Fred Korematsu Quotes

For some people, the definition of who is and who isn't an American defies logic, historical accuracy, common sense, decency, good manners, the milk of human kindness, enjoyment in the good things in life, and love of good food.

People tell me to go back to my country, and I'm an American.

It's a complicated issue, but I define myself as an American, primarily.

The thing that upsets me the most is the entitlement of people that will stand with a flag and say to some other people that they need to go back to where they came from. When, in fact, they also would need to go back to where they came from, because you need to go all the way back to the beginning.

Xenophobia is dangerous, but patriotism is a good thing.

Most of the discrimination I have encountered centered on the view that I am not a part of this great nation, even though I grew up in Ohio, graduated from law school in Washington, D.C., and received my commission in the U.S. Air Force in 1991.

These people hate the United States, not for what we do, but for who we are and what we are.

I'm constantly seen as a 'foreigner,' and I need my passport to prove my identity, to keep moving and to carry on my work.

It's not hard to look at our own world and draw parallels between 9/11, for example, and how Muslims are viewed or treated by North American culture since then. Just to see the way fear can breed hatred and intolerance for people who aren't the same as us - and that's certainly part of what's at the heart of 'Descender.'

Unfortunately, our history has abundant examples of patriotism being used to hurt those who express views in disagreement with that of the majority.

Jews have had to carry around their own sense of self in a carpet bag and I think perhaps too much emphasis might be being put on nationality and on the other hand patriotism, that sort of thing.

You cannot stoke the fires of prejudice against German people and then not find that somewhere, sometime down the road it doesn't discharge.

There was no reason to label us as anti-Semitic.

Americans have almost been conditioned to believe that the majority of people who seek to do us harm are those of Muslim descent.

I'm an American first, and I think that's how most people are.

Nationalism has a way of oppressing others.

I know I'm not an anti-Semitic person.

All nationalism is based on racism and hate. I'm Scottish; I was born in Scotland, as my parents, as my grandparents.

In Ecuador, if I go after an Ecuadoran, I'm in trouble; if I go after a Costa Rican, I'm a hero.

There are in the United States many persons of Japanese extraction whose loyalty to the country, even in the present emergency is unquestioned. It would therefore be a serious mistake to take any action against these people.

The Irish hate our order, our civilization, our enterprising industry, our pure religion. This wild, reckless, indolent, uncertain, and superstitious race have no sympathy with the English character …. Their history describes an unbroken circle of bigotry and blood.

No encouragement must be given to social and political organizations or methods which perpetuate in this country foreign ideas and customs. An Irish-American, a German-American, or a French-American vote is an intolerable anomaly.

I am willing to love all mankind, except an American.

Patriotism is a sham when it lets out the howl that the people of another nation are a pack of beasts and criminals, unrelated to the human family

Demonizing the other does not help our cause and does bad things to us.