When you go through all your life processing and abusing your hair so it will look like the hair of another race of people then you are making a statement and the statement is clear
Assata ShakurRead
No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education must be sought actively, especially for those who seek to challenge oppressive systems.
Assata Shakur's quote emphasizes the necessity of taking initiative in one's own education, particularly in the context of empowerment and resistance against oppressive forces. It suggests that those in power are unlikely to provide the tools or knowledge needed for the oppressed to liberate themselves, underscoring the importance of self-education and activism in the fight for justice and equality.
Themes
EducationEmpowermentOppressionSelf-EducationResistanceActivism
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of grassroots education in social movements.
More from Assata Shakur
All quotes βPart of being a revolutionary is creating a vision that is more humane. That is more fun, too. That is more loving. It's really working to create something beautiful.
Assata ShakurRead
We had to learn that we're beautiful. We had to relearn something forcefully taken from us. We had to learn about Black power. People have power if we unite. We learned the importance of coming together and being active
Assata ShakurRead
I was sentenced to life plus 30 years by an all-White jury. What I saw in prison was wall-to-wall Black flesh in chains. Women caged in cells. But we're the terrorists. It just doesn't make sense.
Assata ShakurRead
My life wasn't beautiful and creative before I became politically active. My life was totally changed when I began to struggle.
Assata ShakurRead
Peace is a rare gift. Peace of mind, peaceful sleeps, and peaceful spirits are all luxuries that few rebels can ever afford.
Assata ShakurRead
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When children attend schools that place a greater value on discipline and security than on knowledge and intellectual development, they are attending prep schools for prison.
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Our children are our only hope for the future, but we are their only hope for their present and their future.
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Public school - where the human mind is drilled and manipulated into submission to various social and moral spooks, and thus fitted to continue our system of exploitation and oppression.
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We're now segregating our schools based on economics; we're segregating our schools based on where a child's parents live. And it has the same corrosive effect of destroying people's opportunity as racial segregation did.
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The pupil is ... 'schooled' to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new.
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And if we want to achieve our goal, then let us empower ourselves with the weapon of knowledge and let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness.
Malala YousafzaiRead