When you go through all your life processing and abusing your hair so it will look like the hair of another race of people then you are making a statement and the statement is clear
Assata ShakurRead
Peace is a rare gift. Peace of mind, peaceful sleeps, and peaceful spirits are all luxuries that few rebels can ever afford.
Interpretation
Peace is a valuable and rare state of being that not everyone can achieve, especially those who resist authority.
In this quote, Assata Shakur emphasizes the notion that true peace—whether it be a calm mind, restful sleep, or a serene spirit—is an expensive luxury. For individuals who actively rebel against societal norms or injustices, maintaining such a sense of tranquility can seem almost unattainable, illustrating the internal and external struggles they face while seeking justice or change.
In practice
Use this quote during a discussion about mental health and the importance of peace of mind.
When you go through all your life processing and abusing your hair so it will look like the hair of another race of people then you are making a statement and the statement is clear
Part of being a revolutionary is creating a vision that is more humane. That is more fun, too. That is more loving. It's really working to create something beautiful.
We had to learn that we're beautiful. We had to relearn something forcefully taken from us. We had to learn about Black power. People have power if we unite. We learned the importance of coming together and being active
I was sentenced to life plus 30 years by an all-White jury. What I saw in prison was wall-to-wall Black flesh in chains. Women caged in cells. But we're the terrorists. It just doesn't make sense.
My life wasn't beautiful and creative before I became politically active. My life was totally changed when I began to struggle.
And if I know anything at all, it's that a wall is just a wall and nothing more at all. It can be broken down.
Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism.
Problems can only be solved by the people who have them. You have to try and coax them and love them into seeing ways in which they can help themselves.
The sacrifice which causes sorrow to the doer of the sacrifice is no sacrifice. Real sacrifice lightens the mind of the doer and gives him a sense of peace and joy. The Buddha gave up the pleasures of life because they had become painful to him.
You must ask for God's help. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again.
My advice to myself and to everyone else, particularly young people, is to turn on, tune in and drop out. By drop out, I mean to detach yourself from involvement in secular, external social games. But the dropping out has to occur internally before it can occur externally. I'm not telling kids just to quit school; I'm not telling people to quit their jobs. That is an inevitable development of the process of turning on and tuning in.
Every gift of noble origin Is breathed upon by Hope's perpetual breath.
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