I'm told I'm a statistic. I'm told that my young black sisters are disease-ridden... but we are greater than what society tells us we are.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes resilience and the rejection of negative societal stereotypes.
Jurnee Smollett-Bell's quote challenges the dehumanizing statistics and stereotypes often associated with young black women, asserting their strength and worth beyond societal labels. It speaks to the importance of self-identity and the power of overcoming prejudiced views through self-empowerment and collective strength.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech encouraging young women to embrace their identity.
Oftentimes, a history book in school will talk about the Underground Railroad as if it's one sentence. But thousands of people decided to run, and they single-handedly changed the trajectory of our nation. By running to the North, they put a face to slavery, which recruited a lot of abolitionists.
It was the 31st of August in 1962 that eighteen of us traveled twenty-six miles to the county courthouse in Indianola to try to register to become first-class citizens. We was met in Indianola by policemen, Highway Patrolmen, and they only allowed two of us in to take the literacy test at the time.
Cancer does give you a new rejuvenation. I know what it's like to be down. I lost a couple of good friends - Larry Hagman and Nick Ashford - who had the same type of cancer that I did, and that makes you think.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
When you’re sitting in a dark room, you can either sit and curse the darkness—or you can light a candle.
We come to Selma to be renewed. We come to be inspired. We come to be reminded that we must do the work that justice and equality calls us to do.
It's not always easy being a full-time feminist - especially as a young woman - when you're constantly being told that what you do is irrelevant. I'm on the defense all the time.
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