W. Kamau Bell Quotes

As it defines itself, every society defines other societies. That definition almost always takes the form of a condemnation: the 'other' is the barbarian.

Yet another thing Canadians and Europeans have in common is an obsession with the United States, and with distinguishing themselves from it, often by crude stereotyping.

It seems that American patriotism measures itself against an outcast group. The right Americans are the right Americans because they're not like the wrong Americans, who are not really Americans.

In the West we are constantly hit with music of Middle Eastern descent signifying terror, intrigue or sorrow.

As soon as I came to L.A., I was told that I was exotic. I'd think, But I'm from Miami! I'm as American as a cheeseburger!

In Serbia a lot of people hate me because they want to westernize, not understanding that the western world is bipolar, with very good things and very bad things.

People think that because I write about India I must be trying to portray India in a way.

In Britain, you never get away from the fact that you're a foreigner. In the U.S., the view is it doesn't matter where you come from.

I am Ecuadorian but people felt so safe passing me off as a skinny, blue-eyed white girl.

It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it.

It didn't matter that I wore clothes from Sears; I was still different. I looked different. My name was different. I wanted to pull away from the things that marked my parents as being different.

I'm tired of being labelled anti-American because I ask questions.

In becoming an American, from Europe, what one has in common with that other immigrant is contempt for me-it's nothing else but color.

National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.

Who cares about that stuff? This is America, not Jerusalem. I'm an American. Let Harry be a Jew.

I made some flippant remark about not wanting my son to grow up with an American accent, and the next thing I knew, there were people in America suggesting I head back to Britain if I was unhappy at such a prospect.

California must be all American or all Chinese. We are resolved that it shall be American, and are prepared to make it so. May we not rely upon your sympathy and assistance?

When I was a punk teenager, I rebelled because lots of people in Iceland think that foreigners are evil and that if you don't wear woolen hats and eat sheep, you're betraying your heritage.

Well, I think when you come here and wave a Mexican flag in our face in a country that's giving a lot of these people an opportunity that they've never had before, I think a lot of Americans are insulted, whether they're first-, second-, third-, fourth- or fifth-generation Americans.

Generally speaking, they [Americans] are not a people we should be proud to acknowledge as our relations.

[Referring to Italian-Americans:] ...predominantly our murderers and bootleggers ... foreign spawn do not appreciate this country.

No encouragement must be given to social and political organizations or methods which perpetuate in this country foreign ideas and customs. An Irish-American, a German-American, or a French-American vote is an intolerable anomaly.

This sort of thing may be tolerated by the French, but we are British, thank God.

California must be all American or all Chinese. We are resolved that it shall be American, and are prepared to make it so.

America must be kept American