Lou Barlow Quotes

I'm far from immune to the American, perhaps historically male, prejudice toward practical and physical competence; I hope I've also considered that prejudice enough to have some distance from it.

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

We're all complicit in the things we may be trying to oppose. I'm complicit in the things that I'm trying to oppose.

People with advantages are loath to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages.

Once you open up the Pandora's box of race and gender... you're never done.

There is a qualitative difference between being a minority and being a majority. Majorities are stronger under psychological pressure because numbers count. But only if they are aware of it.

The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.

To unequal privileges among members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse.

Demoralization is something I know a great deal about, all my life I have got something for nothing. That is entirely due to luck and I think a great many members opposite are in the same position. We have all got something for nothing. The question is: are we demoralized? I am not demoralized.

A privilege accruing to the majority ceases to be such.

I think I'm drawn to female characters partly because they don't have as easy or as obvious a relationship to power in society, and so they suffer under social constraints or have to maneuver within them in ways men sometimes don't or are unconscious about, or have certain liberties that are invisible to them.

Visibility has an effect on those who are privileged; it brings more privilege, and on those who are marginalized, it brings more marginalization, because it also brings a spotlight onto them where they're at, in the hood or in certain places that are less tolerable.

When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight... Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes.

I'm a straight white man - I have options, and I'm not blocked on a consistent basis when I wake up in the morning because of my race, sex, and orientation.

There is a lot more opportunity now, and I welcome all the conversations we are having about diversity, about women and about class... I come from a very working-class background, and I think the class thing is still probably more tricky.

For the Left, victimhood has long carried social currency.

'Oppressed' is one of the terms that's very, very sellable and easily thrown around these days because everybody feels it, no matter what side you're on. We thrive on it. We're addicted to it.

The point of privilege and the notion of mansplaining is that sometimes I definitely feel like I should shut up. That's it functioning. That's the notion of privilege functioning.

I have this rule. It's called 'Top Dog-Underdog:' Underdog gets to make fun of Top Dog, but Top Dog can't make fun of Underdog. But you know what? You get Top Dog, you get to be Top Dog. Congratulations! And that dynamic happens not just in race but in many different ways. It's like the male-female dynamic.

The Ledbetter Act is aimed at equality. But individuals are not equal. We all have different talents, resources, interests, abilities, educations, and backgrounds.

When you have privilege, you have to been quiet and listen.

I am not arguing for a utopian society; equal opportunity for all, though ideal, is unrealistic.

Just because I get to coast around in a nice, cushy little bubble, that's not how it is for everybody.

My privilege as a white man, my privilege as the mayor and the leader of the institutions of power in this community I believe shielded me from time to time from the many difficult and uncomfortable truths about our history and about our society.

It's hard for men sometimes to talk about feminism, just as it's hard for people who aren't from ethnic minorities to talk about racial prejudice. It's a difficult conversation to have, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have it.