Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.
Alex HaleyRead
Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. It is learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Racism is a learned behavior, not an inherent trait, influenced by societal teachings.
In this quote, Alex Haley emphasizes that racism is not an instinctual reaction but a social construct that individuals learn through their interactions and observations within society. He points out that people's negative attitudes toward those who look different stem from education and environment rather than from natural predisposition, thereby illustrating the importance of challenging these learned behaviors to foster understanding and acceptance.
Themes
RacismLearned BehaviorSocietyPrejudiceAcceptance
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about inclusion, one might say, 'As Alex Haley stated, racism is a learned behavior, urging us to educate ourselves and others.'
More from Alex Haley
All quotes βTying the little folks with the older folks is a great and powerful tool to preserve and to protect the family and the individual.
Alex HaleyRead
That's what happens with writing. Ingredients bubble and cook. Material becomes substance.
Alex HaleyRead
I think one of the most fascinating things you can do after you learn about your own people is to study something about the history and culture of other people.
Alex HaleyRead
In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.
Alex HaleyRead
Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.
Alex HaleyRead
Similar quotes
Speaking as a builder, if you start something, you must have a vision of the thing which arises from your instinct about preserving and enhancing what is there.
Christopher AlexanderRead
I still preserve those relics of past sufferings and experience, like pillars of witness set up in travelling through the valve of life, to mark particular occurrences. The footsteps are obliterated now; the face of the country may be changed; but the pillar is still there, to remind me how all things were when it was reared.
Anne BronteRead
Language is the house of the truth of Being.
Martin HeideggerRead
Among the friends of Union, there is great diversity of sentiment and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race among us.
Abraham LincolnRead
At times we can be self-absorbed. Lord, help us to open our hearts to others and to serve those who are most vulnerable.
Pope FrancisRead
Tis not, 'my country right or wrong'; tis, 'my country, that which is right to be kept right, that which is wrong to be set right'
Carl SchurzRead