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Quote by Marian Wright Edelman

“The core of the culture is racism and how black men are viewed. They've always been demonized and seen as threats in our culture. Another holdover from slavery. We've got to deal with that core root of racism and demonization of the upbringing of black men. Black women are not exempt by any means.”

Quote by Marian Wright Edelman

Author

Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman is a prominent American civil rights activist and lawyer, born on June 6, 1939. She has dedicated her life to advocating for children's rights and social justice, particularly through the establishment of the Children's Defense Fund in 1973. Edelman's work has had a significant impact on the lives of millions of children in the United States. more

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“You have to have a fundamental change in the culture of policing, and who is the police person. How do they change? How do you learn from England and the other places, or Australia? In England, they don't carry guns on the whole. It's a different kind of mentality that does not demonize, and it's justified on race and income and class.”

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Author:Marian Wright Edelman

“It's deeply rooted in the American psyche. Black men have always been viewed as the other, which leads to a different application of the laws. The current laws are an obscenity. More black men are locked up for using pot than white folk are for far more serious crimes.”

Men Different Law Black White Crime Serious Folks Currents Pot Application Locked Rooted Locked Up Obscenity

Author:Marian Wright Edelman

“Our government has to be held accountable for enforcing the law. Tamir Rice, the fact that they could exonerate that police person [who killed him], and Tamir's family was charged for the ambulance to take him [to the hospital]. It's inhumane.”

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Author:Marian Wright Edelman

“When I started out as an activist, the issues were much clearer. There's advantage to the new media, but on the other hand, you miss the ability to frame an issue that you had when there were just three TV networks: CBS, NBC, and ABC. So the whole world could see the same police dogs. The same Bull Connor and his white tank. Now you've got narrow-casting. The media is all fragmented. It's so hard to get people to focus in a sustained way.”

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Author:Marian Wright Edelman

“That's not to say that some of the new media is not advantageous. You can reach lots of folks with what Black Lives Matter is doing, mobilizing people. God bless them.”

People Matter Black Media Folks Bless Black Lives Matter God Bless New Media Black Lives

Author:Marian Wright Edelman

“As [Martin Luther] King said, it never cost anybody a dime to integrate the lunch counters. When you start talking about trying to deal with jobs and hunger and things that require investment, then that's really the tough stuff, because everybody wants to do right if it doesn't cost them anything.”

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Author:Marian Wright Edelman

“We're spending, on average, three times more for prison than for public-school pupils. That's the dumbest investment policy. It doesn't make us safer.”

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Author:Marian Wright Edelman

“It's the new slavery. It came out of the drug laws and it really is something we're going to have to confront, but I don't see enough people up in arms about that. We need to be.”

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Author:Marian Wright Edelman

“The literacy level at Mississippi prisons? Fifth grade. Can't read, what are you going to do? If you've got a conviction rap, what are you going to do? It's a real crisis.”

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Author:Marian Wright Edelman

“In 1990, when we started the Black Community Crusade for Children, we were always talking about all children, but we paid particular attention to children who were not white, who were poor, who were disabled, and who were the most vulnerable.Parents didn't think their children would live to adulthood, and the children didn't think they were going to live to adulthood. That's when we started our first gun-violence campaign. We've lost 17 times more young black people to gun violence since 1968 than we lost in all the lynching in slavery.”