When you stand up in the morning, you look in the mirror and say, 'I'm black.' No. You wake up and you see yourself as a human being in the world, but you raise discussion and raise aggression, the anger that you confront every day of your life, whether you want to or not.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the human experience beyond racial identity, highlighting the daily struggles faced by individuals.
Raoul Peck's quote reflects the complexity of identity and the inherent challenges of existence. It suggests that one should first recognize their humanity rather than being confined to racial labels, acknowledging the societal anger and discussions that arise from such identities. The quote encourages a profound understanding of self that transcends skin color, urging a focus on universal human experiences.
In practice
In a speech about social justice, one might say, 'As Raoul Peck pointed out, we must see ourselves as human beings first, and not just by our race.'
It's not about the past; it's about knowing your history so that you can fight in the present. Otherwise, you don't know who the real enemy is, what the real issue is, because it had been covered by many layers of bad information, of lies, and manipulation.
As long as you are in that white privilege bubble, you don't need to see the world differently. You don't need to see the world through the eyes of minorities or women.
I tend to believe that film can try to save what still can be saved, in terms of our histories, our memories. Because a lot of things are disappearing very quickly, things are changing. We are living in very quick times, and we have a new generation who basically know nothing about events 30 years ago.
The mill wheel turns, it turns forever, though what is uppermost remains not so.
There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness.
We forget that the world is what we imagine it to be. We stop being the sun and become, instead, the pool of water reflecting it.
Each time the losses and deceptions of life teach us about impermanence, they bring us closer to the truth. When you fall from a great height, there is only one possible place to land: on the ground-the ground of truth. And if you have the understanding that comes from spiritual practice, then falling is in no way a disaster, but the discovery of an inner refuge.
Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood.
The people's instincts are still right. You see them come to the rescue of someone-a child who falls down a well-hundreds of people rush to help, and labor and equipment are volunteered without any thought of who's going to pay for it. This is a basic feeling in Americans. They don't stand back in such a circumstance and ask what the government's going to do about it.
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