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Quote by Ibi Zoboi

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Punching the Air

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Ibi Zoboi

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“Standing on a street corner in Manhattan two days after Diallo's murder, having just come from a meeting of concerned citizens to plan an organized response, I was so filled with frustration and sorrow that I turned to the woman beside me waiting for the light to change and asked 'What do you think about the cops shooting that man forty-one-times?' She looked startled, confused--could she not feel the palpable rage, pain, and fear that pulsed through the black veins of this city and other cities across the nation? 'I don't know. I have to wait until all the facts are in. I'm sure they had a reason,' she finally responded. Perhaps she saw the disgust and disappointment on my face. Stepping off the curb as the light turned green, she added, 'I mean, he must have done something.”

Police BrutalitySystemic RacismRacial Injustice
Book:Police Brutality: An Anthology
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“Eyes watching through filtered screens seeing every lie, reading every made-up word like a black hoodie counts as a mask like some shit I do with my fingers counts as gang signs like a few fights counts as uncontrollable rage like failing three classes counts as being dumb as fuck like everything that I am, that I've ever been counts as being guilty”

Criminal JusticeCriminal Justice SystemRacial InjusticeCriminal Justice Reform
Book:Punching the Air
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“Saying down with the blacks but uplift the white race Raising the banner to the sun in haste Mobbed deep, hoods and capes Sun-dried and bloodstained Saying down with the blacks but uplift the white race Unjustly tried an indelible conviction the usual result of five shades of darker skin Justice unjust, black robes and pale face Didn't have a chance, they called us apes I wish I would have known the false smiles Evil intentions fulfilling their taste Why me? Why us? Justice unjust, black robes and pale faces?”

Criminal JusticeRacial DiscriminationCriminal Justice SystemRacial Injustice
Book:Punching the Air
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“Back then and even now, my black friends and family members often tell me they don't consider me white. I don't think that's what they really mean. What they mean is that they feel safe with me. They mean they don't fear the noose in my presence. Their face being pressed to the concrete. My knee being pressed against their neck. My weight bearing down. When they say they don't consider me white, what they mean is that I see them. That I'm with them. That I won't stand for the little white genocides they're subjected to one podium speech at a time.”

Black Lives MatterRacial InjusticeBlack LoveRacial Inequality
Book:Wounds
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“Cars slowed down as they passed. White drivers with white passengers. White parents with white children, watching. Not seeing, I imagine, three innocent black boys being harassed by racist police officers. Seeing three black criminals being brought to justice. Young minds being shaped into wrong thinking. Generational ignorance being reinforced through misconstrued observation.”

Black Lives MatterRacism In AmericaRacial InjusticeBlack Love
Book:Wounds
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“Pressuring, demanding, or encouraging forgiveness from Black survivors may be used as a method to avoid the realities of systemic racism and racial trauma and used as a substitution for enacting substantive social justice.”

ForgivenessSocial JusticeBlack Lives MatterForgiveness QuotesSystemic RacismRacial DiscriminationRacial InjusticeBlack Trauma QuotesRacial Trauma
Book:You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms
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“Resegregation happens through design and through apathy. It also grows through our blindness - whether willed, imperceivable, or fixed through the best of our intentions - to the deep connections between us all. Silence over resegregation has led us to this historical moment. The young may not speak in the language we are accustomed to hearing. We may think them sometimes too imprecise or cavalier in their rage. But if we miss their point - for which they have been willing to sacrifice everything - we will undoubtedly be hearing it again from the next generation.”

Social JusticeCivil RightsRacial InjusticeResegregation
Author:Jeff Chang
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“So you done worked all year and the Man ain't done nothin, but you still owe the Man. And wadn't nothin you could do but work his land for another year to pay off that debt What it come down to was: The Man didn't just own the land. He owned *you.* Got so there was a sayin that went like this: "An ought's an ought, a figger's a figger, all for the white man, none for the nigger.”

Racial InjusticeRacial Inequality
Book:Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together
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