I am probably an outsider because I challenge conventional narratives about who should have a seat at the table.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of challenging the status quo and advocating for inclusivity.
Ayanna Pressley's quote highlights the significance of being an outsider as a means of questioning and challenging traditional narratives and power structures. It suggests that true progress requires individuals who are willing to speak up and assert that everyone deserves a voice and a place at the decision-making table, regardless of societal expectations or norms.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about social justice during a rally.
I'm not naive. All politics is about identity, right? Neighborhood politics, cultural politics, issue politics. It's not as though I don't get that. It's just - it has to be, I think, tempered in a way that is for our overall advancement and not to our detriment or obliteration. When I say 'our,' I don't mean just communities of color.
We should be uncomfortable with the growing gaps in our society, and we cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to these injustices.
We desperately need comprehensive immigration reform in this nation, and yes, comprehensive immigration reform proposals are nuanced and complicated, but you know what shouldn't be? Our capacity to see each other's humanity.
You cannot have a government for and by the people if it is not represented by all of the people.
Raising me as a single parent, my mother held many jobs. Most of them had to do with the betterment and the advancement of our community and society at large. I grew up seeing her active in ministries at our church, with the homeless, as a social worker, with elderly, with youth, as a children's rights organizer with the Urban League of Chicago.
As I have always said, those closest to the pain should be closest to the power.
Demonstrate to the world there is "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" than a U.S. Marine.
Whatever may be my feelings of personal gratitude to the Navy of the United States, I feel myself under still greater obligations to them for the honor they have done to the American name in every part of the globe.
On Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of first responders heroically rushed to the scene and saved tens of thousands of lives. More than 400 of those first responders did not make it out alive. In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked, 'What God do you pray to?' What beliefs do you hold?'
When I became finance minister, they called me Okonjo-Wahala - or 'Trouble Woman.' It means 'I give you hell.' But I don't care what names they call me. I'm a fighter; I'm very focused on what I'm doing, and relentless in what I want to achieve, almost to a fault. If you get in my way, you get kicked.
Gymnastics has made me strong. I feel like it broke me down to my lowest point, but at the same time, it has given me the greatest strength anyone could ask for.
There is no law for farm labor organizing, save the law of the jungle.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.