#bigotry

I was to grow used to hearing, around New York, the annoying way in which people would say: 'Edward Said, such a suave and articulate and witty man,' with the unspoken suffix 'for a Palestinian.' It irritated him, too, naturally enough, but in my private opinion it strengthened him in his determination to be an ambassador or spokesman for those who lived in camps or under occupation (or both). He almost overdid the ambassadorial aspect if you ask me, being always just too faultlessly dressed and spiffily turned out. Fools often contrasted this attention to his tenue with his membership of the Palestine National Council, the then-parliament-in-exile of the people without a land. In fact, his taking part in this rather shambolic assembly was a kind of noblesse oblige: an assurance to his landsmen (and also to himself) that he had not allowed and never would allow himself to forget their plight. The downside of this noblesse was only to strike me much later on. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#bigotry #dress #edward-said #new-york #palestinian-national-council

People are always afraid of anything different. They are afraid of change," says Sensai. "It is the same everywhere. ↗

— Sandy Fussell

#discrimination #prejudice #change

People talk about history and things like slavery, genocide, and religious persecution as horrors that happened in the past because we were ignorant. But nothing's changed. We still hate what we don't understand. ↗

— J. Matthew Nespoli

#crime #fear #hatred #ignorance #prejudice

I know I can't tell you what it's like to be gay. But I can tell you what it's not. It's not hiding behind words, Mama. Like family and decency and Christianity. ↗

— Armistead Maupin

#christianity #coming-out #equality #family #gay

Initially, the purveyors of racism need no more than the silent acquiescence of the public ... [I]t is never too soon to confront bigotry and racism whenever, wherever, and in whatever form it raises its ugly head. It is incumbent upon all people to confront even the slightest hint of racist thought or action with zero tolerance. ↗

— Hans J. Massaquoi

#civil-rights #equality #freedom #racism #equality

Any black person who clings to the misguided notion that white people represent the embodiment of all that is evil and black people all that is good remains wedded to the very logic of Western metaphysical dualism that is the heart of racist binary thinking. Such thinking is not liberatory. Like the racist educational ideology it mirrors and imitates, it invites a closing of the mind. ↗

— Bell Hooks

#education

Anti-Americanism may indeed have grown fiercer than it was during the cold war. It is a common phenomenon that when the angels fail to deliver, the demons become more fearsome. ↗

— Ian Buruma

#bigotry #cold-war #leftism #politics #united-states

Don't think for one minute that you are any less worthy of love and peace and harmony just because of all the hate spewed by human devils. Because that is what those haters are, you know, devils! ↗

— Scylar Tyberius

#harmony #haters #love #peace #love

Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage... As chairman emeritus of the extreme right-wing National Organization for Marriage ↗

— Orson Scott Card

#anti-glbt #bigotry #zealotry #change

The more you put your arm around those that you might naturally look down on, the more you will love yourself. And the more you love yourself, the less need you’ll ever have to find fault or be better than others. And the less we all find fault or have a need to be better than others, the quicker this world becomes a far better place to live. ↗

— Dan Pearce

#charity #christianity #friendship #happiness #hate