We should be uncomfortable with the growing gaps in our society, and we cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to these injustices.
Interpretation
We must not ignore the increasing inequalities in society and should remain sensitive to injustices.
Ayanna Pressley's quote urges individuals to recognize and be disturbed by the widening disparities in society. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining awareness and empathy towards injustices, encouraging active engagement rather than complacency.
In practice
In a speech about social reform, I could quote Pressley to emphasize the need for active engagement in fighting inequality.
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.
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.
You cannot have a government for and by the people if it is not represented by all of the people.
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.
As I have always said, those closest to the pain should be closest to the power.
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.
What I think is different today is the lack of political connection between the black middle class and the increasing numbers of black people who are more impoverished than ever before.
I believe it is possible to bring an end to mass incarceration and birth a new moral consensus about how we ought to be responding to poor folks of color and a consensus in support of basic human rights for all. But it is going to take some work.
We are lagging far behind comparable countries in overcoming the disadvantages Indigenous people face.
The people who serve your fast food lunch or your after-work drinks deserve dignity - and if big companies don't start paying them enough for a decent standard of living, they have the power to close these businesses. But no one goes on strike lightly.
I'm driven by the gaps, the things that are missing, the areas where marginalized people exist - and where the least resources are available for them.
The caste systems of sex and race are interdependent and can only be uprooted together.
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