QuoteProject
This is a country that was founded on racism. It was built on racism. It still continues to thrive through wealth disparity, and housing disparity is all built on the backs of racism.
W. Kamau Bell
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the pervasive and foundational nature of racism in the country's history and ongoing inequalities.

W. Kamau Bell's quote highlights the deep-rooted and systemic nature of racism in the foundations of the country. It suggests that racism is not just a historical issue but continues to manifest in contemporary societal structures, particularly in wealth and housing disparities, suggesting that these inequalities are sustained by the same racist foundations that once built the nation.

Themes

RacismInequalityWealth DisparityHousing DisparitySystemic RacismHistory

In practice

Example use cases

During a panel discussion on social justice.

More from W. Kamau Bell

We really suffer from a hot-take disease, wanting to be the first one who has the hottest take.
W. Kamau BellRead
People born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens - except for the teeny, tiny, mind-boggling fact that if you live in Puerto Rico, you are not allowed to cast a vote in the election for president. That tiny fact starts to get bigger when you realize that electing our own leaders is the whole reason that we have a country in the first place.
W. Kamau BellRead
I've turned the annoying questions that white people ask into a career, so I understand that's where I live.
W. Kamau BellRead
In communities of color, such as Ferguson, it often feels like the police are protecting the white community from us instead of protecting our communities from the criminal element.
W. Kamau BellRead
We can't throw the worst part of racism into the dustbin of history.
W. Kamau BellRead
When we let cops talk about themselves as a separate community, then we are letting cops wall themselves off from the rest of us. We don't generally do that with any other jobs. We don't talk about the barista community or the Wal-Mart greeter community.
W. Kamau BellRead

Similar quotes

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Idea's won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervour, live for it, and, if need be, die for it. Their inheritors receive the idea, perhaps now strong and successful, but without inheriting the fervour; so the idea settles down to a comfortable middle age, turns senile, and dies.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
Given the sin of impiety through which they [the Romans] sinned against the divine nature [by idolatry], the punishment that led them to sin against their own nature followed.... I say, therefore, that since they changed into lies [by idolatry] the truth about God, He brought them to ignominious passions, that is, to sins against nature; not that God led them to evil, but only that he abandoned them to evil.
Thomas AquinasRead
Acceptance of one's life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not mean running away from the struggle. On the contrary, it means accepting it as it comes, with all the handicaps of heredity, of suffering, of psychological complexes and injustices.
Paul TournierRead
RITUALISM, n. A Dutch Garden of God where He may walk in rectilinear freedom, keeping off the grass.
Ambrose BierceRead
Elegance is inferior to virtue.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyRead
I believe in a set of values I cannot live by. I set high goals for myself, I seek perfection, dream of exotic faraway places. But ultimately, what I long for isn't far away at all. It's in my own backyard. Imperfection charms me, familiar things move me... a celebration of what we have, instead of what we long for. That for me, is glamor.
Isabella RosselliniRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.