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Readers need to stop assuming characters are white if race isn't explicitly defined.

Roxane Gay

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Roxane Gay
Age: 50
Born: 1974
Born: October 15
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Scrabble Player
Writer
Omaha
Nebraska
Stop
Race
White
Explicitly
Character
Readers
Need
Assuming
Needs
Defined
Characters
Reader

More quotes by Roxane Gay

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The actual act of writing brings me such pleasure - to tell stories, to engage in cultural criticism, to reflect, to question, all of it is invigorating.
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I am a bad feminist and a good woman. I am trying to become better in how I think and say and do - without abandoning what makes me human.
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Most of the time, writing is a lot of fun, and not a small amount of self-medication.
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Most of my favorite tweets go completely ignored but most of my favorite tweets are probably really lame or inside jokes between me and my [redacted]. See what I did there?
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We need to stop playing Privilege or Oppression Olympics because we'll never get anywhere until we find more effective ways of talking through difference. We should be able to say, “This is my truth,” and have that truth stand without a hundred clamoring voices shouting, giving the impression that multiple truths cannot coexist.
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I am fine with my books being categorized as African-American literature but I hope they are also considered Haitian-American literature and American literature. All of these things are part of who I am and what I write.
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I write for myself, first and foremost and I also write for people, mostly women, who just want to be seen and heard and all too often aren't.
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When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example.
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Violence is a common part of far too many women's lives.
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You don't necessarily have to do anything once you acknowledge your privilege. You don't have to apologize for it. You need to understand the extent of your privilege, the consequences of your privilege, and remain aware that people who are different from you move through and experience the world in ways you might never know anything about.
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I am new to superhero comics, though growing up I read Archie comics, religiously. I've been doing a lot of catching up, reading what's out there and it's been wonderful to see what's going on in contemporary comics.
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My tweeting is cool and calm unless I am riled up about something and then I just surrender to the fury of my fingers.
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Somewhere along the line we started misinterpreting the First Amendment and this idea of the freedom of speech the amendment grants us. We are free to speak as we choose without fear of prosecution or persecution, but we are not free to speak as we choose without consequence.
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When you look past the image, a celebrity is merely a person you know nothing about.
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I wrote myself back together. I wrote myself toward a stronger version of myself . . . Through writing and feminism, I also found that if I was a little bit brave, another woman might hear me and see me and recognize that none of us are the nothing the world tries to tell us we are.
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Twitter is my happy place. I am not there to overthink 140 characters.
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I am interested in intense, unbreakable emotional connections and oftentimes, such connections can be found between siblings.
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Just write and love what you're writing. And if you're not loving what you're writing, take a look at why and fix that.
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I'm fat positive, in that I don't see fat as a bad thing. But what I do see as a bad thing is how I'm treated. I can have the most positive outlook in the world, but that is not going to change how hecklers and people walking down the street are yelling at me.
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The other day, I saw a blog post where a woman wrote about why she was unfollowing me and that made me feel incredibly self-conscious and embarrassed about my tweets. I also feel more exposed now that I've become a more visible writer but then I try to get over all that and just use Twitter the way I want.
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