Ayanna Pressley Quotes

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

It really bothers me when people say we live in a postracial America.

The only reason race matters is because of racism.

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

While we dance in the streets and pat ourselves on the back for being a nation great enough to reach beyond racial divides to elect our first African-American president, let us not forget that we remain a nation still proudly practicing prejudice.

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

Racism cannot be cured solely by attacking some of the results it produces, like discrimination in housing or in education.

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.

I had always been interested in race and racial justice, but mostly it was with my nose pressed up against the glass, looking at the South from a long way away.

If white America is ready to extend complete democratic rights to colored people, there will be no race, no racial tension and no racial prejudice on either side, but we can be sure that any movement 'back to normalcy' in race relations will be bitterly resisted by colored people. It is now up to white America to make its choice...

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

The issue with race particularly within this country is largely because of lack of dialogue.

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

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

I think we are aware that post-racialism isn't real, right? I mean, I hope so. I kind of joke that we're post-post-racial.

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

I think there's a racial outcome to a lot of what goes in America, but I don't think race is always the reason.

Today's white majority is largely silent about the race question.

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

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed.

Most people don't think about race as much as I do. They don't have to.

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.

If you want to know if racism is a problem in your country, you might not want to ask white people.

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

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