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Black Lives Matter Quotes

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Black Lives Matter Quotes

“We all have a sphere of influence. Each of us needs to find our own sources of courage so that we can begin to speak. There are many problems to address, and we cannot avoid them indefinitely. We cannot continue to be silent. We must begin to speak, knowing that words alone are insufficient. But I have seen that meaningful dialogue can lead to effective action. Change is possible.”

Black Lives MatterRace And Racism In AmericaSpeaking OutBlmAnti RacismAllyship
Book:Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
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“What if I make a mistake?' you may be thinking. 'Racism is a volatile issue, and I don't want to say or do the wrong thing.' In almost forty years of teaching and leading workshops about racism, I have made many mistakes. I have found that a sincere apology and a genuine desire to learn from one's mistakes is usually rewarded with forgiveness. If we wait for perfection, we will never break the silence. The cycle of racism will continue uninterrupted.”

RacismBlack Lives MatterRace And Racism In AmericaBlmAllyship
Book:Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
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“Performative allyship does not engage on a complex level. It consists of low level, often ill-informed rhetorical statements that are usually obvious to Black and Brown employees and real allies, of the anti racist, racially inclusive agenda. It lacks genuine concern and does little to acknowledge the very behaviours that support structural and process driven racism.”

RacismRacistBlack Lives MatterBlacklivesmatterAnti RacismAllyshipStructural RacismPerformative Ally
Author:Carmen Morris
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“... the truth is that not enough carriers of this virus have ever been willing to risk the potential loss of any aspect of their social capital to find out what kind of America might lie on the other side of segregation. They are very happy to "blackout" their social media for a day, to read all-black books, and "educate" themselves about black issues—as long as this education does not occur in the form of actual black children attending their actual schools.”

RacismSegregationBlack Lives MatterGentrification
Book:Intimations
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“It's not putting black lives on a pedestal, I don't even know what that means," I said, my heart beating fast. "It's saying that black lives, at this point, and historically, do not, and have not mattered, and that they should!" I looked first at Gina, then around the room to see if anyone was going to back me up. Instead, I was met with what I'd been trying to pretend hadn't always been a room full of white not-quite-liberals whose opinions, like their money, had been inherited.”

Black Lives MatterBlmBlacklivesmatter
Book:Queenie
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“The BLM-antifa narrative that police are murdering black and brown people in epidemic proportions needs to be thoroughly debunked. It is not supported by the evidence or data. This should be the job of the media, but it has been they who fan the flames of racial division through one-sided wall-to-wall coverage. The unending distraction from real issues that can otherwise be addressed through evidence-based policy making has us chasing shadows.”

RacismDivisionBlack Lives MatterAmerican CultureRace RelationsBlmPolitical IdeologyMedia BiasAntifaAntifascism
Book:Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy
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“The high point of the struggle against domination was the historic movement of liberation, be it political, sexual or otherwise - a continuous movement, with guiding ideas and visible actors. But liberation also occurred with exchanges and markets, which brings us to this terrifying paradox: all of the liberation fights against domination only paved the way for hegemony, the reign of general exchange -against which there is no possible revolution, since everything is already liberated.”

Black Lives MatterSimulationHegemonyBlmBlack PanthersMe Too MovementRevolution Is Out Of Fashion
Book:The Agony of Power
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“Let's sing the song of victory, There ain't no place for savagery no more. Let's loosen the knots of tradition, There ain't no time for rigidity no more. Don't you hear the siren my friend, Can't you feel the rising sun! Don't you hear the footsteps of dawn, It's time to let go of all things barbarian.”

JusticeRacismInjusticeDiscriminationBigotryBlack Lives MatterHate CrimeBarbarism
Book:When Call The People: My World My Responsibility
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“the big headline of the book, a whopper really, is Hochschild’s claim that the population of the Congo fell by 50 percent or 10 million on Léopold’s watch. The EIC, he claims, caused “depopulation” and “mass murder” of “genocidal proportions” due to its drive for rubber profits. In fact, the most knowledgeable estimates today suggest that the general population of the Congo rose slightly during the EIC era and that any deaths attributable to the limited abuses in the rubber areas were far outweighed by the lives saved and created by the EIC’s direct interventions in other respects. Even if we can agree that any life lost to senseless violence and negligent governance is always and everywhere deserving of condemnation, Léopold’s regime was a monumental achievement in saving and promoting black lives.”

AfricaBlack Lives MatterCongoLeopold IiCongo Free StateAdam HochschildLeopold S Ghost
Book:King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.
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“We live in a society where race is one of the biggest indicators of your success in life. There are sizable racial divides in wealth, health, life expectancy, infant mortality, incarceration rates, and so much more. We cannot look at a society where racial inequality is so universal and longstanding and say, 'This is all the doing of a few individuals with hate in their hearts.' It just doesn't make sense.”

RacismBlack Lives MatterRace And Racism In AmericaBlmPeople Of Color
Book:So You Want to Talk About Race
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“In order to prevent chronic discomfort, Whites may learn not to notice. But in not noticing, one loses opportunities for greater insight into oneself and one's experience. A significant dimension of who one is in the world, one's Whiteness, remains uninvestigated and perceptions of daily experience are routinely distorted. Privilege goes unnoticed, and all but the most blatant acts of racial bigotry are ignored. Not noticing requires energy.”

RacismBlack Lives MatterRace And Racism In AmericaWhite PrivilegeBlm
Book:Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
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“A white police officer had entered a black women's home without a warrant, searching for a suspect. When she protested, he beat and arrested her, dragging her from her home though she wasn't fully dressed. When a black soldier saw this and tried to intervene to defend the woman, the white policeman pistol-whipped the black soldier, seriously injuring him. The men of the beaten soldier's regiment, learning no consequences would befall the white policeman, felt abandoned by white police and army officials. They saw the abuse as a last straw in a long string of injustices. So the marched into the city. Soldiers and civilians died in the shooting that followed”

RaceBlack Lives MatterPolice BrutalityBlm
Book:Lovely War
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“Cultural racism—the cultural images and messages that affirm the assumed superiority of Whites and the assumed inferiority of people of color—is like smog in the air. Some days it is so thick it is visible, other times it is less apparent, but always, day in and day out, we are breathing it in.”

RacismBlack Lives MatterBlmRace In America
Book:Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
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“We know how you all want us to cancel black people when they do something bad, but you keep making excuses for people you revere. People say, “can’t we just draw the line at rapists and murderers?” But for us history is rife with horrible men and then we’ve learned that we have to sing praises to those horrible men, and we see them on our money and their names on our schools and our bridges. So horrible man is not a disqualifier. Our lives are imbued with them. When they ask us about Michael Jackson (how can you sing those songs?) and R Kelly; it’s complicated. I will get rid of Michael Jackson when you get rid of Andrew Jackson. At least you can dance to Beat It. But our stories are so full of irredeemably horrible people that it’s something we can compartmentalize. Literally, if Bill Cosby was a priest, he wouldn’t be in prison.”

RacismBlack Lives MatterBlack HistoryBlmCancel CultureAndrew JacksonMichael JacksonBill Cosby
Book:Surrender, White People!: Our Unconditional Terms for Peace
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“Even Cobb, who had made a living peddling in Jim Crow stereotypes, and knew it, was moved by Johnson's heroics. He put a curious coda on his article: as a result of what our black soldiers are going to do in this war, a word that has been uttered billions of times in our country, sometimes in derision, sometimes in hate, sometimes in all kindliness-but which I am sure never fell black ears but it left behind a sting for the heart-is going to have a new meaning for all of us, South and North too, and that hereafter n-i-*-*-*-r will merely be another way of spelling the word American”

RacismBlack Lives MatterBlack HistoryBlm
Book:Lovely War
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“The particular combination of the explicit communication of high standards and the demonstrated assurance of the teacher's belief in the student's ability to succeed (as evidenced by the effort to provide detailed, constructive feedback) was a powerful intervention for Black students...it was an exceedingly effective way to generate the trust needed to motivate Black students to make their best effort.”

TeacherTeachingBlack Lives MatterEducatorBlmRace In America
Book:Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
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“...most Americans have internalized the espoused cultural values of fairness and justice for all at the same time that they have been breathing the smog of racial biases and stereotypes pervading popular culture...[it leaves] many Whites feeling uneasy, uncomfortable, and even perhaps fearful in the presence of Black people, often without their conscious awareness of these feelings.”

RacismEqualityBlack Lives MatterBlmRace In America
Book:Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
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“One White woman...wrote: '...I acknowledge the need for White students to listen to minority students when they express anger against a system which has failed them without taking this communication as a personal attack.' Indeed, this is what one young woman of color hoped for: 'When I'm participating in a cross-racial dialogue, I prefer that the people I'm interacting with understand why I react the way I do. When I say that I want understanding, it does not mean that I'm looking for empathy. I merely want people to know why I'm angry and not to be offended by it.' In order for there to be meaningful dialogue, fear, whether of anger or isolation, must eventually give way to risk and trust. A leap of faith must be made. It is not easy, and it required being willing to push past one's fear. Wrote one student, 'At times it feels too risky...but I think if people remain equally committed, it can get easier. It's a very stressful process, but I think the consequences of not exploring racial issues are ultimately far more damaging'.”

Black Lives MatterRace RelationsRace And Racism In AmericaBlm
Book:Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
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“...it is always a bit of a gut punch to realize that someone you have been sitting next to for months or even years secretly harbors view that deny your basic humanity as a black woman. No matter how many times it happens, I have yet to get used to it. ...I really really wanted this to be just a matter of misunderstanding. I really wanted this to be a case where he just didn't know how harmful everyday racism is, and once he did, he would change his mind...It seemed far more important to him that the white people who were spreading and upholding racism be spared the effects of being called racist, than sparing his black friend the effects of that racism. ...That was when I learned that this was not a friend I could take to about this really important part of my life. I couldn't be my full self around him, and he would never truly have my back. He was not safe. I wasn't angry, I was heartbroken.”

RacismBlack Lives MatterRace And Racism In AmericaBlmPeople Of Color
Book:So You Want to Talk About Race
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“When white feminism ignores history, ignores that the tears of white women have the power to get Black people killed while insisting that all women are on the same side, it doesn't solve anything. Look at Carolyn Bryant, who lied about Emmett Till whistling at her in 1955. Despite knowing who had killed him, and that he was innocent of even the casual disrespect she had claimed, she carried on with the lie for another fifty years after his lynching and death”

RaceFeminismBlack Lives MatterBlack HistoryBlmRasism
Book:Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
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“And, slowly, it was upon exactly that nothingness that my mind began to dwell, that constant sense of wanting without having, of being hated without reason. A dim notion of what life meant to a Negro in America was coming to consciousness in me, not in terms of external events, lynchings, Jim Crowism, and the endless brutalities, but in terms of crossed-up feeling, of psyche pain. I sensed that Negro life was a sprawling land of unconscious suffering, and there were but few Negroes who knew the meaning of their lives, who could tell their story.”

RaceBlack Lives MatterRace And Racism In AmericaBlmBeing Black
Book:Black Boy
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“It is as if we have reentered the past and are living in a second Nadir: It seems the rate of police killings now surpasses the rate of lynchings during the worst decades of the Jim Crow era. There was a lynching every four days in the early decades of the twentieth century. It’s been estimated that an African American is now killed by police every two to three days.”

RaceRacismBlack Lives MatterJim CrowBlmLynching
Book:The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race
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“As much as they were concerned about the police, the Panthers also took seriously the threat of crime and sought to address the fears of the community they served. With this in mind, they organized Seniors Against a Fearful Environment (SAFE), an escort and bussing service in which young Black people accompanied the elderly on their business around the city. In Los Angeles, when the Party opened an office on Central Avenue, they immediately set about running the drug dealers out of the area. And in Philadelphia, neighbors reported a decrease in violent crime after the Party opened their office, and an increase after the office closed. There, the BPP paid particular attention to gang violence, organizing truces and recruiting gang members to help with the survival programs. It may be that the Panthers reduced crime by virtue of their very existence. Crime, and gang violence especially, dropped during the period of their activity, in part (in the estimate of sociologist Lewis Yablonsky) because the BPP and similar groups “channeled young black and Chicano youth who might have participated in gangbanging violence into relatively positive efforts for social change through political activities.”

Black Lives MatterPolice BrutalityBlmPanthersPolice ViolenceGang ViolenceBlack Panthers
Book:Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America
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“You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question. The master had said, “You are ugly people.” They had looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; saw, in fact, support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance. “Yes,” they had said. “You are right.” And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it.”

Black Lives MatterBlmBluest Eye
Book:The Bluest Eye
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