Quotes about racism

"Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make."

Benedict, Ruth on racism   

"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line -- the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. It was a phase of this problem that caused the Civil War."

Bois, W. E. B. Du on racism   

"Racism? But isn't it only a form of misanthropy?"

Brodsky, Joseph on racism   

"I wasn't always black... There was this freckle, and it got bigger and bigger."

Cosby, Bill on racism
3 fans of this quote   

"If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew."

Einstein, Albert on racism
4 fans of this quote   

"What I did not yet know so intensely was the hatred of the white American for the black, a hatred so deep that I wonder if every white man in this country, when he plants a tree, doesn't see Negroes hanging from its branches."

Genet, Jean on racism   

"As the global expansion of Indian and Chinese restaurants suggests, xenophobia is directed against foreign people, not foreign cultural imports."

Hobsbawm, E. J. on racism   

"Racism as a form of skin worship, and as a sickness and a pathological anxiety for America, is so great, until the poor whites -- rather than fighting for jobs or education -- fight to remain pink and fight to remain white. And therefore they cannot see an alliance with people that they feel to be inherently inferior."

Jackson, Jesse on racism   

"I realize that I'm black, but I like to be viewed as a person, and this is everybody's wish."

Jordan, Michael on racism   

"As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it -- whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash."

Lee, Harper on racism   

"Racism is when you have laws set up, systematically put in a way to keep people from advancing, to stop the advancement of a people. Black people have never had the power to enforce racism, and so this is something that white America is going to have to work out themselves. If they decide they want to stop it, curtail it, or to do the right thing... then it will be done, but not until then."

Lee, Spike on racism   

"And so this is Xmas for black and for white, for yellow and red, let's stop all the fight."

Lennon, John on racism   

"Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war and until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes. And until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, there is war. And until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained... now everywhere is war."

Selassie, Haile on racism   

"A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It's not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for."

Marshall, Thurgood on racism   

"Anti-Semitism is a horrible disease from which nobody is immune, and it has a kind of evil fascination that makes an enlightened person draw near the source of infection, supposedly in a scientific spirit, but really to sniff the vapors and dally with the possibility."

Mccarthy, Mary on racism   

"The worst mistake I made was that stupid, suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism."

Pound, Ezra on racism   

"I do not think white America is committed to granting equality to the American Negro... this is a passionately racist country; it will continue to be so in the foreseeable future."

Sontag, Susan on racism   

"I am obliged to confess that I do not regard the abolition of slavery as a means of warding off the struggle of the two races in the Southern states. The Negroes may long remain slaves without complaining; but if they are once raised to the level of freemen, they will soon revolt at being deprived of almost all their civil rights; and as they cannot become the equals of the whites, they will speedily show themselves as enemies."

Tocqueville, Alexis De on racism   

"I am fifty-two years of age. I am a bishop in the Anglican Church, and a few people might be constrained to say that I was reasonably responsible. In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute -- a white skin."

Tutu, Bishop Desmond on racism   

"Our true nationality is mankind."

Wells, H.G. on racism
5 fans of this quote   

"No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them."

Wiesel, Elie on racism
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"Race is a lazy mind's tool for identifying culture."

Parslow, Eric on racism   

"No matter who you are, where your from, or what you are, to pretend to be okay with racism, makes you, a racist as well."

Potts, Jesse on racism