Bruce Hornsby Quotes

The view of how America speaks is reflected in our laws. And one of the laws is fair housing. It very clearly prohibits discrimination in the sale and rental of housing in America. It's been a sad fact of American life that the practice in many communities has been quite the opposite.

Opportunity seems to be color-coded here in America

If there is inequality, and that equates with colour, then I'm going to deal with it.

When the civil rights battle was won, all the Jews and hippies and artists were middle class white people and all the blacks were still poor. Materially, not much changed.

If any man claims the Negro should be content... let him say he would willingly change the color of his skin and go to live in the Negro section of a large city. Then and only then has he a right to such a claim.

Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people.

Social equity is based on justice; politics change on the opinion of the time. The black man's skin will be a mark of social inferiority so long as white men are conceited, ignorant, unjust, and prejudiced. You cannot legislate these qualities out of the white - you must steal them out by teaching, illustration, and example.

People get bent out of shape about the fact that when I was a kid, you could not drink out of certain water fountains. Well, the water was the same.

I want a fair housing bill. We’ve got to end this Goddamn discrimination against Negroes. Until people, whether they’re purple, brown, black, yellow, red, green, or whatever – live together, they’ll never know they have the same hopes for their children, the same fears, troubles, woes, ambitions.

Ours has not been a racially democratic society for 300 years.

We cannot go on, as we have gone on for more than half a century, with one great section of our population … set off from the real contribution to solving national issues because of a division of race lines …

American democracy is a failure. It is a miserable failure. It has failed because it is a limited and racial and divisible democracy …. How can we fight for democracy in Burma, a country we have not seen, when we don't have democracy in Birmingham, a city we have seen.

Freedom in America was not always flat. Racism made it un-flat, so that some people had privileges over other people.

I was born in a ghetto on the North Side of Pittsburgh. I was born as Emmett Till was dying and the civil rights era was being born.

People have said over the years that the reason I did not give up my seat was because I was tired. I did not think of being physically tired. My feet were not hurting. I was tired in a different way. I was tired of seeing so many men treated as boys and not called by their proper names or titles. I was tired of seeing children and women mistreated and disrespected because of the color of their skin. I was tired of Jim Crow laws, of legally enforced racial segregation.

I'll always remember the phrase of my husband: "Racism is never surprising, but it is always disappointing." Anytime I see it or I feel it, that quote comes back. This is something that has to be constantly talked about in order to be changed.

We African Americans have now spent the major part of the 20th Century battling racism.

Marches alone won't bring integration when human respect is disintegratin'

History simmers beneath the surface in more communities than just Ferguson.

You know, I love all kinds of activism. I certainly think blacks deserve to have something whether it is affirmative action or an opportunity that should be opened up to them. But at the same time I believe that people of color are not the only poor people in America and all over the world.

Separate and unequal didn't work 100 years ago. It will not work today.

People start to talk about post-racist, post-feminist. What does that mean? We're clearly not post either. Would you say post-democracy? Clearly we haven't reached true democracy yet.

I've written 18 books, mostly dealing with issues of social justice, ending racism, feminism, and cultural criticism.

No change can come if those who are impacted the most by discrimination are not willing to stand up for themselves.

I believe discrimination still exists in society and we must fight it in every form.