Octavia Spencer Quotes

Yeah, race exists. Racism is still here, and it's doing well. Turn on the news. I don't think me and my comedy can really change that.

There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.

However, while we should certainly celebrate the demise of overt official racism, we must also critically examine where we are at this historical moment, recognize the many challenges ahead and reaffirm our commitment to making Brown v. Board a reality.

There's sort of a persistent misperception that talking about race is black folk's burden. Ultimately, only men can end sexism, and only white people can end racism.

I feel that there has been progress made since I was a boy on matters of race, but we have a long way to go.

That's what is always fascinating about racism - how it is allowed, if not encouraged, to flourish freely in public spaces, the way racism and bigotry are so often unquestioned.

Social equity is based on justice; politics change on the opinion of the time. The black man's skin will be a mark of social inferiority so long as white men are conceited, ignorant, unjust, and prejudiced. You cannot legislate these qualities out of the white - you must steal them out by teaching, illustration, and example.

As an African-American, I know all too well the negative thoughts and feelings hatred and bigotry cause.

This is a racist country.

By the 1960s, many of us believed that the Civil Rights Movement could eliminate racism in America during our lifetime. But despite significant progress, racism remains.

It is now time to mobilize, before it is too late, against the creeping legitimacy of racism in our society.

To talk about race in America is to explore the wilderness inside ourselves and to come to terms with a history that we’d rather conceal.

Segregation is a disease of white people, not of colored people.

If you are attempting to study American history, and you don't understand the force of white supremacy, you fundamentally misunderstand America.

Of course there's racism in this country, and we have a terrible history of that in this nation.

I think about the history of racism in this country all the time.

As much as we want to say racism is dead, it's still rearing its ugly head constantly.

Racism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it's perhaps far more terrible than it's ever been.

White supremacy is the conscious or unconscious belief or the investment in the inherent superiority of some, while others are believed to be innately inferior. And it doesn't demand the individual participation of the singular bigot. It is a machine operating in perpetuity, because it doesn't demand that somebody be in place driving.

There's a lot of racism still alive and still active.

You know, bigotry isn't relevant to just the South. It never was. But I'm very grateful that I don't know what it's like from experience.

If you are white, racism is too easily ignored and forgiven, regarded as of burning concern only to the ethnic minorities, and therefore of relatively marginal significance.

Racism is not dead. Definitely, there are these biases.

Racism isn't born, folks, it's taught. I have a two-year-old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list.

You cannot talk about race without talking about privilege. And when people start talking about privilege, they get paralyzed by shame.