Quotes About Diversity

The Hmong never had any interest in ruling over the Chinese or anyone else; they wanted merely to be left alone, which, as their later history was also to illustrate, may be the most difficult request any minority can make of a majority culture.

You know Anne,' he said quietly, 'when I am with a Hmong or a French or an American person, I am always the one who laughs last at a joke. I am the chameleon animal. You can place me anyplace, and I will survive, but I will not belong. I must tell you that I do not really belong anywhere.

His books commingled democratically, united under the all-inclusive flag of Literature. Some were vertical, some horizontal, and some actually placed behind others. Mine were balkanized by nationality and subject matter.

The kinds of metaphorical language that we use to describe the Hmong say far more about us, and our attachment to our own frame of reference, than they do about the Hmong." So much for the Perambulating Postbox Theory.

During the late 1910s and early '20s, immigrant workers at the Ford automotive plant in Dearborn, Michigan, were given free, compulsory "Americanization" classes. In addition to English lessons, there were lectures on work habits, personal hygiene, and table manners. The first sentence they memorized was "I am a good American.

The European immigrants who emerged from the Ford Motor Company melting pot came to the United States because they hoped to assimilate into mainstream American society. The Hmong came to the United States for the same reason they had left China in the nineteenth century: because they were trying to resist assimilation.

Brussels sprouts, peaches

I remember having a little bit of a feeling of awe at how differently we looked at the world. It was very foreign to me that they had the ability to stand firm in the face of an expert opinion.

Now I only have one rule. Before I do anything I ask, Is it okay? Because I'm an American woman and they don't expect me to act like a Hmong anyway, they usually give me plenty of leeway.

For me, literature is a way of enlarging myself by learning about people who are not like me.

He simply could not imagine a time when being a Jew, or even a half Jew, was not a disability.

Viviamo tutti con l'obiettivo di essere felici; le nostre vite sono diverse, eppure uguali.

Everyone is born equal; we all come into the world helpless and innocent. We all breathe the same air, and many of us believe in the same God. And yet … and yet, to many people this one small difference is a huge one! It's huge because many people have never realized what the difference is, for if they had they would have discovered long ago that there's actually no difference at all!

Wat één christen doet, moet hijzelf verantwoorden, wat één jood doet, valt op alle joden terug.

It's all right for me to have boys as friends.

Surely the time will come when we are people again, and not just Jews.

We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well.

we're all leading lives that are different and yet the same

De todos modos no hay enemistad más grande en el mundo que entre los alemanes y los judíos.

Mine was a patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus.

the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]

Everybody thinks their opinion is the right one. If they didn't, they would get a new one.

They always threw their arms around and hugged me while crying our Yiddish endearments. Yet none of them believed in God. They believed in social justice, good works, Israel, and Bette Midler. I was nearly thirty before I met a religious Jew.

The Dalai Lama said that "religion is like going out to dinner with friends. Everyone may order something different, but everyone can still sit at the same table.