Kirk Douglas Quotes

Sometimes an interviewer will look at me and say, 'You're bright!' They're actually surprised I might be bright.

People expect me to be stupid. I'm not saying I'm Stephen Fry, but it is amazing the perception people have.

When they talk to me, people say, 'I didn't expect you to be how you are.'

We know that we're not supposed to be racially biased, and we don't want to think of ourselves as racially biased, so we tell ourselves a different story.

There are a lot of people who like to think they don't have prejudices and that they're open people, and yet, we all have that in ourselves, oftentimes against people of our own race or our own gender or whatever.

Everyone - male and female - is biased. But no one wants to admit it, so our brains search for examples that disprove the accusation.

When a black man is stopped by a cop for no apparent reason, that is covert racism. When a black woman shops in a fancy store and is followed by security guards, that is covert racism. It is more subtle than 1960s racism, but it is still racism.

I think implicit bias is a problem for everyone, not just police. I think, unfortunately, too many of us in America jump to conclusions about each other.

Don't assume I'm dumb because I wear a suit and tie.

Every one of us is prone to implicit sexual prejudices, including women.

When I was given this job I said I would only teach the people that I truly, truly love. Unfortunately, none of those happen to be Chinese, or women.

I used to say that whenever people heard my Southern accent, they always wanted to deduct 100 IQ points.

Every now and then I'm in a situation where someone doesn't recognize me, and I experience racism. Things like not being buzzed into a store or sitting in first class on a plane and having someone ask to see my ticket four times.

If bigots behave like bigots, it's not a huge surprise.

The world believes all blondes are stupid and brunettes are smarter. Well, I disagree.

Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism.

I can be standing in Barneys with my coat and purse and my selections, and some white woman will say, 'Can you get this in my size?' What she sees is a black woman, and her service button goes off.

It's no surprise that White people say things when they are together about Black people.

I've known attractive airheads, and I've known ugly idiots.

My race and sex had a great deal more to do with what people believed I could do than with what I actually could do.

My greatest surprise was that so much of what we think is common sense is just prejudice, and so much of what we think is scientific fact is about as scientific as the idea that the sun revolves around the earth.

People think that just because you're a center, you're not as smart as the guards or the smaller guys.

Science fiction, extrasensory perception, and black people are judged by the worst elements they produce.

Being blonde means people decide on sight that you are much prettier and nicer than you really are, just as Americans automatically add 10 points to someone's IQ when they hear an English accent. Fact.

You judge people as you meet them.