Truth is the baby of the world. It never gets old.
I went to Ethiopia, and it dawned on me that you can tell a starving, malnourished person because they've got a bloated belly and a bald head. And I realized that if you come through any American airport and see businessmen running through with bloated bellies and bald heads, that's malnutrition, too.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the often overlooked signs of malnutrition in society, suggesting that it exists beyond just physical appearance.
Dick Gregory's quote emphasizes that malnutrition can manifest in various forms, including in the stressed, unhealthy physiques of overworked individuals, particularly in a wealthy society like the U.S. He draws a parallel between the extreme outward signs of malnutrition in impoverished regions and the subtler signs that might be seen in affluent environments, urging a deeper reflection on health and wellbeing.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about health issues in modern society, this quote can illustrate how malnutrition isn't just a third-world problem.
More from Dick Gregory
All quotes →I never thought I'd see the day that I would see white folks as frightened, or more so, than black folks was during the civil rights movement when we was in Mississippi.
Just being a Negro doesn't qualify you to understand the race situation any more than being sick makes you an expert on medicine.
We used to root for the Indians against the cavalry, because we didn't think it was fair in the history books that when the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a massacre.
Because I'm a civil rights activist, I am also an animal rights activist. Animals and humans suffer and die alike. Violence causes the same pain, the same spilling of blood, the same stench of death, the same arrogant, cruel and vicious taking of life. We shouldn't be a part of it.
We thought I was going to be a great athlete, and we were wrong, and I thought I was going to be a great entertainer, and that wasn't it either. I'm going to be an American Citizen. First class.
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