Quotes About Prejudice

I feel great and I send fraternal greetings to Dr. Andrei Sakharov in Russia," said Dr. Leary on emerging from prison, registering the fact that the mechanisms of the police state are the same everywhere, as are the myths that protect them. "Good Russians" believed Dr. Sakharov was a half-crazed alcoholic, just as "Good Americans" believed Dr. Leary was a half-crazed dope-fiend.

Yesterday a Gay Rights demonstration occurred in Washington. Naturally, the Expert police estimate of the crowd (300,000) falls far short of the estimates given by the Expert organizers (1,000,000 or more.) Even in counting heads, people "see" in accordance with pre-established programs.

If we dared to proclaim Straight Pride, we would immediately get accused of homophobia — although the Gay Pride people, most curiously, never, never get accused of heterophobia.

When there is no existential pressure for quick decisions, only prejudice asserts certitude.

Hitler was a trauma intellectually because of his batty theory of the Elders of Zion plotting to take over Europe; the horrible results of his paranoia created a prejudice about thinking about conspiracies at all. To talk of conspiracy is called the Devil Theory of History and historians make fun of it.

You, a male, have to have a business meeting with a Feminist who expects all, not sombunall, men to act unfairly or brutally. You try to remain calm and judicious, but her attitude annoys you more and more. Eventually, her hostility keys off your hostility. A prophecy has fulfilled itself: you have proven to her that her view of men as dangerous creatures has just had itself confirmed one more time.

Or: you, an Afro-American, confront a cop who knows all, not sombunall, Afro-Americans are violent and dangerous. He uses excessive force. You get angry and fight back. You have just confirmed your suspicion about white cops — and he has confirmed his suspicion about Afro-Americans.

Of course, I know that, like the Nazi Big Lie, male "inferiority" will go on getting repeated endlessly, no matter how much scientific evidence contradicts it. Politics does not rest upon scientific validations. Politics rests upon passion and prejudice; otherwise, this planet might become suddenly stark staring sane.

General Semantics has influenced recent psychology and social science greatly but has had little effect on physical sciences or education and virtually no effect on the problems it attempted to alleviate — i.e., the omnipresence of unacknowledged bigotry and unconscious prejudice in most human evaluations.

Her toenails were painted. It didn't help much. Never saw a toenail I liked.

Finally it was probably less the poverty that bred crime than the sour stench of racism that hung over anyplace where people are separated out by kind.

Probably the easiest and most efficient approach was to hate everybody. Where have you gone, Jackie Robinson?

One of the things that made Susan so interesting was the fact that she looked like a Jewish princess and worked like a Bulgarian peasant.

Michaels was an overweight guy in his early thirties with a wide butt and a hairline that hadn't seen his eyebrows in years. He had pale skin and washed-away eyes and dry lips that he continuously licked. The lips made me think he was feeling short and thinking about his next fix, but that's only because Livermore had said he was a junkie. Tre Michaels didn't look like a junkie, but then I've never met a junkie in real life who looked like Johnny Rotten.

Discrimination is difficult, because in its worst form, it is not overt. It is subtle.

I've seen what rational thought leads to. Dumbest people I ever met were intellectuals.

As Abraham Lincoln said, "I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.

If you are observing someone you naturally dislike, or who reminds you of someone unpleasant in your past, you will tend to see almost any cue as unfriendly or hostile. You will do the opposite for people you like. In these exercises you must strive to subtract your personal preferences and prejudices about people.

I don't know where you'd find such a magazine. ~ on the stipulations set by a benefactor to the Harvard Advocate that the staff contain no Jews, homosexuals, or drunks

Within four years, Belmont's name was on the lips of every New Yorker. He was the city's leading investment banker and the hottest thing to hit society-and he was a Jew.

I doona want to be loved because I'm Undead. No more than ye would want to be rejected for being mortal.

Most destructive of all to black self-esteem has been the ideology of branqueamento or whitening. This theory was dreamed up in the 1920s to stop Brazil becoming a predominantly black country. White immigration from Europe was encouraged to stem the black tide. The black in Brazil will disappear within 70 years, said one congressman in 1923.

Look at me, Mariam.' Reluctantly, Mariam did. Nana said, 'Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.

Nana said, "Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.