Religion without humanity is very poor human stuff.
Sojourner TruthRead
There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see, the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the importance of women's rights alongside men's rights in the quest for equality.
Sojourner Truth emphasizes that the struggle for rights must include both colored men and women, cautioning against a situation where men gain power while women remain oppressed. She warns that achieving rights for only one group does not ensure true equality, as it may lead to a different form of domination, making the struggle for gender equality an essential part of social justice.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech advocating for gender equality in social justice movements.
Religion without humanity is very poor human stuff.
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?
The rich rob the poor and the poor rob one another.
Good man! Genuine gentleman! God bless George Thompson, the great-hearted friend of my race.
And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Because of them I can now live the dream. I am the seed of the free, and I know it. I intend to bear great fruit.
If I had not some strength of will I would make a first class drunkard.
I've struggled enough in my life to be appreciated and understood. I've had to go against all kinds of people through the years just to be myself. I think everybody should be allowed to be who they are, and to love who they love. I don't think we should be judgmental. Lord, I've got enough problems of my own to pass judgment on somebody else.
You are not a man anymore. You are a soldier. Your comfort is of no importance and your life isn't of much importance. Most of your orders will be unpleasant, but that's not your business. They should've trained you for this, and not for flower-strewn streets. They should have built your soul with truth, not led along with lies.
I wanted my faith to look the same to everyone else and to be the same for me regardless of what was going on - whether I was on the Super Bowl podium holding the trophy or when I was being benched two years later and people saying that I would never play again.
For years now I have heard the word "wait." It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "never."
I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you've got people just streaming up the mountain - well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.
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