Quotes About Prejudice

At various points in my own life, I have been laughed at scathingly for calling myself black.

I've been harassed by police my whole life and seen people who looked like me treated like animals at the hands of law enforcement.

When I became a lawyer, no one asked me if I had spent some time in special ed. All they wanted was a good lawyer.

'The Cosby Show' - no one thought there's doctors and lawyers who are married and live in brownstones! Back then no one would have thought we would have an African-American president. They would have laughed in your face.

It's one thing to be prejudiced. It's another to be a liar.

I'm not Rebus. We're not the same. I don't even think he'd like me if we met. He'd think I was a wishy-washy liberal.

Racism is the greatest cancer of my lifetime.

In my country - even though we have a lot of dark-skinned people - people think the lighter you are, the better you are. They think beauty has to do with being light-skinned. I think that's really wrong.

I don't think there's a whole lot of class literature at all. I think most of that has become racially based, and people don't think of it as being class literature.

I'm from Europe, and I was very aware that there are a lot of literature snobs - especially in Europe. As soon as something becomes a success, it has to be bad, and then they'll do everything they can to stab it to death.

Being a little kid, you don't hear much about racism. You figure everybody's the same. If racism isn't taught, you're just a black kid and a white kid together.

A lot of people see that I'm a good rebounder. And then they see the long hair and everything and they think I'm getting these rebounds because of toughness, and because I have a nose for the ball, not because I'm athletic and can actually jump.

We live in a society that has a long history of not valuing people of color or women.

People tend to assume that I come from a long line of castle-dwelling gentry and am made of money.

I don't need you to love me. I don't want you to hate me, but just don't judge a book by its cover.

If your community tells you that you're an abomination, that you're nothing and, because of who you are, you'll never amount to anything, why would you love yourself? Why would you save money? Why would you set goals?

On the whole, I have quite a low opinion of men.

You know how macho boys get when they're all together? Well, the set of 'Desperado' was like that. They were all trying to put me down, saying, 'Bring on the stuntwoman, Salma can't do that.' But I did everything.

I don't like that putdown: that when you're trying to achieve, you're trying to be white. That makes me mad.

Italian-Americans are not the Mafia.

Young African-American males: Stop existing. It could get you killed.

Asian males have not been appreciated for what they are. They have always been dissed for what they are not.

Some males who want to become teachers even want to wear dresses to work and flaunt their homosexuality in front of my children.

Young English managers don't get enough time, young black managers aren't given enough time, there are a lot of reasons why.