Quotes About Oppression

Till people find themselves greatly abused and oppressed by their governors, they are not apt to complain; and whenever they do, in fact, find themselves thus abused and oppressed, they must be stupid not to complain.

Whenever black folks speak candidly about the horrors of police brutality, the default reaction in the United States isn't to start disrupting and dismantling the system of prejudices that enables the abuse of black people, but to demand silence and, sometimes, outright obedience.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

I define 'social thriller' as thriller/horror movies where the ultimate villain is society.

Together we have travelled a long road to be where we are today. This has been a road of struggle against colonial and apartheid oppression.

This stand wasn't because I feel like I'm being put down in any kind of way. This is because I'm seeing things happen to people that don't have a voice: people that don't have a platform to talk and have their voices heard and affect change. So I'm in the position where I can do that, and I'm going to do that for people that can't.

There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves.

Where annual elections end where slavery begins.

God will take care of the poor trampled slave, but where will the slaveholder be when eternity begins?

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.

That is life for a Saudi woman: wherever we go, whatever we achieve, we are the property of a man.

As attorney general of Missouri, I am my state's chief law enforcement officer. I swore an oath to uphold the rule of law, and that means fighting violence and oppression wherever it exists, especially violence against the poor and vulnerable.

Wherever it is resisted, slaver dies away and freedom grows.

Wherever, on the face of the globe or on the page of history, you show me a disfranchised class, I will show you a degraded class of labor.

The world remains a very hostile place for women in many corners of the globe. As such, we should all strive to battle such injustices wherever these might occur.

Wherever you repress people, they get hold of a crayon and a bit of scrap paper, and they chronicle their lives and their existence and their history.

The building blocks of discrimination tend to be similar wherever you find them.

Wherever black people are in America, criminalization exists. Wherever there is a white-dominant space, deep racism exists as well - no matter how progressive. If you cut too far into that progressive, if you do something that's too radical, white racism will emerge.

I think history repeats itself. There's a constant conversation between the oppressed and the oppressor. No matter what your field is, whether it's gender equality, the Time's Up movement, or diversity casting, it's always going to be a back-and-forth battle.

Whether in chains or in laurels, liberty knows nothing but victories.

Negative freedom is freedom from - freedom from oppression, whether it's a colonial power or addiction to alcohol oppressing you. You need to be freed from negative freedom. Positive freedom is freedom for, freedom to be. And that's what's routinely ignored today.

There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.

Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.

There are forms of oppression and domination which become invisible - the new normal.