Sydney Pollack Quotes

National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.

One always likes to think that other countries are not like one's own.

People say they don't want to call a call-centre in India. Why not? They're doing the same job - you just don't like Indians.

If a foreign country doesn't look like a middle-class suburb of Dallas or Detroit, then obviously the natives must be dangerous as well as badly dressed.

Maybe it's because I'm English, but in terms of how people perceive us I only pick up on the negative side of it.

Races and nations are thus ever ready to believe the worst of one another.

Or a White Englishman would rather smash a White Frenchman than a Jew! Crazy!

Americans have almost been conditioned to believe that the majority of people who seek to do us harm are those of Muslim descent.

I am certainly not racist; I even like the British.

Latins are macho, they hate gringos and they hate gringos’ wives. What else do you want to know?

I think we have cultural bias and practice some ethnocentrism when it comes to ethnic food in America.

When people today say 'racism,' they mean it's a nationalism they don't like. Racialism used to be a good thing, a looking-out for what was best for one group... Israel comes out of that 19th-century idea of nationalism. Many Arab states also have preferences. It's fundamentally unfair to decide that one is racism and the others aren't.

All people who have reached the point of becoming nations tend to despise foreigners, but there is not much doubt that the English-speaking races are the worst offenders. One can see this from the fact that as soon as they become fully aware of any foreign race they invent an insulting nickname for it.

The South African native is probably the one impossible person to train in the entire world; he is probably impossible by any human standard.

I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.

Progressives are concerned about reports of Muslim students feeling 'marginalized' and discriminated against after the shooting massacre by an Islamic terrorist in Orlando, but there is little concern that - for years - students in the United States have been taught to dislike their country.

People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they're African American. They're not us. They're impostors.

The underpinning of immigration concerns is xenophobia and racism and nationalism.

You deny that man is really so prejudiced as I suppose him; talk to him then of some foreign country, ask him what religion he is of.

I was in Toronto when they had a severe outbreak of SARS - you know, Severe Asian Racism Syndrome. I was in the airport and there were these big snowboarder guys and they had white masks around their necks, and as soon as they saw me, they put their masks on. So I went "cough, cough, cough... You wanna egg rorr?

Imagine Americans who go to Paris. Why would you want to go where someone's going to disparage you? Why would you go anywhere where they treat you bad? Well, that's how it is for us to go to Mexico. You have to be on your guard, because I think the Mexicans are harder on the Mexicans, the Mexican-Americans. They don't see us as Mexican. I think part of it's a class issue and a color issue. We're more connected to their servants, so what are we doing staying at a nice hotel? There's a kind of shame.

Everyone gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country.

And it is impossible to treat human beings as human beings if you label them, if you term them, if you give them a name as Hindus, Russians, or what you will. It is so much easier to label people, for then you can pass by and kick them, drop a bomb on India or Japan.

America is a white man's country.

The very nature of the Chinaman holds him back. If his fellow should fall, John thinks it quite proper that he stamp on the underdogs face.