Adam Miecznikowski

“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

“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

“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”
― Marcus Aurelius

“I asked John how he was able to fall asleep so easily on the road. His response is engraved into my memory. He turned to me casually and said, “I just imagine large planes bombing the shit out of the whole planet to a point where there is nothing to think of, and then I gently go to sleep.” My jaw dropped. What the fuck, psycho? That was John.”
― Serj Tankian, Down with the System