic of the system, race-mixing becomes a crime worse than treason.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 21
Born a Crime

Personality

“The fact that no one has come up with a really convincing reason for giving greater moral weight to members of our own species, simply because they are members of our species, strongly suggests that there is no such reason. Like racism and sexism, speciesism is wrong.”

Peter Singer (1946) Australian philosopher

Source: The Point of View of the Universe: Sidgwick and Contemporary Ethics (2017), p. 343

“I've grown up with racism my entire life. I've been bullied, sent to the hospital, beat up, I've been called a Chink and a Gook. Every single racial slur an Asian person can be called, I've been called it.”

Arden Cho (1985) Korean-American actress and singer

As quoted in "‘I’ve Been Called A Chink and a Gook’ – Arden Cho Opens Up About Racism" in Resonate (9 August 2017) https://www.weareresonate.com/2017/08/ive-called-chink-gook-arden-cho-opens-racism/

Life, Personality

“We are finally achieving a mass consciousness. We're seeing a widespread awareness and commitment to anti-racism that we have long needed. People are now alert and active because the pandemic demonstrated how interconnected our lives are.”

Opal Tometi (1984) Nigerian–American writer, strategist and community organizer

Black Lives Matter Was Always Designed to Be a Global Movement, Vice] (7 July 2020)

People

“Despite the important gains of antiracist social movements over the last half century, racism hides from view within institutional structures, and its most reliable refuge is the prison system.”

Angela Davis Are Prisons Obsolete?

Source: Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), Chapter Five

“Charity is system-affirming. It does nothing about the root causes of poverty, criminalization, and racism. It just treats a few of the symptoms selectively. Social justice work is about making it so that no one is poor, homeless, targeted by police, deportable, or exploited.”

Dean Spade (1977) American activist

“Having a Cause” versus Living in a Life Centered in Radical Transformation

Justice

“Racism is the dogma that one ethnic group is condemned by nature to congenital inferiority and another group is destined to congenitial superiority.”

Ruth Benedict (1887–1948) American anthropologist and folklorologist

Race: Science and Politics, 7

Nature

“Critiques of the prison industrial complex undertaken by abolitionist activists and scholars are very much linked to critiques of the global persistence of racism. Antiracist and other social justice movements are incomplete with attention to the politics of imprisonment.”

Angela Davis Are Prisons Obsolete?

Source: Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), Chapter Five

Justice

“It's our *white* responsibility to make sure people who speak out about racism are safe at all times. This means ending structural racism in our societies, authorities and media.”

Carola Rackete (1988) German merchant navy captain

Source: Twitter https://twitter.com/CaroRackete/status/1276803845465636864 (27 June 2020)

People, Time

“I can only say that I salute and welcome the fight against racism and all forms of discrimination. The realisation of a plural and multicultural world must be a priority in this 21st century.”

Marcel Utembi Tapa (1959) Congolese catholic archbishop

Source: DRC's Archbishop Utembi: I salute the fight against racism https://www.vaticannews.va/en/africa/news/2020-06/drc-archbishop-marcel-utembi-i-salute-the-fight-against-racis.html (17 June 2020)

World, Fight

“The world's biggest problem is not sexism, racism, political polarization, war, or income inequality. The key never-ending crisis is that most people can’t or won’t think. Poor thinking skills cut cross all the usual lines to drag down societies like nothing else. Thinking well could alleviate or solve virtually all our problems.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

War, People, World, Problem

“I feel so sad. We begged you to stop amplifying and normalising hatred and racism. But you told us we were 'politically correct' and 'freedom of speech' was more important. The more you gave the far-right a platform, the more powerful they got. We begged you.”

Osman Faruqi pakistan-born Australian political journalist

Source: 14 March 2019 https://twitter.com/oz_f/status/1106419337567428608

Sadness, Feeling, Freedom

“It is time that we acknowledge the legacy of systemic racism in our criminal justice system and work together to eliminate the racial disparities that endure to this day. Doing so serves all Americans.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, May 2022 Source: Executive Order on Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety (May 25, 2022) https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/05/25/executive-order-on-advancing-effective-accountable-policing-and-criminal-justice-practices-to-enhance-public-trust-and-public-safety/

Justice, Time

“Because we are so accustomed to talking about race in terms of black and white, we often fail to recognize and contest expressions of racism that target people of color who are not black.”

Angela Davis Are Prisons Obsolete?

Source: Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), Chapter Two

People, Color

“Time and time again, I have observed that the usual response among white women's groups when the "racism issue" comes up is to deny the difference. I have heard comments like, "Well, we're open to all women; why don't they (women of color) come? You can only do so much..."”

Cherríe Moraga (1952) American writer

But there is seldom any analysis of how the very nature and structure of the group itself may be founded on racist or classist assumptions. More important, so often the women seem to feel no loss, no lack, no absence when women of color are not involved; therefore, there is little desire to change the situation. This has hurt me deeply. I have come to believe that the only reason women of a privileged class will dare to look at how it is that they oppress, is when they've come to know the meaning of their own oppression. And understand that the oppression of others hurts them personally.
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Fourth Edition (2015)

Women, Color, Time

“You know we are all responsible for building peace in the world. Respond to blind violence and inhuman hatred with the extraordinary power of love. Forgive those who offend you. Do not let yourselves be dragged into manifestations of nationalism, racism and intolerance.”

Pedro López Quintana (1953) Catholic archbishop and diplomat of the Holy See

Dialogue and the extraordinary power of love, antidote to violence and hatred: Papal Nuncio visiting conflict torn states in north east India reminds Christians to be builders of peace (7 November 2005) Fides News Agency http://fides.org/en/news/6082-ASIA_INDIA_Dialogue_and_the_extraordinary_power_of_love_antidote_to_violence_and_hatred_Papal_Nuncio_visiting_conflict_torn_states_in_north_east_India_reminds_Christians_to_be_builders_of_peace

Love, World, Peace, Forgiveness

Quotes about racism page 4

Quotes about racism
page 4