Masha Gessen Quotes

When you have demonization of a group of people, it's easy to clump them all together and not understand them.

Demonization of people on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, or other criteria leads to dehumanization. The notion that some are 'other' is a dangerous and slippery slope.

You can't prove somebody is a racist unless they really come out and do the act and is found to be that.

No one said anything to my face, but I constantly heard comments denigrating Jews.

At my advanced age, I know I am not an anti-Semite, not even vaguely or remotely, but others would seem to know better, as false accusers always do.

If bigots behave like bigots, it's not a huge surprise.

The world is still very bigoted.

Folks never understand the folks they hate.

There was no reason to label us as anti-Semitic.

A child from the age of 2 or 3 absorbs what is in the environment and what generates hatred for anyone perceived to be different.

Prejudice is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety.

The Jew always lives from the blood of other peoples, he needs such murders and such sacrifices.

Someone asked me years ago if it were true that I disliked Jews, and I replied that it was certainly true, not at all because they are Jews but because they are folks, and I don't like folks.

Any deviation is looked upon as a perversion, is feared, and is usually a target of hatred and prejudice.

You see, that's the problem I have with 'you people.'

The paradox of anti-Semitism is that it is invariably up to the Jews to explain away the charges. The anti-Semite simply has to make them.

I think any stereotyping is too much.

Prejudice of any kind implies that you are identified with the thinking mind. It means you don't see the other human being anymore, but only your own concept of that human being. To reduce the aliveness of another human being to a concept is already a form of violence.

Some ticket buyers think they don't like Jews.

Harrison and his ilk believe that the Displaced Person is a human being, which he is not, and this applies particularly to the Jews, who are lower than animals.

There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation, or a distinct group by its least worthy members.

Muslims have been hating us for centuries ….

The absolute basis of all prejudice is ignorance and generalization.

Color prejudice and religion are akin in one respect. Some folks have it and some don't, and the kernel that is responsible for it is present in us all.

To characterize all Muslims as terrorists is fear-mongering of the worst kind.