“human societies, at least the more advanced cultures, have rarely offered the individual anything but imperialism, racism, and ethnocentrism for dealing with other cultures.”
“A racist is just an ignorant man afraid of people who are different from him.”
“...she was something more- a force, a stable, familiar force like something out of my past which kept me from whirling off into some unknown which I dared not face. It was a most painful position for at the same time Mary reminded me constantly that something was expected of me, some act of leadership, some newsworthy achievement;...”
“You can not fight RACISM when the MIND is weak. You can t fight INJUSTICE or CORRUPTION when you re not a true follower of your soul. You can t fight OPPRESSION when you THINK and ACT like the oppressor. You can t become a CHANGE when you keep on accepting the same old results.You can t become a valuable source in society when you devalued your brothers and sisters from distant lands. It is impossible to change America when you see foul practices at institutions and don t speak up because it is not affecting you. What affect others should affect you mentally and physically, be part of the HUMAN RACE. Be your brother s/sister s keeper no matter what religion or race he or she is. Be the change that you want to see in America.”
“I’m saying that sometimes we don’t want to see the ugliness in others because it means seeing what’s ugly in ourselves.”
“I carried out my plan because I felt The Chief had some fear of those of my race, of those uncountable forebears whose culmination lies in me. I wished to prove to him that a yellow man could save his armies.”
“I may be a famous writer but when white people clinch to their wallet and stare at me with scorn I need to ask my skin why.”
“I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in a circus sideshow, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination- indeed, everything and anything except me.”
“I mean to ask whether there is any way of avoiding the hostility expressed by the division say, of men into us (Westerners) and they (Orientals). For such divisions are generalities whose use historically and actually has been to press the importance of the distinction between some men and some other men, usually towards not especially admirable ends.”
“I cannot pinpoint a moment when I became politicized, when I knew that I would spend my life in the liberation struggle. To be an African in South Africa means that one is politicized from the moment of one s birth, whether one acknowledges it or not...His life is circumscribed by racist laws and regulations that cripple his growth, dim his potential, and stunt his life...I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments, produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, From henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise.”
“There is oppression that shouldn t exist. There is a struggle for freedom all the time. There are very serious dangers: the species may be heading toward extinction. I can t see how anybody can fail to have an interest in trying to help people become more engaged in thinking about these problems and doing something about them.”
“Human beings are consistent with regard to codes of honor, but endlessly fickle with regard to whom those codes apply. E.N. Wilson”
“You think you re going to impress an American jury with [your] words? In the eyes of the Americans, you re doomed. Just looking at you in an orange suit, chains, and being Muslim and Arabic is enough to convict you.”
“The only color we must be cynical about is never skin color but, the color of character for what character can do, skin color may never be able to do.”
“Jews were expelled to Israel, Protestants were expelled to the USA and where should the Muslims go?”
“When it comes to things such as sugar and rice, most people believe that brown is superior to white. But when it comes to human beings, they believe that the opposite is true.”
“Racism in impenetrable. Staying in America means always fighting. For our own sanity and safety, we must go.”