Todd Haynes Quotes

Segregation is that which is forced upon an inferior by a superior. Separation is done voluntarily by two equals.

I think people really need to think what it's like to have all of society arrayed against you.

Twenty years on, the books are still fun to write and I've still got lots of stories I want to tell, mainly about social injustice and people chewed up by the system.

Minorities…are almost always in the right.

Discrimination will impair democracy.

I feel that discrimination and hierarchy is something that people have to face constantly.

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.

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior.

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

When you exist in the centre of a debate, as a topic, a hypothesis - otherised and stigmatised - you become the prop in a proposition.

I'm an underdog person, so I align myself with those who seem to be not considered valuable in polite society.

Poor men's reasons are not heard.

My father is the jailhouse. My father is your system... I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you.

I think the world of 'District 9' has a lot of race and oppression-based ideas that I would still like to explore in that world.

If you've ever felt oppressed on any level, there's something from 'The Wire' that you can take and identify with.

This is a hard job to do …. We represent the underdog, and that makes the top dogs angry.

If you try to smooth out society with a hot iron, you're liable to drive out all talent.

The concessions of the privileged to the unprivileged are so seldom brought about by any better motive than the power of the unprivileged to extort them

Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.

By us, and not for us

I think 'Humans' is more about provoking the idea that there is a class of beings in society that we treat as less than... as subordinates; people who we treat badly and take for granted. Often they are the same people who work hard to keep the city going. We need to think about that.

I always think - when I get mad, and people say, 'Don't be the angry black woman' - it's like, well, why not? There's so much to be angry about.

Oppression thrives on distance - on not actually meeting or seeing the oppressed.

I think history repeats itself. There's a constant conversation between the oppressed and the oppressor. No matter what your field is, whether it's gender equality, the Time's Up movement, or diversity casting, it's always going to be a back-and-forth battle.