Quotes About Activism

Among my generation, there was a purist position that any contact with electoral politics was an unforgiveable compromise.

I've done a lot of guerrilla theater in my time.

It was the desire to see black girls and our experiences in the books that I was given to read at school that forced me to speak my truth. I launched #1000BlackGirlBooks, a book drive to collect the stories of women of color.

I would describe and I have described myself to people who ask as a freedom fighter.

I often tell people I don't care whether they join the NAACP or some other group, but you better join something.

I'd rather go naked than wear fur.

It was really hard for them to intimidate me. They felt I was intimidating. One of the growers had a name for me: I think it was 'dragon lady' or something like it.

I'm not ashamed of anything I've ever done in the name of fairness and justice for my people.

Martin Luther King didn't know he was going to have a day named after him; Muhammad Ali didn't know he was going to be the people's champion. He was doing what he was doing because it was right.

The core of human rights work is naming and shaming those who commit abuses, and pressuring governments to put the screws to abusing states. As a result, human rights conventions are unique among international law instruments in depending for their enforcement mostly on the activism of a global civil society movement.

You don't drive a NASCAR on the street, no matter how fun it might be, just like you don't need an AR-15 to protect yourself when walking home at night. No one does.

Agitation is the marshalling of the conscience of a nation to mold its laws.

Gingivitis has been eroding the gum line of this great nation long enough.

The National Rifle Association has an extensive enemies list, and I am, frankly, insulted that I am not on it.

In my native Boulder County, Colorado, the fracking fanatics are out in force. They are marching door-to-door, petitions and mythology in hand, and they are storming city council and county commissioner meetings.

Native American activists have been present as long as the Europeans have been working to colonize us.

You must become an activist if you are going to live the natural life.

I have lots of heroes: anyone and everyone who does whatever they can to leave the natural world better than they found it.

Art and activism seem to go together naturally, the idea being that if you're an entertainer, you can have a voice, and if you have a voice, you can make a difference. But if I were not an actress, I would still try to extend myself beyond my little micro-universe of my job, family and personal joy.

Naturally, no march on Washington would be complete without its counter-demonstration.

I wouldn't say that I'm a naturally political beast.

Christian activists in Massachusetts are frequent guests at Christian conferences, where they speak of their persecution by "homosexual radicals." This cultivated sense of persecution—cultivated by those doing the persecuting—allows the Christian Right to promote bigotry and attack any outcry as part of the war against the Christian faith. A

We cannot pick and choose whom among the oppressed it is convenient to support. We must stand with all the oppressed or none of the oppressed

The scientific community needs to defend itself against political interference, no matter how cleverly it is concealed. If science is to come first, we don't have a choice as to whether to become politically active. If you're inactive, you're colluding in someone else's politics.