Racism is like high blood pressure—the person who has it doesn’t know he has it until he drops over with a God damned stroke. There are no symptoms of racism. The victim of racism is in a much better position to tell you whether or not you’re a racist than you are.
From Vietnam's 'Deer Hunter' to Iraq, films are never about the person who has had his house destroyed.
I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.
Perhaps I'm temperamentally driven to see things from the point of view of the attacked rather than the attacker.
I think sometimes certain behaviour of men is seen as normal or usual - but it's never normal or usual to the victim, ever. It's horrific.
When I write a story, I try to write them from the perspective of victims. I try to write them from the perspective of families who've been done wrong, who have lost their loved ones or people who have experienced injustice.
If you grow up in a WEIRD society, you become so well educated in the ethic of autonomy that you can detect oppression and inequality even where the apparent victims see nothing wrong.
For any victim, particularly us Americans, it is difficult to see ourselves through the eyes of our offender. But for any victim it is the most salutary thing to do.
