Ricardo Montalban Quotes

There aren't a lot of roles for sleepy-eyed black dudes.

One of the things about being a minority actor is that you don't have that opportunity as some of your counterparts to keep that flow, to constantly be going from one thing to the other, so when you see really great performances out there by some black folks, you know it's coming from somewhere deep, because they just don't work as much.

Our family were outsiders, and I've always had a sense of the outsider, the underdog, and a strong sense of justice towards people who are excluded.

When you use the term minority or minorities in reference to people, you're telling them that they're less than somebody else.

Discrimination is alive and soaring.

When it comes to African Americans and African American actors, Hollywood has always felt that if you can make us laugh, that's fine, but we don't need to see you do a 'Schindler's List,' where there's no jokes or music or comedic through-line.

I know the only reason that I haven't gotten many good parts is because I am Latin - and they tell it to my face a lot of times.

I'm tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.

People don't talk to you properly. It's the way they talk to you; they dismiss you. I think it's a combination of me being a woman and a foreigner.

Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.

Like one of any minority, I have experienced prejudice.

Institutionalized discrimination is bad for people and for societies. Widespread discrimination is also bad for economies. There is clear evidence that when societies enact laws that prevent productive people from fully participating in the workforce, economies suffer.

Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.

When I was young, they just gave me the lead. And when I got old, they wouldn't see me at all.

The African American community is so under-served in the entertainment industry.

It's just a fact of life that I don't think I've ever been taken particularly seriously in movies by movie makers. I don't know why.

It's really maddening out there for dark-skinned actresses in terms of the opportunities we get. There's just so much talent that is being overlooked.

In my 20s I was going round seeing agents who were patronising because I was fat and a girl, which was a double whammy. I knew what it was to feel out-of-the-loop.

Remember, this is a country where even the non-Jews know they have no rights.

Discrimination is not a national defense strategy!

If a casting breakdown said 'All-American Type' or 'Lead Role,' I knew they weren't thinking of me.

All my life, I faced sexism and racism and then, when I hit 40, ageism.

Public housing officials are free to discriminate against you on the basis of criminal records, including arrest records. And so, you know, what you find is that even for these extremely minor offenses, people find themselves trapped in a permanent second-class status and struggling to survive.

When you are young, coming into this business, you're told how the business works, and you feel very lucky to be here and want to stick around, so you believe the data, and you believe the conversations you're having where they say, 'You can't have that kind of lead because they don't travel here,' or, 'People will think it's not for them.'

Anybody who has been discriminated against, who comes from a group that's been discriminated against, knows what it's like.