--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: A group we can call segregationists has…" description: "\"“A group we can call segregationists has blamed Black people themselves for the racial disparities. A group we can call antiracists has pointed to raci..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a78/ibram-x-kendi-3080_black-people_a-group-we-can-call-segregationists-has_2919525.jpg" --- # A group we can call segregationists has blamed Black… ![“A group we can call segregationists has blamed Black people themselves for the racial disparities. A group we can call antiracists has pointed to racial discrimination. A group we can call assimilationists has tried to argue for both, saying that Black people and racial discrimination were to…” quote by Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a78/ibram-x-kendi-3080_black-people_a-group-we-can-call-segregationists-has_2919525.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a78/ibram-x-kendi-3080_black-people_a-group-we-can-call-segregationists-has_2919525.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a78/ibram-x-kendi-3080_black-people_a-group-we-can-call-segregationists-has_2919525.jpg) > ““A group we can call segregationists has blamed Black people themselves for the racial disparities. A group we can call antiracists has pointed to racial discrimination. A group we can call assimilationists has tried to argue for both, saying that Black people and racial discrimination were to blame for racial disparities.”” [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Different groups assign blame for racial gaps, either to the oppressed or to discrimination, creating conflicting narratives. **In simple terms:** People blame either victims or racism for disparities. Key Takeaway Recognize multiple perspectives on systemic inequality. Themes race inequality blame politics Mood critical thoughtful Type analytical educational When to use this quote - policy debates - education - media analysis - activism Key Concepts structural racism social theory Questions to Reflect On - How can we move beyond blame to solutions? - What role does narrative play in shaping policy? A Different Perspective Simplifies complex causes to binary blame. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Black people](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black-people/) [Blame Racial](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blame-racial-4246972/) [Discrimination Blame](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/discrimination-blame-4246971/) [Group Segregationists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/group-segregationists-4246970/) [Racial discrimination](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/racial-discrimination/) [Racism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/racism/) [Segregationists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/segregationists-553613/) [Segregationists Blamed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/segregationists-blamed-4246969/) ## Related quotes > [“Just like in the old days before Roosevelt, segregationists were given the power to locally administer and racially discriminate the relief coming from these…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/just-like-in-the-old-days-before-roosevelt-segregationists-were-given/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“wrapping their ideas in goodness, segregationists and assimilationists have rarely confessed to their racist public policies and ideas.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/wrapping-their-ideas-in-goodness-segregationists-and-assimilationists/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“Ignorance/hateracist ideasdiscrimination: this causal relationship is largely ahistorical. It has actually been the inverse relationship—racial discrimination led to racist ideas which led to ignorance…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/ignorance-hateracist-ideasdiscrimination-this-causal-relationship-is-2/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“When you truly believe that the racial groups are equal, then you also believe that racial disparities must be the result of racial discrimination.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/when-you-truly-believe-that-the-racial-groups-are-equal-then-you-also/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“This “disorganized family life” in Black neighborhoods was caused by racial discrimination, poverty, cultural pathology, and the introduction of the matriarchal Black family during…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ibram-x-kendi/this-disorganized-family-life-in-black-neighborhoods-was-caused-by/) [Ibram X. Kendi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) > [“A generation or so after slavery ended, segregationists enacted Jim Crow laws that made it impossible for most blacks to vote in the South.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patricia-t-o-conner/a-generation-or-so-after-slavery-ended-segregationists-enacted-jim/) [Patricia T. O'Conner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patricia-t-o-conner/) > [Liberals say this over and over and over again to hide the actual history, which is why I go through the specifics on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ann-coulter/liberals-say-this-over-and-over-and-over-again-to-hide-the-actual/) [Ann Coulter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ann-coulter/) > [“States relied as well upon another mechanism of insidious discrimination to silence blacks and ensure that the rule of a few would shape the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carol-anderson/states-relied-as-well-upon-another-mechanism-of-insidious/) [Carol Anderson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carol-anderson/) > [F.D.R. had to deal with Southern segregationists - and outright racists - who held power in Congress, so he had to yield to that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeff-greenfield/f-d-r-had-to-deal-with-southern-segregationists-and-outright-racists/) [Jeff Greenfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeff-greenfield/) > [Segregation, as even the segregationists know in their hearts, is morally wrong and sinful. 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Governments should act to establish equitable employment standards and penalise…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tariq-ramadan/it-is-of-the-highest-importance-to-provide-equal-access-to-the-labour/) [Tariq Ramadan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tariq-ramadan/) ## 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/) [Explore all 140 Ibram X. Kendi quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ibram-x-kendi/) ## More Black people quotes > [I wanted to write about voodoo tradition that I feel has been very important to survival of black people here: people of the African…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-wanted-to-write-about-voodoo-tradition-that-i-feel-has-been-very/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [“In any case, white people, who had robbed black people of their liberty and who profited by this theft every hour that they lived,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/in-any-case-white-people-who-had-robbed-black-people-of-their-liberty/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [We have to build our own power. 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