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June Jordan

June Jordan Quotes

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Famous June Jordan Quotes

“Anytime you see white men suppose to fight each other an you not white, well you know you got trouble, because they blah-blah loud about Democrat or Republican an they huffing an puff about democracy someplace else but relentless, see, the deal come down evil on somebody don have no shirt an tie, somebody don live in no whiteman house no whiteman country.”

KnowsMenWellsCountryFightingEvilHouseWhiteDealsDemocracyTroubleRepublicanElectionDemocratLoudShirtsTiesWhite ManRelentlessPuffBlahHuffing
Author:June Jordan
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“Self-determination has to mean that the leader is your individual gut, and heart, and mind or we're talking about power, again, and its rather well-known impurities. Who is really going to care whether you live or die and who is going to know the most intimate motivation for your laughter and your tears is the only person to be trusted to speak for you and to decide what you will or will not do.”

KnowsMindWellsHeartMeanPersonsSelfCareSuccessMotivationDiesIndividualSpeakTalkingKnownLeaderTearsLaughterDeterminationIntimateGutsSelf DeterminationTrustedWell KnownHeart And MindImpurity
Book:Civil Wars
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“To rescue our children we will have to let them save us from the power we embody: we will have to trust the very difference that they forever personify. And we will have to allow them the choice, without fear of death: that they may come and do likewise or that they may come and that we will follow them, that a little child will lead us back to the child we will always be, vulnerable and wanting and hurting for love and for beauty.”

LoveMayChildrenLittlesChoicesDifferencesHurtForeverOur ChildrenVulnerableRescueFear Of Death
Author:June Jordan
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“As a poet and writer, I deeply love and I deeply hate words. I love the infinite evidence and change and requirements and possibilities of language; every human use of words that is joyful, or honest or new, because experience is new... But as a Black poet and writer, I hate words that cancel my name and my history and the freedom of my future: I hate the words that condemn and refuse the language of my people in America.”

PeopleLoveHumansUseAmericaHateNamesLanguageBlackHonestPossibilityPoetEvidenceI HateInfiniteRefuseJoyfulRequirementsMy Future
Author:June Jordan
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“Our earth is round, and, among other things, that means that you and I can hold completely different points of view and both be right. The difference of our positions will show stars in your window I cannot even imagine. Your sky may burn with light, while mine, at the same moment, spreads beautiful to darkness. Still we must choose how we separately corner the circling universe of our experience. Once chosen, our cornering will determine the message of any star and darkness we encounter.”

MayMeanStillsI CanDifferentMomentsShowsLightEarthBeautifulUniverseStarsDifferencesViewsDarknessImagineSkyPositionMinesMessagesWindowRoundsDetermineCornersSpreadPoint Of ViewChosenEncountersDifferent Points Of View
Book:Soulscript: a collection of African American poetry
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“All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British Empire right through the early doom of Vietnam, dictates that you do something spectacular and irreversible whenever you find yourself in or whenever you impose yourself upon a wholly unfamiliar situation belonging to somebody else. Frequently it's your soul or your honor or your manhood, or democracy itself, at stake.”

SoulSituationHistoryDemocracyHonorLateTraditionWesternBritishAfrican AmericanYour SoulEmpiresFinding YourselfBelongingStakesVietnamAmerican HistoryManhoodDoomSpectacularUnfamiliarBritish EmpireIrreversibleYour Honor
Book:Civil Wars
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“We are the ones we've been waiting for.”

StatesWaitingBlackPresidentChangeUnited StatesChangedAfrican AmericanPresidentialLife ChangingChanging The WorldTransitionSuccessful PeopleAmerican HistoryWorld HistoryBlack HistoryPeace On EarthSuccessful BusinessChange For The BetterAmerican PresidentBlack History MonthUs PresidentBetter NowPresidents DayInspirational ChangeBlack History Month InspirationalTime For A ChangeBlack AmericaAfrican American HistoryTimes Have ChangedPeople ChangingTime And ChangeBlack History InspirationalOne Person Can Make A DifferenceYes We CanMotivation And ChangeUs PresidentialInspirational PresidentialAfrican American InspirationalInspiring PresidentialAfrican American History MonthBlack InspirationalInspiring ChangeWilling To WaitChanges In SocietyPresidential LeadershipAudacity Of HopeTimes Are ChangingLeadership And ChangeWhy Change
Author:June Jordan
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“Lately... Americans have begun to understand that trouble does not start somewhere on the other side of town. It seems to originate inside the absolute middle of the homemade cherry pie. In our history, the state has failed to respond to the weak. You could be white, male, Presbyterian and heterosexual besides, but if you get fired or if you get sick tomorrow, you might as well be Black, for all the state will want to hear from you.”

IfsWantWellsDoeStatesSeemsMightAmericaSidesBlackWhiteTroubleMiddleTomorrowWeakSickAbsolutesTownsMalesPieCherriesHomemadePresbyteriansCherry Pie
Book:On call: political essays
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“Our children will not survive our habits of thinking, our failures of the spirit, our wreck of the universe into which we bring new life as blithely as we do. Mostly, our children will resemble our own misery and spite and anger, because we give them no choice about it. In the name of motherhood and fatherhood and education and good manners, we threaten and suffocate and bind and ensnare and bribe and trick children into wholesale emulation of our ways.”

ThinkingWayGivingChildrenSpiritChoicesUniverseNamesHabitOur ChildrenMiseryMotherhoodTricksMannersSpiteGood ManFatherhoodNew LifeWrecksResemblanceGood MannersBribeWholesaleEmulation
Author:June Jordan
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“... if your heart and your honest body can be controlled by the state, or controlled by community taboo, are you not then, and in that case, no more than a slave ruled by outside force? What tyranny could exceed a tyranny that dictates to the human heart, and that attempts to dictate the public career of an honest human body?”

IfsHumansHeartStatesBodyForceCommunityCareersCasesHonestSlaveTyrannyControlledHuman HeartHuman BodyExceedTaboo
Book:Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays
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