Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Ultimately, policing in and of itself is problematic.
I grew up in Marin County, which is a wealthy suburb of San Francisco.
Sometimes you have to put a wrench in the gears to get people to listen.
I'll be honest with you, I really struggle with the conversation around gun control.
Saying 'black lives matter' both literally and figuratively restores people's dignity.
Just like we don't live in a two-dimensional world, we don't live two-dimensional lives.
We need to make sure we're creating spaces to create new leaders and new types of leadership.
All in all, Donald Trump appeals to people who want to be seen the way that Donald Trump sees them.
Quite frankly, black folks have always been at the core of what it's meant to make this nation human.
I have to be honest: I feel like I live in a constant state of rage, and I think a lot of black people do.
The best advice I ever got as an organizer was that if you can organize your family, you're a good organizer.
Protest is best used when it's part of a strategy that involves escalating tactics that build pressure on targets.
I don't even know what a hashtag is. You don't turn a hashtag into a movement - people turn things into a movement.
When we address the disparities facing black people, we get a lot closer to a true democracy where all lives matter.
Police violence is the tip of the iceberg when it relates to the conditions overall of black people across the globe.
I think that there is an element where leadership is lonely, but I also believe that it doesn't have to be like that.
We all lose when bullying and personal attacks become a substitute for genuine conversation and principled disagreement.
We want to see a world where black lives matter in order for us to get to a world where all of our humanity is respected.
I'm in favor of people getting in where they fit in. Wherever you feel you can make the greatest contribution, you should.
'Socialism' became this weird household word partially because right-wingers call Obama a socialist, which he is the farthest from.
Certainly, we have to make sure our police forces do not have weapons of mass destruction with which they can terrorize our communities.
The Clintons use black people for votes but then don't do anything for black communities after they're elected. They use us for photo ops.
My definition of feminism is a social, political, economic system by which all genders are valued, respected, and can live dignified lives.
How do we stop violence, looting, and riots? The way that we stop that is by making sure that people have the things that they need to thrive.
I think race and racism is probably the most studied social, economic, and political phenomenon in this country, but it's also the least understood.
It's hard to be a leader when you have to make hard choices and when you have to do what's right, even though people are not going to like you for it.
As you keep pulling back the layers of how deeply rooted anti-blackness and white supremacy are in this country, it is exhausting, and it is traumatizing.
For me, it's clear Beyonce sees herself as a part of the movement for black lives and believes that black lives matter - and ultimately, that's what matters.
If I don't watch the news in a day, I think the potential for humanity is incredible. But anytime I look at the news, I'm like, 'We're in really big trouble.'
If you're quiet, knowing that there's a culture of racism inside most police departments, and you're not saying anything, you are on the wrong side of history.
The history of black women in the economy is rooted in the legacy of slavery. Enslaved black women were forced to provide care work, unpaid, for white families.
Although police terrorism plays a specific role on behalf of the state, it is not the totality of what state violence looks like or feels like in our communities.
I'll be honest with you: I think that it's really difficult, this framing around 'good cops' and 'bad cops.' Policing, as a system, is incredibly corrupt, period.
The open source nature of the Internet is both a blessing and a curse, because just as much as we can watch what's happening around the world, we can also be watched.
People think that we're engaged with identity politics. The truth is that we're doing what the labor movement has always done - organizing people who are at the bottom.
The Black Lives Matter movement has to, by its very nature, be intersectional because of the complexities of who black people are in this country and throughout the world.
It's actually OK to be unique and have your own contributions, to celebrate what it means to be black, how we've survived and thrived through the worst conditions possible.
Black Trans Lives Matter, to me, is really different. I think it speaks most directly to the marginalization and disenfranchisement of trans people within the black community.
Growing up in a school that was majority white, my understanding of the world was that I was different but that differences shouldn't be talked about because it's uncomfortable.
I think that we are all deeply, deeply committed to the liberation of black people. And so, when you put people together who have and share that commitment, the sky is the limit.
There have to be consequences for police who take the law into their own hands. There has to be a shift in the use-of-force policies that are used in departments across the country.
Black Lives Matter is not just concerned with what happens in policing. The disregard, the disrespect, and the lack of dignity for black life transcends through the fabric of our society.
The demands of the Civil Rights era weren't limited to voting rights - they strove for an end to segregation in all aspects of life, including housing, employment, and public accommodations.
I think that there are real concerns that we have around whose life is important and why. So if the official story is, for example, somebody was running from the police, does their life matter?
Black Lives Matter was created as a response to state violence and anti-black racism and a call to action for those who want to fight it and build a world where black lives do, in fact, matter.
For us, #BlackLivesMatter is really a re-humanization project. It's a way for us to love each other again, to love ourselves, and to project that love into the world so that we can transform it.
The biggest misconception about Black Lives Matter is that BLM is just one entity; Black Lives Matter is an organization and a network. We are a part of the movement, but we are not the movement.
One of the beautiful things about a movement is that there are many strategies and many tactics contained within it. Not every participant in a movement is required to do exactly the same things.
What is it going to take to dismantle the systems that keep me from being able to live well and that keep me and so many other people from being able to access the things that we need and deserve?
We need to make sure that we have an honest, honest conversation and that we engage honest practices around how racism operates in this country. It's not just about people being mean to each other.