The one thing that the racist can never manage is anything like discrimination: he is indiscriminate by definition.
Interpretation
Racism is inherently unsophisticated and lacks discernment in judging individuals.
In this quote, Christopher Hitchens argues that racism, by its nature, fails to allow for nuanced understanding or fair evaluation of individuals, as racists indiscriminately generalize based on race rather than recognizing the complexities of personal identity. The implication is that true discrimination requires discernment and an ability to see beyond superficial categories, which racists fundamentally lack.
In practice
In a speech about social justice, one might quote this to highlight the flaws in racist thinking.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way β because itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
Loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.
One pretends to do something, or copy someone or some teacher, until it can be done confidently and easily in what becomes one's own style
Equal protection under the law - for race, religion, gender or sexual orientation - should not be subject to the most popular sentiments of the day.
History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.
To know that nothing happens in God's world apart from God's will may frighten the godless, but it stabilizes the saints.
What if a dawn of a doom of a dream bites this universe in two, peels forever out of his grave, and sprinkles nowhere with me and you?
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