Racial Views Quotes

I am not an enemy of the Negro. We want him here among us; he is the only laboring class we have.

Black history isn't a separate history. This is all of our history, this is American history, and we need to understand that. It has such an impact on kids and their values and how they view black people.

I do not question Mr. Lincoln's conscientious belief that the negro was made his equal, and hence is his brother, [audience laughter] but for my own part, I do not regard the negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother or any kin to me whatever

Whatever Lincoln's racial views, which are not totally modern and egalitarian in many ways, he believes blacks should have this natural right to improve their condition in life and slavery denies that to them.

I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there.

If I were an immigrant Latino not born in the US, I could not have written Searching for Whitopia: An Improbably Journey to the Heart of America book. And that is because many of the Whitopians would not have been comfortable talking about their views on immigration, talking about their views on taxes. And they wouldn't have spilled to me the new script on race and poverty as they did.

[Tomas] Jefferson is more out of fashion, both because of his views on race, where he's properly questioned, that part of his legacy, but also because the libertarian critique of bigness in business and government, the idea that size is a danger is something that's shared on the right when it comes to government and on the left when it comes to corporations, but not both.

I think the younger generation's view on race is slightly more evolved. It's a category far down on the list of how they see themselves.