Anti Racist Quotes

“Becoming conscious of racism does not mean you are a racist.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice

“Whether or not any of us become racists is a choice we make. And we are called to choose again and again where we stand on the issue of racism at different moments in our life.”
― bell hooks, Teaching Community

“Whether they are able to enact it as lived practice or not, many white folks active in anti-racist struggle today are able to acknowledge that all whites (as well as everyone else within white supremacist culture) have learned to overvalue “whiteness” even as they simultaneously learn to devalue blackness.”
― bell hooks, Killing Rage: Ending Racism

“The last question "What do humanizing practices look like in and outside of the classroom?" is also essential, because it speaks to those "social justice" educators who leave the school and don't live in anti-racist, anti-sexist, and other anti-oppressive ways in their daily lives. This is why we must not just be non-racist or non-oppressive but also work with passion and diligence to actively disrupt oppression in and outside of the classroom. Simple good intentions aren't enough. The intentions must be deliberately connected to actions.”
― Gholdy Muhammad, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy

“As long as racism exists to ruin the lives of countless people of color, it should be something that upsets us. But it upsets us because it exists, not because we talk about it. And if you are white, and don’t want to feel any of that pain by having these conversations, then you are asking people of color to continue to bear the entire burden of racism alone.”
― Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race

“Intersectionality, and the necessity of considering intersectionality, applies to more than just our social justice efforts. Our government, education system, economic system, and social systems all should consider intersectionality if they have any hope of effectively serving the public.

Intersectionality helps ensure that fewer people are left behind and that our efforts to do better for some do not make things far worse for others. Intersectionality helps us stay true to our values of justice and equality by helping to keep our privilege from getting in our way. Intersectionality makes our systems more effective and more fair.”
― Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race

“When bigots get loud, we gotta make our existence even louder.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets: The Naskar Art of Neuroscience

“Someone described racism to me as the smog we breathe. It is all around us; racism is everywhere. Our lives are polluted by racism and it harms us all. The more we are aware of this smog of racism, the better equipped we can become to combat this toxic way of being.”
― Tiffany Jewell, This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work

“After all, though our yesterdays may be different, we all share the same tomorrow.”
― Gene Luen Yang, Superman Smashes the Klan #1

“You think you are reading an accurate chronicle written at the time, but if we are and what we care about are deemed irrelevant, it won't be in there.”
― Rebecca Hall, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts

“Educating White People (Sonnet 2272)

The average colored person is ten times
smarter, wiser, braver, and stronger,
than most white people, not because
we are genetically superior,

but because, when an entire planet
is rigged in favor of white colonials
over the black, the brown, the latino,
arab, indian, chinese, turk, and what not,
we have to be exceptional to survive.

White people can be mediocre,
and still respected, glorified even,
but rest of us have to be Ramanujans,
Rumis, Naskars, just to be regarded as human.

Most of the world's geniuses are non-whites,
not because it's genetic, but because, like
white people inherit blonde hair and blue eyes,
or daddy's emeralds, we inherit generational
persecution, and any brain forced to endure
persecution as daily chore, becomes a powerhouse
of apparently supernatural mental faculties.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper