Quotes for
Agent Rupert Anderson (Character)
from Mississippi Burning (1988)

Mississippi Burning (1988)

Anderson: You know, if I were a Negro, I'd probably think the same way they do.
Ward: If you were a Negro, nobody would give a damn what you thought.

Mayor Tilman: Do you like baseball, do you, Anderson?
Anderson: Yeah, I do. You know, it's the only time when a black man can wave a stick at a white man and not start a riot.

Ward: Some things are worth dying for.
Anderson: Down here, things are different; here, they believe that some things are worth killing for.

Anderson: Don't you have the whole world to save?

Deputy Clinton Pell: You have to be a member to drink here.
Anderson: Member? A member of what?
[long pause]
Deputy Clinton Pell: Member of the social club.

Anderson: Down here they say rattlesnakes don't commit suicide.

Frank Bailey: Get this straight, you corn-holin' fucker. You tell your queer-ass nigger bosses that they ain't never gonna find those civil rightsers down here! So you might as well pack up and go back up North where you came from and...
[Anderson grabs his crotch hard, Bailey screams in pain]
Anderson: [while grabbing Bailey by the balls] Now get *this* straight, Shit-kicker! Don't you go confusin' me with some whole other body. You must have your brains in your *dick* if you think we're gonna just walk away from this. We're gonna stay 'till this gets done.
[after opening his coat and exposing his gun he turns to Deputy Pell]
Anderson: How 'bout you, Deputy. That gun of yours just for show or do you get to shoot people once in a while?
Anderson: [Releases his grip on Bailey, then takes a swig of beer] Thanks for the beer.

Mrs. Pell: It's not good for you to be here.
Agent Anderson: Why?
Mrs. Pell: It's ugly. This whole thing is so ugly. Have you any idea what it's like to live with all this? People look at us and only see bigots and racists. Hatred isn't something you're born with. It gets taught. At school, they said segregation what's said in the Bible... Genesis 9, Verse 27. At 7 years of age, you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred. You live it... you breathe it. You marry it.

Mayor Tilman: Fact is, we got two cultures down here: a white culture, and a colored culture. Now, that's the way it always has been, and that's the way it always will be.
Anderson: Rest of America don't see it that way, Mr. Mayor.
Sheriff Ray Stuckey: Rest of America don't mean jack shit. You in Mississippi now.

Anderson: Did you make a speech like that the night you beat your wife?

Anderson: Make no mistake about it, Deputy. I'll cut your fucking head clean off and not give a shit how it reads in the report sheet!

[about the black passenger]
Lester Cowans: I didn't kill him, I only shot him in the ass.
Anderson: We know that. He was already dead when you put your slug in him. But your buddy sees it differently. He says it like YOU killed the kid. Now either you go on the record with us right now, or it'll be YOUR ass we're talking about, not just the black kid's!

[last lines]
Agent Ward: You wanna drive, Rupert?
Agent Anderson: Yeah.

Ward: Just don't lose sight of whose rights are being violated!
Anderson: Don't put me on your perch, Mr. Ward.
Ward: Don't drag me into your gutter, Mr. Anderson!
Anderson: These people are crawling out of the SEWER, MR. WARD! Maybe the gutter's where we outta be!

Anderson: My old man was just so full of hate that he didn't know that bein' poor was what was killin' him.

[Ward stops Anderson from taking vigilante action against Pell]
Ward: We'll go after all of them. Together.
Anderson: You wouldn't know how!
Ward: You're going to *teach me* how.
Anderson: You don't have the GUTS!
Ward: Not only do I HAVE the guts I have the AUTHORITY!

[the FBI saved Lester Cowans from a lynching]
Anderson: You're lucky we've been watching your ass, Lester.
Ward: If you go on the record, Mr. Cowans, we'll give you protection. If not...
Anderson: If not, they're going to kill you anyway.
[sniffs]
Anderson: Oooh Lester, you need a toilet.

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