Ethnic Identity Quotes

1. "As a result of the awareness and consciousness of decline, an awareness and consciousness of a national ethnicity or an Islamic identity also came into being."
Author: Abdolkarim Soroush

2. "My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity."
Author: Arthur Ashe

3. "Without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not be "white"-- they would be Irish, Italians, Poles, Welsh, and other engaged in class, ethnic, and gender struggles over resources and identity. (p. 107-108)"
Author: Cornel West

4. "True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, national origin or any other identity attribute."
Author: Desmond Tutu

5. "America gave the world the notion of the melting pot - an alchemical cooking device wherein diverse ethnic and religious groups voluntarily mix together, producing a new, American identity. And while critics may argue that the melting pot is a national myth, it has tenaciously informed the America's collective imagination."
Author: Ivan Krastev

6. "Southerners are also like ethnic groups in that they have a sense of group identity."
Author: John Shelton Reed

7. "In 1933-34, the Belgians conducted a census in order to issue ‘ethnic' identity cards, which labelled every Rwandan as either Hutu (85%) of Tutsi (14%) or Twa (1%). The identity cards made it virtually impossible for Hutus to become Tutsis, and permitted the Belgians to perfect the administration of an apartheid system rooted in the myth of Tutsi superiority… Whatever Hutu and Tutsi identity may have stood for in the pre-colonial state no longer mattered; the Belgians had made ‘ethnicity' the defining feature of Rwandan existence."
Author: Philip Gourevitch

8. "The state does not oppose the freedom of people to express their particular cultural attachments, but nor does it nurture such expression—rather [...] it responds with 'benign neglect' [....] The members of ethnic and national groups are protected against discrimination and prejudice, and they are free to maintain whatever part of their ethnic heritage or identity they wish, consistent with the rights of others. But their efforts are purely private, and it is not the place of public agencies to attach legal identities or disabilities to cultural membership or ethnic identity. This separation of state and ethnicity precludes any legal or governmental recognition of ethnic groups, or any use of ethnic criteria in the distribution of rights, resources, and duties."
Author: Will Kymlicka

9. "A man's ethnic identity has more to do with a personal awareness than with geography."
Author: William Saroyan

Ethnic Identity Quotes Pictures