When we say 'Black Lives Matter,' we're not saying that any other life doesn't matter. That has never, ever been our message. Our message has always been from a place of love.
Opal TometiRead
Anti-black racism operates at a society-wide level and colludes in a seamless web of policies, practices, and beliefs to oppress and disempower black communities.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the systemic nature of anti-black racism and its impact on black communities.
Opal Tometi's quote emphasizes that anti-black racism is not merely an individual prejudice but a deeply ingrained societal issue. It manifests through a complex interplay of policies, practices, and cultural beliefs that collectively contribute to the oppression and disempowerment of black communities, underscoring the need for collective awareness and action to dismantle these systems of inequality.
In practice
In a discussion about social justice at a community meeting.
When we say 'Black Lives Matter,' we're not saying that any other life doesn't matter. That has never, ever been our message. Our message has always been from a place of love.
To fully understand the black immigrant experience in the U.S., we must understand it not in contrast to the African-American experience, but central to it.
The U.S.' refusal to acknowledge the plight of displaced Haitians and maintaining inhumane practices of neglect, disrespect, and violence amounts to a gross violation of human rights.
I have two younger brothers, and I know my parents have spoken to them about driving and interacting with police. They didn't have those conversations with me, but they did have conversations about being exceptional black people.
The unvarnished truth is that we have spent the last decade funding the machinery of war, and our children have been sacrificed.
You can't hear a word and just hear it as raw sound; it always evokes an associated meaning and emotion in the brain.
If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.
And when there are enough outsiders together in one place, a mystic osmosis takes place and you're inside.
In every free and deliberating society, there must, from the nature of man, be opposite parties, and violent dissensions and discords; and one of these, for the most part, must prevail over the other for a longer or shorter time.
Limited in his nature, infinite in his desires, man is a fallen god who remembers the heavens.
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