Roxane Gay Quotes

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.

I didn't wake up and decide to become an activist. But you couldn't help notice the inequities, the injustices. It was all around you.

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

Regardless of how much media coverage will be received, talking and raising awareness about social injustice isn't enough.

We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.

I believe you should tell the story of injustices, of inequalities, of bad conditions, so that the people as a whole in this country really face the problems that people who are pushed to the point of striking know all about, but others know practically nothing about.

If power is abstraction, which many black men, black women, and people of color have very little voice in, well, then I want to sit at the table.

And a lot of Barack Obama's support people are angry, don't like this country, from Bill Ayers to Jeremiah Wright on down. They think this country was founded in an unjust and immoral way and it has been unjust and immoral since it was founded. And it's about time it changed, it's about time the little guy got his share because the little guy is only little because everything's been stolen from him by the big guys.

I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.

No people can more exactly interpret the inmost meaning of the present situation in Ireland than the American Negro. The scheme is simple. You knock a man down and then have him arrested for assault. You kill a man and then hang the corpse.

Giving people equal access to enjoying the benefits of America is the biggest problem that we're not making any progress in resolving.

Privilege is least apparent to those who have it.

May my eyes never see and my feet never take me to a society where half the people are held in silence.

I don't get this at all. It's like protesting the fact that some people are red-haired.

People need to know what's going on. People need to wake up.

We have more families at risk with the death penalty. It targets the voiceless, the poor, people of color. And so it's important just to understand what your government is doing and how much they are spending.

Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson...? The people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free.

But why, oh why, do the wrong people travel, when the right people stay at home?

If life were like a competitive race, some people would be given a flying start and others would line up with weights tied to their ankles.

Moving to London was a culture shock, but in a really good way. I'm more aware now, and I'm less trusting of people in the music industry.

The world isn't fair, but as long as it's tilting in my direction, I find that there's a natural cap to my righteous indignation.

It's God's will that millions of people are gonna die this year because of some outmoded economic policies? No, it's not!

Germany is not a fair country. Millions of people believe that things aren't fair in this country. Company profits and bonus payments have increased at the same rate as precarious employment situations.

People must get active; go outside; get moving. This is a crucial time. You know, massive wealth and capital haven't budged one bit, so far. We have to give it a huge push if we want to see something different in our society. We need to create mechanisms and forms of organization which reflect the needs and wants of society as a whole, not just a privileged-oligarchic class of individuals.

But is it just then that the few and the wealthy should be the rulers? And what if they, in like manner, rob and plunder the people, - is this just?