We should be uncomfortable with the growing gaps in our society, and we cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to these injustices.
Ayanna PressleyRead
I'm not naive. All politics is about identity, right? Neighborhood politics, cultural politics, issue politics. It's not as though I don't get that. It's just - it has to be, I think, tempered in a way that is for our overall advancement and not to our detriment or obliteration. When I say 'our,' I don't mean just communities of color.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Politics revolves around identity and must prioritize collective advancement.
In this quote, Ayanna Pressley acknowledges the fundamental relationship between politics and identity. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the various dimensions of politics—be it neighborhood, cultural, or issue-based—while advocating for an approach that promotes the overall progress of society rather than causing harm or division. Pressley insists that this perspective should apply to all communities, not just marginalized groups, calling for a collective responsibility in addressing political issues.
Themes
PoliticsIdentityCommunityAdvancementCollective
In practice
Example use cases
In a community meeting discussing local issues, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for unity.
More from Ayanna Pressley
All quotes →We desperately need comprehensive immigration reform in this nation, and yes, comprehensive immigration reform proposals are nuanced and complicated, but you know what shouldn't be? Our capacity to see each other's humanity.
Ayanna PressleyRead
You cannot have a government for and by the people if it is not represented by all of the people.
Ayanna PressleyRead
Raising me as a single parent, my mother held many jobs. Most of them had to do with the betterment and the advancement of our community and society at large. I grew up seeing her active in ministries at our church, with the homeless, as a social worker, with elderly, with youth, as a children's rights organizer with the Urban League of Chicago.
Ayanna PressleyRead
As I have always said, those closest to the pain should be closest to the power.
Ayanna PressleyRead
At the women's march, we held signs that said, 'Today we march, tomorrow we run.' They didn't believe us, but it's coming to pass.
Ayanna PressleyRead
Similar quotes
Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It's self-defense. It's patriotism.
Joe BidenRead
The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.
Theodore RooseveltRead
If we don't have an informed electorate we don't have a democracy. So I don't care how people get the information, as long as they get it. I'm just doing it my particular way and I feel lucky I can do it the way I want to do it.
Jim LehrerRead
There is a fundamental difference between the Polish experience of the state and the Russian experience. In the Polish experience, the state was always a foreign power. So, to hate the state was a patriotic act.
Ryszard KapuscinskiRead
I have always seen the United States as a force of good. And I have learned that there is the idealistic part about what we can do at the U.N. and there is a doable part. And I have learned what is more doable.
Madeleine AlbrightRead
Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion,and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
Abraham LincolnRead