In this country "American" means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate. —Toni Morrison More about this quote Tags: power language America dominance Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I learned to believe in freedom, to glow when the word democracy was used, and to practice slavery from morning to night. I learned it the way all of my Southern people learn it: by closing door after door until one's mind and heart and conscience are blocked off from each other and from reality. —Lillian Smith More about this quote Tags: reality freedom democracy conscience slavery Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Contrary to today's stereotypes, racists do not always chew tobacco and drive pickup trucks with gun racks. They wear silk shirts, treat women as possessions, and talk about human rights at cocktail parties far from communities of people of color. The men in pickup trucks are just as likely to be warm and caring as the high-minded liberals are to be racists. —Wilma Mankiller More about this quote Tags: racism caring discrimination racists human rights Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it. —Joseph Conrad More about this quote Tags: war history theft conquest Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
There's a stereotype that black people are lazy. I don't know if that's true, but I know white people went all the way to Africa to get out of doing work. —Lance Crouther More about this quote Tags: work laziness black people stereotypes Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I learned to slip back and forth between my black and white worlds. One of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves. They were more than satisfied; they were relieved — such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn't seem angry all the time. —Barack Obama More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
A minority group has "arrived" only when it has the right to produce some fools and scoundrels without the entire group paying for it. —Carl T. Rowan More about this quote Tags: fools race discrimination Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
If a white man falls off a chair drunk, it's just a drunk. If a Negro does, it's the whole damn Negro race. —Bill Cosby More about this quote Tags: perception race blackness whiteness Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Don't do nothing because you can't do everything. Do something. Anything. —Colleen Patrick-Goudreau More about this quote Tags: action power impotence change Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Tis not the dying for a faith that is so hard . . . 'tis the living up to it that is difficult. —William Makepeace Thackeray More about this quote Tags: difficulty faith Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism, falsehoods. —Abraham Joshua Heschel More about this quote Tags: power meaning change revolution Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Soft is stronger than hard, water stronger than rock, love stronger than violence. —Hermann Hesse More about this quote Tags: love strength violence water softness hardness Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
For every one torturer, there are a thousand people ready to risk their lives to save another. For every soldier who shoots in a neighborhood, there are a thousand compañeros who help and protect each other. —Isabel Allende More about this quote Tags: risk torture daring Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Truth has a power of its own. . . . A poem can inspire a movement. A pamphlet can spark a revolution. Civil disobedience can arouse people and provoke us to think. —Howard Zinn More about this quote Tags: truth power civil disobedience revolution Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
My father . . . used to say, "I need my anger. It obliges me to take action." I think my father was partly right. Anger arises, naturally, to signal disturbing situations that might require action. But actions initiated in anger perpetuate suffering. The most effective actions are those conceived in the wisdom of clarity. —Sylvia Boorstein More about this quote Tags: action wisdom suffering anger clarity Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email