Oppressors Quotes - Page 11

• All the books that were being published by African-American guys were saying 'screw whitey', or some variation of that. Not the scholars but the pop books. And the other thing they said was, 'You have to confront the oppressor.' I understand that. But you don't have to look at the world through his eyes. I'm not a stereotype; I'm not somebody else's version of who I am. And so when people said at that time black is beautiful – yeah? Of course. Who said it wasn't? So I was trying to say, in The Bluest Eye, wait a minute. Guys. There was a time when black wasn't beautiful. And you hurt.

  Toni Morrison

  Beautiful, Hurt, Book

  "Toni Morrison: 'I want to feel what I feel. Even if it's not happiness'". Interview With Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. April 13, 2012.

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• A Lesbian who consents to guilt for her sexual preference is her own worst oppressor. She accepts and internalizes prejudices and uses them against herself.

  Sidney Abbott

  Guilt, Prejudice, Use

  Sidney Abbott, Barbara Love (1978). “Sappho was a right-on woman: a liberated view of lesbianism”, Scarborough House

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• To sit back and do nothing is to cooperate with the oppressor.

  Jane Elliott

  Courage

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• hatred of oppression seems to me so blended with hatred of the oppressor that I cannot separate them. I feel that no other injury could be so hard to bear, so very very hard to forgive, as that inflicted by cruel oppression and prejudice.

  Charlotte Forten Grimke

  Racism, Hatred, Forgiving

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• Art is on the side of the oppressed. Think before you shudder at the simplistic dictum and its heretical definition of the freedom of art. For if art is freedom of the spirit, how can it exist within the oppressors?

  Edith Wharton

  Art, Freedom, Thinking

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• May the same wonderworking Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors and planted them in the promised land, whose Providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven and to make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.

  George Washington

  Spiritual, Independent, Blessing

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1837). “The Writings of George Washington: pt. V. Speeches and messages to Congress, proclamations, and addresses”, p.186

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• Until you're prepared to kill your parents, you're not really prepared to change the country because our parents are our first oppressors.

  Jerry Rubin

  Country, Parent, Firsts

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• The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community. A boycott is never an end within itself. It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Mean, Beloved Community, Aftermath

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.38, Beacon Press

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• We should be less concerned about hurting the feelings of the oppressors and more concerned about standing in solidarity with the oppressed.

  Remi Kanazi

  Hurt, Feelings, Should

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• The fortunes of the African revolution are closely linked with the world-wide struggle against imperialism. It does not matter where the battle erupts, be it in Africa, Asia or Latin America, the master-mind and master-hand at work are the same. The oppressed and exploited people are striving for their freedom against exploitation and suppression. Ghana must not, Ghana cannot be neutral in the struggle of the oppressed against the oppressor.

  Kwame Nkrumah

  Latin, Struggle, Hands

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• No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption (Freire, 1970, p. 54).

  Paulo Freire

  Struggle, Example, Redemption

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• Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else.

  Malcolm X

  Freedom, Needs, Slavery

  "Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements". Book edited by George Breitman, 1965.

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• I do not say that there is no glory to be gained [in war]; but it is not personal glory. In itself, no cause was ever more glorious than that of men who struggle, not to conquer territory, not to gather spoil, not to gratify ambition, but for freedom, for religion, for hearth and home, and to revenge the countless atrocities inflicted upon them by their oppressors.

  G.A. Henty

  Revenge, War, Struggle

  G. A. Henty (2018). “By Pike and Dyke”, p.63, Ozymandias Press

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• Matter of internal security - the age-old cry of the oppressor. Picard

  Gene Roddenberry

  Age, Matter, Cry

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• Oppressors in front of the Lord, truth be told shall inherit oppression, while others receive gold.

  Muhammad Atta-ullah Faizani

  Soul, Gold, Oppression

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• Let us have an education, that shall practically develop our thinking faculties and manhood; and then, and only then, shall we be able to vie with our oppressors, go where we may . . .

  Martin Delany

  Thinking, May, Able

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• Odd how often blood is shed to obtain freedom from those in power. Oppressors must be the most insecure people in the world.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Leadership, Wisdom, Spring

  Twitter post from Dec 08, 2013

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• Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.

  Anne Lamott

  Running, Fun, Writing

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.28, Anchor

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• For me, men are not divided into believers and atheists, but between oppressors and oppressed, between those who want to keep this unjust society and those who want to struggle for justice.

  Frei Betto

  Atheist, Struggle, Men

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• God is an oppressor, He is incapable of human sympathy; behind a smiling face He hides an evil heart.

  Louis de Bernieres

  God, Religious, Heart

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