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Racism Quotes

55 quotes about racism. Every quote shows where it comes from and how far to trust it.

Random quote on Racism

Most quoted on racism:

Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.

Ayn Rand The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

Today, racism is regarded as a crime if practiced by a majority—but as an inalienable right if practiced by a minority.

Ayn Rand The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1971)

Racism has never done this country any good, and it needs to be fought against, not put under new management for different groups.

Thomas Sowell

One of the strategies of racism is to confuse the victims into believing all their victories should be awarded to the oppressor.

Stokely Carmichael Black Power: The Politics of Liberation (1967)

Folks always believe their own racism is the result of divine inspiration, incontestably valid.

Glen Cook Sweet Silver Blues (1987)

Nearly all black and brown skins are beautiful, but a beautiful white skin is rare.

Mark Twain Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World (1899)

Wherever there is arbitrary rule, there must be necessity, on the part of the dominant classes, superiority be assumed. To assume superiority, is to deny the equality of others.

Martin Delany The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (1852)

Racism is a full-blown normative theory in its own right. Writing it off as just “hate” which needs “love” to combat it can be a little bit reductionist; it can stop us from understanding it.

Abigail Thorn

Racism is used by those with wealth and power to divide those with neither, so they won’t see where all the wealth and power have gone.

Robert Reich

Being a racist monster isn’t a mental illness – in fact, you can be one and be a very stable genius.

Samantha Bee

As a people, we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause.

William Tappan Thompson

Anger is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change.

Audre Lorde Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

Racism is a sin, which is a serious offense to God.

Pope John Paul II

No ally is better than one’s own race.

Kim Young-sam

If you're racist you're not that clever. I mean, you couldn't even figure out that we're all the f---ing same.

Cenk Uygur

The victims of racism know best how to fight back against it.

Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin Anarchism and the Black Revolution (1993)

If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago and a racist today.

Thomas Sowell

Among these widely differing families of men, the first that attracts attention, the superior in intelligence, in power, and in enjoyment, is the white, or European, the MAN pre-eminently so called, below him appear the Negro and the Indian.

Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)

I always say that racism is like pneumonia and anti-Semitism is like the common cold—everybody has it.

Grace Paley with The Paris Review (1992)

Racism: The belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance.

Audre Lorde Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

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