“Climate makes the difference in appearance, not in character.”
“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn t matter which color does the hating. It s just plain wrong.”
“Our true nationality is mankind.”
“Motherfuckers will read a book that’s one third Elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they [white people] think we’re taking over.”
“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them”
“Race doesn t really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don t have that choice.”
“Some negroes lie, some are immoral, some negro men are not be trusted around women - black and white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.”
“You can t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree.”
“Dr. King s policy was that nonviolence would achieve the gains for black people in the United States. His major assumption was that if you are nonviolent, if you suffer, your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That s very good. He only made one fallacious assumption: In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.”
“The one thing that the racist can never manage is anything like discrimination: he is indiscriminate by definition.”
“I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.”
“What age is a black boy when he learns he s scary?”
“We ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don t fight racism with racism. We re gonna fight racism with solidarity.”
“When I m born I m black, when I grow up I m black, when I m in the sun I m black, when I m sick I m black, when I die I m black, and you... when you re born you re pink, when you grow up you re white, when you re cold you re blue, when you re sick you re blue, when you die you re green and you dare call me colored”
“never trust anyone who says they do not see color. this means to them, you are invisible.”
“...racist thought and action says far more about the person they come from than the person they are directed at.”
“The white man s happiness cannot be purchased by the black man s misery.”