Adam

“Our past was slavery. We cannot recur to it with any sense of complacency or composure. The history of it is a record of stripes, a revelation of agony. It is written in characters of blood. Its breath is a sigh, its voice a groan, and we turn from it with a shudder. The duty of to-day is to meet the questions that confront us with intelligence and courage.”
― Frederick Douglass

“The nineteenth-century French novelist Gustave Flaubert once wrote, “Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.” That was a lot closer to my way of thinking than bloodying my bandmates to settle petty disputes. Of course, Flaubert never opened for Slayer.”
― Serj Tankian, Down with the System: A Memoir

“If genocide is ultimately an act of erasure, denial is its final, comprehensive deed.”
― Serj Tankian, Down with the System: A Memoir

“Most of us would not choose to be socialized into racism and white supremacy. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that choice. While there is variation in how these messages are conveyed and how much we internalize them, nothing could have exempted us from these messages completely. Now it is our responsibility to grapple with how this socialization manifests itself in our daily lives and how it shapes our responses when it is challenged.”
― Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism