Ayelet Waldman Quotes

The better we understand how identities and power work together from one context to another, the less likely our movements for change are to fracture.

You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can't be neutral.

Never befriend the oppressed unless you are prepared to take on the oppressor.

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.

The most important thing my grandfather taught me was that the most noble way to use your skills, intellect and energy is to defend the marginalized against those with the greatest power - and that the resulting animosity from those in power is a badge of honor.

He who allows oppression shares the crime.

People can't stand it when you deal with issues of race and class, and also sometimes the church, and you give a perspective that flushes out hypocrisy.

I am from the class that has, in a sense, benefited from the status quo, but everyone still gets victimized.

The margins don't get erased by simply insisting that the powers-that-be erase them.

Now that we are in power, we must ask ourselves, ‘how can we develop a truly just system rather than do to the elite what they have done to us?’

Social change can be painful for all involved—oppressor and oppressed.

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

I had the blessing of opportunity. You need the folks in the boardroom who have consciences and the people in the streets who can picket at the right time.

If we don't center the voices of marginalized people, we're doing the wrong work.

People with advantages don't tend to want to give them up. If you see it as a zero-sum game, then it will never change. If only the people who are disadvantaged speak out, then it's not enough. I don't want to overshadow their voices, but I want to support.

Intersectionality draws attention to invisibilities that exist in feminism, in anti-racism, in class politics, so, obviously, it takes a lot of work to consistently challenge ourselves to be attentive to aspects of power that we don't ourselves experience.

I don't like to see people using their power over others, trying to hurt people who are weak or poor or people with darker skin or anyone who doesn't have as much privilege. It makes me so angry. I want to fight for people. I want to be able to make some kind of difference in the world.

I grew up with a feminist mom and the understanding that, as someone coming from a position of (relative) privilege, it was my job to speak up when things weren't fair.

It was simply this: silence is not a neutral position, whatever your intentions. Silence automatically supports the status quo. When you are a presence that lacks a voice, you create an empty space that another voice - a dominating voice that knows no boundaries - is only too happy to fill.

Oppression tries to defend itself by its utility.

There is a naive belief that injustice only had to be pointed out in order to be cured.

The rage of the oppressed is never the same as the rage of the privileged.

It doesn't do any good to just be on the side of black people. The funnier comedic position is to be on the side of oppressed people in general.

Stuff Happens.’ That’s the G-rated version. That’s a bumper sticker that only a straight white upper middle class male could have made. Because anyone who isn’t straight, anyone who isn’t male, anyone who isn’t white, anyone who isn’t upper middle class knows that stuff doesn’t just happen. Stuff gets done by people to people. Nothing is a coincidence. Nothing is random. This isn’t osmosis. And so we act as if it’s this passive thing, but yet that’s not the case.

Often those who are denied rights are least empowered to bring about the changes they seek.