The fact that we live in a world where black people have to strategize so they're not brutalized by police is insane.
Larry WilmoreRead
No matter what his crimes were, Alton Sterling did not deserve to be executed for them. Look, guys, the punishment for resisting arrest shouldn't be death. The punishment for selling bootleg CDs shouldn't be death. The punishment for having a gun in an open-carry state shouldn't be death. The punishment for being a black man shouldn't be death.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that no crime warrants the death penalty, particularly highlighting racial injustice.
Larry Wilmore's quote powerfully argues against the unjust nature of capital punishment in cases of minor offenses and draws attention to the systemic racism inherent in these judgments. He advocates for the notion that regardless of a person's actions, especially in the context of being a black man in America, their life should not be deemed expendable or worth less than that of others.
Themes
JusticeRacial InequalityLifePunishmentCapital Punishment
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about police brutality, one could use this quote to highlight the need for justice reform.
More from Larry Wilmore
All quotes →Similar quotes
During the Jim Crow era, poll taxes and literacy tests kept the African-Americans from polls. But today, felon disenfranchisement laws accomplished what poll taxes and literacy tests ultimately could not, because those laws were struck down. But felony disenfranchisement laws had been allowed to stand.
Michelle AlexanderRead
I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it.
Claudette ColvinRead
If you ask me what is at the core of what I write, it isn't about 'rights', it's about justice. Justice is a grand, beautiful, revolutionary idea.
Arundhati RoyRead
If one of our fellow citizens can be executed with so much doubt surrounding his guilt, then the death penalty system in our country is unjust and outdated.
Jimmy CarterRead
And so I would not enforce a law that would reject people and turn them away without giving them a fair and due process to determine if we should give them asylum and refuge.
Kamala HarrisRead
I was tremendously fortunate to be alive and a lawyer, working at a university so I had more flexible hours, when the women's movement was coming alive and when it became possible to argue successfully for a view of the equal protection clause that included women.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead