Luvvie Ajayi Quotes & Sayings

First of all, even nice people can be racists, because racism does not depend on malicious intent. It is not a requirement for you to consciously hate someone who is of a different skin color for you to be racist. Let me repeat. You do not need to actively hate someone who is of a different race than you to do racist crap and hold racist views. — Luvvie Ajayi

If you constantly have to play ombudsman for your beloved, you're in a co-dependent prison of your own making. People will keep doing what they can get away with. — Luvvie Ajayi

The fight for equality on any front does not equate to the oppression of the oppressors. — Luvvie Ajayi

Real women breathe. — Luvvie Ajayi

If the prosperity of megachurches was parallel to the prosperity of the people in the community they were in, there would be less to judge them for. But what is the point of a million-dollar mansion surrounded by shacks? What is the point of a billionaire whose closest friends are destitute? Far — Luvvie Ajayi

You're so skinny! Do you eat?! Maybe you just need a sandwich.

No, I don't eat. I survive on a steady diet of air and water. Don't worry about me, worry about you. You don't see me walking up to you, saying, "I see you've been eating. A LOT." Rude. — Luvvie Ajayi

People rush to discredit survivors and protect perpetrators because it's easier to deny that something happened than to deal with the fact that there are predators in our midst. Unfortunately, — Luvvie Ajayi

how many love stories begin with, "He yelled at me from his car as I was going to work?" If — Luvvie Ajayi

White feminism has bred far too many mean girls who think they are fighting for all women but who are really fighting just for the ones who look like them. Let — Luvvie Ajayi

Too many people have a cramped idea of what feminism is, and all it does is marginalize women and discourage more of us from using that label. The — Luvvie Ajayi

I am not ride-or-die. Those are some pretty limiting choices: So if I'm not riding, I gotta die? Can I get off and take the bus? Is "Let's talk about it" an option? What about "ride, or pause this if we need to"? There — Luvvie Ajayi

Black people actually have to PROVE their humanity, instead of having it accepted as a given. — Luvvie Ajayi

We have more ways to get our news than ever, which is supposed to be a good thing, because more competition is supposed to challenge you to do better. However, in this social media age, what is has done is allowed the information business to be a free- rein free-for-all. Old rules of journalistic integrity have been thrown out the window. Everyone has been given the conch, and no one knows what to do with it. Instead of using the new-media landscape to spur us to higher quality, we have instead become sloppier than ever: Tweet first, research later. Post first, rescind later. Guess first, confirm later. — Luvvie Ajayi

Black trauma is never given space to heal because we have to make sure the white people who hurt us don't feel too bad about it. Even as victims, we're told to care about the feelings of those who harm us. — Luvvie Ajayi

I do not expect or even try to convince anyone else to be religious or practice any spirituality. Your faith, your choice. Just walk in love and try not to be a hateful shrew and you'd be doing life right. — Luvvie Ajayi

Being able to live without having to be defined by your skin color is the hallmark of privilege. — Luvvie Ajayi

But we are more than the sum of our parts, and we are more than the numbers on our scales. Be like me and judge people by the decisions they make with their eyebrows. That's way more important. — Luvvie Ajayi

It's like someone breaks your arm, and the person who slammed the baseball bat into it is saying, "The only reason it won't heal is because you keep complaining that it hurts." How about you get me a cast so the bone can set straight again? America does not want to put the effort into providing this cast. This is why we must talk about race, and we must do it openly. As — Luvvie Ajayi

You know what makes no sense? A bunch of penises making choices for vaginas. That's like interviewing a turtle on the struggles of being a dolphin. We — Luvvie Ajayi

Racism is not a byproduct as much as it's the foundational stock in the American soup. — Luvvie Ajayi

we're not all in the same race, so why do you think we're in the same lane? It — Luvvie Ajayi

But let's be real: feminism has mostly worked hard for those things for white women, and that is one of the main reasons why it gets its wig snatched so often. A — Luvvie Ajayi

The real scaffolding of racism is institutions that are so fully entwined with prejudice that to change them would require overhauling entire systems, entire ways of life. When keeping Black and brown people marginalized literally elevates white people, as they use our backs as stairs, why would they want us to stand up? — Luvvie Ajayi

There's power in believing there's a God in each of us because if we are made in His/Her/Their image, aren't we all like good horcruxes for God? Because a piece of them is in us? — Luvvie Ajayi

Have you ever seen lips so chapped that when the person smiles too wide they start to bleed? That's me every January in Chicago if I don't apply ChapStick every thirty minutes without fail. If I go forty-five minutes, my lip situation gets compromised and I end up looking like I got into a fight and lost. And it's kinda awkward to explain to people that the fight I got into was with the weather. Good times. But — Luvvie Ajayi

Some well-meaning folks think if we stop talking about racism, it'll magically disappear, like the smell of an errant fart. But like a fart, people might try to be polite and ignore it, but everyone knows it's there. Avoidance has never been a great tactic in solving any problem. For most situations in life, not addressing what's going wrong only makes matters worse. It's like someone breaks your arm, and the person who slammed the baseball bat into it is saying, 'The only reason it won't heal is because you keep complaining that it hurts.' How about you get me a cast so the bone can set straight again? America does not want to put the effort into providing this cast. This is why we must talk about race, and we must do it openly. — Luvvie Ajayi

This is a place that was "discovered" by a dude who didn't know how to read a map, so he just showed up on some shore, thought he was in India, and then proceeded to plant a flag there, like, "TA-DA." No, sir, no. What Christopher Columbus's goofass needed was a compass and a clue for being so aggressively mediocre, but that dude has a federal holiday in his honor. He showed up on someone else's property and claimed it as his because he didn't know what it was. This country started off all the way wrong and continued in the same fashion. Chris — Luvvie Ajayi

Why try to change who you were born to be and force yourself into who you think everyone will find more beautiful? Society has failed people to the point where they feel they cannot like themselves in the skin they were born in. — Luvvie Ajayi

We are entrusting thousands of strangers with our innermost thoughts and feelings, and then we're expecting them to be careful with those feelings. As much as we want it to be, the Internet is not a safe space. It is not a place where we can lay our burdens down and heal. Why? Because there are too many people there who do not give an ounce of a shit about our well-being. They do not deserve our rawness, and they will not treat it with care. — Luvvie Ajayi

Street harassment is not flattering, because it speaks to the fact that men see our presence as an opportunity for sexual advances. — Luvvie Ajayi

White women, include women of color in your agenda as you fight for equality. Don't leave us behind and then only call on us when you need our numbers. — Luvvie Ajayi

The assumption that women in hijab are less enlightened or empowered than those rocking daisy dukes is arrogant at best. Feminism should fight for all women to have he right to live as they choose, not for all women to live the same exact lives like we're all in some sort of Sims game. — Luvvie Ajayi

Everyone needs to be skinny, but not too skinny. You need to be thick, but not fat. We're pretty much the pits, and I can't help but judge us, because nothing weight-related comes with anything but scorn. — Luvvie Ajayi