Anand Giridharadas Quotes

I'm a straight white man - I have options, and I'm not blocked on a consistent basis when I wake up in the morning because of my race, sex, and orientation.

What is it going to take to dismantle the systems that keep me from being able to live well and that keep me and so many other people from being able to access the things that we need and deserve?

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

I just think the most difficult thing to displace is privilege.

When a system of oppression has become institutionalized it is unnecessary for individuals to be oppressive.

We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism.

The personal is political, but only to a point.

I suggest that instead of criticising us, the establishment has a bloody good look at itself.

In every truth, the beneficiaries of a system cannot be expected to destroy it.

And what sort of philosophical doctrine is thi - that numbers confer unlimited rights, that they take from some persons all rights over themselves, and vest these rights in others.

The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.

The real problem is that the way that power is given out in our society pits us against each other.

The paradox of American democracy has been that its slogan of equal opportunity has meant, often, equal opportunity to get power over your fellows.

I resent anyone coming in and claiming to be a minority as I am.

Institutions are more important than the individual leaders.

I represent both the underdog and the overdog in our society.

Visibility has an effect on those who are privileged; it brings more privilege, and on those who are marginalized, it brings more marginalization, because it also brings a spotlight onto them where they're at, in the hood or in certain places that are less tolerable.

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.

No one can finish my party. Just because they have money power, they think they can finish us off.

This is an important thing: People who live in the mainstream and the status quo think that everyone else is there to serve them.

The world view of the underdog socialist is encapsulated in the notion that the establishment has mastered the game of reason, judgment and statistics, leaving the left with emotion. Its heart is in the right place.

I came to see that it wasn't enough just to care about people. You also had to build systems in which you could ensure that there are results and accountability.

Intersectionality is not easy. It's not as though the existing frameworks that we have - from our culture, our politics, or our law - automatically lead people to being conversant and literate in intersectionality.

In every revolution, there are winners and losers. Every dystopia is a utopia for somebody else. It just depends where you are. Are you in the class that benefits, or are you in the class that's not?