Brand New Product: Brandable Quotes on Diversity and Prejudice (of all kinds!)

Originally Posted on The Coaching Tools Company as Brand New Product: Brandable Quotes on Diversity and Prejudice (of all kinds!)

This month we’ve launched a new monthly quotes product on a topical subject:

Diversity and Prejudice (of all kinds)

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but many (most) of the quotes online are by white males. And this makes sense if you consider that in much of colonial history, it was mostly white men who held power, whose speeches and thoughts were recorded.

Each month we spend a full day finding a variety of interesting, diverse and inclusive quotes. And then hone it down to around 30 quotes from reputable sources that meet our criteria. But this matters.

Here’s our Quotes Product Pledge: At least 50% of the quotes in this product are from people who identify as female. The majority of the quotes are from BIPOC sources – Black, Indigenous or People of Colour.

This month we went one step further to find quotes ABOUT diversity, inclusion, prejudice and discrimination.

And we’re not sure this is something coaches will buy and share online! Because it’s not a “happy” or common “coaching” topic—instead it’s one that makes each and every one of us THINK and confront ourselves. Yet we hope that coaches will take a leadership role, and use these quotes to stimulate thought and conversation amongst their own fans and followers.

How we chose the quotes we included

When choosing the 31 (plus bonus) quotes to include, we thought hard about what it would be like for coaches to share these with their audiences. We wanted to ensure that each quote was:

• Easy to understand.
• And Powerful OR Making a statement OR Thought-provoking OR Inspirational and uplifting.

AND we wanted to ensure that the quotes were NOT inflammatory or judgemental. That’s because shaming others is:

1. Usually bad for business and
2. Tends to make people more entrenched in their positions.

Instead we must call people in. Help them figure it out and see for themselves. That’s how we change. And I really enjoyed this recent article with a short video from Loretta Ross for YES Magazine Beyond Cancel Culture: How to Hold Each Other Accountable—With Love

Inclusivity at The Coaching Tools Company

Over the last few years at The Coaching Tools Company we have worked to be more inclusive—with the most obvious efforts being the images we use for our blog posts and around our site. We consult, talk about and have deep conversations with our team about various prejudices—and what is going on in the world. We have been educating ourselves, and still have a lot to learn.

You’ll notice we not only use images with people of a wide variety of skin tone (and have done for many years now). But Natasha (our wonderful graphic designer) and I also take the extra time to find images of people of different sizes (so not everyone is super-slim) and different ages (so not everyone is young). Sometimes (if we’re lucky) we find a great, engaging image which shows people of varying physical abilities.

But many differences are not so visual—who we love, our gender (chosen or birth), our faith.

Like you, we’re a very small business (2 full-time (one is me!) and 3 part-time people). Yes, it takes time, energy and effort to think about and act on this information. But, especially in today’s divisive world, this is important.

We see this month’s quote product and topic as our opportunity to share our stance and perhaps make a small difference.

Here’s what we believe at The Coaching Tools Company

• We must all think bigger.
• It’s important to realise that anytime we allow or permit any prejudice, it opens up the door for ALL prejudices.
• We must all be prepared to see and acknowledge our own inner prejudices. Only then can we work to change things…
• Whilst racism and sexism are the two most obvious prejudices, we should also consider whether we make (conscious or unconscious) assumptions about people due to their:
  • Ability and Disability.
  • Age (both discriminating against the old—and sometimes the young).
  • Size and shape.
  • Gender—and whom we love and partner with.
  • Religion/faith—or lack of it.
  • Class and/or financial status.
  • Education levels—and language ability.
  • What did I miss?
• We must all be willing to THINK and talk about this. Especially if we’re white and/or cis-gendered (where we feel comfortable and identify with our birth gender) and/or heterosexual. That’s because in North America and Europe especially, these people hold the majority of the power—and experience less discrimination as a result.
• Each and every one of us can make a difference by exploring our own prejudices, and speaking up when needed.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr.

How we decided which quotes would be in the final product

It was really, really hard to decide which quotes to include! Of course we used our ‘inclusive’ criteria. And then we also wanted to make sure this was ultimately an upbeat product, with something to make everyone think…

The 12 Diversity & Prejudice Themes

1. The Power of Diversity (3 quotes)
2. On Racism (3 quotes)
3. On Ageism (2 quotes)
4. On Sexism (2 quotes)
5. On Size Discrimination (2 quotes)
6. On Ableism (2 quotes)
7. On Homophobia & Transphobia (2 quotes)
8. What is Prejudice? (3 quotes)
9. Prejudice and discrimination harms us all… (3 quotes)
10. We are all Humans (3 quotes)
11. How to be the change we wish to see… (3 quotes)
12. Uplifting Thoughts (3 quotes)

• BONUS Quote Theme: Belonging (1 quote)

See the Diversity & Prejudice Quotes Product here >>

What didn’t we include?

We didn’t include (this time) quotes specifically about faith/religion and class/education (although these are mentioned in other quotes).

In some ways, I think class discrimination and the negative assumptions we make about others due to their financial status, role in society or level of education may be the most insidious—dangerous, hard to notice and buried deep—in all of us.

Below we share some of the quotes we didn’t include, but you may like…

We also thought you might enjoy seeing (some of) the quotes that didn’t make it in. The quotes below were excluded for widely varied reasons. These include having “too many” white male or white female quotes already, being too glib, overused, not being clear enough (for people who are not “up” on the subject), being too controversial or there being the risk of shaming people. And some were simply too long to fit!

My favourite quote that I wish we’d found sooner is:

Racist ideas love believers, not thinkers. Ibram X. Kendi

And I think this quote could be extended to say: “All prejudices love believers, not thinkers…”

Here are 37 of the Quotes about Diversity & Prejudice that did NOT make it in:

I hope you enjoy this list. Some may get you fired up! Enjoy 🙂

1. I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves. Mary Wollstonecraft
2. Every time you stand up for yourself, you are healing the wound for all of the women in your lineage who were silenced. Elizabeth Su
3. We can knowingly strive to be an antiracist. Like fighting an addiction, being an antiracist requires persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examination. Ibram X. Kendi
4. Prejudice is a learned trait. You’re not born prejudiced; you’re taught it. Charles R. Swindoll
5. Laundry is the only thing that should be separated by color. Author Unknown
   
6. People who insist on dividing the world into ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ never contemplate that they may be someone else’s ‘Them’. Ray A. Davis
7. We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race. Kofi Annan
8. Marriage should be between a spouse and a spouse, not a gender and a gender. Hendrik Hertzberg
9. I want us to feel accomplished because we’ve used our resources for the greater good. Not because we’ve achieved a certain body size. Summer Innanen
10. Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all. Hillary Clinton
11. There should be no discrimination against languages people speak, skin color, or religion. Malala Yousafzai
12. The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. Martin Luther King, Jr.
13. When you focus on someone’s disability you’ll overlook their abilities, beauty and uniqueness. Once you learn to accept and love them for who they are, you subconsciously learn to love yourself unconditionally. Yvonne Pierre
14. One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him. Booker T. Washington
15. We need to remember across generations that there is as much to learn as there is to teach. Gloria Steinem
16. Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me. Zora Neale Hurston
17. When you discriminate against anyone, you discriminate against everyone. Alan Dershowitz
18. We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders. Maya Angelou
19. Discrimination is a disease. Roger Staubach
20. Prejudice is a product of ignorance that hides behind barriers of tradition. Jasper Fforde
21. For it isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it. Eleanor Roosevelt
22. We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good. Carl Sagan
23. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King, Jr.
24. I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. Audre Lorde
25. Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future. Audre Lorde
26. I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Martin Luther King, Jr.
27. We must recognize that we can’t solve our problem now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power… this means a revolution of values and other things. We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together… you can’t really get rid of one without getting rid of the others… the whole structure of American life must be changed. America is a hypocritical nation and [we] must put [our] own house in order. Martin Luther King Jr
28. The worst thing about that kind of prejudice… is that while you feel hurt and angry and all the rest of it, it feeds you self-doubt. You start thinking, perhaps I am not good enough. Nina Simone
29. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. Henry A. Wallace
30. The hyping of disabled athletes into superhuman status by Channel 4 only deepens our wounds, inflicted by continual assaults on our daily lives. It truly seems that the only acceptable disabled person is a Paralympian and then only for a few weeks. Penny Pepper
31. Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding. Mahatma Gandhi
32. Maybe we all have darkness inside of us and some of us are better at dealing with it than others. Jasmine Warga
33. All my life, I faced sexism and racism and then, when I hit 40, ageism. Rita Moreno
34. 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
35. Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision. Stevie Wonder
36. I do not have a disability, I have a gift! Others may see it as a disability, but I see it as a challenge. This challenge is a gift because I have to become stronger to get around it, and smarter to figure out how to use it; others should be so lucky. Shane E. Bryan
37. I’m interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice. Clint Eastwood

Curious what quotes made it into this product?

Check out this Complete Month of Brandable Quotes on Diversity and Prejudice (of all kinds) >>

And if you liked this article with quotes about diversity, prejudice, you may also like:

• 21 Inspirational Coaching Quotes: How and Why to Use Quotes in your Practice and More!
• The ONE Question That Should Drive all Coaching! (with 18 Authenticity Quotes)
• 25 All-Time Favourite Maya Angelou Quotes!