I have long since passed that period when I felt personal discomfort at the sight of an ill-dressed or illiterate Negro. Social awareness has taught me where to lay the blame.
Lorraine HansberryRead
The problem in the world is the oppression of man by man; it this which threatens existence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that human oppression is the root of many global issues and poses a significant threat to humanity's survival.
Lorraine Hansberry's quote illustrates a profound observation about the nature of societal problems: that the oppression of individuals by others is central to the challenges we face. It suggests that the persistent struggles humanity endures—such as inequality, conflict, and injustice—are products of this oppression, and addressing it is crucial for the survival of society as a whole.
Themes
OppressionExistenceHumanityInjusticeSociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about social justice, one might say, 'As Lorraine Hansberry mentioned, the oppression of man by man threatens our very existence.'
More from Lorraine Hansberry
All quotes →I feel that women - without wishing to foster any strict separatist notions, homo or hetero - indeed have a need for their own publications and organizations. Our problems, our experiences as women are profoundly unique as compared to the other half of the human race.
Lorraine HansberryRead
It is difficult for the American mind to adjust to the realization that the Rhetts and the Scarletts were as much monsters as the keepers of Buchenwald-they just dressed more attractively.
Lorraine HansberryRead
I am a writer. I suppose I think that the highest gift that man has is art, and I am audacious enough to think of myself as an artist - that there is both joy and beauty and illumination and communion between people to be achieved through the dissection of personality.
Lorraine HansberryRead
I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and - I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations.
Lorraine HansberryRead
Daddy felt that this country was hopeless in its treatment of Negroes. So he became a refugee from America. He bought a house in Polanco, a suburb of Mexico City, and we were planning to move there when he died. I was fourteen at the time.
Lorraine HansberryRead
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