Racism Quotes by Toni Morrison

If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out a way to tie…

— Toni Morrison

Race is the least reliable information you can have about someone. It's real information, but it tells you next to nothing.

— Toni Morrison

I wanted to separate color from race. Distinguishing color - light, black, in-between - as the marker for race is really an…

— Toni Morrison

Black people have always been used as a buffer in this country between powers to prevent class war.

— Toni Morrison

In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.

— Toni Morrison

Occasionally, as children, we might figure out how to call somebody a name, and they would figure out how to call us.…

— Toni Morrison

I'm always annoyed about why black people have to bear the brunt of everybody else's contempt. If we are not totally understanding…

— Toni Morrison

“Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed," she said, "and broke my heartstrings too. There is no bad luck…

— Toni Morrison

If you take racism away from certain people - I mean, vitriolic racism as well as the sort of social racist -…

— Toni Morrison

I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion, or insult, as pitiable, from the other person. I never absorbed that. I…

— Toni Morrison

Racism will disappear when it's no longer profitable, and no longer psychologically useful. And when that happens, it'll be gone. But at…

— Toni Morrison

“Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty…A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of…

— Toni Morrison

Unpersecuted, unjailed, unharrassed writers are trouble for the ignorant bully, the sly racist, and the predators feeding off the world's resources.

— Toni Morrison

The race thing is sort of a misnomer. It's just the human race, right? That's it. The rest of it, and racism,…

— Toni Morrison

The function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over…

— Toni Morrison

It's important, therefore, to know who the real enemy is, and to know the function, the very serious function of racism, which…

— Toni Morrison

“Whitepeople believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red…

— Toni Morrison

“After situating herself on a huge flat-sided rock, Baby Suggs bowed her head and prayed silently. The company watched her from the…

— Toni Morrison

“Probably best, he thought. If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out…

— Toni Morrison

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race -- scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a…

— Toni Morrison

Sexist language, racist language, theistic language - all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not, permit new…

— Toni Morrison