Quotes About Representation

Being out and about talking to residents and representing their views is, in my view, as important to politics as the grandstanding that takes place in Westminster.

In the public mind, when they think of politicians, sadly they probably tend to think of men in grey suits doing work behind closed doors at Westminster. I want to get away from the idea.

I didn't particularly want to go to Westminster - not that there were many seats available or chances for women to get elected. In 1987, Labour sent down 50 MPs, and only one of them was a woman.

The first thing I would like to say is that I don't think folk at Westminster - or for that matter at Holyrood - constitute an elite. They are representatives who are elected and who are at the service of voters who can fire them.

Being an MP is quite a strange job, because you do it in two different places. Half the time I'm in Westminster and the other half I'm in my constituency and the job is different in both of them.

One of the things I want to achieve in the potentially short time I'm in Westminster is to stop people thinking we're all the same. Because while they believe that, the establishment stays in the same people's hands.

Westminster's hardly a billboard for people-centred politics. Given its makeup, the term 'Commons' is pretty ironic, too.

When you look at Westminster you think of it as pale, male and stale and I hate that so much.

Maori get pigeonholed into the idea they're spiritual and telling stories like 'Whale Rider' and 'Once Were Warriors,' quite serious stuff, but we're pretty funny people, and we never really have had an opportunity to show that side of ourselves, the clumsy, nerdy side of ourselves, which is something I am.

Being a black lesbian myself, I roll my eyes a little bit when I see black lesbian characters on shows where it's purely there for decoration. You can just hear it in the writers room... 'What if we make her a lesbian?'

What if lawmakers never spoke to their constituents? Oddly enough, that's exactly how corporate America operates. Shareholders vote for directors, but the directors rarely, if ever, communicate with them.

What if Macauley Culkin were black in 'Home Alone?' Most people would write it differently... but I would write it the same way.

I wonder why it has taken such a long time in our country to understand or look at the potential of plus-size models. So what if they are plus-size, they are confident and have equal enthusiasm for life.

One of my mom's favorite movies growing up was 'Big' with Tom Hanks. I thought, 'Oh, OK, what if we do something like that but not like that. Something more modern, with a different perspective, and maybe with an all-black cast.'

Whatever your opinion on it, 'Sex And The City' was undeniably a show that told stories where the main focus was on women and not on men.

I do not have any regrets whatsoever in opting to play for Nigeria and will always do my best whenever I put on the green white green colours of Nigeria.

When you have 20 nominations - 20 names on the nomination list of best actor, supporting actor and actress, etc., and there's absolutely no representation of color whatsoever, I think that's a subset of perhaps a bigger problem.

I always had this feeling when writing about all politics... that when it's so lopsided, that if a newspaper or news organization has any weight whatsoever, it should automatically go to the other side.

'Gods of Wheat Street' has been described as an Aboriginal 'Neighbours' or 'Home and Away.' But on set, we were calling it 'Black to the Rafters.'

'Drive for Diversity' puts people behind the wheel that would never have had the opportunity. Nascar sponsors individual teams who have a person of color, somebody who would not have the opportunity otherwise. And then they're noticed by bigger teams - it's like minor-league baseball.

They are not your players, they are loaned from the club. You just wheel them out for a game for England.

You know, it helps having an African American driver behind the wheel. I'm representing that culture and that background. But a lot of background pressure, I don't really put that on me. I know I have enough pressure to go out and perform every week.

When I ask people what they think of when they hear the term 'cerebral palsy,' I usually get one of two responses. They either think of a smiling, crumpled child in a wheelchair on a poster or commercials on late night TV with lawyers enticing parents of CP kids to sue the pants off their obstetrician.

Disability is as visual as race. If a wheelchair user can't play Beyonce, then Beyonce can't play a wheelchair user.