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Toni Morrison Quotes about Racism

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There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

Toni Morrison
Race, Racism, Social
"Toni Morrison Breaks Down The Reality Of Race On The Colbert Report" by Jessica Dickerson, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 21, 2014.

It's important, therefore, to know who the real enemy is, and to know the function, the very serious function of racism, which is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and so you spend 20 years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn't shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Someone says you have no art so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms and so you dredge that up. None of that is necessary. There will always be one more thing.

Toni Morrison
Art, Years, Racism
"Black Studies Center public dialogue. Pt. 2 (A Humanist View)", May 30, 1975.

Racism will disappear when it's no longer profitable, and no longer psychologically useful. And when that happens, it'll be gone. But at the moment, people make a lot of money off of it, pro and con.

Toni Morrison
Racism, People, Gone
Source: www.npr.org

Sexist language, racist language, theistic language - all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not, permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.

Toni Morrison
Ideas, Racism, Typical
Nobel Prize for Literature Lecture, delivered 7 December 1993

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