Today racial injustice has become one of the most prevalent topics talked about in social media and other public forums. Racism is a belief that one particular race is superior to others. For many years this firm belief has occupied the minds and hearts of people. Therefore it has become hard for many to adapt to changing times. In the modern world, many bold personalities have come out to talk about the racial injustice suffered by them so there is more awareness about is affects. Writers and activists such as Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison and more are the people who brought the wrongs of racial injustice to the forefront. That is why they are an inspiration to many people today.
Learn about some of the famous quotes on racial injustice here. Then you will get to know how powerful your voice can be against racial injustice.
Read the quotes and become inspired and motivated to act.
1. Race and racism is a reality that so many of us grow up learning to just deal with. But if we ever hope to move past it, it can’t just be on people of color to deal with it. It’s up to all of us — Black, white, everyone — no matter how well-meaning we think we might be, to do the honest, uncomfortable work of rooting it out.
Michelle Obama
2. The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.
Ijeoma Oluo
3. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Nelson Mandela
4. The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Stephen Bioko
5. “In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”
Angela Y. Davis
6. “White feelings should never be held in higher regard than black lives.”
Rachel Cargle
7. “Equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It’s not pie.”
Unknown
8. “It is white people’s responsibility to be less fragile; people of color don’t need to twist themselves into knots trying to navigate us as painlessly as possible.”
Robin DiAngelo
9. “The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.”
Ijeoma Oluo
10. “I don’t want your love and light if it doesn’t come with solidarity and action. I have no interest in passive empathy.”
Rachel Cargle
11. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
12. “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Desmond Tutu
13. There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race — scientifically, anthropologically.
Toni Morrison
14. Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.
Muhammad Ali
Angela Davis
15. In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist. We must be anti-racist.
16. None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.
Marian Anderson
17. One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.
Franklin Thomas
18. Racism is man’s gravest threat to man — the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.
Abraham Heschel
19. “Something is terribly wrong if the pain, sorrow and outrage of a people makes you more uncomfortable than murder itself.”
Rupi Kaur
20. “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Elie Wiesel
21. “Anti-racism work is not self-improvement work for white people. It doesn’t end when white people feel better about what they’ve done. It ends when Black people are staying alive and they have their liberation.”
Rachel Cargle
22. “Racism has been rampant for hundreds of years, it’s just that in this century people have camera phones to video it. It’s absolutely disgusting that you get mistreated because of the colour of your skin. You would think that those that are there to protect us, would protect.”
Niall Horan
23. “Please keep signing these petitions, making donations, having conversations with family and friends about it, reading and sharing links and resources… Gentle reminder that this doesn’t end today or tomorrow or after you post about it once.”
Ariana Grande
24. “As a mixed race woman I want to say that I too understand my privileges and will constantly strive to do better for the Black community. Those not speaking up or taking action… your silence speaks VOLUMES. You can’t play ignorance, justified by feeling uncomfortable, when Black people have been made to feel uncomfortable their entire lives in a white privileged, systematically racist and unfair society that is more than happy to benefit from Black culture, but isn’t so happy in adhering to the ideals of equality and basic human rights.”
Jade Thirlwall
25. “I love blackness, it is stunning, majestic, inspiring but it is also not here to serve non-black people when it suits them via sports, music, hairstyles, entertainment etc. It should be respected in the workplace and shouldn’t be ignored when it’s crying out in fear of being killed. You really want that utopian ideal of what our world could be? You want to be proudly and ACTIVELY anti-racist, more than fearing being called a racist? I want that for you too. If so, then do the work, educate yourself and others stand by us loudly, consistently, FOREVER.”
Clara Amfo
26. “Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.”
John Lewis
27. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
Barack Obama
28. “We must open the doors and we must see to it they remain open, so that others can pass through.”
Rosemary Brown
29. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Nelson Mandela
30. “No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger than its weakest people, and as long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you might otherwise.”
Marian Anderson
Also read: 6 Signs You are More Successful Than You Think
