347 Quotes About Racism-in-america

I hope that if parts of this book make you uncomfortable, you can sit with that discomfort for awhile to see if it has anything else to offer you.

If origin defines race, then the entire human race is African.

Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice.

If you believe in a cause, be willing to stand up for that cause with a million people or by yourself.

We still tiptoe around having an honest discussion about what it really means to exist while Black in this country. All lives can’t matter if Black lives don’t matter. Demanding equality and equity isn’t radicalism. This is realism. We make these demands because the Constitution isn’t an accurate reflection of Black life in this country. If liberty escapes few, it escapes all.

Colored kids don't get to be innocent. It's like you come out of the womb full grown, the way the world treats you.

Y'all taught me that unacknowledged scars accumulated in battles won often hurt more than battles lost.

The reality is that racial lynchings were a frequent and normal feature of life in the South. This unique method of murder was a devastating form of terrorism that imposed a constant threat to all black people. The white authority structure did not only tolerate or encourage these killings but used the fear of lynchings to control and oppress black people.”--“Why White America Must Learn the History of Lynching”, Skeptical Inquirer (December 2020)

I didn’t invent this twisted system that pits us against each other and makes us do crappy things for status—but I do know how to play it.