Ruby Dee Quotes

There's no such thing as reverse racism.

Racism exists everywhere. So when people act surprised about racism, I'm the one that's surprised.

It doesn't even feel like racism is real. It just feels like the weirdest ploy, like we're just being had on so many levels. It's even kind of funny when you think about it. A reason not to like someone is 'because you're black.' C'mon, man. How dumb is that?

A lot of people experience racism at different times on different terms.

I feel like racism's more pronounced in America.

I grew up in a predominantly white community - Hinsdale, Illinois - and given that, I feel blessed because I could still count my experiences with blatant racism on two hands. I thought racism was the substitute teacher picking on you because she assumes that you're a delinquent, and she doesn't know you have the highest score in the class.

The only difference between me and those other great Yankees is my skin color.

I don't think many people understand what racism is. The intellectuals use it like toilet paper; it's something they can use. It's not something they live.

Racism is not dead. Definitely, there are these biases.

I was lucky enough to occasionally break out of that racist situation that prevails in the Hollywood film production community. But it was racist then and it will always be that way. It will never be otherwise.

My personal opinion is that you can't be racist towards white people. You can be prejudiced about them, but being prejudiced isn't an illegal act, whereas being racist can be.

It's no surprise that White people say things when they are together about Black people.

In our country, racism is never far below the surface.

As you keep pulling back the layers of how deeply rooted anti-blackness and white supremacy are in this country, it is exhausting, and it is traumatizing.

I had a casting director tell me to be blacker.

The biggest thing is we need to stop acting like racism don't exist.

Some things you never really fully understand unless you are actually black and you experience how it feels when someone treats you differently based on your skin colour.

It's important to understand you can't remove the historical context of racially charged stereotypes or slurs as much as we like to pretend that we can.

As white people in this society, we are socialized from the time that we're born to see ourselves as superior, to see white people and things associated white people as superior. At the same time, I'm encouraged to never admit to that. I'm taught that racism is very bad and immoral.

All racism is wrong, and denying that it exists does not make it go away.

The reality is we have allowed systemic racism to continue through all these years.

We can't throw the worst part of racism into the dustbin of history.

If whiteness were of no particular advantage, then having a fuller color wheel of skin tones would be purely a matter of celebration. But whiteness - just a drop of it - does still carry privilege. You learn that very young in America.

Everyone is so terrified of being labeled a racist.

If you are white, racism is too easily ignored and forgiven, regarded as of burning concern only to the ethnic minorities, and therefore of relatively marginal significance.