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My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts

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Resmaa Menakem

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“[The young communist] must always pay attention to the mass of human beings he lives among. Every Young Communist must fundamentally be hu­man, so human that he draws closer to humanity's best qualities. Through work, through study, and through ongoing solidarity with the people and all the peoples of the world, he distills the best of what man is. Developing to the utmost the sensitivity to feel an­guish when a human being is murdered in any corner of the world and to feel enthusiasm when a new banner of freedom is raised in any corner of the world. [Applause] The Young Communist cannot be limited by national borders. The Young Communist must practice proletarian internationalism and feel it as his own.”

RevolutionActivismSocialismCommunismRevolutionaryCubaAntiracismInternationalismRevolutionariesChe Guevara
Author:Che Guevara
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“Talking to a university audience recently I expressed my faith in the power of white people to speak out against racism, challenging and changing prejudice--empathetically stating that I definitely believe we can all change our minds and our actions. I stressed that this faith was not rooted in a utopian longing but, rather, that I believed this because of our nation's history of the many individuals who have offered their lives in the service of justice and freedom. When challenged by folks who claimed these individuals were exceptions, I agreed. But I then talked about the necessity of changing our thinking so that we see ourselves as being like the one who does change rather than among those who refuse to change. What made these individuals exceptional was not that they were any smarter or kinder than their neighbors but that they were willing to live the truth of their values.”

LovePoliticsActivismAllyship
Book:All About Love: New Visions
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“Without or­ganization, ideas, after some initial momentum, start losing their effect. They become routine, degenerate into conformity, and end up simply a memory. I raise this warning because too often, in this short but rich period of our revolution, many great initiatives have failed. They have been forgotten because of the lack of an organiza­tional apparatus needed to keep them going and bring them to frui­tion.”

PoliticsActivismSocialismCommunismSocial Movements
Author:Che Guevara
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“How did the women's movement succeed in bringing peace while the men's warring factions could not? Leymah's story says it all: when the women were wounded, they were able to absorb their pain without passing it on, but when the men were wounded they needed to make someone pay. That's what fed the cycle of war. I'm not saying that women alone have the power of peacemaking and men alone are the cause of war. Absolutely not. I am saying that in this case, . . . when the women found their voice, the men found their power to make peace. Each found the traditional attributes of the other inside themselves. The men were able to do something the women had done -- agree not to retaliate -- and the women were able to do something the men had done, which is to assert their views about how society should be run. Bringing these two qualities together is what brought peace.”

FeminismActivism
Book:The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World
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“Leymah's friend who came back to cry with her sisters, and all the women who ever accepted their pain without passing it on were not just sharing their grief but finding their voice because their voice was buried underneath their grief. If we can face our pain, we can find our voice, and it is so much easier to face our pain and find our voice together.”

FeminismActivism
Book:The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World
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“There are too many people working to better the lives of those who already have more than they need, yet those who are in need of real help spend each day with no hope or help to speak of - why my friend - why - they are waiting for you - they are wailing for you - don't you hear them - don't you hear their tears dropping on the lifeless soil beneath their feet! You worry about philosophical questions like, if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound - yet you pay no attention to real questions of life and death that actually require your intervention more than any philosophical question in the world! Why - I ask you again - why - why is it that philosophy, technology and argumentation have more grip over your psyche than the actual troubles of the people! Don't answer me - just think - think and when you have thought enough, shred all shallow philosophical pomp and rush right away to the helpless, the forgotten, the destitute as the real, practical answer to their life.”

Human RightsHumanitarianActivismHelping OthersActivistHumanitarianismHumanitarian CrisisDestituteHuman Rights ViolationsHuman Rights Activists
Book:When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation
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“The more that injustice, exploitation, inequality, unemployment, poverty, hunger, and misery prevail in human society, the more Che's stature will grow. The more that the power of imperialism, hegemonism, domina­tion, and interventionism grow, to the detriment of the most sa­cred rights of the peoples-especially the weak, backward, and poor peoples who for centuries were colonies of the West and sources of slave labor-the more the values Che defended will be upheld. The more that abuses, selfishness, and alienation exist; the more that Indians, ethnic minorities, women, and immigrants suffer dis­ crimination; the more that children are bought and sold for sex or forced into the workforce in their hundreds of millions; the more that ignorance, unsanitary conditions, insecurity, and homelessness prevail-the more Che's deeply humanistic message will stand out. The more that corrupt, demagogic, and hypocritical politicians exist anywhere, the more Che's example of a pure, revolutionary, and consistent human being will come through. The more cowards, opportunists, and traitors there are on the face of the earth, the more Che's personal courage and revolution­ary integrity will be admired. The more that others lack the ability to fulfill their duty, the more Che's iron willpower will be admired. The more that some individuals lack the most basic self-respect, the more Che's sense of honor and dignity will be admired. The more that skeptics abound, the more Che's faith in man will be admired. The more pessimists there are, the more Che's optimism will be admired. The more vacillators there are, the more Che's audacity will be admired. The more that loafers squander the prod­uct of the labor of others, the more Che's austerity, his spirit of study and work, will be admired.”

RevolutionActivismSocialismCommunismCubaFidel CastroRevolutionariesChe Guevara
Author:Fidel Castro
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