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
The U. S. is becoming more hostile to Black people and other people of color. Racism is running rampant and xenophobia is on the rise
Interpretation
The quote highlights the escalating hostility and discrimination faced by Black individuals and people of color in the U.S.
Assata Shakur's quote addresses the increasing levels of racism and xenophobia in American society, emphasizing a troubling trend of hostility towards marginalized communities. This statement serves as a warning about the consequences of systemic racism, calling for awareness and action in the face of growing intolerance and discrimination.
In practice
During a speech about civil rights, this quote can emphasize the ongoing struggles against racism.
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.
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My mother always told me, 'Don't get married. Make your own life. You don't need a man.'
To say good-bye is to deny separation; it is to say Today we play at going our own ways, but we'll see each other tomorrow. Men invented farewells because they somehow knew themselves to be immortal, even while seeing themselves as contingent and ephemeral.
Redefine what it means to be sexy and what it means to be a woman. Showing my skin is not what makes me sexy. I like skirts and dresses just like everyone else, but I had a message I needed to put out there. It was up to me to show people and young girls there was another way.
I wanted to tell her everything, maybe if I'd been able to, we could have lived differently, maybe I'd be there with you now instead of here. Maybe... if I'd said, 'I'm so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything,' maybe that would have made the impossible possible. Maybe, but I couldn't do it, I had buried too much too deeply inside me. And here I am, instead of there.
Her grief grieved her. His devastated her.
Once a woman passes a certain point in intelligence she finds it almost impossible to get a husband: she simply cannot go on listening without snickering.
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