“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us walk together...”
“I recall Ghandi said ultimately all things devolve into the political, but I d argue that all things devolve into pro-people and anti-people. And I can pose the question, which side are you on?”
“Bad boss? Fire him/her. When you re interviewing for a job, You re job is to interview them. You are an equal.”
“I have lots of friends who are straight, privileged white guys, and I m totally okay with them. I think they should have equal rights, just like he rest of us. Christa laughed again. Her eyes crinkled up, as though she actually thought I was funny. As long as they don t flaunt it, right?”
“The bed sheet brigade is bad enough, but the real threat to Americans and human rights today is the plain clothes Klux in the halls of government and certain black-robed Klux on court benches.”
“There are all kinds of ways to be in the world. And no matter what has happened to us, or what we have been told, or what we have believed, we get to choose our way.”
“I insist that the question of the future is how best to keep these millions from brooding over the wrongs of the past and difficulties of the present, so that all their energies may be bent toward a cheerful striving and cooperation with their white neighbors toward a larger, juster, and fuller future”
“This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.”
“Men are naturally unequal. They are unequal members of one family, in which one can be brilliant, another mediocre, and another an imbecile. Hereditary substance is a mystery.”
“And it was then, watching him eat before me, that I realised there was inconsistency in him. He said there was no difference between Chosen and Quelled; he said men were not more sacred than women, nor women less than men; he said we were side by side, matched in every way; he said all these things — but his life spoke differently. He still ate before me, first, as my lord. And in that simple act, he undid all his words.”
“We should not take part in acting a lie any more than in telling a lie. We should not say that men are equal where they are not equal, nor proceed upon the assumption that there is an equality where it does not exist; but we should strive to bring about a measurable equality, at least to the extent of preventing the inequality which is due to force or fraud.”
“Will we reach a friendlier shore? Will we find a haven once more? Where we ll be In a place of miracles Now we leave our home For a place of miracles Romanies again must roam Could there be a country kinder to our race? In a place of miracles”
“No moral code or ethical principle, no piece of scripture or holy teaching, can be summoned to defend what we have allowed our country to become.”
“It s because of my grandfather that I became a Young Avenger. But it s hard sometimes, to be a black kid carrying a name like Patriot . I remember talking to Captain America about before he died, and he explained what Patriotism meant to him... It wasn t about blindly supporting your government. It was about knowing what your country could be, what it should be... And trying to lead it there through your example. And holding it accountable when it failed. I remember he said: There s noting patriotic about corruption or cover-ups... or defending them. But exposing them, well, that takes a hero.”
“You don t necessarily have to do anything once you acknowledge your privilege. You don t have to apologize for it. You need to understand the extent of your privilege, the consequences of your privilege, and remain aware that people who are different from you move through and experience the world in ways you might never know anything about. They might endure situations you can never know anything about.”
“Some Socialists seem to believe that people should be numbers in a State computer. We believe they should be individuals. We are all unequal. No one, thank heavens, is like anyone else, however much the Socialists may pretend otherwise. We believe that everyone has the right to be unequal but to us every human being is equally important.”
“But it is not always the people who say most who do most.”