Tom Burrell > Quotes

“Negative media reinforcements not only influence how cops, judges, employers, and others view black males, they affect how young blacks view themselves.”
― Tom Burrell, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority

“Distrust and contempt; physical, verbal, and psychological abuse; infidelity; emotional distance; and mutually disabling partnerships—these are the five most destructive dynamics that lead to fractured black relationships and broken families.”
― Tom Burrell, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority

“Fear of failure: Human beings learn from mistakes. Stifling children’s ability out of fear of failure increases the chances that they will fail. Efforts to avoid expectations of failure are fruitless. The children grow up to give up and retreat when faced with possibility.”
― Tom Burrell, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority

“If a consumer group believes social status can be achieved through consumerism, why not make”
― Tom Burrell, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority

“As industrial jobs began disappearing from cities, many black men found themselves back in positions of economic helplessness, without the kinds of jobs that allowed a man to support a family. To survive, many families turned to the government’s welfare system for sustenance. In her commentary, “Black Females Raising Black Males,” Dr. Arlett Malvo described the ramifications of the welfare state on black”
― Tom Burrell, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority

“In an August 2009 Democracy Now! interview, Dr. David Kessler, author, pediatrician, educator, and former United States Food and Drug Administration commissioner, bluntly compared America’s food industry with Big Tobacco. Kessler claimed that, as far as addicting Americans to deadly products was concerned, the food industry was just as culpable. With the “emotional gloss of advertising,” Kessler explained, the food industry’s successful marketing of unhealthy food products has led to a “profound public-health epidemic” in this country.”
― Tom Burrell, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority

“In the ‘60s and early ‘70s, we paid lip service to being black and proud, but the sudden conversion was not supported by the necessary psychological machinery to make the change permanent. Even today, we have woefully inadequate countermeasures, no permanent cultural mechanisms to undo what a 400-year marketing campaign has achieved.”
― Tom Burrell, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority