Toni Morrison // "Don’t you understand that the people who do this thing, who practice racism, are bereft. There is something distorted about the psyche. It’s a huge waste and it’s a corruption and a distortion. It’s like it’s a profound neurosis, that nobody examines for what it is... If the racist white person, I don’t mean the person who is examining his consciousness...doesn’t understand that he or she is also a race, it’s also constructed, it’s also made, and it also has some kind of serviceability... But when you take it away... If I take your race away...there you are, all strung out and all you got is your little self. And what is that? What are you without racism? Are you any good? Are you still strong? Are you still smart? Do you still like yourself?... If you can only be tall because someone else is on their knees, then you have a serious problem."