100+ Best Discrimination Quotes and Anti Discrimination Sayings
Discrimination Quotes and Sayings
“What is required of a working hypothesis is a fine capacity for discrimination.” —Jean-Francois Lyotard
“We cannot continue to sweep the problems of segregation and discrimination under the rug.” —Thomas Sugrue
“We should be doing our utmost to ensure that all are protected against discrimination.” —Henry A. Waxman
“When we’re unemployed, we’re called lazy; when the whites are unemployed it’s called a depression.” —Jesse Jackson
“I believe discrimination still exists in society and we must fight it in every form.” —Andrew Cuomo
“Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.” —Bill Gates
“Humans are naturally elusioned in discrimination; it starts when we look for the first time in mirror.” —M.F. Moonzajer
“At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” —Italian Proverb
“How I wish we lived in a time when laws were not necessary to safeguard us from discrimination.” —Barbra Streisand
“Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.” —John Donne
“The color of the skin is in no way connected with strength of the mind or intellectual powers.” —Benjamin Banneker
“Discrimination means keeping the negative and unhappy thoughts away and allowing the pretty thoughts to come inside you.” —Frederick Lenz
“I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.” —Malcolm X
“And each of us can practice rights ourselves, treating each other without discrimination, respecting each other’s dignity and rights.” —Carol Bellamy
“The way to stop Discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” —John Roberts
“DISCRIMINATE, v.i. To note the particulars in which one person or thing is, if possible, more objectionable than another.” —Ambrose Bierce
“…we need to realize that we have a role to play in overcoming our own discrimination which is sometimes very subtly held.”
“No change can come if those who are impacted the most by discrimination are not willing to stand up for themselves.” —Zainab Salbi
“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.” —Muhammad Ali
“Our global community has come a long way in helping to eliminate discrimination, but we still have far to go.” —Robert Alan Silverstein
“The failure of women to have reached positions of leadership has been due in large part to social and professional discrimination.” —Rosalyn Sussman Yalow
“Like a pet fish unaware of the fishbowl it lives in, each of us inherently discriminates against young people without knowing it.” —Adam Fletcher
“The sage embraces things. Ordinary men discriminate amongst them and parade their discriminations before others. So I say; those who discriminate, fail to see.” —Zhuangzi
“It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and Discrimination half a block from home.” —Carl T. Rowan
“Unfortunately, discrimination is alive and well. After 41 years of addressing it, we get over 80,000 complaints annually and over a million phone calls.” —Cari M. Dominguez
“Of all treasons against humanity, there is no one worse than his who employs great intellectual force to keep down the intellect of his less favored brothers.” —William Ellery Channing
“If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other causes for prejudice by noon.” —George Aiken
“The ills of discrimination are still with us. We have to continue the tenacity and vigilance of the 1960s. Racial understanding is not something we find; it’s something we create.” —Thomas Cole
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Discrimination due to age is one of the great tragedies of modern life. The desire to work and be useful is what makes life worth living, and to be told your efforts are not needed because you are the wrong age is a crime.” —Johnny Ball
“Discrimination still exists. Some people feel that their own beliefs are being threatened. Some are unhappy about unfamiliar cultures. They all need to be reassured that there is so much to be gained by reaching out to others; that diversity is indeed a strength and not a threat.” —Elizabeth II
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” —Nelson Mandela
Best Discrimination Quotes
“Discrimination is a disease.” —Roger Staubach
“Achievement has no color.” —Abraham Lincoln
“Our true nationality is mankind.” —H.G. Wells
“When calamity approaches, discrimination departs.” —Sri Sathya Sai Baba
“I have an intensive hatred for discrimination based on colour.”
“If you believe that discrimination exists, it will.” —Anthony J. D’Angelo
“It is not discrimination to treat different things differently.” —Maggie Gallagher
“Discrimination is discrimination, even when people claim it’s “tradition.” —DaShanne Stokes
“Men’s skins have many colors, but human blood is always red.”
“When you introduce discrimination of any kind, it’s anti-innovative.” —David Isenberg
“In the long run, there is not much discrimination against superior talent.”
“Reducing a group to a slur or stereotype reduces us all.” —DaShanne Stokes
“White, black and yellow men – they all cry salt tears.” —Claude Aveline
“Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.” —Desmond Tutu
“There should be no discrimination against languages people speak, skin color, or religion.”
Anti Discrimination Quotes
“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” —Nelson Mandela
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We call upon all communities to be tolerant—to reject prejudice based on cast, creed, sect, religion or gender. To ensure freedom and equality for women so that they can flourish. We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” —Malala Yousafzai
“To those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, let me say: You are not alone. Your struggle for an end to violence and discrimination is a shared struggle. Any attack on you is an attack on the universal values the United Nations and I have sworn to defend and uphold. Today, I stand with you, and I call upon all countries and people to stand with you, too.” —Ban Ki-Moon
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
Quotes about Gender Discrimination
“Transgender discrimination is the civil rights issue of our time.” —Joe Biden
“Sexual, racial, gender violence and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture.” —Charlotte Bunch
“The law prohibits Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, marital status, political beliefs, disability, or age, and the government effectively enforced these prohibitions.” —U.S. State Department Report, 2010
“There are still traces of discrimination against race and gender, but it’s a lot different than when I started out. It just comes quietly, slowly, sometimes so quietly that you don’t realize it until you start looking back.” —Eddie Bernice Johnson
“All human beings bear God’s image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one’s being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.” —Bishop John Shelby Spong
Caste Discrimination Quotes
“Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.” —Sigmund Freud
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” —Mother Theresa
“The caste system, in all its various forms, is always based on identifiable physical characteristics – sex, color, age.” —Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
“We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle: that we are all citizens, and equal citizens, of one State.” —Muhammad Ali Jinnah
“So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the constitution of India. The unity and the integrity of the country are the topmost priorities. All religions and all communities have the same rights, and it is my responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.” —Narendra Modi
“I think that in the diaspora, and among immigrants, religion becomes a vehicle for the transmission of cultural information, and cultural codes, and this does end up re-inscribing certain things about the religion – like caste. Caste discrimination and hierarchy are still a very fundamental and violent part of “Hinduism. My family was upper caste, and that was very clear. I feel like caste and religious practice are inextricable, actually.” —Chitra Ganesh
“I am arguing that it is a mistake for trans activists to focus our resources and attention on winning inclusion in legal equality frameworks, such as anti-discrimination laws and hate crimes laws, that will not provide relief from the life-shortening conditions trans populations are facing. Winning legal equality – getting the law to cast us as victims of discrimination who the state will protect – will not support our survival.” —Dean Spade
Color Discrimination Quotes
“There should be no discrimination against languages people speak, skin color, or religion.” —Malala Yousafzai
“Every type of discrimination, whether social or cultural, whether based on sex, race, color, social condition, language or religion, is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to God ‘s intent.”
“That means that every human being – without distinction of sex, age, race, skin color, language, religion, political view, or national or social origin – possesses an inalienable and untouchable dignity.” —Hans Kung
“I used to be homophobic, but as I got older, I realized that wasn’t the way to do things. I don’t discriminate against anybody for their sexual preference, for their skin color… that’s immature.” —ASAP Rocky
“We were taught in school, and I was taught at home and in church, that blacks and whites were equal and we should not discriminate based on skin color, even if my school was almost entirely white.” —Kevin DeYoung
“I’m not one that believes that affirmative action should be based on one’s skin color or one’s gender, I think it should be done based on one’s need, because I think if you are from a poor white community, I think that poor white kid needs a scholarship just as badly as a poor black kid.” —J. C. Watts
Quotes On Religious Discrimination
“Religious discrimination is not like racial discrimination. One you chose for yourself, the other God chose for you.” —Habeeb Akande
“I am very much opposed to forcing anyone to violate their conscience or their religious beliefs, and of course, I’m very much opposed to discrimination.” —Rick Scott
“I would sign an executive order protecting religious liberty, our first amendment rights, so Christian business owners and individuals don’t face discrimination for having a traditional view of marriage.” —Bobby Jindal
“The most likely victim of actual religious discrimination in British society is a Muslim, but the person who is most likely to feel slighted because of their religion is an evangelical Christian.” —Trevor Phillips
“Religious expression must at least be afforded an equal playing field. Currently, the playing field is not level. Religious expression and practices are treated as second class forms of speech and singled out for discrimination.” —Mathew Staver
“After lengthy consideration, my views have evolved sufficiently to support marriage equality legislation. This position doesn’t require any religious denomination to alter any of its tenets; it simply forbids government from discrimination regarding who can marry whom.” —Tim Johnson
“It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups.” —Henry A. Wallace
“In effect, Saudi Arabia legitimizes fundamentalism, religious discrimination, intolerance and the oppression of women. Saudi women not only can’t drive, but are also told by some clerics that they mustn’t wear seatbelts for fear of showing the outlines of their bodies.” —Nicholas Kristof
“The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which finally passed in the Senate late last year, is a throwback to the 1990s, when ENDA was first introduced; the bill wasn’t updated to the times we live in. It exempts businesses owned by religious groups.” —Michelangelo Signorile
“Perhaps the worst example of Smithsonian contempt for Jesus Christ is seen in its 1994 publication of a coffee-table book entitled Smithsonian Time Lines of the Ancient World … This flagrant display of religious bigotry and discrimination in a book officially sponsored by the Smithsonian is intellectually and academically dishonest.” —Tim LaHaye
“Nothing better protects a human being against the stupidity of prejudice, racism, religious or political sectarianism, and exclusivist nationalism than this truth that invariably appears in great literature: that men and women of all nations and places are essentially equal, and only injustice sows among them discrimination, fear, and exploitation.” —Mario Vargas Llosa
“Religious freedom is often referred to as America’s first freedom. Our country was founded by religious exiles and built on the belief that God has given all people certain inalienable rights. Government’s role in society is to protect these rights and ensure that we are safe from religious persecution and discrimination.” —Marco Rubio
“American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination. With countless other people of good will, they are likewise concerned that efforts to build a just and wisely ordered society respect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty.” —Pope Francis
“I think marriage is between a man and a woman. I think we’re all created equal in God’s eyes, I think we need to respect and love those we disagree with. I think we can have religious liberty without discrimination. My views on marriage aren’t evolving with the polls. It’s based on my faith, I think it should remain between a man and a woman.” —Bobby Jindal
“We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination.” —Coretta Scott King
“It is my vision that we all will dedicate the next decade to achieve universal literacy and education for all children, especially for girls. More than 145 million of the world’s children are deprived of education due to poverty, exploitation, slavery, gender discrimination, religious extremism, and corrupt governments. May Three Cups of Tea be a catalyst to bring the gift of literacy to each of those children who deserves a chance to go to school.” —Greg Mortenson
“Like the vast majority of Americans, I’ve opposed same-sex marriage, but I’ve also opposed unjust discrimination against anyone, for racial or religious reasons, or for sexual preference. Americans are a tolerant, generous, and kind people. We all oppose bigotry and disparagement. But the debate over same-sex marriage is not a debate over tolerance. It is a debate about the purpose of the institution of marriage and it is a debate about activist judges who make up the law rather than interpret the law.” —Mitt Romney
“A woman should keep her separateness, should save all her feminine qualities and purify them. In this way she is going, according to her nature, towards enlightenment. Of course once you are enlightened, you have gone beyond the discrimination of sexes. Beyond enlightenment, you are simply human beings. But before that … Be proud of your qualities. Increase them, refine them because they are the path towards godliness. Man is not in a better position than woman as far as religious experience is concerned.” —Rajneesh
“Legislators in Kansas, Arizona and 23 other states who are properly determined to protect religious freedom can begin by asking themselves: Does any religious conviction justify denying lesbians and gays a basic legal promise of non-discrimination in hiring, public accommodations, and housing? Surely the answer to this question is no. Correcting that inequity would begin the process of recognizing that both sides – gay couples and religious objectors – have rights and that reasonable accommodation is possible only when both sides have something to gain.” —David Blankenhorn
“I believe it is in the national interest that government stand side-by-side with people of faith who work to change lives for the better. I understand in the past, some in government have said government cannot stand side-by-side with people of faith. Let me put it more bluntly, government can’t spend money on religious programs simply because there’s a rabbi on the board, cross on the wall, or a crescent on the door. I viewed this as not only bad social policy – because policy by-passed the great works of compassion and healing that take place – I viewed it as discrimination.” —George W. Bush
“Unfortunately a religious group defines itself foremost by its creation story, the supernatural narrative that explains how humans came into existence. And this story is also the heart of tribalism. No matter how gentle and high-minded, or subtly explained, the core belief assures its members that God favors them above all others. It teaches that members of other religions worship the wrong gods, use wrong rituals, follow false prophets, and believe fantastic creation stories. There is no way around the soul-satisfying but cruel discrimination that organized religions by definition must practice among themselves. I doubt there ever has been an imam who suggested that his followers try Roman Catholicism or a priest who urged the reverse.” —Edward O. Wilson
Age Discrimination Quotes
“The only way to avoid age discrimination in Hollywood is to die young.” —Larry Gelbart
“I think people would live a bit longer if they didn’t know how old they were. Age puts restrictions on things.” —Karl Pilkington
“Discrimination on the basis of age is as unacceptable as discrimination on the basis of any other aspect of ourselves that we cannot change.” —Ashton Applewhite
“I do note with interest that old women in my books become young women on the covers … this is discrimination against the chronologically gifted.” —Terry Pratchett
“Lack of education, old age, bad health or discrimination – these are causes of poverty, and the way to attack it is to go to the root.” —Robert Kennedy