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June Jordan

June Jordan Books

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Civil Wars

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“What kind of a person could kill a Black child and then kill another Black child and then kill another Black child and then kill another Black child and then kill another Black child and then kill another Black child and stay above suspicion? What about the police? What about somebody Black? What sixteen year old would say no to a cop? What seven year old would say no thanks to me? What is an overreaction to murder? What kind of a person could kill a Black child and then kill a Black child and then kill a Black child? What kind of a person are you? What kind of a person am I? What makes you so sure? What kind of a person could save a Black child? What kind of a people will lay down its life for the lives of our children? What kind of a people are we?”

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Author:June Jordan
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“As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth - whatever the truth may be - that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life.”

MayChildrenMoralTaughtTruth IsAdultsPainfulTelling The TruthSensationsI Have LearnedMoral Life
Book:Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays
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“There is a man who exists as one of the most popular objects of leadership, legislation, and quasi-literature in the history of all men. . . . This man, that object of attention, attack, and vast activity, cannot make himself be heard, let alone understood. He has never been listened to. . . . That man is Black and alive in white America where the media of communication do not allow the delivery of his own voice, his own desires, his own rage.”

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Author:June Jordan
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“When that devil's bullet lodged itself inside the body of Martin Luther King, he had already begun an astonishing mobilization of poor, Black, white, latino Americans who had nothing to lose. They would challenge our government to eliminate exploitative, merciless, and war-mongering policies, nationwide, or else "tie up the country" through "means of civil disobedience." Dr. King intended to organize those legions into "coercive direct actions" that would make of Babylon a dysfunctional behemoth begging for relief. Is it any wonder he was killed?”

MeanWarCountryBodyGovernmentActionBlackLosesChallengesWhitePoorWonderPolicyKingsDevilDirectTiesReliefBulletsDrsOrganizeLutherAstonishingLatinoDisobedienceBeggingCivil DisobedienceNothing To LoseLegionBlack WhiteBabylonDirect ActionMobilizationBehemoth
Author:June Jordan
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“In America, you can segregate the people, but the problems will travel. From slavery to equal rights, from state suppression of dissent to crime, drugs and unemployment, I can't think of a supposedly Black issue that hasn't wasted the original Black target group and then spread like measles to outlying white experience.”

PeopleThinkingI CanStatesProblemAmericaBlackWhiteIssuesRightsGroupsCrimeDrugEqualOriginalsSlaverySpreadTargetUnemploymentSegregationEqual RightsDissentSuppressionMeasles
Book:On call: political essays
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“South Africa used to seem so far away. Then it came home to me. It began to signify the meaning of white hatred here. That was what the sheets and the suits and the ties covered up, not very well. That was what the cowardly guys calling me names from their speeding truck wanted to happen to me, to all of me: to my people. That was what would happen to me if I walked around the corner into the wrong neighborhood. That was Birmingham. That was Brooklyn. That was Reagan. That was the end of reason. South Africa was how I came to understand that I am not against war; I am against losing the war.”

PeopleIfsWellsWarEndsReasonHomeSeemsHappensWantedUsedGuyNamesWhiteCallingLosingHatredSouthCornersSuitsTiesNeighborhoodCoveredFar AwaySouth AfricaSheetsTruckBrooklynCowardlyAround The CornerSpeedingBirminghamAgainst WarCovered Up
Author:June Jordan
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“The United States Supreme Court, once a reliable if ultimate recourse for progressive and even revolutionary grievances, has become a retrograde wellspring for enormous economic and social distress.”

IfsStatesLawSocialJusticeUnitedUnited StatesEconomicUltimateCourtSupremeEnormousRevolutionaryProgressiveDistressSupreme CourtGrievanceRecourseWellspringRetrograde
Book:Technical Difficulties: African-American Notes on the State of the Union
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“I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.”

LifeMeanSelfFactsHappinessSuccessFearBlackFeminismDependsSelf LovePerseveranceFeministSelf ConfidenceSelf RespectLove YourselfLove MyselfI Love MyselfAfrican American WomenLove My SelfSelf LovingLove Yourself MoreLoving MyselfBlack MotivationalSelf Respect In LoveSelf Respect And LoveWomen Self RespectBlack FeministI Respect Myself
Author:June Jordan
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“and if i if i ever let love go because the hatred and the whisperings become a phantom dictate i o- bey in lieu of impulse and realities (the blossoming flamingos of my wild mimosa trees) then let love freeze me out. (from i must become a menace to my enemies)”

IfsRealityEnemyTreeHatredImpulseFreezeWhisperingPhantomsMenaceBlossomingFlamingosMimosas
Book:Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan
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“When we heard about the hippies, the barely more than boys and girls who decided to try something different ... we laughed at them. We condemned them, our children, for seeking a different future. We hated them for their flowers, for their love, and for their unmistakable rejection of every hideous, mistaken compromise that we had made throughout our hollow, money-bitten, frightened, adult lives”

TryingChildrenMadeDifferentGirlBoysHeardFlowerAdultsDecidedOur ChildrenSeekingCompromiseHatedRejectionFrightenedLaughedMistakenHollowHippieHideousBoy And GirlHippi
Author:June Jordan
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