Oppression Quotes - Page 37

• ...the word occult, despite conjuring images of devil worship, actually means ‘hidden’ or ‘obscured.’ In times of religious oppression, knowledge that was counterdoctrinal had to be kept hidden or ‘occult,’ and because the church felt threatened by this, they redefined anything ‘occult’ as evil, and the prejudice survived.

  Dan Brown

  Religious, Mean, Evil

  "The Lost Symbol". Ch. 6. Book by Dan Brown, 2009.

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• It is obvious that many women have appropriated feminism to serve their own ends, especially those white women who have been at the forefront of the movement; but rather than resigning myself to this appropriation I choose to re-appropriate the term “feminism,” to focus on the fact that to be “feminist” in any authentic sense of the term is to want for all people, female and male, liberation from sexist role patterns, domination, and oppression.

  Bell Hooks

  White, People, Focus

  "Ain't I a Woman?". Book by Gloria Jean Watkins, 1981.

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• In the face of brutality I was prudent. Before injustice I held my peace. I sacrificed the things in hand for the good of the hypothetical whole. I believed in the tongue instead of the fist. As an armor against oppression I taught patience and faith in the human soul. I know now how wrong I was. I have been a traitor to myself and to my people. All that is rot.

  Carson McCullers

  Fighting, Hands, People

  "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter".

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• Thus I came to condemn capitalism, not through any oppression endured by me personally, but through that very deification of efficiency which capitalism had taught me, for its own purposes.

  Anna Louise Strong

  Purpose, Taught, Efficiency

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• But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression

  John Locke

  People, One Thing

  John Locke (1956). “The Second Treatise of Government: And, A Letter Concerning Toleration”, p.147, Courier Corporation

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• I don't want to involve myself in the various arguments about why Israel was created . . . . . I want to deal with the situation at hand which is the ongoing killing on both sides. . . . . . . It's true that there's also much oppression of Palestinians in Arab countries, where Palestinians aren't allowed to vote or own property and are treated as second class citizens and pawns in the fight against Israel. But I'm not going to spend my time on this since there is isn't a whole lot I can do about it.

  Michael Moore

  Country, Fighting, Hands

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• Because some people have sex with people of the same sex, an entire culture has been created, broadly speaking, out of oppression. Which in a rational world would not be an issue.

  Neil Tennant

  Sex, Issues, Talking

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Whilst America hath been the land of promise to Europeans, and their descendants, it hath been the vale of death to millions of the wretched sons of Africa... Whilst we were offering up vows at the shrine of Liberty... whilst we swore irreconcilable hostility to her enemies... whilst we adjured the God of Hosts to witness our resolution to live free or die... we were imposing on our fellow men, who differ in complexion from us, a slavery, ten thousand times more cruel than the utmost extremity of those grievances and oppressions, of which we complained.

  St. George Tucker

  Son, Men, Land

  "A Dissertation on Slavery: With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it, in the State of Virginia". Book by St. George Tucker, 1796.

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• Dogma is the convictions of one man imposed authoritatively upon others.

  Felix Adler

  Men, Dogma, Conviction

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• It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.

  Thomas Jefferson

  War, Long, Suffering

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.420, Cambridge University Press

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• We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression; the heart of a wise man should resemble a mirror, which reflects every object without being sullied by any

  Confucius

  Wise, Heart, Men

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• Early spring is the time for vigorous change, a preparation for the heat-driven oppression that is to come.

  Henry Rollins

  Spring, Preparation, Heat

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• Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.

  Pope Francis

  Mean, Culture, Leftovers

  "Pope Francis: Capitalism is 'a new tyranny'" by Katie Mcdonough, www.salon.com. November 26, 2013.

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• To fight tyranny and oppression by using tyrannical and oppressive means, to combat a single-minded and ruthless fanaticism by becoming equally fanatical and ruthless, will not further the cause of justice or bring about a meaningful democracy. It can only prolong the cycle of violence.

  Tariq Ali

  Meaningful, Fighting, Justice

  Tariq Ali (2003). “The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity”, p.3, Verso

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• Our economic order is tightly woven around the exploitation of animals, and while it may seem easy to dismiss concern about animals as the soft-headed mental masturbation of people who really don't understand oppression and the depths of actual human misery, I hope to get you to think differently about suffering and pain, to convince you that animals matter, and to argue that anyone serious about ending domination and hierarchy needs to think critically about bringing animals into consideration.

  Bob Torres

  Pain, Thinking, Animal

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• This society turns everything it touches into a potential source of progress and exploitation, of drudgery and satisfaction, of freedom and of oppression.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Progress, Culture, Satisfaction

  Herbert Marcuse (2012). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.78, Beacon Press

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• If white American feminist theory need not deal with the differences between us, and the resulting difference in our oppressions, then how do you deal with the fact that the women who clean your houses and tend your children while you attend conferences on feminist theory are, for the most part, poor women and women of Color? What is the theory behind racist feminism?

  Audre Lorde

  Children, Color, White

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.112, Crossing Press

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• By dismantling the narrow politics of racial identity and selective self-interest, by going beyond 'black' and 'white,' we may construct new values, new institutions and new visions of an America beyond traditional racial categories and racial oppression.

  Manning Marable

  Black And White, Self, America

  Manning Marable (1995). “Beyond Black and White: Transforming African-American Politics”, p.202, Verso

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• Why should I ever resist any delay or disapointment, any affliction or oppression or humiliation - when I know God will use it in my life to make me like Jesus and to prepare me for heaven?

  Kay Arthur

  Jesus, Heaven, Use

  Kay Arthur (2009). “As Silver Refined: Learning to Embrace Life's Disappointments”, p.89, WaterBrook

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• Since 1996, the Feminist Majority Foundation has been immersed in a campaign to support Afghan women and girls in their fight against the brutal oppression of the Taliban.

  Eleanor Smeal

  Girl, Fighting, Support

  "Why Is the Feminist Majority Foundation Refusing to Abandon the Women and Girls of Afghanistan?". www.alternet.org. July 16, 2009.

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• For a black male, the sound of the blues is pre-Civil Rights. It's oppression.

  Gary Clark, Jr.

  Rights, Black, Sound

  "Hot Tracks: Gary Clark Jr". Interview with Lisa Robinson, www.vanityfair.com. December 2012.

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• Exploitation and oppression is not a matter of race. It is the system, the apparatus of world-wide brigandage called imperialism, which made the Powers behave the way they did. I have no illusions on this score, nor do I believe that any Asian nation or African nation, in the same state of dominance, and with the same system of colonial profit-amassing and plunder, would have behaved otherwise.

  Han Suyin

  Believe, Race, Dominance

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• When we fled from the oppressions of kings and parliaments in Europe, to found this great Republic in America, we brought with us the laws and the liberties, which formed a part of our heritage as Britons.

  Caleb Cushing

  Kings, Europe, Law

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• You want to free the world, free humanity, from oppression? Look inside, look sideways, look at the hidden violence of language. Never forget that language is where the other, parallel violence, the cruelty exercised on the body, originates.

  Ariel Dorfman

  Humanity, Looks, World

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• We live in a world of wars and wars alarms, of famines, of oppression. While there are many wonderful people in this world, you'll notice one curious fact about them, they all suffer, they all die, and sometimes those who are the nicest seem to suffer the most.

  Frederick Lenz

  Inspirational, War, Buddhism

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