Quotes About Prejudice

One of the things I learned in 'Slavs!' is that it's much easier to talk about being gay than it is to talk about being a socialist. People are afraid of socialism, and plays that deal with economics are scarier to them.

Black and white is so familiar. It's how we see the printed word in books, so it's kind of neutral in a way. Yet it's ironic that black and white is so charged socially, what with its association with race.

I've been socially deemed black in America, and this is a category that's been hurting my family for generations and that has also led to extraordinary cultural contributions that I'm very proud of, but it's not a real category and our society is damaged by insisting on it.

Racist societies enforce the idea of race as home by making race an inescapable fate.

Anti-Semitism is not just a problem for Jews; it is a problem for all of our society.

In any society, fanatics who hate don't hate only me - they hate you, too. They hate everybody.

One can fall into the 'soft bigotry of low expectations.'

We are - each and every one of us - unlearning misogyny. It's going to take some time. But be aware and active of your prejudices. Notice when they kick in and resist. Fight to stay soft and open. Step back and squint hard.

It amuses me that just because I'm white and always looked skinny, I'm supposed to be unphysical, soft, not tough.

That's mind-blowing to me that people would say that because you have nice things, you're soft. No, you're soft because your culture is soft.

After the Pearl Harbor attacks, around 120,000 Japanese Americans were jailed in internment camps. If an attack on U.S. soil were perpetrated by people who were not white and Christian, we can be pretty damn sure that racists would have a field day.

For historic reasons - principally the political Right's opposition to gay rights - most gay spokespeople continue to think that the political Right is the sole locale from which anti-gay sentiment can come.

Let's be very clear: Living 'unforgiven' is not the sole domain of blacks. It can be found in any successful person.

Attacking another American's qualifications solely based on his ethnic background is bigotry. Plain and simple.

Racism cannot be cured solely by attacking some of the results it produces, like discrimination in housing or in education.

The Nazis hijacked the Jewish thing early on by defining it as 'the Jewish problem' and started looking for a solution. These are not just words.

I have always believed, heretofore, in the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are born free and equal; but of late it appears that some men are born slaves, and I regret that they are not black, so all the world might know them.

I'm a fan of the kind of political correctness that is about not promoting prejudice. But some people in America are offended by equality because when you've had privilege for so long, equality feels like oppression.

When people get their mind made up about something, then it's: 'Don't bother me with facts.' They've got their minds made up and dismiss you out of hand. Some people don't even give you a fair hearing.

Some people resented the fact I was trying to break a white man's record.

It's kind of disappointing and disgusting in a way, how some people are focusing on how we look.

Some people believe they chose homosexuality, and some believe they didn't. Who's to say one is wrong? It's not fair to generalize anyone's sexuality or walk of life.

Some people have compared the Klan images to ecclesiastical figures.

Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.