Hendrik Hertzberg Quotes

White identity politics has permeated our rhetoric.

In my judgment, the slogan "black power" and what has been associated with it has set the civil rights movement back considerably in the United States over the period of the last several months.

If all we are for is black people and white people who like black people, then I have nothing to say to Trump who is only for white people and black people who like him.

If half-black Barack Obama had decided years ago to call himself white - which his genes certainly entitled him to do - his story would have carried very different meaning. If millions of part-black people had followed him into whiteness, then the N.A.A.C.P. would be in true crisis.

If you took away the color of Barack Obama's skin, nobody right now would be paying him any attention.

This the American black man knows: his fight here is a fight to the finish. Either he dies or wins. If he wins it will be by no subterfuge or evasion of amalgamation . He will enter modern civilization here in America as a black man on terms of perfect and unlimited equality with any white man, or he will enter not at all. Either extermination root and branch, or absolute equality. There can be no compromise. This is the last great battle of the west.

If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon.

I said, "If I was a Negro girl-" He placed his fingers across my lips so I tasted his saltiness. "We can't think of changing our skin," he said. "Change the world-that's how we gotta think."

The Civil Rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He's helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln.

I think "post-racial" is a dangerous trap. You can fall into complacency and give your complicity a much more dangerous character.

I want to be identified with the negro; until he gets his rights, we shall never have ours.

All is race - there is no other truth.

When you mentioned something about self improvement, the implication is that the negro is something distinct or different, and, therefore, needs to learn how to improve himself. Negro leaders resent this being said, not because they don't know that it's true, but they're thinking, they're looking at it personally. They think that the implication is directed even at them, and that they, and they duck this responsibility.

I believe that we have to be so race-conscious in this day and age.

Few whites are ready to actively promote civil rights for blacks.

Everyone knows I'm black. I am who I am. This is the person that Lester Sr. and June Holt raised, and I make no apology for it. At the same time, I'm never going to pull a race card to get what I want. You can't have it both ways.

The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Our goal—a Racial Nation of and by ourselves—nothing less.

A race-transcendent politics is most likely to succeed when the white community takes responsibility for overcoming its racism, not when the black community decides to forget it.

I am convinced that if something isn’t done to give the Negroes a new sense of hope and a sense of protection, there is a danger that we will face the danger that will lead to the worst race rioting we’ve ever seen in this country. I think it’s just at that point.

Our clear goal must be the advancement of the white race and separation of the white and black races.

I write about race in America in hopes of undermining the notion of race in America.

We never discuss race until something bad happens.

I'm not gonna respond to people calling me a race baiter. It doesn't serve me. Also, I'm not a race baiter.

I think #BlackLivesMatter is a huge campaign that is important and integral to our advancement as a people.