"Colorblindness, while nice in theory, has no effect on structural and institutional racism. Racism is a system, and that system benefits certain people at the expense of others. Ignoring it just lets those problems persist."--Franchesca Ramsey
"No one becomes 'not racist,' despite a tendency by Americans to identify themselves that way. We can only strive to be 'antiracist' on a daily basis, to continually rededicate ourselves to the lifelong task of overcoming our country’s racist heritage."--Ibram X. Kendi
"White supremacy is this nation's oldest pyramid scheme. Even those who have lost everything to the scheme are still hanging in there, waiting for their turn to cash out."--Ijeoma Oluo
“Prejudice goes both ways, you know. There are people who suffer from it, and there are people who profit from it.” --Jodi Picoult
"For a few seconds, I remembered that the most abusive parts of our nation obsessively neglect yesterday while peddling in possibility. I remembered that we got here by refusing to honestly remember together. I remember that it was easier to promise than it was to reckon or change."--Kiese Laymon
"Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and everyone of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and for each other."--Laverne Cox
"If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made."--Malcolm X
"Stopping our racist patterns must be more important than working to convince others that we don't have them."--Robin DiAngelo
never
trust anyone
who says
they do not see color.
this means
to them,
you are invisible.
Nayyirah Waheed
Copyright © 2020 by Kenrya Rankin. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.