Quotessence
Home / Authors / Wajahat Ali

Wajahat Ali Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllRacismAmericaPeople Of ColorImmigrantsWhitesAmericansAsiansBarack ObamaChangeDonald TrumpObamaSouth AsiansWhitenessActivismAmerican DreamBlacksDiversityEquityFearHope

Famous Wajahat Ali Quotes

“The reality is that most people of color learn early in America that we will have to work twice as hard to get half as far, and when we fail, no one will help us fall up. Immigrants, people of color, and women learn early that in order to make it in Amreeka you have to daft punk it through life. You have to do everything harder, better, faster, stronger, and smarter. Those are just the rules. The streets of Amreeka aren't paved with gold; they're paved with blood. As an immigrant, you'll take a beating but you'll be like Rick Ross and keep hustling. if Bob works eight hours a day, you work ten. If Samantha works late on Friday, then you work on Saturday. You go twenty feet just to get to ten feet.”

AmericaWomenHard WorkRacismInequalityImmigrantsEquityPeople Of Color
Book:Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
Create image

“I'm about as American as chicken korma, apple pie, and chai, but even after forty years I'm still told to "go back." Where, exactly? In America, who (and what) are you when you're both "us" and "them"? When I'm a native but seen as a foreigner? When I'm a citizen but also seen as a perpetual suspect? When I'm your neighbor but also seen as an invader? When I'm a cultural creator but also seen as an eraser of white identity and European civilization?”

AmericaUnited StatesDiversityRacismImmigrantsDifferenceNativism
Book:Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
Create image

“The "model minority" myth is a dangerous drug manufactured and promoted by the Whiteness. It ignores all of our diverse experiences and narratives, eliminates all nuances, and lumps us with a convenient stereotype that always renders us as foreigners. It overlooks the discrimination, bias, and hate experienced by our communities and, perhaps worst of all, uses us, Asian and South Asian immigrants in particular, to launder systemic racism and discrimination against poor Black and Latino communities. Why can't they be "models" like us? Because they are lazy freeloaders who don't take personal responsibility, whine about racism, and refuse to pull themselves up by their bootstraps! The system turns us into enforcers and defenders of Whiteness, promising success and safety in exchange for loyalty and obedience. But it's an abusive, toxic relationship, in which the system has always betrayed us on a whim, without remorse or hesitation. Being a "model minority" doesn't live up to the hype.”

DiversityMinoritiesImmigrantsBlacksRace RelationsStereotypesWhitesAsiansSouth AsiansModel Minorities
Book:Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
Create image

“This entire experience, although seemingly harmless in the grand cosmic scheme of life, was a perfect microcosm of the American dream. The good minority earned his rank by beating up the bad minority--a tale as old as the founding of this country. You try to gain as much proximity to whiteness and as much distance as you can from Blackness or the villain of the day, in order to become accepted by the mainstream.”

RacismMinoritiesImmigrantsBullyingAmerican DreamBlacknessWhitenessFitting In
Book:Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
Create image

“The Patriot Act vastly expanded our domestic security apparatus and allowed the government to surveil Americans under the guise of combating terrorism. Americans are historically fine with castrating their own civil liberties, because we'd rather feel safe than actually be free, especially when our illusory feelings of safety can come at the expense of people of color, immigrants, and Muslims--you know, "them.”

SecurityTerrorismImmigrantsSurveillanceCivil LibertiesAmericansPatriot ActMuslimsPeople Of ColorProfiling
Book:Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
Create image

“Proximity to Whiteness can help immigrants and people of color literally survive in this country. Your othering will be minimized, and if you're lucky, you can be spared from discrimination, profiling, and ending up on the wrong registries.”

SurvivalRacismDiscriminationImmigrantsWhitesWhitenessPeople Of ColorOthering
Book:Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
Create image