After two years at UCLA, I decided to leave. I was convinced that no amount of education would help a black man get a job.
Jackie RobinsonAll these walls that keep us from loving each other as one family or one race – racism, religion, where we grew up, whatever, class, socioeconomic – what makes us be so selfish and prideful, what keeps us from wanting to help the next man, what makes us be so focused on a personal legacy as opposed to the entire legacy of a race.
Kanye WestThere are thousands of ways to take action. For example, plant trees, pick up litter, join an organisation or movement that makes a difference and especially try to influence adults and put pressure on people in power.
Greta ThunbergAnti-Semitism is real in this country.
Kamala HarrisEvery reform movement has a lunatic fringe.
Theodore RooseveltTrump just looks stupid trying to appeal to blacks and Latinos.
Colin PowellOur goal in the ’70s was to end the closed door era. There were so many things that were off limits to women: policing, firefighting, mining, piloting planes.
Ruth Bader GinsburgYup, the whole birther movement was racist.
Colin PowellRap music is the only vital form of music introduced since punk rock.
Kurt CobainEarly on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn’t be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.
Maya AngelouThe white man is destroying the world.
Muhammad AliNo intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters.
Muhammad AliThe best thing about my protest has been to see how more and more people have been coming and getting involved.
Greta ThunbergI don’t think President Trump is a racist.
John KennedyIf segregationists had their way, I would not be a member of the United States Senate today, I would not be a top contender to be president of the United States.
Kamala HarrisCivil disobedience’s main goal typically is to try to arouse and inspire others to join and do something. Well, sometimes that is a good tactic, sometimes not.
Noam ChomskyArtists have a responsibility to speak and to act when governments fail, and if we don’t do that, we really deserve the world we get.
Alice WalkerI think we’re about ready for a new feeling to enter music. I think that will come from the Arabic world.
Brian EnoWhite people just don’t want their slaves to be free. That’s the whole thing.
Muhammad AliWhen I look back at what I had to go through in black baseball, I can only marvel at the many black players who stuck it out for years in the Jim Crow leagues because they had nowhere else to go.
Jackie RobinsonIf you’re going to write about rap music and hip-hop, and you don’t love it, then we don’t need your opinion, and we revoke your opinion.
Nipsey HussleThere are a number of women who have brought about immense change in society.
A. P. J. Abdul KalamA black person grows up in this country – and in many places – knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone.
Maya AngelouThe duty of youth is to challenge corruption.
Kurt CobainEnlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Thomas JeffersonUntil the men of action clear out the talkers we who have social consciences are at the mercy of those who have none.
George Bernard ShawI continue to care for President Obama and for his family. I think that in many ways they are very courageous people, and I honor that, because I know what it means to live as a black person in a racist America.
Alice WalkerWomen will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.
Ruth Bader GinsburgSome say we should not engage in activism. Instead we should leave everything to our politicians and just vote for a change instead. But what do we do when there is no political will? What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?
Greta ThunbergThe realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, you know.
Michelle ObamaRacism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death.
Billy GrahamOne of the problems of organizing in the North, in the rich countries, is that people tend to think – even the activists – that instant gratification is required. You constantly hear: ‚Look I went to a demonstration, and we didn’t stop the war so what’s the use of doing it again?‘
Noam ChomskyThe word ‚racism‘ is like ketchup. It can be put on practically anything – and demanding evidence makes you a ‚racist.‘
Thomas SowellChinese people themselves, they really want change.
Dalai LamaTo like an individual because he’s black is just as insulting as to dislike him because he isn’t white.
E. E. CummingsBlack people comprehend the South. We understand its weight. It has rested on our backs… I knew that my heart would break if ever I put my foot down on that soil, moist, still, with old hurts. I had to face the fear/loathing at its source or it would consume me whole.
Maya AngelouAnyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included.
Karl MarxOur Declaration of Independence was held sacred by all and thought to include all; but now, to aid in making the bondage of the Negro universal and eternal, it is assailed, sneered at, construed, hawked at, and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it.
Abraham LincolnI believe that if you have revolutionary potential, you must make the world a better place and use it.
Lady GagaI love the women’s movement, and I never thought of it as belonging to any particular segment of the population.
Alice WalkerUntil we’re educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.
Bill GatesThe women of my generation and my daughter’s generation, they were very active in moving along the social change that would result in equal citizenship stature for men and women.
Ruth Bader GinsburgWe are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.
Franklin D. RooseveltThe thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.
John LennonThe power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world’s definitions.
James BaldwinThe policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishments hand. They make the racist secure in his racism.
Huey NewtonI ain’t never called nobody no redskin. I’ve never been mad, like, ‚Get out of this restaurant, you redskin.‘
Kevin HartI don’t know which will go first – rock ‚n‘ roll or Christianity.
John LennonI hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family it says they’re looting, if you see a white family it says they’re looking for food.
Kanye WestLet us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.
John RuskinSabotage did not involve loss of life, and it offered the best hope for future race relations. Bitterness would be kept to a minimum and, if the policy bore fruit, democratic government could become a reality.
Nelson MandelaRacism is real in this country.
Kamala HarrisI wish I could say to all those people who consider themselves anarchists or radicals: Please join the nonviolent movement. This is how Gandhi freed India. If Gandhi freed India, we can certainly free the United States from our racism, misogyny, and bigotry.
Dolores HuertaI’m trying to make the world a more open place.
Mark ZuckerbergI detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.
Nelson MandelaThere’s a lack of people in power that are motivated by the idea of helping people.
Kanye WestI don’t mind living in a man’s world as long as I can be a woman in it.
Marilyn MonroePersonally, I just think rap music is the best thing out there, period. If you look at my deck in my car radio, you’re always going to find a hip-hop tape; that’s all I buy, that’s all I live, that’s all I listen to, that’s all I love.
EminemI refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
Martin Luther King, Jr.What I see, what I went through, what a friend of mine may have went through, whatever – I rap about it.
Kevin Gates