The death penalty not only takes away the life of the person strapped to the table - it takes away a little bit of the humanity in each of us.
Clint SmithRead
I want to live in a world where my son will not be presumed guilty the moment he is born, where a toy in his hand isn't mistaken for anything other than a toy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses a desire for a just world free from racial bias and preconceived notions about innocence.
Clint Smith's quote articulates a profound concern for the societal injustices that predispose certain groups, especially Black boys, to be viewed through a lens of guilt rather than innocence. The speaker yearns for a future where children, regardless of their background, can exist safely and without the weight of harmful stereotypes that criminalize their existence from birth. It highlights the need for systemic change to foster equality and understanding in society.
Themes
JusticeInnocenceSocietyRacismEqualityChildrenBias
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about social justice initiatives, I might quote this to emphasize the need for reform.
More from Clint Smith
All quotes →In an effort to create a culture within my classroom where students feel safe sharing the intimacies of their own silences, I have four core principles posted on the board that sits in the front of my class, which every student signs at the beginning of the year: read critically, write consciously, speak clearly, tell your truth.
Clint SmithRead
One does not read a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks with hopes that it will grant him a career in engineering; he does so because poetry helps him see something in the world that he might not have seen before.
Clint SmithRead
History has proven that art depicting black people cannot be disentangled from the political implications that such art has on their lives. As Africans were being stripped from the continent and sailed across the Atlantic to the Western world, depictions of black people in Western art changed in order to further render them racialized caricatures.
Clint SmithRead
Photography, sculpture, and painting were wielded as cultural weapons over the course of generations to substantiate the idea that black people were inherently subordinate beings; they were used to make slavery acceptable and to make black subjugation more palatable.
Clint SmithRead
In my hometown of New Orleans, grief is a public spectacle that, somewhat paradoxically, necessitates celebration. The dead are not mourned so much as they are posthumously venerated with music and dance.
Clint SmithRead
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