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Protest Quotes

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Protest Quotes

“Such proposals may seem impractical and even incredible. But what is truly impractical and incredible is that America, with its enormous wealth, has allowed Watts to become what it is and that a commission empowered to study this explosive situation should come up with answers that boil down to voluntary actions by business and labor, new public relations campaigns for municipal agencies, and information-gathering for housing, fair employment, and welfare departments. The Watts manifesto is a response to realities that the McCone Report is barely beginning to grasp. Like the liberal consensus which it embodies and reflects, the commission's imagination and political intelligence appear paralyzed by the hard facts of Negro deprivation it has unearthed, and it lacks the political will to demand that the vast resources of contemporary America be used to build a genuinely great society that will finally put an end to these deprivations. And what is most impractical and incredible of all is that we may very well continue to teach impoverished, segregated, and ignored Negroes that the only way they can get the ear of America is to rise up in violence.”

RacismProtestRebellionAfrican AmericansSystemic RacismRiotsWatts RebellionWatts Riots
Book:Down the Line: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
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“But I believe that, once the shock settles, faith and energy will return. Because let’s be real: we always knew this shit wasn’t going to be easy. Colonial power, patriarchal power, capitalist power must always and everywhere be battled, because they never, ever quit. We have to keep fighting, because otherwise there will be no future—all will be consumed. Those of us whose ancestors were owned and bred like animals know that future all too well, because it is, in part, our past. And we know that by fighting, against all odds, we who had nothing, not even our real names, transformed the universe. Our ancestors did this with very little, and we who have more must do the same. This is the joyous destiny of our people—to bury the arc of the moral universe so deep in justice that it will never be undone.”

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Author:Junot Díaz
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“Most Romans believed that their system of government was the finest political invention of the human mind. Change was inconceivable. Indeed, the constitution's various parts were so mutually interdependent that reform within the rules was next to impossible. As a result, radicals found that they had little choice other than to set themselves beyond and against the law. This inflexibility had disastrous consequences as it became increasingly clear that the Roman state was incapable of responding adequately to the challenges it faced. Political debate became polarized into bitter conflicts, with radical outsiders trying to press change on conservative insiders who, in the teeth of all the evidence, believed that all was for the best under the best of all possible constitutions (16).”

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Book:Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician
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“To remind him, and perhaps myself, that any hope for the future depends on our ability to reclaim the narrative of a long con- tinuum of resistance that has been the foundation of our country and the bulwark against the very forces that have threatened our democracy since its founding.”

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Book:Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition
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“Third, resistance is a tradition of building blocks; a continuum of action that may not have dislodged injustice in its own time, but whose revolutionary founders left behind the framework and tools for a subsequent generation to take up, and ultimately carry out its vision. We can stand back and admire certain laws and protections now—child labor laws, voter enfranchisement for all, an eight-hour work day, clean water, for example—and appreciate the irreversible process of resistance that not only guaranteed their formation, but fought off the innumerable attacks that once kept them from rising.”

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Book:Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition
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“Fourth, resistance, as it has unfolded over the centuries, has claimed a “public commons” for “we the people” to have a voice in shaping the de- fining issues in our most trying times—beyond the thirty-nine wealthy white men who signed our Constitution. This means beyond elections.”

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Book:Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition
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“Resistance, as an American credo, blossomed from the seed-time of our American Revolution as a universal right, not simply some random act to “disrupt civil order and stability” or fleeting moments of dissent or vague calls for freedom, as often defined. Resistance, over the centuries, has endowed a “public commons” for “we the people” to have a voice in framing the defining issues in our most trying times. And while those defining issues have remained unresolved, in many respects— expanding the protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all; defending the right of free speech and freedom of the press as inalienable—they have taken new forms in an age of nuclear weapons and climate change.”

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Book:Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition
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“Second, resistance defies claims of a single American way; and reminds us that there are many American ways, often conflicting and sometimes deceiving. This is particularly true of resistance movements themselves; splintered by nature, the small and vital acts of resistance, often those of a single person, have their own sources of inspiration. They follow a different timeline in everyone’s life. At their best, resistance movements flow like many rivers into an ocean or historic water- shed event.”

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Book:Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition
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“Yes, the Grand March was coming to an end, but was that any reason for Franz to betray it? Wasn't his own life coming to an end as well? Who was he to jeer at the exhibitionism of the people accompanying the courageous doctors to the border? What could they all do but put on a show? Had they any choice? Franz was right. I can't help thinking about the editor in Prague who organized the petition for the amnesty of political prisoners. He knew perfectly well that his petition would not help the prisoners. His true goal was not to free the prisoners; it was to show that people without fear still exist. That, too, was playacting. But he had no other possibility. His choice was not between playacting and action. His choice was between playacting and no action at all. There are situations in which people are condemned to playact. Their struggle with mute power (the mute power across the river, a police transmogrified into mute microphones in the wall) is the struggle of a theater company that has attacked an army.”

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Book:The Unbearable Lightness of Being
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“Wehe, du Äußerst es offen, so wie es die Syrer sechs Monate vor Beginn des Krieges taten, als die Menschen auf die Straße gingen und mit lauter Stimme »Freiheit und Würde« forderten. Wehe dir, du sprichst das Wort »Freiheit« als Forderung aus! Wehe dir, du bezeichnest »Würde« als dein Recht! Wehe dir, du protestierst und sagst: »Ich bin ein Mensch, und dieses Leben ist meiner nicht würdig!« Wehe dir, du fragst, warum du beobachtet wirst oder das Gefühl hast, beobachtet zu werden!”

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Book:Under krigets himmel
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“The vicious circle is perfect: foreign debt and foreign investment oblige us to multiply exports that they themselves devour. The task can't be accomplished with gentlemanly manners. To fulfill their function as hostages of foreign prosperity, Latin American workers must be held prisoner, either inside or outside of the jails.”

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Book:Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
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“Hating life, despising life—even for the genuine pain that life inflicts—merely serves to make life itself worse, unbearably worse. There is no genuine protest in that. There is no goodness in that, only the desire to produce suffering, for the sake of suffering. That is the very essence of evil. People who come to that kind of thinking are one step from total mayhem.”

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Book:12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
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“Let my silence grow with noise as pregnant mothers grow with life. Let my silence permeate these walls as sunlight permeates a home. Let the silence rise from unwatered graves and craters left by bombs. Let the silence rise from empty bellies and surge from broken hearts. The silence of the hidden and forgotten. The silence of the abused and tortured. The silence of the persecuted and imprisoned. The silence of the hanged and massacred. Loud as all the sounds can be, let my silence be loud so the hungry may eat my words and the poor may wear my words. Loud as all the sounds can be, let my silence be loud so I may resurrect the dead and give voice to the oppressed. My silence speaks.”

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Author:Kamand Kojouri
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“Nowadays, a simple faulty brake light traffic stop, can get a black person killed. It's better to fix the broken light bulb, then having to face and cooperate with a senseless police officer.”

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Author:Anthony Liccione
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“I stand for women. I stand for men. I stand for those the world ignores. I stand for those who break yet rise again. I stand for the disabled, the lost, the poor. I stand for the outcast, the unheard, the unseen. I stand for children, for their dreams and their light. I stand for the elderly, their wisdom, their fight. I stand for freedom, for truth, for choice. I stand for every race, every culture, every voice. I stand for the weary, the hopeless, the scarred. I stand for equality, no matter how hard. I stand for justice, I stand for love, I stand for peace. I stand for you, I stand for me. I stand, period.”

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Author:N'Zuri Za Austin
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“It's not surprising, I don't think, that in the midst of this indiscriminate killing, many of the Westerners doing the most active work in opposing genocide are Jews. Here is love born of pain, if the past century's most horrific crime, love of one's own spread outward into love of another. Whatever the empire is, it has no idea what to do with this kind of love, which adheres neither to the empire’s own central principle of self-interest nor to the adjoining principle that solidarity is only with one’s own, that love for one’s people may never become love for another.”

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Book:One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
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“What does it mean to demonstrate in the streets, what is the significance of that collective activity so symptomatic of the twentieth century? In stupefaction Ulrich watches the demonstrators from the window; as they reach the foot of the palace, their faces turn up, turn furious, the men brandish their walking sticks, but “a few steps farther, at a bend where the demonstration seemed to scatter into the wings, most of them were already dropping their greasepaint: it would be absurd to keep up the menacing looks where there were no more spectators.” In the light of that metaphor, the demonstrators are not men in a rage; they are actors performing rage! As soon as the performance is over they are quick to drop their greasepaint! Later, in the 1960s, philosophers would talk about the modern world in which everything had turned into spectacle: demonstrations, wars, and even love; through this “quick and sagacious penetration” (Fielding), Musil had already long ago discerned the “society of spectacle.”

PoliticsActingActivismRageProtestDemonstrationModernismArtificeSpectacle
Book:The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts
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“We need a powerful sense of determination to banish the ugly blemish of racism scarring the image of America. We can, of course, try to temporize, negotiate small, inadequate changes and prolong the timetable of freedom in the hope that the narcotics of delay will dull the pain of progress. We can try, but we shall certainly fail. The shape of the world will not permit us the luxury of gradualism and procrastination. Not only is it immoral, it will not work It will not work because Negroes know they have the right to be free. It will not work because Negroes have discovered, in nonviolent direct action, an irresistible force to propel what has been for so long an immovable object. It will not work because it retards the progress not only of the Negro, but of the nation as a whole.”

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Book:Why We Can't Wait
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“When these incidents started, I took them in stride, feeling that they were the work of a few hotheads who would soon be discouraged when they discovered that we would not fight back. But as the weeks passed, I began to see that many of the threats were in earnest. Soon I felt myself faltering and growing in fear. One day, a white friend told me that he had heard from reliable sources that plans were being made to take my life. For the first time I realized that something could happen to me. One night at a mass meeting, I found myself saying: 'If one day you find me sprawled out dead, I do not want you to retaliate with a single act of violence. I urge you to continue protesting with the same dignity and discipline you have shown so far.' A strange silence came over the audience.”

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Book:Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
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“This mutual aid work we're doing here--that's the mycelium, the roots of the fungus that spread underground, forming a network through the forest that can spread for miles, unseen, strengthening and feeding the whole organism. Then when conditions are right--the right amount of rain, sun, press exposure, public outrage, whatever--" Shayna made an exploding gesture with her hand. "All of a sudden, little mushrooms pop up all over the forest. All of a sudden, you've got mass protests springing up across the country. And... the thing about mushrooms is, they shoot out spores. Millions of 'em, spreading their fungal secrets everywhere the wind blows. And just like that, each time we have a protest, we're sending out millions of spores that take root in people's minds." "Now, once a spore lands in fertile soil, it takes a while to start growing. It's got to build up its own network of mycelium." "So protest movements always spread the spores for the next protest movement. Like mushrooms, they're only meant to last a short while. Hell, the Free People's Village was a sturdy little mushroom--we were out there for months! And since then, all the zillions of spores we sent into the world? They've been growing. Trust. Now we just got to wait for the next time the conditions are right--and be ready. In the meantime, we grow our network--we spread our mycelium, we strengthen our community.”

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Book:The Free People's Village
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“They march in the streets and the classrooms and the courtrooms and the parliaments and the boardrooms, and we thought they would stop, but they didn’t. We thought they would grow tired, but still they didn’t. They grew louder and louder until every corner of the world heard their demand: a planet they can live on. That’s what they want, and they keep saying it, and they won’t stop saying it.”

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Book:Nature's Last Dance: Tales of Wonder in an Age of Extinction
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“Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject”

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Author:John Stuart Mill
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“A protest should be undeniable. It should not ask the oppressed to become scholars of your rhetoric. It should not demand a prerequisite reading list before it makes sense. A protest is not a lecture series; it is an eruption, a call, a demand. It is a truth so raw that even a passerby, even a child, even the most disengaged person in the crowd should be able to hear it and know, in their gut, what is being said.”

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Author:Darnell Lamont Walker
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“Lisa Fithian: The direct action element always brings the energy, attracts young people, but it is also the primary way in which we're building culture. Because all of these movements have to have culture the songs, the music, the visuals. Culture's life. And we're dealing with a culture of death in the U.S. We need to have an alternative. So, we were embodying a culture of life. [As quoted by DW Gibson.]”

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Book:One Week to Change the World: An Oral History of the 1999 WTO Protests
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“We have got to call time on the bullsh*t that makes us feel as if we are powerless, the bullsh*t that tells ordinary people they have a defined place in the world and should put up with their lot. The bullsh*t that means the same people always end up with the same jobs. The bullsh*t that says we just have to tolerate a rising tide of hatred and division. The bullsh*t that says the laws are just the way they are and you should live within a system that was designed for someone else.”

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Book:Truth to Power: 7 Ways to Call Time on B.S.
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“Whether on a big global platform or just in your office, speaking truth to power is not necessarily done so that the powerful change; it is rarely that simple. Speaking truth to power is, in fact, mostly for the ears of the oppressed. It speaks to everyday people, offers them the comfort that they are not alone and gives them hope that things can change. A small act of personal resistance viewed by someone else changes the way that they feel about speaking up themselves.... Speaking truth to power has the effect of activation and solidarity”

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Book:Truth to Power: 7 Ways to Call Time on B.S.
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