How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Part.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I happened to be born into a group of people who live in constant fear of extinction. It's part of our identity, part of our mind-set, and it had taught us through horrific trial and error to always be on our guard. (2.6.2)
Jurgen is Jewish, and even a quick glance at Jewish history will show them to be the victims of some pretty heinous racism. It's prepared them for the worst of times, which are incoming in the form of ghouls, ghosts, and goblins…ghouls at any rate.
Quote #2
I realized I practically didn't know anything about these people I'd hated my entire life. Everything I thought was true went up in smoke that day, supplanted by the face of our real enemy. (2.7.33)
Frame this quote, because it basically sums up the entire perspective of racism in World War Z. Yep, our work here is done.
Quote #3
She wasn't one of the ignorant ones, she was a "clean" Mexican. I'm sorry to use that term, but that was how I thought back then, that was who I was. (3.5.11)
Interesting. Mary Jo goes through a hard time, learns a new way of life, and comes out the other end less prejudiced toward others (zombies notwithstanding). Hmm, wonder if the novel is trying to tell us something here….
Quote #4
The bastards were shining their torches in people's faces, trying to root out darkies like me. I even saw one captain standing on the deck of his ship's launch, waving a gun and shouting "No scheduled castes, we won't take untouchables!" (4.2.11)
While Mary Jo has a change of heart from her experiences, it's probably not going to be the same for everyone. This quote qualifies as case in point. (Although maybe a few years later they'd have been thinking differently.)
Quote #5
No one thought it could happen, not between us. For God's sake, they helped us build our nuclear program from the ground up! […] we wouldn't have been a nuclear power if it wasn't for our fraternal Muslim brothers. (4.6.12)
The novel begins broadening out toward the follies of other forms of discrimination. Here, the assumption is that people from the same nation, ethnicity, or religion will have your best interesting in heart, unlike those "others." For Ahmed, this assumption is blown away with all the force of nuclear bomb (and an actual nuclear bomb).
Quote #6
Others have argued that, in order for a racist to hate one group, he must at least love another. Redeker believed both love and hate to be irrelevant. To him they were, "impediments of the human condition," […]. (5.1.3)
Redeker created his plan for South Africa, a government famous for its apartheid system—a system that uses legislation to enforce the discriminatory practices of the ruling class. This is what you call irony.
Quote #7
Yes, there was racism, but there was also classism. You're a high-powered corporate attorney. […] And suddenly [a plumber] is your teacher, maybe even your boss. For some, this was scarier than the living dead. (6.1.11)
The novel makes the transition from to classism: different discrimination, similar jerkish results.
Quote #8
As she tried some other half-hearted, half-assed excuses, I saw her eyes flick to my chair. [Joe is disabled.] Can you believe that? Here we were with mass extinction knocking on the door, and she's trying to be politically correct? (6.3.2-4)
First racism, then classism, and now ableism. This novel really does cover the discriminatory spectrum, doesn't it?
Quote #9
Oh, yes. You could see it was clearly written by an American, the references to SUVs and personal firearms. There was no taking into account the cultural differences… the various indigenous solutions people believed would save them from the undead. (7.2.14)
We're not putting this quote here because it's out-and-out racism. Rather, it seems apt to remind people to consider the differences in cultures when dealing with such things as manners, politics, and the occasional horde of the not-so-dead.
Quote #10
In Sapporo, I met an Ainu gardener, Ota Hideki, The Ainu are Japan's oldest indigenous group, and even lower on our social ladder than the Koreans. (7.5.7)
Since World War Z focuses on a global perspective, the prejudice theme usually hones in on the kinds of hatred between ethnicities or entire countries. Here's a quick reminder that prejudice exists within countries in the form of such things like caste systems or mixed ancestry. If you want to know more about the Ainu people, NOVA's got your back.