Quotessence
Home / Topics / Protests Quotes

Protests Quotes

Browse 42 quotes about Protests.

Protests Quotes

“The McCone Report goes on to mention two other "aggravating events in the twelve months prior to the riot." One was the failure of the poverty program to "live up to [its] press notices," combined with reports of "controversy and bickering" in Los Angeles over administering the program. The second "aggravating event" is summed up by the report in these words: Throughout the nation unpunished violence and disobedience to the law were widely reported, and almost daily there were exhortations, here and elsewhere, to take the most extreme and illegal remedies to right a wide variety of wrongs, real and supposed. It would be hard to frame a more insidiously equivocal statement of the Negro grievance concerning law enforcement during a period that included the release of the suspects in the murder of the three civil rights workers in Mississippi, the failure to obtain convictions against the suspected murderers of Medgar Evers and Mrs. Violet Liuzzo, the Gilligan incident in New York, the murder of Reverend James Reeb, and the police violence in Selma, Alabama—to mention only a few of the more notorious cases. And surely it would have been more to the point to mention that throughout the nation Negro demonstrations have almost invariably been nonviolent, and that the major influence of the civil rights movement on the Negro community has been the strategy of discipline and dignity. Obsessed by the few prophets of violent resistance, the McCone Commission ignores the fact that never before has an American group sent so many people to jail or been so severely punished for trying to uphold the law of the land.”

JusticePovertyInjusticeCivil RightsAfrican AmericansProtestsPolice MisconductWatts RebellionWatts Riots
Book:Down the Line: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
Create image

“My hearing was not attuned to the sound of such bitterness. I guess I should not have been surprised. I should have known that in an atmosphere where false promises are daily realities, where deferred dreams are nightly facts, where acts of unpunished violence toward Negroes are a way of life, nonviolence would eventually be seriously questioned. I should have been reminded that disappointment produces despair and despair produces bitterness, and that the one thing certain about bitterness is its blindness. Bitterness has not the capacity to make the distinction between some and all. When some members of the dominant group, particularly those in power, are racist in attitude and practice, bitterness accuses the whole group.”

ViolenceDespairRacismBitternessNonviolenceAfrican AmericansBlacksProtestsNonviolent Protest
Book:Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?
Create image

“Just us and the blues kneeling on a neck with the full weight of a man in blue. Eight minutes and forty-six seconds. In extremis, I can’t breathe gives way to asphyxiation, to giving up this world, and then mama, called to, a call to protest, fire, glass, say their names, say their names, white silence equals violence, the violence of again, a militarized police force teargassing, bullets ricochet, and civil unrest taking it, burning it down. Whatever contracts keep us social compel us now to disorder the disorder. Peace. We’re out to repair the future.”

PoetryChangePoemFutureRacismAfrican AmericansBlacksBlack Lives MatterPolice BrutalityProtests
Author:Claudia Rankine
Create image

“ہڈ کا احاطہ کرتا ہے، ہاتھ بندھے ہوئے پیچھے کی طرف. پلیٹ تبدیل کرنے پر تلخ ہارگمن کی گند میں ہوا ہوا ہوا وقت کونسا ہے؟ ڈاکٹر کاپی جج واہارڈن یا کوئی نہیں؟ میں اپنے آپ کو تہھانے بادل میں ناپسند کرتا ہوں جہاں گندگی کی نمک پسینہ کی تاریخ بند ہے رسی پہلے سب سے تیز ہے اس کے بعد کمزور جکڑے ہوئے، کٹوری کی گونج کے ساتھ جہاں پرندوں اور مکھیوں نے ان کی زوال کو دوبارہ ڈالا میں اپنا اضافہ دوبارہ بناتا ہوں بڑھتی ہوئی واحد ہے. الفاظ کے دانو سے غیر جن کے پاؤں برباد شدہ کائنات کو پسند کرتے ہیں ہر وقت زندہ رکھنے کے لئے میں نے کبھی جھاڑیوں کا سامنا نہیں کیا ان لوگوں کا ایک خاندان جو موت کے لئے جنم دیا جاتا ہے.”

LoveLifeDeathEmotionsDissentProtests
Book:প্রিয় পচিশ - কবিতার বই
Create image

“So how do the people resist unjust authority, which, we all agree, they must and should do and have done in the past? The best solution anyone has come up with is to say that violent revolutions can be avoided (and therefore, violent mobs legitimately suppressed) if 'the people' are understood to have the right to challenge the laws through nonviolent civil disobedience.”

PoliticsDemocracySocietyRevolutionCivil DisobedienceProtests
Book:The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement
Create image

“This morning Reverend [Martin Luther] King invited me to attend a meeting of the protest committee. The committee decided not to hold any more mass meetings but only prayer meetings. This was to emphasize the moral nature of the struggle. The meetings will center around five prayers: A prayer for the success of the meeting. A prayer for strength of spirit to carry on nonviolently. A prayer for strength of body to walk for freedom. A prayer for those who oppose us. A prayer that all men may become brothers to live in justice and equality.”

DiscriminationCivil RightsRace RelationsPrayersMartin Luther KingProtestsMontgomery Bus BoycottBoycotts
Book:Down the Line: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
Create image

“The academic literature describes marshals who “‘police’ other demonstrators,” and who have a “collaborative relationship” with the authorities. This is essentially a strategy of co-optation. The police enlist the protest organizers to control the demonstrators, putting the organization at least partly in the service of the state and intensifying the function of control. (...) Police/protestor cooperation required a fundamental adjustment in the attitude of the authorities. The Negotiated Management approach demanded the institutionalization of protest. Demonstrations had to be granted some degree of legitimacy so they could be carefully managed rather than simply shoved about. This approach de-emphasized the radical or antagonistic aspects of protest in favor of a routinized and collaborative approach. Naturally such a relationship brought with it some fairly tight constraints as to the kinds of protest activity available. Rallies, marches, polite picketing, symbolic civil disobedience actions, and even legal direct action — such as strikes or boycotts — were likely to be acceptable, within certain limits. Violence, obviously, would not be tolerated. Neither would property destruction. Nor would any of the variety of tactics that had been developed to close businesses, prevent logging, disrupt government meetings, or otherwise interfere with the operation of some part of society. That is to say, picketing may be fine, barricades are not. Rallies were in, riots were out. Taking to the streets — under certain circumstances — may be acceptable; taking over the factories was not. The danger, for activists, is that they might permanently limit themselves to tactics that were predictable, non-disruptive, and ultimately ineffective.”

ViolencePoliceRiotRiotsProtestsPolice ViolenceDemonstrations
Book:Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America
Create image

“Magically modified food is a serious issue," Rosabella said. "We don't know the long-term effects on our bodies." She grabbed her ever-present picket sign. "I'm going to protest. Who's with me?" All the girls suddenly checked their MirrorPhones as if an important hext had arrived. "Suit yourselves," she said. "I'm going to talk to Ginger Breadhouse. She's the best cook on campus. Surely she cares about this issue." She hurried over to the next table. "Good luck," Darling called. Rosabella's protests were important, but there were so many things she wanted to change. It was exhausting after a while.”

ActivistProtestsRosabella BeautyMagically Modified
Book:A Semi-Charming Kind of Life
Create image

“Later, Tara and other leaders, roughly the same age, lead marches through the streets. Like lambs to the slaughter, we follow. We target the banks. They’re put on notice that their day is over. It’s street theater and people who work there watch the show from windows, high above. Next, the girls lead us to the Chamber of Commerce where plainclothes ex-military protect the movers and shakers from a scattering of college girls and a collection of workers who need better jobs. They watch us through mirrored sunglasses and communicate via hidden microphones and listening devices. It’s a routine that everyone, except us, knows.”

Washington DcProtestsMarches
Book:Liberté: The Days of Rage 1990-2020
Create image

“The library was ... scattered with odd cushions and strange padded built-in furniture added a few years ago to placate the rioting students of the time, who could never seem to make up their minds whether they were angriest about Viet Nam, about being made to learn a foreign language, or about being made to sit at a hard wooden desk while they did it. The College, being unable to do anything about Viet Nam and unwilling to do anything about the foreign language requirement, had reformed the furniture in the library.”

StudentsCollegeVietnam WarLibrariesProtestsUni
Book:Tam Lin
Create image

“Esau sold his birth right, because he wanted a plate of meal. Today, When I look in the news, social media and on the street. I see people doing the same. They are selling their loyalty, trust, love, human rights, freedom, bodies, lives for a plate of meal. They will do or say anything for money , food or alcohol. Free people are selling themselves as slaves, for a plate of meal. They are getting paid to do dirty, bad , evil things. People are paid, to destroy their own future. Never sell yourself shot, if you want peace or a future. Genesis 25:30-34”

PeopleMotivational QuotesFutureQuotes And PhilosophyScripturesChristiansSlavesProtestsBible VersesPolitics And Politicians
Author:De philosopher DJ Kyos
Create image

“Protesting problems doesn’t really bring solutions. It just brings more problems. We reap what we sow. If we want to reap happiness, we must sow happiness. And that happiness inspires, strengthens others and builds bridges. If we want solutions, we have to think about solutions and be detached from the problem. Otherwise, [if we focus on the problem] we take the problem with us, [keep it active,] and poison the future. If we want to reap love, we must love. With no ifs and buts. And, we need to do it OURSELVES instead of asking others to do it. This is freedom. This is empowerment. This is our own solution from the problem, from our sorrow, frrom our pain. And the more people detach themselves from the unwanted, and walk the path of love, and [focus on] the joy of the wanted, the more solutions we achieve for the world.”

ActivismProtestActivistManifestingStop ComplainingProtestsFocus On PositiveFocus On SuccessProtestingPower Of Focus
Author:Elke Heinrich
Create image