note: 10 Quotes that Guided Activists in 2024
Quotes to carry with you for the long haul.
What’s one quote you live by or a quote guiding you in this current moment? Here’s a round up of quotes that guided interviewees through their work in 2024:
“Always stay gracious. Best revenge is your paper.” — Beyoncé :: shared by Renee Bracey Sherman who clarified that it’s not about money; it’s that she can always write about a moment whenever she’s ready: “Stay gracious and try to stay above it all. The best revenge is actually when you do your work and you continue to succeed anyway.”
“The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The black goddess within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.” ― Audre Lorde :: shared by Jaimee Swift who teaches about the politics of feelings - particularly feeling race, racial embodiment, and how our feelings can be a center for critical inquiry - in her Introduction to African, African American, and Diaspora Studies course
“Be related, somehow, to everyone you know.” — Lakota Anthropologist Ella Deloria :: shared by Dionna Dorsey
“My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.” — Maya Angelou :: shared by Dionna Dorsey
“The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.”― James Baldwin :: shared by Dionna Dorsey
“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. :: shared by Charlotte Clymer who noted, “I know that we probably hear that quote every week at some point in someone's speech or we see it on Twitter somewhere, and I think for a lot of folks it's become cliche. But, I firmly believe that Dr. King was saying that yes, we're gonna struggle and it's gonna hurt. But if we are willing to work together, if we're willing to be honest with ourselves, if we are willing to demand accountability and push forward, we will get towards justice and I firmly believe that.”
“We are not bound to our current perspectives but to the evolution of them, so don't sweat.” — Diandra Marizet
"The quietest voices in the back of the classroom often hold the most profound stories, but fear can keep them from being heard." — Source unknown :: shared by Michael Farber who commented, “I don’t want to be that person. I don’t want to live my life being afraid of what other people are going to think about what I'm going to do. I just want to keep doing it.”
“What is your role in someone else’s liberation?” — Georgia Coordinator of SisterSong, Danielle Rodriguez :: shared by Paola Mendoza
"Country folk do not just define home as a house. The land, the trees, the honeysuckle, the air, even the sky make up a home. I want to be able to smell and pick the sage and mint with my grandchildren, the way my grandmother did with me.” — Tamara Woodard :: shared by her daughter, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞
