Peonage, Anti-Lynch Bill, poll tax, these are our issues. They are the most controversial issues in American life, and some of us will have to die for them! Yes, we want to join with the CIO! We cannot stop for controversy!” And there in the faces of my people I saw strength. There with the...

Racism is ugly. Racism is bad

Andy once clipped a magazine article about how black dogs are always the last to be adopted at shelters and, therefore, more likely to be put down. Which is totally Dog Racism, if you ask me.

A stereotype is not a stereotype if it’s true.

If all men are made in God’s reflection, then why do some people continue to acknowledge only what is in their part of the mirror? If every man was created equal and in the image of God, then how can any man claim that one race is better than another?

Ask yourself this question: Of this had been a white child found dead in a black neighborhood, would they be knocking on every door? ‘Yes, sir.’ Searching high and low? ‘Yes, indeed.’ It this had been a white child, would they paint him as a sinner and not a saint? ‘Lord, no…

I believe in the freedom of expression, for to speak up against any form of oppression is Justice.But I cannot speak the same way for all when motives are to be measured.We must also accept that since we value the freedom of expression, we need to protect the right not to be exposed to the...

When we think of racism we think of Governor Wallace of Alabama blocking the schoolhouse door; we think of water hoses, lynchings, racial epithets, and “whites only” signs. These images make it easy to forget that many wonderful, goodhearted white people who were generous to others, respectful of their neighbors, and even kind to their...

Racism doesn’t have to fit our stereotypes for what it is in order for it to hurt – but it also means that tools for dismantling the system don’t have it fit our stereotype either.

The act of claiming an identity can be transformational. It can provide healing and empowerment. It can weld solidarity within a community. And, perhaps most importantly, it can diminish power from an oppressor, a dominant group.

…being Latino means being from everywhere, and that is exactly what America is supposed to be about.

To give preference to the life of a being simply because that being is a member of our species would put us in the same position as racists who give preference to those who are members of their race.

We all inherit damage from the past. We spread it like a virus and don’t generally think about it.

It is not, I think, a question of when and how the white people will “free” the black and the red people. It is a condescension to believe that we have the power to do that. Until we have recognized in them the full strength and grace of their distinctive humanity we will be able...

It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as [inherently] exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings,...

I’ve certainly experienced racism, but it has not made a great impact on me. I have always thought, as I got older and older, I was more in charge of who I was. What someone thought about me or said about me made less of an impression on me at very vulnerable times.

What used to be edgy (divorces) has become mainstream and what used to be mainstream (racism and sexism) has become shocking.

What do you want with these special Jewish pains? I feel as close to the wretched victims of the rubber plantations in Putamayo and the blacks of Africa with whose bodies the Europeans play ball… I have no special corner in my heart for the ghetto: I am at home in the entire world, where...

Mark, trying his best to distance himself from the cruel and pathetic 21st century, hadn’t listened to the news reports, not even when the dark green jeeps and helicopters showed up in town, men dressed in identical uniforms, just like in school, always standing with stony faces, setting up shelters and warning signals and food...

If anyone makes you feel less than you are, for the color of you skin, for where you come from, for the gender of the person you love, for the religion you have faith in, stand up, speak up, roar. No silence till we are equal.

…I am about eight years old when I first become aware of being other–foreign, outside, separate. Because this lesson comes from my own family, it resonates deeper and truer than playground taunts ever have.

It comforts everybody to think of all Negroes as dirt poor, and to regard those who were not, who earned good money and kept it, as some kind of shameful miracle. White people liked that idea because Negroes with money and sense made them nervous. Colored people liked it because, in those days, they trusted...

We’re never more criticized than when we impose sanctions for racism.

Hating skin color is contempt for God’s divine creative imagination. Honoring it is appreciation for conscious, beautiful-love-inspired diversity.

A picture in a book, a lynching. The bland faces of men who watcha Christ go up in flames, smiling,as if he were a hookedfish, a felled antelope, some wild thing tied to boards and burned.His charred bodygives off light–a haloburns out of him. His face is scorched featureless; the hair matted to the scalp...

As I squatted on the grass at the edge of the woods, the pee felt hot between my legs. I watched in puddle in the dirt, the smell of it rising into the night. There was no difference between my piss and June’s. That’s what i thought when I looked at the dark circle on...

English does not distinguish between arrogant-up (irreverence toward the temporarily powerful) and arrogant-down (directed at the small guy).

A ‘black’ man who draws a ‘black’ person with big lips is called observant. A ‘white’ man who does the same is called a racist.

A black person grows up in this country – and in many places – knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone.

I would be guilty only if I were innocent of working to destroy racism in my country.

Everybody granted that if “Tom” were white and free it would be unquestionably right to punish him–it would be no loss to anybody; but to shut up a valuable slave for life–that was quite another matter. As soon as the Governor understood the case, he pardoned Tom at once, and the creditors sold him down...

The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power.The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste...

The overwhelming tendency of markets is to bring people together, break down prejudices, persuade people of the need to cooperate regardless of class, race, religion, sex/gender, and physical ability. The same is obviously and especially true of sexual orientation. It is the market that rewards people who put aside their biases and seek gains through...

Cela pose un problème que…?””Que tu ne sois pas juif? Pas le moins du tout, dit maman en riant. Ni mon mari ni moi n’accordons d’importance à la différence de l’autre. Bien au contraire, nous avons toujours pensé que’elle était passionnante et source de multiples bonheurs. Le plus important, quand on veut vivre à deux...

When I’m born I’m black, when I grow up I’m black, when I’m in the sun I’m black, when I’m sick I’m black, when I die I’m black, and you… when you’re born you’re pink, when you grow up you’re white, when you’re cold you’re blue, when you’re sick you’re blue, when you die you’re...

Racism and violence were non-existent in this world, When people were aware to fight for identity’- Terzanelle for Octavia Estelle Butler, Poem by Marieta Maglas

Calling out the supposed ‘abuse’ of welfare by blacks and other people of color is a time-honored tactic for distracting the general public from actual national issue. It also taps into latent, subconscious racism, which is what right-wing politicians would call a ‘win-win.

In the white newspapers, they use it against us. They make the Panthers look like we all just want to rip the throats out of some white folks for no good reason. We have good reasons, but we still don’t want to do that.

Eventually, some black thinkers believe, this “separation” may be the shortest route to an authentic communication at some future date when blacks and whites can enter into encounters in which they truly speak as equals and in which the white man will no longer load every phrase with unconscious suggestions that he has something to...

We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface hidden tension that is already alive

We did not hesitate to call our movement an army. But it was a special army, with no supplies but its sincerity, no uniform but its determination, no arsenal except its faith, no currency but its conscience.

Concerning non-violence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.

…The straitjackets of race prejudice and discrimination do not wear only southern labels. The subtle, psychological technique of the North has approached in its ugliness and victimization of the Negro the outright terror and open brutality of the South.

The words ‘bad timing’ came to be ghosts haunting our every move in Birmingham. Yet people who used this argument were ignorant of the background of our planning…they did not realize that it was ridiculous to speak of timing when the clock of history showed that the Negro had already suffered one hundred years of...

I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.

Say a white boy takes a wrong turn and comes to my hood,” he once said. “Now he’s in the minority––nobody wants him there, unless it’s to rob his ass––and more than anything he has to think about how to protect himself, how to get out. There’s no weaker situation to be in than that,...

While stationed in Fort Jackson, I experienced racial prejudice for the first time and came to the understanding that humans are not born with prejudice, but learn prejudice. Back home in South Dakota, I only knew one black American. The Scandinavians in my community treated him just like any other Swede; my family considered him...

The demand to be intimate or honest with a public can be invasive when the experiences of racial others are commodified as stories or objects that might be traded as evidence of intimacy, as proof of ‘being good,’ for nonracial others. In this way, intimacy might act as surveillance, through which some people–women of color,...

Crooks stood up from his bunk and faced her. “I had enough,” he said coldly. “You got no rights comin’ in a colored man’s room. You got no rights messing around in here at all. Now you jus’ get out, an’ get out quick. If you don’t, I’m gonna ast the boss not to ever...

Autumn teaches us a valuable lesson. During summer, all the green trees are beautiful. But there is no time of the year when the trees are more beautiful than when they are different colors. Diversity adds beauty to our world.