“[W]e need to acknowledge that violence begets violence. There are no violent people who were not first violated.”
“...Don t tell me ofays don t own the world. That doesn t necessarily mean they are going to keep it forever, I said, competing with the music on the juke box and the noise at the bar. The colonial system is bound to come to an end. When? asked Simple. Before long. The British Empire is on its last legs. The Dutch haven t got much left. But the crackers still have Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, and Washington, D.C., said Simple. I admit that, but when we start voting in greater numbers down South, and using the ballot as we ought to up North, they won t be as strong as they might have been.”
“White apathy lacks aggression, but it is deadly in its passivity.”
“Numerous Tamils have had to embrace pitiful deaths due to the lack of even basic medical aids. From minor girls to women approaching menopause, numerous women were gang-raped, sexually assaulted and abused. The temples of Tamil Hindus and the churches of Tamil Christians were all razed to the ground, with innumerable Tamil priests being burned to death and many Christian priests being brutally tortured before being imprisoned and killed.”
“A post-racial outlook seeks to ignore, or destroy, race; a post-racist outlook seeks to destroy racism. There is more than semantics in the balance. Race may be a fiction, but like all good fiction, say, Moby-Dick or The Color Purple, it may be true even when it is not real. [...] What is not true about race is the alleged biological input that separates one group from another; what is true about race is that culture and identity are invented in space, and build, or erode, over time. What is not true about race is that the intelligence of members of a group is innate and tied exclusively to a group s genetic structure; what is true about race is that different qualities in a group are born when opportunity marries environment. What is not true about race is that the information we gather about groups under the imperatives of stereotype is reliable; what is true about race is that stereotypes are a hazardous way to find out about cultures, and are poor substitutes for direct experience and wise reflection.”
“Life is hard for a colored boy in the manhood stage to learn from white folks. If F.D. does learn it around white folks, he is going to learn it the hard way. That might make him mad, or else sad. If he gets mad, he is going to be bad. If he s sad, he is going to just give up and not get nowheres. No, I will tell F.D. tonight not to go to no white school and be snubbed when he asks a girl for a dance, and barred out of all the hotels where his football team stays. That would hurt that boy to his heart. Facts is, I cares more about F.D. s heart, anyhow, than I do his head.”
“We live in a society where race is one of the biggest indicators of your success in life. There are sizable racial divides in wealth, health, life expectancy, infant mortality, incarceration rates, and so much more. We cannot look at a society where racial inequality is so universal and longstanding and say, This is all the doing of a few individuals with hate in their hearts. It just doesn t make sense.”
“It was like a disease, and these children whom I loved without caring about their skins or their backgrounds, they were tainted with the hateful virus which attacked their vision, distorting everything that was not white or English.”
“Next week is Negro History Week, said Simple. And how much Negro history do you know? Why should I know Negro history? I replied. I am an American. But you are also a black man, said Simple, and you did not come over on the Mayflower—at least, not the same Mayflower as the rest. What rest? I asked. The rest who make up the most, said Simple, then write the history books and leave us out, or else put in the books nothing but prize fighters and ballplayers. Some folks think Negro history begins and ends with Jackie Robinson. Not quite, I said. Not quite is right, said Simple. Before Jackie there was Du Bois and before him there was Booker T. Washington, and before him was Frederick Douglass and before Douglass the original Freedom Walker, Harriet Tubman, who were a lady. Before her was them great Freedom Fighters who started rebellions in the South long before the Civil War. By name they was Gabriel and Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey. When, how, and where did you get all that information at once? I asked. From my wife, Joyce, said Simple. Joyce is a fiend for history. She belongs to the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Also Joyce went to school down South. There colored teachers teach children about our history. It is not like up North where almost no teachers teach children anything about themselves and who they is and where they come from out of our great black past which were Africa in the old days.”
“One of the most important causes of division, war and violence in the world is nationalist sentiment. NATIONALISM is simply another form of EXTREMISM.”
“Citizen Justice (A Sonnet) Boldly comes justice, Not just in color blue. Boldly comes justice, To make this world anew. Boldly comes justice, To defend the fellow innocent. Boldly comes justice, Upright, rational and fervent. Boldly comes justice, Crossing race, religion and gender. Boldly comes justice, To confront humanity s offender. Justice on earth is no legal matter, If one soul is hurt all must rise together.”
“Brown v. Board of Education, 1954: I’m sure you’ve heard of this one. If you live in the South and go to a diverse school, this is why. This was the case that said racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The results: The schools began to mix. What’s really interesting about this case, though, something rarely discussed, is that it’s actually a pretty racist idea. I mean, what it basically suggests is that Black kids need a fair shot, and a fair shot is in White schools. I mean, why weren’t there any White kids integrating into Black schools? The assumption was that Black kids weren’t as intelligent because they weren’t around White kids, as if the mere presence of White kids would make Black kids better. Not. True. A good school is a good school, whether there are White people there or not. Oh, and of course people were pissed about this.”
“Just what is a liberal? asked Simple. Well, as nearly as I can tell, a liberal is a nice man who acts decently toward people, talks democratically, and often is democratic in his personal life, but does not stand up very well in action when some real social issue like Jim Crow comes up.”
“Racism is any prejudice against someone because of their race when those views are reinforced by systems of power.”
“Geen beter middel om het minderwaardigheidsgevoel bij een ras aan te kweken, dan dit geschiedenisonderwijs waarbij uitsluitend de zonen van een ander volk worden genoemd en geprezen. Het heeft lang geduurd voor ik mijzelf geheel van de obsessie bevrijd had, dat een neger altijd en onvoorwaardelijk de mindere zijn moest van iedere blanke.”
“The Anti-Stereotype Sonnet Black is not evil. White is not trash. Brown is not illegal. Muslims don’t crash. Women ain t weak. Jews ain t greedy. Men ain t playboys. Queer ain t sickly. Hijab is not oppression. Hourglass ain t beauty. Faith is not delusion. Atheists don t lack morality. Assumptions only reveal shallowness. Beyond stereotypes lies humaneness.”
“I feels evil myself when I sees a white cop talking smart to a colored woman, like I did the other day. A middle-aged brownskin lady had run through a red light on Lenox Avenue by accident, and this cop were glaring at her as if she had committed some kind of major crime. He was asking her what did she think the streets was for, to use for a speedway--as if twenty miles an hour were speeding. So I says to the cop, Would you talk that way to your mama? He ignored me. And as good luck would have it, he did not know I had put him in the dozens. Bu that time quite a crowd had gathered around. When he saw all them black faces, he lowered his voice, in fact shut up altogether, and just wrote that old lady a ticket, since he did not see any colored cops nearby to call to protect him.”