Michael Dyson Quotes

We need to have a discussion on race, but we also need to have a discussion on how we are treating poor and minority people in this country.

I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die.

Hurricane Katrina was a disaster. It exposed the soft underbelly of America when it comes to race and class.

It's not an underclass anymore; it's an outer class.

The endurance of the inequalities of life by the poor is the marvel of human society.

We will not settle for a state that will settle for an underclass.

The South politician preaches to the poor white man, "You got more than the blacks, don't complain. You're better than them, you been born with white skin," they explain. And the Negro's name Is used, it is plain, For the politician's gain, As he rises to fame And the poor white remains On the caboose of the train; But it ain't him to blame -- He's only a pawn in their game.

… in the old days there were one thousand castes and destinies in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies and Men with Small Bellies. And only two destinies: eat – or get eaten up

Disparity is Australia's worst social problem. Thousands of lives are slowly being crushed, while billions are wasted on thousands of little initiatives trying to 'close the gap.'

Class still matters in Britain today.

The black population now consists of two distinct classes-the middle class and the poor.

In middle-income countries, inequality becomes a problem because you can see there is a layer of people who are doing well, while the poor are still stuck there.

The trouble is not that schools don't work; they do. They're excellent machines for achieving historically accepted purposes. In suburban schools are children of the rich, who grow up to privilege and anesthetic oblivion to pain - and who then use the servants produced by ghetto schools.

I think we've made tremendous progress on racism. We've even made progress on war. We've made almost no progress on poverty.

Inequality doesn't create unhappiness.

You want the good life? You live where white people live, you go to school where white people go to school, and you shop where white people shop.

There are two Americas - separate, unequal, and no longer even acknowledging each other except on the barest cultural terms. In the one nation, new millionaires are minted every day. In the other, human beings no longer necessary to our economy, to our society, are being devalued and destroyed.

Inequality is on the rise.

I don't care about wealth. What seems to be upsetting is institutionalizing the advantages that wealth gives you.

This nation has always struggled with how it was going to deal with poor people and people of color. Every few years you will see some great change in the way that they approach this. We've had the war on poverty that never really got into waging a real war on poverty.

Why did the world ever become so unequal?

Redistribution of wealth has rarely been from the rich to the poor. Usually it is from the poor and middle class to the rich.

The central issue of our time remains the fact that the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer.

The rich are few everywhere, the poor many.

Opportunity seems to be color-coded here in America