Ignorance of how we are shaped racially is the first sign of privilege. In other words. It is a privilege to ignore the consequences of race in America.

~ Tim Wise

Tim Wise American Culture Black And White Black History George Zimmerman Hypocricy Privilege Race Relations Racism The Oj Simpson Trial Verdict Trayvon Martin White People White Privilege Willful Ignorance

...After all, acknowledging unfairness then calls decent people forth to correct those injustices. And since most persons are at their core, decent folks, the need to ignore evidence of injustice is powerful: To do otherwise would force whites to either push for change (which they would perceive as against their interests) or live consciously as hypocrites who speak of freedom and opportunity but perpetuate a system of inequality.The irony of American history is the tendency of good white Americanas to presume racial innocence. Ignorance of how we are shaped racially is the first sign of privilege.In other words. It is a privilege to ignore the consequences of race in America.

~ Tim Wise

Tim Wise American Culture Black And White Black History George Zimmerman Hypocricy Privilege Race Relations Racism Trayvon Martin White Privilege Willful Ignorance

But show business has always been like that - any kind of show business. If these people didn't live intense and rather disordered lives, if their emotions didn't ride them too hard—well, they wouldn't be able to catch those emotions in flight and imprint them on a few feet of celluloid or project them across the footlights.

~ Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler American Culture Mystery Novels Thriller

My children are monsters, Kiro thought. And I am responsible. Perhaps if I had read them the haikus of Basho when they were little instead of that American manifesto of high-pressure sales, Green Eggs and Ham...

~ Christopher Moore

Christopher Moore American Culture Basho Capitalism Christopher Moore Green Eggs And Ham Haiku

America isn't breaking apart at the seams. The American dream isn't dying. Our new racial and ethnic complexion hasn't triggered massive outbreaks of intolerance. Our generations aren't at each other's throats. They're living more interdependently than at any time in recent memory, because that turns out to be a good coping strategy in hard times. Our nation faces huge challenges, no doubt. So do the rest of the world's aging economic powers. If you had to pick a nation with the right stuff to ride out the coming demographic storm, you'd be crazy not to choose America, warts and all.

~ Pew Research Center

Pew Research Center Ageism Aging Aging Population Aging Workforce American Culture American Dream American Politics American Population Conflict Demograghic Shifts Demographics Demographics Of United States Demographics Of Us Economics Gemographic Shift Generation Gap Generations Interdependence Population Problems Of Today Public Policy Race And Racism In America Race In America Race Relations Recession The American Dream U S Culture U S Politics U S Population Workforce

[Americans] were, for one thing, so smitten with the idea of progress that they invented things without having any idea whether those things would be of any use.

~ Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson American Culture Invention Progress

Alice is fictional. This isn't.

~ Jess C. Scott

Jess C. Scott American Culture Dark Humor Group Think Groupthink Lady Gaga Mad Magazine Parodies Parody Pop Culture Popular Culture Resident Evil Satire Sheeple Short Story Simpsons South Park Zombie Apocalypse Zombies

If RACE becomes the norm, then harmony will not prevail.

~ Henry Johnson Jr

Henry Johnson Jr American Culture Harmony Quotes Norm Race Racism In America Racism Quote

Pop culture. Nobody does bullshit better than us. Right? China took over manufacturing. And the Middle East has us on fossil fuels. That's just geography and politics. We're a nation of whacko immigrants. Scavengers and con men. We crossed the ocean on faith, stole some land and stone-cold made up a whole country out of nothing but balls and bullshit. Superhero comics got invented by crazy genius Jews who showed up and revamped the refugee experience into a Man of Steel sent from Krypton with a secret identity.

~ Damon Suede

Damon Suede American Culture Comics Cosplay Funny Geeks Superheros Sweet

[N]ow that I am drawing to the close of this work, in which I have spoken of so many important things done by the Americans, to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.

~ Alexis De Tocqueville

Alexis De Tocqueville 19Th Century American Culture Gender

American journalism (like the journalism of any other country) is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretensions are enormous, but its achievements are insignificant.

~ H.l. Mencken

H.l. Mencken American Culture Journalism Media

Their constant outward-looking, their mania for radios, cars, and a thousand other trinkets made them dream and fix their eyes upon the trash of life, made it impossible for them to learn a language which could have taught them to speak of what was in their or others' hearts. The words of their souls were the syllables of popular songs.

~ Richard Wright

Richard Wright Acquisition Culture American Culture Materialism Superficiality

I felt that it was unfair that my lack of a few pounds of flesh should deprive me of a chance at a good job but I had long ago emotionally rejected the world in which I lived and my reaction was: Well, this is the system by which people want the world to run whether it helps them or not. To me, my losing was only another manifestation of that queer, material way of American living that computed everything in terms of the concrete: weight, color, race, fur coats, radios, electric refrigerators, cars, money ... It seemed that I simply could not fit into a materialistic life.

~ Richard Wright

Richard Wright Acquisition Culture American Culture Categorization Materialism Restrictions

Spare the rod and spoil the Memorial Day rotisserie.

~ Brian Spellman

Brian Spellman American Culture Militarism Military Quote Patriotism

...citizens of the U.S. live under an Empire of “evil doers” who have set themselves juxtaposed to humanity instilling in us from our youngest days how to slay our human element in exchange for an external existence of malnourished pride.

~ Steven Storm

Steven Storm American Culture Humanity And Society Political Prose Poetry Steven Storm Verse

Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.

~ Neil Postman

Neil Postman American Culture Social Commentary Sociology