Two of the hardest words in the language to rhyme are life and love. Of all words!
Stephen SondheimRead
Michelle Alexander's brave and bold new book paints a haunting picture in which dreary felon garb, post-prison joblessness, and loss of voting rights now do the stigmatizing work once done by colored-only water fountains and legally segregated schools. With dazzling candor, Alexander argues that we all pay the cost of the new Jim Crow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the modern-day consequences of systemic racism and social stigma faced by former felons.
In the quote by Lani Guinier, Michelle Alexander's work is illustrated as a profound commentary on the contemporary repercussions of systemic racism. It compares current societal practices, like the discrimination against formerly incarcerated individuals, to historical injustices such as segregation. The phrase 'the new Jim Crow' encapsulates the argument that society continues to impose severe penalties on individuals based on race and past mistakes, suggesting that addressing these issues benefits everyone, not just those directly affected.
Themes
RacismInjusticeSystemicFelonsSocial StigmaCivil Rights
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about civil rights, one might use this quote to illustrate ongoing struggles against systemic oppression.
Similar quotes
The creator of the heavens obeys a carpenter; the God of eternal glory listens to a poor virgin. Has anyone ever witnessed anything comparable to this? Let the philosopher no longer disdain from listening to the common laborer; the wise, to the simple; the educated, to the illiterate; a child of a prince, to a peasant.
Anthony Of PaduaRead
If there is some corner of the world which has remained peaceful, but with a peace based on injustices the peace of a swamp with rotten matter fermenting in its depths - we may be sure that that peace is false. Violence attracts violence. Let us repeat fearlessly and ceaselessly: injustices bring revolt, either from the oppressed or from the young, determined to fight for a more just and more human world.
Hlder CmaraRead
I do not agree with this century's fashion of running down the human species as a failed try, a doomed sport. At our worst, we may be going through the early stages of adolescence, and everyone remembers what that is like.
Lewis ThomasRead
Your God person puts an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says, do what you like, guys, oh, but don't eat the apple. Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting "Gotcha". It wouldn't have made any difference if they hadn't eaten it.' 'Why not?' 'Because if you're dealing with somebody who has the sort of mentality which likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them you know perfectly well they won't give up. They'll get you in the end.
Douglas AdamsRead
I knew Snoop Dog didn't start misogyny. I knew that Tupac Shakur didn't start sexism, and God knows that Dr. Dre didn't start patriarchy. Yet they extended it in vicious form within their own communities. They made vulnerable people more vulnerable.
Michael Eric DysonRead