Quotes from Opal Tometi

I think the two-party system isn't working for us. And it hasn't worked for us for generations - let's be very, very honest about that.

We know that there are people in our nation, black people, who are systematically being disenfranchised in a number of spheres in our lives.

I have two younger brothers, and I know my parents have spoken to them about driving and interacting with police. They didn't have those conversations with me, but they did have conversations about being exceptional black people.

Fortunately, the leadership of black immigrant communities has always been present in all black liberation movements from leaders like Marcus Garvey to Shirley Chisholm to Malcolm X and Harry Belafonte. We know this is our legacy.

Let's demonstrate, illustrate, the ways in which our communities are being undermined time and time again, and make sure that the broader public and those in power choose to stand with us.

I think it's really important that we understand the ways in which blackness plays out, right, and discrimination against black people impacts different communities in different ways but ultimately leaves them undermined and really devalued in our society.

The black immigrant experience in the U.S. must be understood not in contrast to the African American experience but as an integral part of it.

Our communities are reeling from poverty, from unemployment, from discrimination of all sorts and different interactions that they're having with the law enforcement, and education system, and so on.

Black immigrants and refugees have just as much at stake in the fight to make Black Lives Matter as African Americans do.

Get involved in your neighborhood. That's how I got really, really committed to the immigrant rights movement.

I just look back at my time in college and think about how much my community activism and my work in neighborhoods really informed my actual academic career and beyond... It can provide a way better learning than the traditional classroom setting.

I am the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, which is the country's only national immigrant rights organization for black immigrants and African Americans. Being the daughter of Nigerian immigrants really drove me to do this type of work.

As an immigrant justice advocate, I, of course, want legal status for everyone trying to make it in this country.

My mom, my aunts, and all the Nigerian women in my life have been so fierce and strong. I have only grown up around powerful women, so I have a strong sense of self and our power.

We deserve to live in a world where there's no impunity, but beyond this question of impunity, there are all these structures that are actually doing a disservice to our people.

Some of us have held the hands of friends or brothers as they struggled with military and police academy recruiters, and though many of them never dreamed of being policemen, a lack of opportunities led them to those positions.

Black Lives Matter is really an affirmation for our people. It's a love note for our people, but it's also a demand. We know that the system was not designed for justice for us.

To me and to a number of other activists from the U.S., we believe that the human rights movement has to evolve and understand the global implications of structural racism. This means engaging the United Nations and a variety of other human rights bodies.

I believe that our communities can benefit if they know about and participate in the U.N.'s various human rights forums.

The U.S.' refusal to acknowledge the plight of displaced Haitians and maintaining inhumane practices of neglect, disrespect, and violence amounts to a gross violation of human rights.

Police cannot be allowed to continue aggressive, violent, and often unconstitutional policing with impunity.

Black Lives Matter has been viral, and people are taking it, appropriating it, and using it however they see fit.