Roxane Gay Quotes

We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one!

When I say a girl like me, I bet you think I'm just talking about being fat. How dare you fat-shame me? You think I'm talking about being black? Racist. What makes you think I'm not talking about being smart? What? You don't think a fat, black girl can be smart or something? Fat-shaming racists like you make me sick.

I have lived my life in a culture that hates fat people.

The perception of fat people in America is that they're fat, therefore they're dumb, they're lazy, and they must stink.

Taking the line of least resistance, we lump the most different people together under the same heading. Taking the line of least resistance, we ascribe to them collective crimes, collective acts and opinions. "The Serbs have massacred…", "The English have devastated…", "The Jews have confiscated…", "The Blacks have torched", "The Arabs refuse…". We blithely express sweeping judgments on whole peoples, calling them "hardworking" and "ingenious", or "lazy", "touchy", "sly", "proud", or "obstinate". And sometimes this ends in bloodshed." – Amin Maalouf "On Identity

People think because I'm shaped this way, I'm scandalous

You don't pigeonhole yourself, people pigeonhole you. If the world is not at a place yet where it can just be like, "This music is gay and it's music," then it's not my fault that it gets pigeonholed, it's not the people in the band's fault, it's because people won't just let music be music, people who need to put a name on something or to critique something.

I think it's horrible that we Turks are always seen under the aspect of Islam first. I am constantly asked about religion, and almost always with a negative undercurrent that makes me furious.

These days I find myself wanting to avoid being pigeon-holed, ghettoized, held in a different category than other authors. And when people ask me if I'm a black writer, or just a writer who happens to be black, I tend to say that it's either a dumb question or a question which happens to be dumb.

Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them.

People who would never think of dealing in racial or sexual stereotypes will still throw in a fat joke because it's still OK. Really?

All fat women look the same; they all look 42.

All we talk about is 'Islamic terrorism.' If the two words are associated for long enough it's obviously going to have an effect on how people think about Muslims.

It is no longer acceptable in British politics to be fat or eccentric or religious.

When you're a little fat boy in any kind of school, you're just persecuted something awful.

We all judge people.

People have to stop saying that just because someone is an anti-gay activist they might be gay. They're DEFINITELY GAY!!

We don't properly discriminate. We never discriminate properly when we're dealing with another group and one of the big problems about religion is that religious people don't know that they are probably as flagrant in these misjudgments as irreligious people.

...my experience with people who tried to label me was that they usually did it to either dismiss me or use me.

The vast majority of people are unthinking prejudice machines.

The ***** is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent.

People have prejudices against a nation in which they have no acquaintances.

People only say I’m angry because I’m black and I’m a woman.

I'm fat positive, in that I don't see fat as a bad thing. But what I do see as a bad thing is how I'm treated. I can have the most positive outlook in the world, but that is not going to change how hecklers and people walking down the street are yelling at me.

Where prejudice exists it always discolors our thoughts.