Quotes About Oppression

You know, it's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.

If you're on the side of the oppressor, or you're defending the oppressor, or you're actually trying to humanize the oppressor, then that's a problem.

When you're talking about an authority figure oppressing against people, it's the people that hold that authority figure up. If you want to get free of this bondage, then we need to think about ways to free ourselves rather than looking to the oppressors to free us.

You walk into the Beeb and it is very, very white. That is not anybody's fault. You can be in an oppressive institution and not be an oppressor.

Every revolutionary ends up either by becoming an oppressor or a heretic.

The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.

Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

White Americans have the option of not having to think about race on a daily basis. People of color don't. Race is a major deciding factor in their lives and the histories of their families.

North Koreans are forced to work at state jobs in a moribund economy. Countless parents watch their children go to bed hungry. Many North Korean families feel they have no option but to try to escape.

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.

In a way, bullying is an ordinary evil. It's hugely prevalent, all too often ignored - and being ignored, it is therefore condoned.

Ordinary people understand that the rich and powerful bully the poor and meek.

It's not just about showbusiness - everywhere you go people are discriminated against. And if by having an organised voice against inequality and a lack of diversity we might be able to push that down - how brilliant would it be?

We live in a country where people still get beaten to death because of their sexual orientation.

In China, the rich enslaved the poor, and in England and Scotland and all over the world, one person, through his power and wealth and standing, was able to enslave others. Don't torget, mankind has had wars where we sent armies to enslave other countries; history is full of slavery.

Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition.

Growing up in Mississippi - a state that historically was a place of racial injustice, inequality and oppression - gave me the unique opportunity to experience first-hand the evolution of the civil rights movement through the eyes of my parents, grandparents, and the black elders of our community.

Too often, when Muslim women speak out, some in our 'community' accuse us of 'making our men look bad' and of giving ammunition to right-wing Islamophobes.

Very early in life, it seemed to me that there was a relationship between the problems of the Negro people in America and the Jewish people in Russia, and that the Jewish people's problems were worse than ours.

The outburst of sexual freedom in the '60s was bound to happen because the '50s were so oppressing. You had to live that way; women had to be like this - it was all locked into a false reality.

Those who have been outspoken in advocating human rights during these last forty years, have themselves grabbed the most fundamental of human rights from the people of the Third-World countries.

It seems like racism in the United States is overflowing.

The cup of Ireland's misery has been overflowing for centuries and is not yet half full.

I'm speaking for everyone who has ever been incarcerated, especially those who are innocent or have been overly charged.