--- title: "4 Blacks Quotes By Ibram X. Kendi" description: "4 Blacks quotes by Ibram X. Kendi. Plus more from Ibram X. Kendi and more Blacks sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f91/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_one-of-racism-s-harms-is-the-way-it-fall_1879170.jpg" --- > [“One of racism’s harms is the way it falls on the unexceptional Black person who is asked to be extraordinary just to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/one-of-racism-s-harms-is-the-way-it-falls-on-the-unexceptional-black/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f91/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_one-of-racism-s-harms-is-the-way-it-fall_1879170.jpg) > [“The system's acts are covert, just as the racist ideas of the people are implicit. I could not wrap my head around…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/the-system-s-acts-are-covert-just-as-the-racist-ideas-of-the-people/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e46/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_the-system-s-acts-are-covert-just-as-the_2048269.jpg) > [“I thought I had it all figured out. I thought of racism as an inanimate, immortal system, not as a living, recognizable,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/i-thought-i-had-it-all-figured-out-i-thought-of-racism-as-an/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f95/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_i-thought-i-had-it-all-figured-out-i-tho_2783915.jpg) > [“But the statue attracted a middle-aged, brown-haired, overweight White guy. Clearly drunk, he climbed onto the tiny stage and started fondling Buddha…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/but-the-statue-attracted-a-middle-aged-brown-haired-overweight-white/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f9e/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_but-the-statue-attracted-a-middle-aged-b_3207452.jpg) ## Other authors on Blacks - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b004/author-ann-petry-13575.jpg) Ann Petry 9 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/ann-petry/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-angie-thomas-2699.jpg) Angie Thomas 9 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/angie-thomas/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b002/author-jesse-lee-peterson-5122.jpg) Jesse Lee Peterson 8 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/jesse-lee-peterson/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b022/author-shelby-steele-84811.jpg) Shelby Steele 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/shelby-steele/) - [Martin Luther King Jr 7 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/martin-luther-king-jr-2/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b014/author-john-ridley-52179.jpg) John Ridley 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/john-ridley/) - [Clint Smith 6 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/clint-smith/) - [Maya Angelou 5 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/maya-angelou/) ## More by Ibram X. Kendi > [“When men oppress their fellowmen, the oppressor ever finds, in the character of the oppressed, a full justification for his oppression.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/when-men-oppress-their-fellowmen-the-oppressor-ever-finds-in-the/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“assimilationists constantly encourage Black adoption of White cultural traits and/or physical ideals.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/assimilationists-constantly-encourage-black-adoption-of-white/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“Enlightenment ideas gave legitimacy to this long-held racist “partiality,” the connection between lightness and Whiteness and reason, on the one hand, and between darkness…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/enlightenment-ideas-gave-legitimacy-to-this-long-held-racist/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“Hate and ignorance have not driven the history of racist ideas in America. Racist policies have driven the history of racist ideas in America.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/hate-and-ignorance-have-not-driven-the-history-of-racist-ideas-in/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“From the beginning, it has been a three-sided battle, a battle of antiracist ideas being pitted against two kinds of racist ideas at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/from-the-beginning-it-has-been-a-three-sided-battle-a-battle-of/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“newspaper reports of rape constructed white defendants as individual offenders and black defendants as representative of the failings of their racial group,”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/newspaper-reports-of-rape-constructed-white-defendants-as-individual/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“Racist intentions—not policies—became covert after the 1960s.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/racist-intentions-not-policies-became-covert-after-the-1960s/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“Donald Trump’s economic policies are geared toward enriching White male power—but at the expense of most of his White male followers, along with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/donald-trump-s-economic-policies-are-geared-toward-enriching-white/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“individualizing White negativity and generalizing Black negativity.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/individualizing-white-negativity-and-generalizing-black-negativity/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“Racially discriminatory policies have usually sprung from economic, political, and cultural self-interests, self-interests that are constantly changing. Politicians seeking higher office have primarily created…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/racially-discriminatory-policies-have-usually-sprung-from-economic/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“The vicious housing cycle had already begun. Racist policies harmed Black neighborhoods, generating racist ideas that caused people not to want to live next…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/the-vicious-housing-cycle-had-already-begun-racist-policies-harmed/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“For Jefferson, power came before freedom. Indeed, power creates freedom, not the other way around—as the powerless are taught.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/for-jefferson-power-came-before-freedom-indeed-power-creates-freedom/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“To justify Black enslavement, Barbados planters actually “preferred” the polygenesis theory over the curse theory of Ham,”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/to-justify-black-enslavement-barbados-planters-actually-preferred-the/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“With this law in place, White enslavers could now reap financial reward from relations “upon a negro woman.” But they wanted to prevent the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/with-this-law-in-place-white-enslavers-could-now-reap-financial/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“Our education has filled us with strong prejudices against them,” Hopkins professed, “and led us to consider them, not as our brethren, or in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/our-education-has-filled-us-with-strong-prejudices-against-them/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/ibram-x-kendi/#itemlist", "name": "4 Blacks Quotes By Ibram X. Kendi", "numberOfItems": 4, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“One of racism’s harms is the way it falls on the unexceptional Black person who is asked to be extraordinary just to survive—and, even worse, the Black screwup who faces the abyss after one error, while the White screwup is handed second chances and empathy. This shouldn't be surprising: One of the fundamental values of racism to White people is that it makes success attainable for even unexceptional Whites, while success, even moderate success, is usually reserved for extraordinary Black people.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ibram X. Kendi" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/one-of-racism-s-harms-is-the-way-it-falls-on-the-unexceptional-black/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f91/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_one-of-racism-s-harms-is-the-way-it-fall_1879170.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f91/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_one-of-racism-s-harms-is-the-way-it-fall_1879170.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f91/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_one-of-racism-s-harms-is-the-way-it-fall_1879170.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“One of racism’s harms is the way it falls on the unexceptional Black person who is asked to be extraordinary…” — Ibram X. Kendi", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The system's acts are covert, just as the racist ideas of the people are implicit. I could not wrap my head around the system or precisely define it, but I knew the system was there, like the polluted air in our atmosphere, poisoning Black people to the benefit of White people. But what if the atmosphere of racism has been polluting most White people, too?”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ibram X. Kendi" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/the-system-s-acts-are-covert-just-as-the-racist-ideas-of-the-people/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e46/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_the-system-s-acts-are-covert-just-as-the_2048269.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e46/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_the-system-s-acts-are-covert-just-as-the_2048269.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e46/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_the-system-s-acts-are-covert-just-as-the_2048269.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The system's acts are covert, just as the racist ideas of the people are implicit. I could not wrap my head…” — Ibram X. Kendi", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I thought I had it all figured out. I thought of racism as an inanimate, immortal system, not as a living, recognizable, mortal disease of cancer cells that we could identify and treat and kill. I considered the system as essential to the United States and the Constitution. At times, I thought White people covertly operated the system, fixed it to benefit the total White community at the expense of the total Black community. The construct of covert institutional racism opens American eyes to racism and, ironically, closes them, too. Separating the overt individual from the covert institutional veils the specific policy choices that cause racial inequities, policies made by specific people. Covering up the specific policies and policymakers prevents us from identifying and replacing the specific policies and policy makers. We become unconscious to racist policymakers and policies as we lash out angrily at the abstract bogeyman of \"the system.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ibram X. Kendi" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/i-thought-i-had-it-all-figured-out-i-thought-of-racism-as-an/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f95/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_i-thought-i-had-it-all-figured-out-i-tho_2783915.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f95/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_i-thought-i-had-it-all-figured-out-i-tho_2783915.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f95/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_i-thought-i-had-it-all-figured-out-i-tho_2783915.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I thought I had it all figured out. I thought of racism as an inanimate, immortal system, not as a living…” — Ibram X. Kendi", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“But the statue attracted a middle-aged, brown-haired, overweight White guy. Clearly drunk, he climbed onto the tiny stage and started fondling Buddha before his laughing audience of drunk friends at a nearby table. I had learned a long time ago to tune out the antics of drunk White people doing things that could get a Black person arrested. Harmless White fun is Black lawlessness.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ibram X. Kendi" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/but-the-statue-attracted-a-middle-aged-brown-haired-overweight-white/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f9e/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_but-the-statue-attracted-a-middle-aged-b_3207452.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f9e/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_but-the-statue-attracted-a-middle-aged-b_3207452.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f9e/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_but-the-statue-attracted-a-middle-aged-b_3207452.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“But the statue attracted a middle-aged, brown-haired, overweight White guy. Clearly drunk, he climbed onto…” — Ibram X. Kendi", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/ibram-x-kendi/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/ibram-x-kendi/", "name": "Blacks Quotes by Ibram X. Kendi", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/ibram-x-kendi/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f91/ibram-x-kendi-3080_african-americans_one-of-racism-s-harms-is-the-way-it-fall_1879170.jpg" }, "description": "4 Blacks quotes by Ibram X. Kendi. Plus more from Ibram X. Kendi and more Blacks sayings from other authors.", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/ibram-x-kendi/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/ibram-x-kendi/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Topics", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Blacks", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "Ibram X. Kendi", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blacks/ibram-x-kendi/" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```