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" To me, politics is culture. I became a journalist, and later a filmmaker, to get to know my new country and my volatile place in it as a gay, undocumented Filipino-American. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Know
Me
Gay
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" I am more than an immigration activist. "
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" I think the hardest stories we tell are always the ones about ourselves. And as a journalist, I was taught that I'm never supposed to put myself in the story. So I spent what, 11, 12 years of my life writing about other people so I don't have to face my own life. "
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" My being gay is not a social issue; it's a fact. It's not something to be debated. It's a reality. "
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" I believe fundamentally in the kindness of the American people because I have been a beneficiary of it. "
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" One day when I was 16, I rode my bike to the nearby DMV office to get my driver's permit. Some of my friends already had their licenses, so I figured it was time. But when I handed the clerk my green card as proof of U.S. residency, she flipped it around, examining it. 'This is fake,' she whispered. 'Don't come back here again.' "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Time
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" You know, I'm one of millions of undocumented people in this country who are living kind of under the shadows. And in many ways, coming out, it was my way of - at the end of the day, I think we have to tell the truth about this immigration system. And because of that, I had to tell the truth about myself. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
People
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Day
" Left-leaning bloggers have had a tremendous impact on the Democratic Party. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Party
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" Undocumented people get arrested all the time. I get arrested, and it's front-page news. I feel guilt. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
People
I Feel
Guilt
" Culture is about humanizing people. You look at the African-American civil rights movement, you look at the LGBT rights movement - the culture changed before the politics did. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Culture
You
People
" Everyone has an opinion when it comes to immigration - strong, intense opinions. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Opinions
Opinion
Immigration
" I want to be as creatively disruptive as possible. I want to be radically transparent in a way that isn't showboating. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Possible
Disruptive
Way
" My mother made a choice. And when I was younger, I judged her for making that choice. Then I got older and got to be an adult, and I realized that was the ultimate sacrifice that any parent and any mother could possibly make. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Sacrifice
Choice
Her
" In many ways, I think I've always overcompensated. I was always almost too careful, because I knew if anybody ever found any way to doubt my work, then they'd start picking my life apart, too. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Start
My Life
Life
" I've always really wanted to make a film on what it means to be white in a country that's getting less and less white. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Less
Make
White
" I don't think there's any other issue out there that young people are more passionate, and more ahead in, than global warming. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Young
People
Passionate
" When I'm writing, I can always play around with tense. I can always make past present. I can always kind of manipulate, and I can always be delusional in a way that's completely self-serving. With film, it's like, the camera can't really lie. It can manipulate to a certain extent. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
I Can
Writing
Play
" For decades, I have cringed whenever someone called me 'illegal,' as if I'm an insect on someone's back. I found out I didn't have the right papers - that I was here illegally - when I tried to get a driver's permit at age 16. But I am not 'illegal.' No person is. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Age
Someone
Person
" The more successful I got, the more scared I got. My name was all over Google. I had a Wikipedia page I was terrified to look at. And so I just snapped. I thought, 'If I'm going to come out with this, I'm going to do it in a big way. And not just for myself. This can't just be my story.' "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Look
Myself
Name
" It's not my job to worry about how Left, Right will react to something. My job is, am I creating something that connects people? That's my job. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
How
Creating
React
" On the surface, I've created a good life. I've lived the American dream. But I am still an undocumented immigrant. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
I Am
American Dream
Dream
" When it comes to fighting for citizenship that many people take for granted, there isn't anyone I would not talk to. When it comes to immigration, there isn't any question I will not answer. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Take For Granted
Fighting
Talk
" I'm sure the president doesn't enjoy being called deporter-in-chief. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Sure
Being
Enjoy
" When I was a kid, I resented my grandparents not speaking the perfect English I wanted to speak. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Kid
Grandparents
Speak
" I'm not a minority: I'm a majority of one. We all are. To call someone a minority, you give them baggage, of not being full, or not being seen as full. All of us need to be seen as full human beings. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Minority
Human
You
" I am undoubtedly one of the more, if not the most, privileged undocumented immigrants in America. And for us at Define American, which is this culture campaign group that I founded with some friends, culture trumps politics. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
America
Group
I Am
" Of all the questions I get asked as an undocumented immigrant in the United States, there are two - asked in various permutations via email, social media or in person - that chill me to the bone: 'Why don't you just make yourself legal?' And: 'Why don't you get in the back of the line?' "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Legal
Me
Media
" I wasn't supposed to be walking with Mark Zuckerberg. I wasn't supposed to be interviewing Romney's sons. Why was I doing it? Because I wanted to survive. I wanted to live. I wanted to earn what it means to be an American. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
American
Live
Survive
" Kathy Dewar, my high-school English teacher, introduced me to journalism. From the moment I wrote my first article for the student paper, I convinced myself that having my name in print - writing in English, interviewing Americans - validated my presence here. "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Teacher
Myself
Me
" Laws are getting passed in states like Alabama that basically would punish American citizens who are 'harboring' people. Since the federal government hasn't been able to muster or to get comprehensive immigration reform passed, states are taking it upon themselves to police and enforce laws. "
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People
American
Police
" Demographically speaking, young white people are not in the majority in this country; they're in the minority. My question is, if they're not the majority anymore, then what happens? How do things change? Or do they change at all? "
Jose Antonio Vargas
Change
People
White