David Whitfield > David's Quotes

“Rioting is not a movement. It is not an act of civil disobedience. I think it is a mistake for people to consider disorganized action, mayhem, and attacks on other people and property as an extension of any kind of movement. It is not. It is simply an explosion of emotion. That's all. There is nothing constructive about it. It is destructive.”
― John Robert Lewis, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement

“This nation is still a place of cheap political leaders who build their careers on immoral compromises and ally themselves with open forms of political, economic, and social exploitation.”
― John Rober Lewis

“You don't have to stand up for your rights to get justice,
sometimes you can sit for your rights like Rosa Parks.”
― Harmon Okinyo

“The question is not if we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Silence is for fools. Communication is for leaders. Justice is for those brave enough to not stand another moment dealing with people that feel the solution to any problem is through cold indifference because of their lack of courage and insecurities.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“The greatest evil in our country today is...ignorance...We need to be taught to study rather than to believe.”
― Septima Poinsette Clark

“متى استعبدتم الناس وقد ولدتهم أمهاتهم أحرارا When did you start enslaving people, when their mothers gave birth to them free?”
― Umar ibn al-Khattab

“Empathy must be cultivated. The practice of empathy means taking a moment to imagine how you might behave if you were in our positions. Do not tell us how we should act if we were you; imagine how you would act if you were us. Imagine living in a society where your white skin marks you for disgust, hate, and fear. Imagine that for many moments. Only when you see black folks as we are, and image yourselves as we have to live our lives, only then will the suffering stop, the hurt cease, the pain go away.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

“Nigger has no rival. There is no rough or refined equivalence between the term and the many derisive references to white folk. Those terms don’t evoke singularly gruesome actions. Nigger is unique because the menace it implies is portable; it shows up wherever a white tongue is willing to suggest intimidation and destruction. There are no examples of black folk killing white people en masse; terrorizing them with racial violence; shouting “cracker” as they lynch them from trees and then selling postcards to document their colossal crimes. Black folk have not enjoyed the protection of the state to carry out such misdeeds.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

“So what are you supposed to do? My friends, what I need you to do—just for starters—is not act. Not yet. Not first. First I need you to see. I need you to see the pains and possibilities of black life, its virtues and vices, its strengths and weaknesses, its yeses and nos. I need you to see how the cantankerous varieties of black identity have been distorted by seeing black folk collectively as the nigger. It is not a question of simply not saying nigger; you have to stop believing, no matter what, that black folk are niggers and all the term represents. Instead you must swim in the vast ocean of blackness and then realize you have been buoyed all along on its sustaining views of democracy.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

“The most radical action a white person can take is to acknowledge this denied privilege, to say, “Yes, you’re right. In our institutional structures, and in deep psychological structures, our underlying assumption is that our lives are worth more than yours.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

“Trump is missing the point when he says that Kaepernick should “find a country that works better for him.” Instead, Kaepernick believes so deeply in this country that he is willing to offer correction rather than abandon the nation—and to donate a million dollars in support of racial justice causes.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

“White folk commit the bulk of the crimes in our nation. And, beloved, it might surprise you that white folk commit the most violent crimes too. According to FBI statistics, black folk committed 36 percent of violent crime in 2015, while white folk committed 42 percent of violent crimes in the same year. White folk consistently lead all other groups in aggravated assault, larceny, illegal weapons possession, arson, and vandalism. And white folk are far more likely to target the vulnerable too. White folk lead the way in forcible rape. You’re also more likely to kill children, the elderly, significant others, family members, and even yourselves. White folk commit a majority of gang-related murders too. A majority of the homicide victims in this country are white. White folk are six times as likely to be murdered by a white person as they are to be taken out by a black “thug.” The white-on-white mayhem is profound, yet no one speaks of it in racial terms. That’s”
― Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

“Institutional racism requires neither conscious effort nor individual intent.”
― Michael Eric Dyson

“If we cite the Bible, and yet fail to live according to its codes, the Bible becomes just another book. But when we live it, it becomes powerful. If you believe it, the words of scripture say that we come living epistles in whose life others read the presence of God.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

“You know what it means to be human? It means justice coming out of your synapses - it means equality bursting out of your arteries - it means your footsteps causing an avalanche of acceptance.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Citizens of Peace: Beyond the Savagery of Sovereignty