If there's hell below, we're all gonna go.
Curtis MayfieldRead
Being a young black man, observing and sensing the need for race equality and women's rights, I wrote about what was important to me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the importance of advocating for equality and rights based on personal experiences and observations.
Curtis Mayfield reflects on his identity as a young Black man and the social issues he was aware of, particularly race equality and women's rights. By voicing these concerns through his writing, he underscores the significance of personal experiences in shaping social justice narratives and the role of artists in promoting awareness and change.
Themes
EqualityRaceRightsAdvocacyAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a speech about social activism to highlight the roles of individuals in demanding change.
More from Curtis Mayfield
All quotes βMy teacher told me I'd never amount to anything. I left high school at 15, after one year. But my real teachers were all the people around me. And I was a good listener.
Curtis MayfieldRead
How many 54-year-old quadriplegics are putting albums out? You just have to deal with what you got, try to sustain yourself as best you can, and look to the things that you can do.
Curtis MayfieldRead
Reading the script, I started feeling very deeply bad for Freddie. Between his friends, his partners, and his woman, he was catching a hard time. 'Freddie's Dead' came to me immediately.
Curtis MayfieldRead
I was a very observant child. Almost anything could become a song to me.
Curtis MayfieldRead
I don't like to appoint myself to nothing, knowing I'm no better than anybody else. But it always makes me feel good to know I try to do the best I can, and those who might observe say, 'Hey, I can take a little something from that person.'
Curtis MayfieldRead
Similar quotes
We're willing to spend countless dollars putting people who need help in cages, and then when they get out we say you can't have a job, and you can't have housing, and because you don't have either, we're going to take your kids, too.
Susan BurtonRead
In the racialized space of capitalist gentrification, police are not only arbiters of the peace, they are the muscle of retail racism: You can only be in this space if you transcend your blackness by showing us some green dollars. Even then, there is no guarantee that green will transcend your black skin.
Anthea ButlerRead
If you don't have a lens that's been trained to look at how various forms of discrimination come together, you're unlikely to develop a set of policies that will be as inclusive as they need to be.
Kimberle Williams CrenshawRead
When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.
Kareem Abdul-JabbarRead
I want all of the work that I do to have a social justice footprint attached. I want it to move the needle forward when it comes to the perception of all people, but especially people of color.
Winston DukeRead
'The Accursed' is very much a novel about social injustice as the consequence of the terrible, tragic division of classes - the exploitation not only of poor and immigrant workers but of their young children in factories and mills - and as the consequence of race hatred in the aftermath of the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves.
Joyce Carol OatesRead