Quotes About Oppression

For people of color - especially African Americans - the idea that racist cops might frame members of their community is no abstract notion, let alone an exercise in irrational conspiracy theorizing. Rather, it speaks to a social reality about which blacks are acutely aware.

When I was trying to figure out how the government might go about creating the camps in 'The Darkest Minds,' I researched the Japanese internment camps here in the United States, specifically propaganda the government used, and how they capitalized on people's fears.

I'm very much interested in music specifically and wanted to make a film about it, but not in an atmosphere of censorship.

The censors have always had a field day with James Joyce, specifically with 'Ulysses,' but also with his other writings. The conventional wisdom is that this is because of sexually explicit passages (and there certainly are those). I have always thought that what the critics hated and feared about Joyce is his cry for human freedom.

See, Independence means freedom, for me, more specifically, freedom of speech which we seem to have lost.

The reality is that race in the United States operates on a spectrum from black to white. Doesn't mean that people who are in between don't experience racism, but it means that the closer you are to white on that spectrum, the better off you are. And the closer to black that you are on that spectrum, the worse off your are.

Some people still believe you should just fall in line with what's going on - and that's scary. It makes a mockery of freedom of speech.

I defected to South Korea in search of freedom of speech and movement. I had longed to put my feet on this soil, even in my dreams.

We're losing our freedom of speech. We are losing freedom of religion. We are losing freedom of the press.

All the big powers they've silenced me. So much for free speech and choice on this fundamental human right.

Even if the country is run by a Mussolini, free speech will find its way.

In communism, we never had any freedom - of movement, of speech, of press. We didn't even make own decisions for our lives, our future. We were human robots.

Any kind of restrictions put on free speech would have worse consequences than bullying.

Fidel Castro had to sit there while he was given a speech on democracy, something the Cuban people have not been able to hear for 43 years.

The people of Iran have had to endure repressive laws that have stifled their freedom of speech and religion for too long.

There's something about the good-hearted guy fighting the system. I just love that. That's how 'Speed' is. He's a really focused guy with a heart of gold and the corporations are trying to crush him and use him for his skills to make them more money.

Milosevic will never stop, because he is fighting for personal power in Serbia. The only way to stop him is cutting the functioning of his war machine. He is spending $1.7 million a day on his war machine in Kosovo.

For those of us in the opposition movement under dictatorships, part of our job is confronting police and spending time in prison. So, a dissident not only needs to learn how to oppose oppression but also how to face the crackdowns and time in prison.

After spending time with police officers on ride-alongs, meeting with politicians on the state and federal level and grass roots organizations fighting for human rights, it's clear that our criminal justice system is still crippling communities of color through mass incarceration.

I wore the hijab - a form of dress that comprises a head scarf and usually also clothing that covers the whole body except for the face and hands - for nine years. Put more honestly, I wore the hijab for nine years and spent eight of them trying to take it off.

Having spent the greater part of my life under a Communist dictatorship, I am very familiar with the Bolshevik mentality according to which an author in general, and an eminent author in particular, is always guilty, and must be punished accordingly.

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

'They have nothing in their entire arsenal to break the spirit of one single Republican prisoner-of-war who refuses to be broken,' I thought, and that was very true. They cannot or never will break our spirit.

Now, myself, I'm not a pacifist at all. I believe in just war. I would have joined the spirit of the nation to fight against apartheid.