Crooks stood up from his bunk and faced her. ‘I had enough,’ he said coldly. ‘You got no rights comin’ in a colored man’s room. You got no rights messing around in here at all. Now you jus’ get out, an’ get out quick. If you don’t, I’m gonna ast the boss not to ever let you come in the barn no more.’
She turned on him in scorn. ‘Listen, Nigger,’ she said. ‘You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?’
Crooks stared helplessly at her, and then he sat down on his bunk and drew into himself.
She closed on him. ‘You know what I could do?’
Crooks seemed to grow smaller, and he pressed himself against the wall. ‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.’
Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego – nothing to arouse either like or dislike. He said, ‘Yes, ma’am,’ and his voice was toneless.
For a moment she stood over him as though waiting for him to move so that she could whip at him again; but Crooks sat perfectly still, his eyes averted, everything that might be hurt drawn in. She turned at last to the other two. John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
I had learned that I was in two wars: one against a foreign enemy and the other against prejudice at home. Jackie Robinson
No more fear, no more cringing, no more begging and pleading. Marcus Garvey
The thing to do is to get organized; keep separated and you will be exploited, you will be robbed, you will be killed. Get organized and you will compel the world to respect you. Marcus Garvey
Black power can be clearly defined for those who do not attach the fears of white America to their questions about it. We should begin with the basic fact that black Americans have two problems: they are poor and they are black. All other problems arise from this two-sided reality: lack of education, the so-called apathy of black men. Any program to end racism must address itself to that double reality. Stokely Carmichael, What We Want 22nd September 1966
Ultimately, the economic foundations of this country must be shaken if black people are to control their lives. The colonies of the United States – and this includes the black ghettos within its borders, north and south – must be liberated. For a century, this nation has been like an octopus of exploitation, its tentacles stretching from Mississippi and Harlem to South America, the Middle East, southern Africa, and Vietnam; the form of exploitation varies from area to area but the essential result has been the same – a powerful few have been maintained and enriched at the expense of the poor and voiceless colored masses. This pattern must be broken. ibid.
It was just a reform era. And here’s a black man and is the strongest man in the world. He represents boxing ... The premier athlete. And who is it? A black man. Jack Johnson had unwilled a tremendous hatred. And he didn’t care. He really didn’t. Bert Randolph Sugar, interview Ringside: Top 10 Heavyweights
1910 v James Jeffries (7/10 betting), Reno Nevada: All bets were off. And yet it was an ugly scene reflecting the attitude of the day. The social attitude ... It was a totally white crowd ... He out-pointed him. He out-slugged him ... It had ramifications. There were riots in cities with whites killing blacks. Nineteen dead. ibid.
You are about to hear Bernard Manning as you would never hear him on television recorded secretly talking about black people. He could be arrested but this was a party organised by policemen. World in Action, ITV 1995
An insulator against the pain of racism. Louis Armstrong
You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar-cane for miles but you can still be working on a plantation. Billie Holiday, Lady Sings the Blues, 1956
In the early 1940s, as a young teenager, I was utterly appalled by the racist and jingoist hysteria of the anti-Japanese propaganda. The Germans were evil, but treated with some respect: they were, after all, blond Aryan types, just like our imaginary self-image. Japanese were mere vermin, to be crushed like ants. Noam Chomsky
When my father was able to buy a secondhand car in the late 1930s and he took us to the countryside for the weekend, if we looked for a motel to stay in we had to see if it said Restricted on it. Restricted meant no Jews. Noam Chomsky
Sammy Davis junior’s conversion to Judaism doesn’t mean anything. We know that a black man can’t become a Jew and that Sammy Davis is still black. It may have been to his advantage to become converted. In reality he still remains a nigger and not a Jew. Harold Rosenthal, aide to US Senator Jacob Javits, interview 1976
We’re gonna put more of these little Negro bastards on the welfare rolls at twenty four hundred dollars a family. Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words, Sky Atlantic 2018
The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards. Richard Nixon
Jews are all over the government. Most Jews are disloyal to America. Richard Nixon, the Nixon tapes
Socialism, Communism, and Bolshevism in reality are only links in the plan of world-embracing Judaism, with its final purpose of forcing the entire world under Jewish domination. Ernest F Elmhurst, The World Hoax, 1938
We are witnessing an alarming resurgence of this phenomena in news forms and manifestations. Anti-Semitism has flourished even in communities where Jews have never lived. And it has been a harbinger of discrimination against others. Kofi Annan, address United Nations anti-Semitism conference
6In some ways converting was becoming a second-class citizen in my own country ... I’ve been spat at, insulted – rag-head, sand-nigger. And I have been out with my stepdaughter and been attacked. We’ve had glass bottles thrown at us. Myriam Francois-Cerrah, British Muslim
Racism against British Asians became endemic in many parts of the country. Most suffered in silence. But in the late ’80s a landmark event changed the way many young Muslims came to regard themselves. The first seeds of Generation Jihad were about to be sown. In 1988 the novelist Salman Rushdie published The Satanic Verses. To Muslims the book was blasphemous and insulted the prophet Muhammad. Years of frustration exploded. Peter Taylor, Generation Jihad
One of the first Jews to teach in a Classics department anywhere in America. The Human Stain 2003 starring Anthony Hopkins & Nicole Kidman & Gary Sinise & Ed Harris & Wentworth Miller & Jacinda Barrett & Mimi Kuzyk & Clark Gregg & Anna Deavere Smith & Phyllis Newman & Mili Avital & Harry Lennix et al, director Robert Benton
Who do you think you are? You need to be proud of your race. ibid. mother to son
You’re as white as snow and you think like a slave. ibid. mother to son
It is true that there had never been any written law banning black players ... The hypocrisy of fighting racism abroad while ignoring it at home proved clearer. Ken Burns, Baseball: The National Pastime, PBS 1994
The first race riot in New York was 1712. New York: City of Tomorrow II, 2001
That was the forties before racism was bad. The Office UK s1e6: Judgement, Brent to Gareth, BBC 2001
Dwight: I bet you get pulled over by the cops a lot because of your race.
Kelly: Well they say it’s because of texting, but maybe you’re right. The Office US s6e23: Body Language, NBC 2010
I know my destiny. I was born into animosity, bigotry and hatred. We had water for white folks, and water for coloured folks. White lines, black lines. I came from Beaufort in South Carolina, and it was tougher than Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Joe Frazier
And how will the New Republic treat the inferior races? How will it deal with the black? ... the yellow man? ... the Jew? ... those swarms of black, and brown, and dirty-white, and yellow people, who do not come into the new needs of efficiency? ... The men of the New Republic ... will have an ideal that will make the killing worth the while. H G Wells, New Republic
Is Britain a racist country? Many people were horrified by these Chelsea fans but are they just saying what many people are thinking? Mona Chalabi, Is Britain Racist? BBC 2016
Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy! Robert Mugabe
In February Chelsea’s John Terry was stripped of the England captaincy after being charged with racially abusing an opponent on the pitch. Although later cleared of this charge by a court, that wasn’t English football’s only racism allegation last season. Clarke Carlisle, Is Football Racist? BBC 2012
Every person that I talk to is opening my eyes, opening my mind, to a completely different side of life. ibid.
Asians are discriminated against – how does that work? ibid.
John Barnes is one of England’s greatest ever footballers. Despite suffering shocking racial abuse as a player he won numerous trophies with Liverpool and nearly eighty caps with England. ibid.