Quotes About Oppression

It was just tiresome thinking about folks having to fight for the least little thing. I loved my people for fighting, but hated the reason why, and that left me with that crosscut notion of pride and anger pulling in different directions, two kinds of muscle fighting for the same piece of bone.

Whoever is full of wisdom is naturally compassionate; in fact we recognize that someone has gained spiritual wisdom by seeing their compassionate behavior. . . . Individuals and countries with power need to develop wisdom and compassion, for without these attributes, there is a danger that the power will be used to oppress and exploit others. (31)

Violence and resistance are the only answer. Empire has to feel pain or it will never stop devouring you. It is only when a gun is put in a person's face that anything changes

The terrible tyranny of the majority.

History texts say much about spinning bees and boycotts—but why so little about women being looted, raped, widowed, and left homeless?94

All men are created equal," at the time, was certainly not intended to include women, slaves, or Indians. It was a radical concept for its day, regardless of its limited scope. Beyond that, as Wood and others have maintained, the concept of equality served as a blueprint for the future, pointing in a direction which would eventually extend across the lines of gender and to all racial, ethnic, religious, or political minorities.

The rich and powerful often tried to discredit crowd action by calling attention to the lowerclass status of rioters, but they could not always suppress the will of the people so forcefully expressed. Riots, with their direct objectives and moral urgency, effectively offset the arbitrary power or inattention of harsh rulers.

Unlike the tens of thousands of emigrants who were still enslaved and the hundreds of thousands of African Americans who remained in bondage in the new United States, a handful of free black émigrés left written accounts of their personal adventures.

The Indians, of course, had no recourse in the courts, where they were forbidden to testify; "[we are] not heard when we speak the truth," they protested.149 By 1826 scarcely 100 Catawbas remained in two small villages, and in 1840 the remaining Catawbas signed away what little was left of their land in return for a tract in North Carolina which they never received.

For enslaved people themselves—about 430,000 in the southern colonies, and another 50,000 or so in the North—the coming of the Revolution brought new hopes and new dangers.9 They could not have helped but notice the peculiar references to "freedom" and "slavery" voiced by their masters.

in 1772 Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, determined that James Sommersett, who had been purchased in Virginia, taken to England, and then escaped, could not be forcibly returned to his master.10 American slaves took this case to heart: if they could somehow reach the shores of England, they too would be set free.

They feared slaves who "entertained ideas, that the present contest was for obliging us to give them their liberty."12 They feared the British, who "have been tampering with our Negroes; and have held nightly meetings with them; and all for the glorious purpose of enticing them to cut their masters' throats while they are asleep.

Literally and figuratively, this was the fate of many southern slaves in the Revolutionary War. They had scented freedom—some had even managed a taste—but here they were on a desolate plain, starving and diseased, cast out and abandoned between two sets of white men who had once used them to great advantage.

He didn't know the right people. That's all a police record means in this rotten crime-ridden country.

John Stuart Mill, highlighting how a small group may be victimized by a larger group

Repeatedly and consistently, the Bible calls us to stand with the weak and oppressed, to speak out for those who for one reason or another can't speak for themselves. God is a God of justice and mercy, and He calls us to walk in justice and mercy with Him, to have His heart, His compassion and empathy.

We know that enlightened capital didn't get rid of the slave trade.

Trump is literally the epitome of evil, all the evils of this country - be it racism, capitalism, sexism, homophobia.

A lot of political things would have to dramatically change in this planet for a woman of color to be carefree.

I'm a white male in power. In many cases, I'm the enemy.

You build dreams, you build castles in the air, and you hope that at least part of that will be realized, even under apartheid.

I've seen and always been extremely aware of racism... casual racism, serious racism... all of that.

There is no need to subject people in capitalism to additional suffering; the point is to get them to recognize that the suffering they are already undergoing is caused by capitalism.

I mean, they censor your work when they're scared of it.