Quotes About Stereotyping

They were a motley, dispirited underclass that wanted black people held down in part because they needed someone to look down upon, as most of the white world looked down on them.

The average American, one judge ruled, cannot reasonably be expected to visually distinguish between various varieties of persons of Asian origin. As if they were types of apples, or breeds of dogs; as if those persons of Asian origin did not count as average Americans themselves.

People decide what you're like before they even get to know you.

Now, when Marilyn says this—If she were a white girl—it proves what James has feared all along. That inside, all along, she'd labeled everything. White and not white. That this thing makes all the difference in the world.

I dunno," she said. "People decide what you're like before they even get to know you." She eyed him, suddenly fierce. "Kind of like you did with me. They think they know all about you. Except you're never who they think you are.

was the same dirty tint that would be used, for years to come, to justify the sidelong glances at anyone who might seem Chinese, to excuse the refusals of service and shouted slurs and spat-in faces, and later on, the baseball bats, the booted feet.

The average American, one judge ruled, cannot reasonably be expected to visually distinguish between various varieties of persons of Asian origin. As if they were types of apples, or breeds of dogs; as if those persons of Asian origin did not count as average Americans themselves. As if any of this might be justified by careful distinguishing on the part of the one wielding the bat.

If she were a white girl . . . none of this would ever have happened.

My kids are around pit bulls every day. In the '70s they blamed Dobermans, in the '80s they blamed German Shepherds, in the '90s they blamed the Rottweiler. Now they blame the Pit Bull.

game of deducing a person's character from that person's appearance is an old pastime with racists and with those who seek an advantage over the poor or the ugly, the disabled, or any underrepresented minority.

We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.

Always the same with you people!

What's the matter with you guys? The sight of blonde hair knocks you three rungs down on the evolutionary ladder.

There's nothing worse than a label to cement people's loyalties.

Uncle Tom' did not originate in fiction. Nor did he die with the Emancipation proclamation. He is perpetuated and immortalized in the type of leadership that sells the Negro for a few 'sound American dollars.

Ya sabes, el racismo y el clasismo empieza por el olfato.

the old Warner Bros. cartoons, that studio can go to la chingada. It's this studio's fault that gabachos always try to imitate Mexicans with accents more refried than a Taco Bell special.

1954, when the Eisenhower administration launched a program to deport all illegal immigrants. But America being America, la migra rounded up Mexican-Americans, legal immigrants—anyone who was brown, really. The program's name? Operation Wetback. The American experience is cyclical, of course, so expect Americans to soon begin calling Mexicans Sensenbeaners.

It'll always be easier to fight others if you reduce them to a single word or look at them just one way.

I think he was a gangster." "Why you say that?" Miss Izi asked. "He had a lot of pockmarks on his face." "That's nothing," Miss Izi said. "That could be from learning to use a fork.

Here's something that might not occur to you: If a state trooper sees a weird, patchwork Toyota Echo hurtling down 1-95, and it looks like half of a small country is immigrating to the States in this one little car, you might get stopped.

Ever notice that anyone going slower than you is an idiot, but anyone going faster is a maniac?

Actors are like Swiss Army knives - we're ready to use any lever at any moment. But I learned long ago that, unfortunately, this industry only sees the one thing sticking out that they know us from, and that's the only thing they can imagine.

I would love to do parts I have never done before, but unfortunately, if you have had success in a particular type of character, the casting agents think, 'Oh! We'll have something exactly like that.' It's very boring.