Kekla Magoon > Quotes

“You're only responsible for your own actions. You can't control how someone else reacts to what you do. You made a choice. Stand by it.”
― Kekla Magoon, The Rock and the River

“The river moves, but it follows a path. When it tires of one journey, it rubs through some rock to forge a new way. Hard work, but that's its nature.”
― Kekla Magoon, The Rock and the River

“The river is motion, turmoil, rage. As the river flows, it wonders what it would be like to be so still, to take a breath, to rest. But the rock will always wonder what lies around the bend in the stream.”
― Kekla Magoon, The Rock and the River

“It's not that you said it. I care that you even though it.”
― Kekla Magoon, The Rock and the River

“It seemed like a backward step at first, but now I know going back was the only way to show how far I’ve come.”
― Kekla Magoon, X

“As a black man, you have to keep your head down. You have to keep yourself steady. You have to follow every rule that's ever been written, plus a few that have always remained unspoken.”
― Kekla Magoon, How It Went Down

“People make mistakes. They look at the surface of things and see what they want to.”
― Kekla Magoon, How It Went Down

“In the white newspapers, they use it against us. They make the Panthers look like we all just want to rip the throats out of some white folks for no good reason. We have good reasons, but we still don't want to do that.”
― Kekla Magoon, Fire in the Streets

“Anyone who can see will see you beautiful.”
― Kekla Magoon

“I wish she would just look at me, look at my face and stop talking long enough to see me. To see that things are not right. That none of this is real and I am in some other place.”
― Kekla Magoon, 37 Things I Love

“People who like things exactly the same aren't the ones who go out and change the world" -Styx”
― Kekla Magoon, The Season of Styx Malone

“I'm really good with problems. I can solve a differential equation in my head. I chew through trig angles like candy. I know this, and it just makes it worse. Because I don't know how to solve this one.”
― Kekla Magoon, How It Went Down

“I was leaning over him when he died. My hands on his chest. My palms felt his last breath move inside him. His chest rose and fell and then kept falling, like it could carry us both straight down through the earth.

I didn't stop pushing, but I knew. Right then. I was breathing hard myself. My lungs probably took int he last air Tariq ever exhaled. It can't possibly be in me anymore, but it feels like it is. Like it's weighing heavy on my chest with every breath I take, even now.”
― Kekla Magoon, How It Went Down

“Like I always tell Will: If you dress like a hood, you will get treated like a hood. If you want to get treated like a man, you have to dress like a man. Simple as that.
It's how this world works.
It stops being about the color of your skin after a while and starts being about how you comport yourself. Inside, too, but mostly out.”
― Kekla Magoon, How It Went Down

“I've never had a guy who's interested in the rest of me. One who likes to look into my eyes. To most guys, I'm just a round face, a double-E cup, and a pair of hippo hips.”
― Kekla Magoon, How It Went Down

“My moves are smooth. Always have been. I’m smart enough to see what’s coming, and clever enough to turn it my way. All my skills make me perfect for this. The street dance. The hustle.”
― Kekla Magoon, X

“They spin away, always away. Too fast to understand, sometimes. They rush on, but we remain. They will come back, and we will still be here, as they expect us to be. We are the guardians.

In between each small flurry, we rest. We breathe. Redeema raises her face to the sky. "My children," she murmurs, and the sound of it aches.”
― Kekla Magoon, How It Went Down

“Trouble ain’t met trouble till it crosses paths with us!”
― Kekla Magoon, Rebellion of Thieves

“My shoes dangle from my fingertips because, all things considered, barefoot is better.”
― Kekla Magoon, Camo Girl

“Half the point of a street name is to make yourself stand out from every other Tom, Dick, and Malcolm.”
― Kekla Magoon, X

“I glance through the rear window at the house. It amazes me slightly that it looks the same as it did, though it’s been gutted of so many valuable things. You wouldn’t know, to walk past that house, what it had lost. It looks as proud, and as firm, and as fancy as ever. As whole.”
― Kekla Magoon, X

“If you just play really hard, he says, nothing else matters.”
― Kekla Magoon, Camo Girl

“Everyone makes sacrifices. Dad’s voice in her head. The trick is to know for sure what it is you want most.”
― Kekla Magoon, Rebellion of Thieves

“The FBI nicknamed the program COINTELPRO, as a shorthand for "counterintelligence program." COINTELPRO originated in the 1950s, to prevent socialist movements from developing in the United States, and the program rose to new heights in the Black Power era. Even prior to Stokely Carmichael's first calls for Black Power in 1966, the FBI was organizing to undermine civil rights movement efforts. The Black organizations they labeled as "militant' included not only Stokely's SNCC but also the Rev. Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group that never wavered in its dedication to nonviolent civil disobedience. Between 1963 and 1971, the FBI ran nearly three hundred separate COINTELPRO operations against Black nationalist groups, the majority of which targeted the Black Panther Party. The program's major goals were to:
1. Prevent the coalition of militant Black nationalist groups, as there would be strength in unity.
2. Prevent the rise of a "messiah" who could unify and electrify the movement, such as the Rev. Dr. King or Malcolm X.
3. Prevent violence, ideally by neutralizing movement leaders before they could become violent.
4. Prevent Black nationalist leaders from gaining respectability, ideally by discrediting them in the eyes of white people, Black people, and radicals of all races.
5. Prevent young people from joining the groups and increasing their membership base.”
― Kekla Magoon, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People

“You can't be the rock and the river, Sam."
"The rock is high ground...Solid. Immovable."
"The river is motion, turmoil, rage. As the river flows, it wonders what it would be like to be so still, to take breath, to rest. But the rock will always wonder what lies around the bend in the stream."
"I want to be both," I whispered.”
― Kekla Magoon, The Rock and the River

“It was fine to fight when it was us against us, but it was about to be us against them. And that changed everything.”
― Kekla Magoon, X

“OFFSPRING OF DARKNESS, DAUGHTER OF LIGHT GIFTING THE PEOPLE, BEACON IN THE NIGHT EMERGE AFTER SHADOWS, HIDING HER FACE HOPE OF THE ANCIENTS, DISCOVER HER PLACE BREATH BLOOD BONE, ALL ELEMENTS UNITE BLAZE FROM WITHIN, INSPIRE THEIR FIGHT SUN FINDS HOME, IN ANCIENT RUNE DEEP IN THE CRADLE, OF THE CRESCENT MOON”
― Kekla Magoon, Rebellion of Thieves

“What you’re doing ain’t fighting,” he said. “You call me up when you find the fire.”
― Kekla Magoon, Rebellion of Thieves

“But to stop the laughter meant silence. Silence meant thoughts, which meant remembering what had happened. So they laughed until their eyes stung.”
― Kekla Magoon, Rebellion of Thieves

“Saying goodbye usually means
you will get to say hello again
soon
We shout it from the doorway
from the street
back and forth
until we can’t hear each other
anymore.”
― Kekla Magoon, Light It Up