Judith Butler Quotes

Multiculturalism isn't about culture, it's about power.

This idea of, oh, poor little black person, oh, poor little poor person, oh, poor little woman, oh, poor little indigenous person - everybody's a poor little something! I don't try and please everybody.

Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.

The caste systems of sex and race are interdependent and can only be uprooted together.

Once you open up the Pandora's box of race and gender... you're never done.

Different identity groups hold specific levels of power over others when their battles play out in the media. To wit: Black beats white. Gay beats white. Black beats gay.

The personal is political for so many.

A lot of people think that intersectionality is only about identity. But it's also about how race and gender are structured in particular workforces.

When the #MeToo movement started and went viral, it was everyday people all around the world. The fact that the stories continue to be about famous white women has everything to do with who the media places attention on.

I'm the result of upbringing, class, race, gender, social prejudices, and economics. So I'm a victim again. A result.

I'm not a fan of identity politics.

The personal is political, but only to a point.

Most men today cannot conceive of a freedom that does not involve somebody's slavery.

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

While everyone's experience of oppression is different and complicated and often overlapping, I really believe that if you have privilege, you need to learn as much as you can about the world beyond yourself.

White middle- and upper-class men have a longer journey to go than many people.

A commitment to sexual equality with males... is a commitment to becoming the rich instead of the poor, the rapist instead of the raped, the murderer instead of the murdered.

You gotta follow the white guys. Truly. They've got this thing wired. Too often, we live within their games, so why would you not study what works? Take away the bad stuff - because there's a lot - and use the savvy interesting stuff and figure out how they can apply. It's a good one for the ladies.

For the Left, victimhood has long carried social currency.

Victimhood, in the intersectional way of seeing the world, is akin to sainthood; power and privilege are profane.

I think the political is personal, and the personal is political.

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 was ahead of the gender curve, but I wasn't ahead of the intersectionality curve, and I get it now. It's important to me.

In some ways, privileged women who are closer to power wind up being able to exert their influence in ways that change public policy in ways that women with less power don't have access to.

When folks say 'identity politics' don't matter, it simply reinforces the norm of a white, middle-class, cis narrative and further marginalizes the rest of us who don't share that identity.