Rose Bird Quotes

Only when the oppressed are heard can we have an honest solutions based dialogue.

When you're fighting for economic and social justice, you're always fighting for the minority.

Minorities…are almost always in the right.

I think it was a good and necessary thing that the American upper class diversified, and that more African-Americans and Jews and Catholics (like myself) and women now share privileges and powers once reserved for Protestant white men.

I wanted to try and change the idea of what we call mainstream. So many times what we call mainstream is upper middle class white suburbia. And anything outside of that is considered niche.

If you're trying to deal with being a marginalized person and trying to confront a larger population that isn't the same as you, you can be friendly about it, and invite everybody in, or you can be angry about it and be hostile and attack the systems that you want to destabilize.

I'm a gatekeeper, and the gatekeepers all used to be mostly old, white men.

When you're in the minority, it doesn't matter what you're agenda is, you're not going to have the degree of freedom that you have as a member of the majority.

If what I read doesn't reflect my life - whether I'm gay or Latino or on welfare - doesn't that really mean that my life is not valuable?

Those who are most desperate for change are those who are the most powerless to effect it.

The only part of my mother's experience that still gets to me is the way she and people like her were looked down upon for asking America to be America, for asking for full and equal participation in our democracy.

We need more leaders speaking up for minority groups who have been marginalized and attacked.

You don't fight injustice by asking to become part of the system that committed the injustice against you in the first place. That's like a freed slave striving to become a slave owner.

Our societies have experienced the magic that occurs when pluralism flourishes and the marginalized assume their proper powers. But loss stalks those victories, as millions revolt against change and supremacies resurface.

I've been there; I've been in the minority before. It humbles the exalted. But that's all right.

Most sports federations, corporations, and governments don't change voluntarily. Change is brought by the disenfranchised demanding better.

I think being collaborative is definitely more natural for people who are minorities in any sense - so people who aren't, like, white male artists - because we don't have the privilege to create art and work alone, usually.

There's a lot of talk now about the PC police, and 'why is everything bad?' It isn't. What it is, is that marginalized and oppressed people who have never had a soapbox, who have never been given a microphone, suddenly have a microphone.

All the excuses that people in power used to make for not telling diverse stories or including diverse people, they've proven to be false.

A lot of people think that if something doesn't happen right away with women or with a particular minority, they are overlooked and they're not important and that is so much not the case.

Sometimes, the hate that I endure is not necessarily about me but about the space I'm in.

We'll always be re-examining how we relate to each other in terms of race and gender, in terms of power and access.

I don't like laughing at people unless they're in a privileged position or if they're in authority. If it's poor people or people who live on the outskirts or on the margins, or the underdog, I'd rather be laughing with them.

If there was an Oppression Olympics, I would win the gold medal. I'm Palestinian, Muslim, I'm female, I'm disabled, and I live in New Jersey.

As a gay person, I'm used to speaking on gay issues. As a black person, I'm used to speaking on black issues.