Sara Ahmed Quotes

“Transphobia and antitrans statements should not be treated as just another viewpoint that we should be free to express at the happy table of diversity. There cannot be a dialogue when some at the table are in effect (or intent on) arguing for the elimination of others at the table. When you have “dialogue or debate” with those who wish to eliminate you from the conversation (because they do not recognize what is necessary for your survival, or because they don’t even think your existence is possible), then “dialogue and debate” becomes a technique of elimination. A refusal to have some dialogues and some debates is thus a key tactic for survival.”

Sara Ahmed

Source: "An Affinity of Hammers" (2016), p. 31

“Jokiness allows a constant trivializing: as if by joking someone is suspending judgment on what is being said. She didn’t mean anything by it; lighten up. A killjoy knows from experience: when people keep making light of something, something heavy is going on”

Sara Ahmed

Source: "An Affinity of Hammers" (2016), p. 29

“To point out harassment is to be viewed as the harasser; to point out oppression is to be viewed as oppressive.”

Sara Ahmed

Source: "An Affinity of Hammers" (2016), p. 28

“The exposure of violence is perceived by the privileged as the origin of violence.”

Sara Ahmed

Source: "An Affinity of Hammers" (2016), p. 28

“We learn about worlds when they do not accommodate us. Not being accommodated can be pedagogy. We generate ideas through the struggles we have to be in the world; we come to question worlds when we are in question. When a question becomes a place you reside in, everything can be thrown into question: explanations you might have handy that allow you to make sense or navigate your way through unfamiliar as well as familiar landscapes no longer work.”

Sara Ahmed

Source: "An Affinity of Hammers" (2016), p. 22