clove

“When Obama was elected president, a prisoner said “one black man in the White House doesn’t make up for one million black men in the Big House.”
― Angela Y. Davis

“fit in here, in my palm, in my shadow, don’t be bigger than my idea of you, don’t be more beautiful than i can accept, don’t be more human than i am willing to allow you to be and be quiet, you’re too loud, even your un-belonging is loud. quiet your dreams, your voice, your hair, quiet your skin, quiet your displacement, quiet your longing, your colour, quiet your walk, your eyes. who said you could look at me like that? who said you could exist without permission? why are you even here? why aren’t you shrinking? i think of you often. you vibrate. you walk into a room and the temperature changes. i lean in and almost recognise you as human. but, no. we can’t have that.”
― Warsan Shire

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“I belong deeply to myself.”
― Warsan Shire, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth