I feel so guilty about the state of young people today. And I say that because our generation fought for everything. We fought to sit down at a counter, to sit on a bus. They were left with nothing to fight for.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a sense of guilt for the challenges faced by the younger generation, who seem to lack struggles that previous generations fought for.
Cicely Tyson expresses her concerns about the younger generation, feeling guilty that they have not had to engage in significant struggles, such as civil rights battles that her generation faced. She acknowledges the sacrifices made for equality and contemplates the implications of a society where young people may feel they have nothing substantial to fight for, highlighting a possible disconnect between generations and the evolving landscape of social justice.
In practice
In a discussion about generational differences during a community meeting on social issues.
How do you project a character if you don't have a sense of where she is from? I've always just gotten on a plane to go to the area to get a sense of what it is like, to smell it, feel the earth, hear people talk, go to the marketplaces.
I saw that I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. So I made a choice to use my career as a platform to address the issues of the race I was born into.
I don't think you can measure wealth in dollars and cents. I really don't believe that at all because there are some things that money cannot buy. One of them is health. And the other is security in your relationships and friends.
One of the things I have always said about the man-woman relationship is that I don't want anybody to walk ahead of me, and I don't want anybody to walk behind me. I want a man who will walk along beside me. And that's how I feel about equal rights.
Unless a piece really said something, I had no interest in it. I have got to know that I have served some purpose here.
When I attack a role, be it TV, film or stage, the first thing I say is, I don't want to know anything. If it's good I don't want to hear it; if it's bad I don't want to hear it. The only thing either thing can do is distract me. I like to stay focused
The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation.
We all think we’re going to be great and we feel a little bit robbed when our expectations aren’t met. But sometimes our expectations sell us short. Sometimes the expected simply pales in comparison to the unexpected. You got to wonder why we cling to our expectations, because the expected is just what keeps us steady. Standing. Still. The expected's just the beginning, the unexpected is what changes our lives.
If you can't change reality, change your perceptions of it.
By nature man hates change; seldom will he quit his old home till it has actually fallen around his ears.
The bicycle freed 19th-century women from their homes and from their dependence on men. I hope that in Saudi Arabia, the car will do the same.
The riskiest thing we can do is just maintain the status quo.
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