In short, and let us be clear on it: race is not a card. It determines whom the dealer is, and who gets dealt.
Tim WiseRead
Progress is always relative: to the oppressed, it can only be viewed as an all or nothing deal - if oppression continues, even in a modified form, then the system must still be attacked until that injustice is eradicated.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Progress in society is subjective and depends on one's circumstances; for those suffering oppression, any lingering injustice must be actively confronted.
In this quote, Tim Wise highlights the concept that progress is not a universal experience but rather one that is deeply influenced by the status and experiences of individuals, particularly those who are oppressed. He argues that for those who endure systemic oppression, any form of continued injustice, even if it appears to be improved, is still unacceptable. This perspective emphasizes the need for relentless activism and the challenge of an incomplete liberation, underscoring the idea that until all forms of injustice are completely dismantled, the fight must continue.
Themes
ProgressOppressionInjusticeActivismSystemic
In practice
Example use cases
During a rally for social justice, one might say, 'As Tim Wise said, progress is always relative; if oppression persists, we must keep fighting for total equality.'
More from Tim Wise
All quotes →There are lots of research, of course, saying that a vast majority of us have been exposed to racial biases and stereotypes and, to some extent, we've internalized them, because that's so ubiquitous. That's why I'm so bored with the conversation about who's a racist and who's not.
Tim WiseRead
You can't organize people if you don't love them. And however hard it can be to love the racist you come in contact with; doing so is the first obligation of a white antiracist.
Tim WiseRead
The power of resistance is to set an example: not necessarily to change the person with whom you disagree, but to empower the one who is watching and whose growth is not yet completed, whose path is not at all clear, whose direction is still very much up in the proverbial air.
Tim WiseRead
People of color have to do this work as a mater of everyday survival. And so long as they have to, who am I to act as if I have a choice in the matter? Especially when my future and that of my children in large part depends on the eradication of racism? There is no choice.
Tim WiseRead
For people of color - especially African Americans - the idea that racist cops might frame members of their community is no abstract notion, let alone an exercise in irrational conspiracy theorizing. Rather, it speaks to a social reality about which blacks are acutely aware.
Tim WiseRead
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America hasn't been able to grapple with the uncomfortable reality that police brutality is encoded in this country's DNA.
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Drugs is a government game, Bilal. A way to rob us of our best black men, our army. Everyone who plays the game loses. Then they get you right back where we started, in slavery! Then they get to say "This time you did it to yourself." I won't play that game.
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Prisoners do matter when analyzing the severity of racial inequality in the U.S. Yet because they are out of sight and out of mind, it is easy to imagine that we are making far more racial progress than we actually are.
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Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.
Malcolm XRead
The basis for sustainable progress is legal protections grounded in an awareness of how identity has been used to deny opportunity.
Stacey AbramsRead