Michel Foucault Quotes

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

I think what we forget is that everybody loses when we keep unnecessary privilege. The cost to society overall is much greater.

What people don't know about oppression is that the oppressor works much harder. You always grew up being told you were not smart enough or not fast enough, but we all lived from the time we were children to beat the system.

Whoever is content with the world, and who profits from its lack of justice, does not want to change it.

Large numbers of people are broken from the notion that the system is working for people, that the system is just or humane or peaceful.

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

Social injustice is such a familiar phenomenon ... that it is readily regarded as something natural, even by its victims.

No man-made system is perfect, and the system of oppression is no exception. It is subject to fatigue, to cracks, which you are the likelier to discover the longer your term.

We have never had a society that was truly just. Some groups have always benefited at the expense of others.

Oppression doesn't disappear just because you decided not to teach us that chapter.

Face it, the system is rigged, and it's rigged against us.

It's funny how people who ain't never been down there can think that America is so fair and that we should be alright. It's funny that the people who have their foot on our neck are telling us, 'Get up. What's wrong with you?'

What we really need to be understanding is that all of these things matter and they all stem from the fact that certain people live with power and authority and they want to maintain it.

Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.

As a black woman, I have no particular interest in maintaining the status quo. Why would I? The status quo is harmful; the status quo is significantly racist and sexist and a whole bunch of other things that I think need to change.

Every social injustice is not only cruel, but it is economic waste.

I don't hate nobody. I hate certain conditions that are inflicted upon the people - and they're helpless with it.

Often the masses are plundered and do not know it.

Not only are whites kicking us; they are telling us how to react to being kicked.

Our criminal justice system affirmatively depends on inequality.

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

Brother! We have, as your friends, fought by your side, and have poured out our blood in your defense, but our arms are now broken. You have grown large. My people have become small, and there are none who take pity on them.

As the oppressor minority subordinates and dominates the majority, it must divide it and keep it divided in order to remain in power.

Resentment — that feeling when the modern promise of equality collides with massive disparities of power, education, status and property ownership.

The poor man looks upon the law as an enemy, not as a friend. For him, the law is always taking something away.