“Racism is about the impact and the hurt of their actions. Intentions do not matter. And that’s a hard one for people, because they cling to being good as a way of saying “I am not racist.” And my thing is, I don’t care if you’re racist. I care if you’re hurting me.”
“Tupac has this wonderful quote, where he talks about, you know, you being outside a house full of food and you’re hungry, and you knock on the door and they don’t answer and then you bang on the door, and then you sing a little song to maybe convince them to come out and open and feed you. And he says, after a while, you know you’re literally going to starve. You’re just breaking down the door because you’re not asking to eat anymore. You’re demanding to eat.
So, we could ask them to get off of us, but that’s not going to work. We have to do what I described in this book, that’s the resistance part and the power part. When we fight back, when we organize, when we say no to racism, when we say no to discrimination, when we say no to poverty, that’s when we really get free. It’s when we fight for it.”
“I think we have to cultivate resistance to hopelessness. We have to cultivate a spirit of fighting and of perseverance. We cannot accept the diversions and the excuses.”
– Desmond Cole, Toronto Journalist & Author
#amplifyblackvoices
#blackoutweek
#standup #stepup #speakup
KARLA LEES 