Quotes About Diversity

The message of Martin Luther King, Jr.—that we should be judged on the content of our character, not on the color of our skin

the very fact that I felt a moment's qualm on inviting him because of his color made me ashamed of myself and made me hasten to send the invitation.

The genius of America lies in its capacity to forge a single nation from peoples of remarkably diverse racial, religious, and ethnic origins….The American Creed envisages a nation composed of individuals making their own choices and accountable to themselves, not a nation based on inviolable ethnic communities….It is what all Americans should learn, because it is what binds all Americans together.

Writing in 1783, George Washington had articulated what we like to think of as the American way on such things: "The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions.

1802, Alexander Hamilton—himself an immigrant and, in the twenty-first century, an emblem of American mobility—had reservations: "The influx of foreigners must…tend to produce a heterogeneous compound; to change and corrupt the national spirit; to complicate and confound public opinion; to introduce foreign propensities.

Writing in 1903, the scholar, historian, and activist W.E.B. Du Bois observed that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line," and, while Du Bois was surely right, it is correct, too, to say that color in some ways remains the problem of American history as a whole.

Yet for all that the United States has accomplished—and we have been a country that people take pains to come to, not to leave—we remain an imperfect union.

Today we are faced with the pre-eminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships—the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together and work together in the same world, at peace.

I would also say you can never reduce any person to a diagnostic label.

we tend to automatically assume that everybody else is basically just like us.

There's a societal push for conformity in all ways. There's less tolerance of difference. And so maybe for some people having a label is better. It can confer a sense of hope and direction. (interview with Allen Frances)

he's a grey area, in a world that doesn't like grey areas, but the grey areas are where you find the complexity, it's where you find the humanity, and it's where you find the truth.

Many kids who would have been called eccentric, different, were suddenly labeled autistic." I

If your world does not include enough access to different people, and their world does not include enough access to you, you are speaking from ignorance.

I thinking gay and straight people use the same putters, it's not a matter of putters but a matter of hole selection.

I am just mystified by these people telling me I would think Obama was doing a great job if his skin contained less melanin.

The trouble with wars is that they all look alike to people who aren't involved. Only the skin color of the dead is different.

You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because you're all the same.

You laugh at me becuse I am different. I laugh at you becuse your all the same.

You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you cause you're all the same.

It's like having one red sock in a load of white laundry. One red sock, and nothing is ever white again.

If multiculturalism succeeds in making us a nation of independently empowered tribes, each tribe will be deprived of the comfort of victimhood and be forced to confront human limitation for what it is: a fixture of life.

Chip, who much preferred queer theory to queer practice

Understanding the simple fact that morality differs around the world, and even within societies, is the first step toward understanding your righteous mind.