James Cromwell Quotes

I was born on an island with 96 percent of the people black. But all the power and the economy was in the hands of white people who only formed four per cent.

Even though we are a nation that's becoming a minority country, we still have this view where everything is seen through the prism of the dominant culture, which really means white.

We have defeated Jim Crow, but now we have to deal with his son, James Crow Jr., esquire.

The only reality is our society, and I mean this seriously, Western Society is a very sick society.

Blacks have traditionally had to operate in a situation where whites have set themselves up as the custodians of the black experience.

Resolved, that the Government of the United States, the nation with its institutions, of right belong to the white men who now possess them.

Policing was developed, created, and implemented for the elite, and - in the case of the United States - the elites were and almost entirely remain white, upper middle class, cisgender straight men.

Let's demonstrate, illustrate, the ways in which our communities are being undermined time and time again, and make sure that the broader public and those in power choose to stand with us.

The scars of racism still remain deeply imbedded in America.

The fact that policies often fail for no good reason is annoying but less depressing than the view that it is a big conspiracy against the poor… Name your favorite enemy… capitalism, corruption … Our view is easier. You think hard about the problems and you can solve them.

I learned a lot about evasiveness, and how racists could use a system to forestall equality. I also learned a lot riding those dusty roads and walking into those sullen hostile courts in Jackson, Mississippi. It just seems that unless something's pushed, unless you litigate, nothing happens.

I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.

We have a history in South Africa of an entrenched white monopoly capital.

We have a lot of people that are oppressed. We have a lot of people that aren't treated equally, aren't given equal opportunities. Police brutality is a huge thing that needs to be addressed. There are a lot of issues that need to be talked about, need to be brought to life, and we need to fix those.

It saddens me that African Americans - when they express their pain, when they protest about police violence, when they question inequality, when they raise issues of bondage and discrimination - African Americans are seen as not patriotic.

We're not a racist organization, because we understand that racism is an excuse used for capitalism, and we know that racism is just - it's a byproduct of capitalism.

I'm not familiar particularly with Hillary Clinton's neighborhood, but I wish people were a little bit more curious about what we call privilege and about why it's there. Black people in this country have no choice but to be curious. We have to know. I wish folks would do a little bit more investigation.

I have been obsequious toward Western civilization, exaggerating its merits and, at the same time, exaggerating my own merits.

I have never been what you would call just an integrationist. I know I've been called that... Integrating that bus wouldn't mean more equality. Even when there was segregation, there was plenty of integration in the South, but it was for the benefit and convenience of the white person, not us.

The great white advantage has been living inside history, adapting to its constant demands, nurturing the values and the habits of life that allow one to keep pace. This is the cultural capital that whites too often take for granted and rarely think of insisting on in the former victims of exclusion.

I believe if I was white I would've been England captain for more than 10 years.

The same way I'm not afraid of calling out systemic discrimination, I'm also not afraid of calling out inequality and the fact that inequality is growing in society and that affects everybody, regardless of race.

When the things in front of you in life reveal how messed up the system is, you lose faith in the system pretty quickly. You develop a contrarian attitude. Your instinct is to disagree with the status quo and then, if you can, to try and shake it up.

As long as you are in that white privilege bubble, you don't need to see the world differently. You don't need to see the world through the eyes of minorities or women.

One of the founding tenets of racism: a society that will never allow white people to think that because they are white, they won't succeed.