“Bullies are all the same; whether they are in the school yard, in the workplace, or ruling a country through terror. They thrive on fear and intimidation. Bullies gain their strength through the timid and faint of heart. They are like sharks that sense fear in the water. They will circle to see if their prey is struggling. They will probe to see if their victim is weak. If you don’t find the courage to stand your ground, they will strike. In life, to achieve your goals, you will have to be men and women of great courage. That courage is within all of us. Dig deep, and you will find it in abundance.”
William A. McRaven, Make Your Bed (Page 72) | ★ Featured on this book list.
“Music is one of the most potent forms of protest, the gateway to connection. Seldom has there been a more important time to raise consciousness and shift conversations by picking up a mic. A song, at its core, is a testimony. It’s how we tell our stories, both individually and collectively. It’s how we forget our troubles for a time, and how we remember who we are emotionally. It’s how we rally and how we heal. A song, like no other art form, has the ability to curl up inside of our spirits and never move out. I may have become fluent in the language of social justice, but music will always be my mother tongue. My native language. My way of reaching a world that can never have too many songs in it.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 220)
“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, CNN
On Juneteenth, Opal Lee, and Breathing Oxygen Into A Movement For Change
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”
General Orders, Number 3; Headquarters District of Texas, Galveston, June 19, 1865
Beyond the Quote (169/365)
When Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued the above order, he had no idea that, in establishing the Union Army’s authority over the people of Texas, he was also establishing the basis for a holiday, “Juneteenth” (“June” plus “nineteenth”), today the most popular annual celebration of emancipation from slavery in the United States.
Read More »On Juneteenth, Opal Lee, and Breathing Oxygen Into A Movement For Change11 Angie Thomas Quotes from The Hate U Give on Racial Equality and Standing Up For What’s Right
Excerpt: These 11 Angie Thomas quotes from The Hate U Give are incredibly potent and simply must be read as we continue to fight for racial equality.
Read More »11 Angie Thomas Quotes from The Hate U Give on Racial Equality and Standing Up For What’s Right
The Hate U Give [Book]
Book Overview: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
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Post(s) Inspired by this Book:
“To every kid in Georgetown and in all “the Gardens” of the world: your voices matter, your dreams matter, your lives matter. Be roses that grow in the concrete.”
Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give
“You can destroy wood and brick, but you can’t destroy a movement.”
Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give
“I think it’ll change one day. How? I don’t know. When? I definitely don’t know. Why? Because there will always be someone ready to fight. Maybe it’s my turn. People realizing and shouting and marching and demanding. They’re not forgetting. I think that’s the most important part.”
Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give (Page 444)
“‘That’s why people are speaking out, huh? Because it won’t change if we don’t say something.’ ‘Exactly. We can’t be silent.’ ‘So I can’t be silent.’ Daddy stills. He looks at me. I see the fight in his eyes. I matter more to him than a movement. I’m his baby, and I’ll always be his baby, and if being silent means I’m safe, he’s all for it. This is bigger than me and Khalil though. This is about Us, with a capital U; everybody who looks like us, feels like us, and is experiencing this pain with us despite not knowing me or Khalil. My silence isn’t helping Us. Daddy fixes his gaze on the road again. He nods. ‘Yeah. Can’t be silent.'”
Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give (Page 171)
Audre Lorde Quote On Fighting, Surviving, and Teaching In Order To Win Battles In Life
“I have found that battling despair does not mean closing my eyes to the enormity of the tasks of effecting change, nor ignoring the strength and the barbarity of the forces aligned against us. It means teaching, surviving and fighting with the most important resource I have, myself, and taking joy in that battle. It means, for me, recognizing the enemy outside and the enemy within, and knowing that my work is part of our power, and knowing that this work did not begin with my birth nor will it end with my death. And it means knowing that within this continuum, my life and my love and my work has particular power and meaning relative to others.”
Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals
Beyond the Quote (153/365)
Even when the tasks set in front of us for affecting change are massive—we mustn’t waver. We mustn’t close our eyes. We mustn’t let the size of the task stop us from taking every possible step we can to keep moving forward as individuals and as a society. For, any big change can only ever happen effectively as a result of a collective series of small efforts. These small efforts collect one by one from each individual person and person by person as a collective group. There is no one person who is “big” enough to handle this task on their own and there is no one person who is “small” enough to contribute to the collective effort that unites us as a whole.
Read More »Audre Lorde Quote On Fighting, Surviving, and Teaching In Order To Win Battles In Life