Quotes About Oppression

Humour is the weapon of unarmed people: it helps people who are oppressed to smile at the situation that pains them.

When the missionaries came to Africa," Desmond Tutu famously (though not originally: that honor belongs to Jomo Kenyatta) remarked, "they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.

In order for the artist to have a world to express he must first be situated in this world, oppressed or oppressing, resigned or rebellious, a man among men.

Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male's superiority.

When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy that it implies, then the "division" of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.

When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior.

her wings are cut and then she is blamed for not knowing how to fly.

All oppression creates a state of war. And this is no exception.

If the feminine issue is so absurd, is because the male's arrogance made it "a discussion

From the beginning when the Israelites were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt to the Nazi's attempt to annihilate the Jewish race, Jews have suffered-but in the end have prevailed and become stronger. They've even overcome God's anger (Exodus 32:10). Overcoming obstacles is in my Jewish blood.

Nous ne te voulons pas de mal, mais nous avons un sens africain de la race. Les blancs sont des blancs, mais vous autres descendants d'esclaves, vous n'êtes rien. Ce n'est pas ta faute, et ce n'est pas la nôtre : tu n'es rien. Tu es un, comme chaque poisson du fleuve.

There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime namely, repressive justice.

Man alone can enslave man.

Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission.

Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.

CWC (Church Women Concerned) enabled us as women in that part of South Africa, to see ourselves as ordinary citizens who found themselves in decidedly far from ordinary circumstances. In truth, some of us were not even considered citizens, strictly speaking: the African had, by this time, been completely deprived of that privilege.

We hold on until they crush our souls.

Totalitarianism surpasses autocracy.

Persecution is a bad and indirect way to plant Religion.

Los patriarcas nos defraudan. No ven y no escuchan. Suelen permanecer ciegos y hacer oídos sordos a las mujeres, se pavonean, alardean y actúan como si no estuviéramos allí. Y no siempre son hombres. A veces son mujeres, también ciegas que se odian a sí mismas. Están atrapadas en los hábitos perceptivos de los siglos, en las expectativas que han llegado a gobernar su mente.

My memory of the school building itself, its rooms and lockers, blackboards, and hallways, bring on a heavy, oppressive feeling. Whether I was more unhappy in school than any of my friends I don't know. I never would have said I didn't like school, and there are moments I distinctly remember enjoying, but these truths don't alter my memory of that place.

But what more oft in nations grown corrupt, And by their vices brought to servitude, Than to love bondage more than liberty, Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.

You look at the greatest villains in human history, the fascists, the autocrats, they all wanted people to kneel before them because they don't love themselves enough.

Some colored people so scared of whitefolks they claim to love the cotton gin.