Maysoon Zayid Quotes

Marches alone won't bring integration when human respect is disintegratin'

Race prejudice can't be talked down, it must be lived down.

The virtue of gay equality has become increasingly recognized in the U.S. because people have been persuaded of its merits, not because state officials, acting like Inquisitors, forced people to accept it by punishing them for their refusal.

There is a fantasy as old as the modern gay rights movement that if all our skins turned lavender overnight, the majority, confounded by our numbers and our diversity, and recognising a few of our faces, would at once let go of prejudice forevermore.

South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.

There was a time when someone would get on a plane and request to move their seat just because the person sitting next to them was of a different ethnicity or religion or nationality. But I don't think my generation wants that. That's how it used to be.

Now is not the time for us to shy away from challenging ourselves to make substantive change for the better. We have the opportunity to raise the bar in the faith-based world by forging a culture in which inclusivity, diversity, and equality are paramount.

The one peace possible: A homeland for everybody.

In today's restless world, America needs to identify with the quest for universal human dignity, a dignity that embodies both freedom and democracy but also implies respect for cultural diversity.

The religious right needs to adapt to the reality of modern pluralism.

Americans change religions frequently, and most Americans have friends or family in religious groups other than their own…. Americans remain religious while growing increasingly tolerant.

… all other [than Christianity] religions, with the public exercise of the same, be both tolerated and protected by the council of religion: and that all professors of any such religion be equally capability of all elections, magistracies, preferments and offices in the commonwealth.

There's no religious test in our country, and there shouldn't be. We're an open, competitive society.

If we want to change this culture of hate and bigotry, every one of us must stand up and speak with one voice to condemn it, because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.

Fashion has a huge responsibility - in what we show on the runway, what we do in editorial, who we dress - to make sure it represents differences. If we don't, we're giving in to the discrimination.

We believe in equal respect for all faiths.

As my audience grew more diverse, I started interjecting social justice advocacy and commentaries about LGBT equality, and it just kept growing more.

Home to some of our nation's civil rights leaders, Harvard Law is not a bigoted hub of racism but a place where men and women of all races peacefully co-exist in pursuit of higher education.

I believe in people, and you don't need to be a feminist for that.

We should always be having a conversation about if we could make this country more inclusive and what we can do to do that.

In the early '90s, there was an attention to diversity. In this country, diversity was a good thing. People would use words like 'multicultural' and like it. Now, politically, those words are out. But I still feel theaters have to be diverse in order to survive.

I challenge us all to have the courage of our convictions to fight for a fair, justice and inclusive society.

For them it's normal that people of all colours are equal. When I look at schoolkids, I think that we should all be like that.

We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions-bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities.

You can argue that it's a different world now than the one when Matthew Shepard was killed, but there is a subtle difference between tolerance and acceptance. It's the distance between moving into the cul-de-sac and having your next door neighbor trust you to keep an eye on her preschool daughter for a few minutes while she runs out to the post office. It's the chasm between being invited to a colleague's wedding with your same-sex partner and being able to slow-dance without the other guests whispering.