Soledad O'Brien Quotes

As important as the presidency is, that's not the only thing to take a look at in determining the racial health of the United States.

I still think that we have a hesitance to talk about things racial. And I think we do it at our detriment. We go from incident to incident, and we have spikes in which race becomes something that we talk about, as opposed to talking about race in those less contentious times when I think we might make more progress.

There has been, and there will continue to be, vigorous discussions about race in America. I worry that little will come of these discussions because we aren't addressing what must be done to change the current racial climate.

I do not claim to be an expert on race in America.

Though race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about things racial.

Race in America is not a problem you can go over, or around or under. You've got to go through it.

To believe that the United States is post-racial requires an almost incomprehensible inability or unwillingness to stare truth in the face.

Everyone is very aware that, not only do we have a race problem, but it's so pervasive that it affects national and global politics on a scale that I don't think a lot of people imagined.

I think race in America is a huge one. That's something that needs to be confronted, certainly.

We need to have a more thoughtful, two-sided conversation about racial issues in this country.

Despite our best efforts and our highest hopes, America's long struggle with race is far from finished.

The patterns have become unmistakable and undeniable. ... We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in America.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

I'm a grandmother and like every grandmother, I worry about the safety and security of my grandchildren, but my worries are not the same as black grandmothers.

I think sports is one of the places where race plays itself out publicly. Although we pretend it doesn't.

If you're black in America, race is a factor in your life. Start with that assumption.

This whole notion of a post racial America was nonsense from the very beginning. It was a bad idea, a bad notion, a bad formulation when it was first raised.

People feel uncomfortable talking about racial issues out of fear that if they express things, they will be characterized in a way that's not fair. I think that there is still a need for a dialogue about things racial that we've not engaged in.

In spite of what some people claim, we are not in a post-racial era. I think it's still an important issue to bring up.

It's hard to say when or if we will actually arrive at that place called 'post-racial', or, better yet, post-racism.

The issue of race could benefit from a period of benign neglect.

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

You can do pretty much anything you want to do in America as a black, including become president. Still, the legacy of our victimization, of our suffering and exclusion from the mainstream of American life, has left its mark.

I do think that people will claim a certain fatigue about talking about race. But I think that even though they do, it's still necessary - completely necessary.

We're not able to hide behind myths of this being a post-racial society because Donald Trump has outlined exactly how a large portion of America feels.