Ishmael Reed Quotes

But black people fall for that same argument, and they go around talking about law breakers. We did not make the laws in this country. We are neither morally nor legally confined to those laws. Those laws that keep them up, keep us down.

When a system of oppression has become institutionalized it is unnecessary for individuals to be oppressive.

The policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishments hand. They make the racist secure in his racism.

Black people have always been used as a buffer in this country between powers to prevent class war.

You know, people'd always ask 'Why is Jesse Jackson running for the White House?' They never seen the house I'm running from.

Not only are whites kicking us; they are telling us how to react to being kicked.

Now in speaking like this, it doesn't mean that we're anti-white, but it does mean we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression. And if the white man doesn't want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us.

At the end of the day, violence was the only weapon that would destroy apartheid.

My hatred is precious. I don't want to waste it on those who are colluding in their own oppression.

I always think - when I get mad, and people say, 'Don't be the angry black woman' - it's like, well, why not? There's so much to be angry about.

Racism is very characteristic of imperialism. Racism is very characteristic of capitalism.

Only a straight white person would have no concept of what visibility is. They've never contended with anything but visibility.

My whiteness, economic privilege, able-bodied privilege, family support, and so many other factors shield me from some of the worst possible consequences - often fatal ones - that result from the toxic combination of misogyny, racism, and anti-trans sentiment.

I'm the darkie you can't control!

The hate and scorn showered on us Negro officers by our fellow Americans convinced me that there was no sense in my dying for a world ruled by them. I made up my mind that if I got through this war I would study law and use my time fighting for men who could not strike back.

Twenty years on, the books are still fun to write and I've still got lots of stories I want to tell, mainly about social injustice and people chewed up by the system.

There's only one free person in this society, and he is white and male.

Feminism isn't simply about being a woman in a position of power. It's battling systemic inequities; it's a social justice movement that believes sexism, racism and classism exist and interconnect, and that they should be consistently challenged.

All white people in the United States have benefited from a white supremacy. But does that mean that a white person should be viewed badly because they turn against a white supremacist policy? Just because you've benefited from something shouldn't disable you from repudiating it.

Baby, black promoters oppressed me before white promoters ever got hold of me. Don't talk skin to me.

Race is not particularly interesting to me. Power is. Who has power and who doesn't. Slavery interests me because it's an incredible violation that has not stopped. It's necessary to talk about that. Race is a diversion.

The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.

White people just don't want their slaves to be free. That's the whole thing.

I just don't believe that when people are being unjustly oppressed that they should let someone else set rules for them by which they can come out from under that oppression.

Education in this country is about how to maintain the status quo and to perpetuate racism.