Politically minded celebrities are never an anomaly — George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio have been around for decades. But the barrage of police violence, natural disasters, terrorism, and ugly political rhetoric of 2015 has fired up longtime activist artists and inspired other performers to take a stand. Some issues are timely (the 2016 elections are almost here), and others are evergreen (gender equality and racism will always be important issues).
Here are 21 inspiring quotes from celebrities that you can point to the next time someone says that famous people should stay out of politics.
"When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with dicks, I didn’t get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early….But if I’m honest with myself, I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight. I didn’t want to seem 'difficult' or 'spoiled.' At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being 'difficult' or 'spoiled.'"
—Jennifer Lawrence on Hollywood's wage gap problem.
Photo: Juan Naharro Gimenez/WireImage/ Getty Images.
"I'm voting for Bernie Sanders, because he doesn’t take any corporate money. I don't think politicians should be allowed to take money for their campaigns from outside interests. If he doesn’t win against Hillary, then I’ll probably vote for a third party again. To be honest, in 2012 I was against both candidates and so I just picked any third party because I thought if more people voted for third parties then they'd have to take third parties seriously."
—Ronda Rousey on her preferred 2016 presidential candidate
Photo: Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic/ Getty Images.
“Too many innocent people are paying the price of the conflict in Syria and spread of extremism. The international community has to step up and do more. It is not enough to defend our values at home. We have to defend them here, in the camps and in the informal settlements across the Middle East, and in the ruined towns of Iraq and Syria. We are being tested here, as an international community, and so far — for all the immense efforts and good intentions — we are failing.”
—Angelina Jolie, speaking to the United Nations about the Syrian refugee crisis
Photo: Emrah Gurel/ AP Photo.
“God bless all who have lost lives to police brutality. We want white America to know that we stand tall today. We want black America to know that we stand tall today.”
—Janelle Monáe on police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement
Photo: Courtesy of Peter Kramer/ NBC.
"And you guys, in particular, are facing a lot of fights, I think. And I am happy to say that your generation is well-armed to take them up. We have climate change, we have a mass sort of imbalanced corporatization, these lead to environmental degradation and also social-justice issues. And we’re sort of coming to a head — they’re all coming to a head. There’s really no chance of ducking it or not having to deal with it. And I’m thrilled to be here with you young people today who have so much knowledge and so much ability to communicate on such a grand level and a global level."
—Mark Ruffalo on the social-justice challenges new college graduates face
Photo: Angela Weiss/Getty Images.
“‘In my mind, I see a line. And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me, over that line. But I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line.’ That was Harriet Tubman in the 1800s. And let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity.”
—Viola Davis, in her Emmy acceptance speech
Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/ Getty Images.
“I was encouraged not to use the word 'feminism' because people felt that it was alienating and separating, and the whole idea of the speech was to include as many people as possible. But I thought long and hard and ultimately felt that it was just the right thing to do. If women are terrified to use the word, how on Earth are men supposed to start using it?”
—Emma Watson (pictured with teenage Pakistani female-education activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai) on how her powerful 2014 speech to the United Nations about gender equality almost left out one crucial word
Photo: Joanne Davidson/ Fox Searchlight Pictures.
"I don't think there is anything new here. It is only new to people who didn't believe an enormous amount of women who stated clearly that he drugged them. We shouldn't need Bill Cosby to admit it to believe 40 people who were victimized by him."
—Judd Apatow on newly released court documents in which Bill Cosby admitted he bought drugs to give to women he wanted to have sex with
“Trans people deserve something vital: They deserve your respect. You want to call me names, make jokes, doubt my intentions, go ahead, because the reality is, I can take it,” she said. “But for the thousands of kids out there, coming to terms with being true to who they are, they shouldn’t have to take it.”
—Caitlyn Jenner, accepting the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY awards
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage/ Getty Images.
"I really hate the word 'diversity.' It suggests something…other. As if it is something special, or rare. Diversity! As if there is something unusual about telling stories involving women and people of color and LGBTQ characters on TV. I have a different word: normalizing. I'm normalizing TV. I am making TV look like the world looks. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people equal way more than 50 percent of the population. Which means it ain't out of the ordinary."
—Shonda Rhimes on a better way to view "diversity."
Photo: Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images.
"These shootings have got to stop. I don't know how else to say it….No one wants to live in a country where a felon, the mentally ill, or other dangerous people can get their hands on a gun with such ease," she told reporters. "The critics scoff and say, 'Well, there's no way to stop crazy people from doing crazy things,' but they're wrong.”
—Amy Schumer, responding to a deadly shooting at a showing of her movie Trainwreck.
Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images.
"There's a bit of a gap between what I really want to say and what I know is responsible to say. The general lack of compassion for your fellow man is really frustrating. I think what the protesters are saying, or at least some of them, is it's not just about police brutality. It's about a widespread systematic crippling of some people in this country by birthright, and no one's acknowledging it. There may be a power shakeup if you're really going to do something about it. A lot of people aren't interested in that. They say, 'It's not that bad. We have Barack Obama. We're good.' Or, 'You're not getting lynched.' They're not acknowledging the institutional racism that impacts daily lives."
—Gabrielle Union, on the roots of Black Lives Matter and structural racism
Photo: Bobby Metelus/Getty Images.
"Even at a time when minorities account for almost 40 percent of the American population, when Hollywood wants an 'everyman,' what it really wants is a straight white guy. But a straight white guy is not every man. The 'everyman' is everybody."
—Aziz Ansari on racism in Hollywood
Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/ Getty Images.
"And I would say to you: 1) Get out of my body; 2) Equal pay for women; 3) Integrate! You cannot make laws for America without knowing it. People coming up and complaining to you. If that's your integration, people, I don't understand what that is. And I believe you guys are better, and I believe you started with an ideal that meant something. And so what I see as part of the American public, as an independent and as a constituent, I don't understand."
—Rose McGowan, crashing a dinner gathering of centrist politicians.
Photo: BEI/REX Shutterstock.
"We know that the voting rights, the act that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised right now in this country today. We know that right now the struggle for freedom and justice is real. We live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more Black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850. When people are marching with our song, we want to tell you that we are with you, we see you, we love you, and march on."
—John Legend on the legacy of the civil rights movement
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images.
"Honestly, I didn’t have an accurate definition of feminism when I was younger. I didn’t quite see all the ways that feminism is vital to growing up in the world we live in. I think that when I used to say, 'Oh, feminism’s not really on my radar,' it was because when I was just seen as a kid, I wasn’t as threatening. I didn’t see myself being held back until I was a woman. Or the double standards in headlines, the double standards in the way stories are told, the double standards in the way things are perceived.
A man writing about his feelings from a vulnerable place is brave; a woman writing about her feelings from a vulnerable place is oversharing or whining. Misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they are born. So to me, feminism is probably the most important movement that you could embrace, because it’s just basically another word for equality."
—Taylor Swift, on finally deciding to call herself a feminist
Photo: Jim Smeal/ Rex Features.
"Statistically, I shouldn't be here — my parents made sure I knew what was going on in the city of Newark."
—Michael B. Jordan, on the dangers facing young Black men in America
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
"There are so many people who lost their families, and the stories of how they were killed are so heartbreaking — they should never be forgotten. The whole point of remembering the genocide is to make sure it doesn’t happen again. A million-and-a-half people were brutally massacred, and a country can just pretend like it never happened? I don’t think that’s right."
—Kim Kardashian, on the anniversary of the Armenian genocide
Photo: Matt Baron/ Rex Features.
"Black features are beautiful. Black women are not. White women are paragons of virtue and desire. Black women are objects of fetishism and brutality.
"This, at least, seems to be the mentality surrounding black femininity and beauty in a society built upon Eurocentric beauty standards. While white women are praised for altering their bodies, plumping their lips, and tanning their skin, Black women are shamed, although the same features exist on them naturally.
"This double standard is one string in the netting that surrounds Black female sexuality — a web that entraps Black women when they claim sexual agency. Deeply ingrained into culture is the notion that Black female bodies, at the intersect of oppression, are less than human and therefore unattractive."
—Amandla Stenberg on Kylie Jenner and cultural appropriation
Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage/ Getty Images.
"The fact that you feel upset about me speaking on something that affects Black women makes me feel like you have some big balls. You’re in videos with Black men, and you’re bringing out Black women on your stages, but you don’t want to know how Black women feel about something that’s so important? Come on, you can’t want the good without the bad. If you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle, bond with us, dance with us, have fun with us, twerk with us, rap with us, then you should also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us, what we feel is unfair to us. You shouldn’t not want to know that."
—Nicki Minaj, on Miley Cyrus and cultural appropriation
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