In the gun game, we are the most hunted. The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows mostly from the bodies of our black children.
Harry BelafonteRead
The USA has more people in prison that any other country, including countries with much larger populations. 13% of the population is black but 80% of the people in prison are black, mostly for soft crimes.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the racial disparities in the incarceration rates in the USA.
Harry Belafonte's quote draws attention to the stark and troubling reality of racial inequality in the American prison system. It emphasizes that while black individuals make up a relatively small percentage of the population, they are disproportionately represented in prisons, often due to non-violent offenses. This statistic raises critical questions about systemic racism and the impact of socio-economic factors on crime and punishment.
In practice
During a speech on racial equality, one might quote this to highlight systemic injustices in the legal system.
In the gun game, we are the most hunted. The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows mostly from the bodies of our black children.
Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s anchor. We are the compass for humanity’s conscience.
You can cage the singer but not the song.
I've always been supportive of the right of Israel as a state, and I've always fought against anti-Semitism, even in my own community.
Art in its highest form is art that serves and instructs society and human development.
Anti-democracy...is a virus that exists, and pro-democracy is the antibody to that virus, and I think we have to become vigilant, and we have to stay on top of the issues of democracy and freedom.
The obscenities of this country are not girls like you. It is the poverty which is obscene, and the criminal irresponsibility of the leaders who make this poverty a deadening reality. The obscenities in this country are the places of the rich, the new hotels made at the expense of the people, the hospitals where the poor die when they get sick because they don't have the money either for medicines or services. It is only in this light that the real definition of obscenity should be made.
We're willing to spend countless dollars putting people who need help in cages, and then when they get out we say you can't have a job, and you can't have housing, and because you don't have either, we're going to take your kids, too.
Boycotts have been a critical part of social justice in American history, particularly for African-Americans.
I remember my dad always complaining about getting pulled over. I remember the differences in school systems. I remember seeing police officers, not knowing their names, and knowing that they were there not to protect us, not to serve us, but to watch us.
You have someone like Colin or many of the other athletes who have knelt, especially athletes of colour, and if you're not respecting what they're saying, if you're not believing their charges of police brutality or racial inequality, you're saying that they're lying.
I don't want to flee, nor do I want to abandon the battle of these farmers who live without any protection in the forest. They have the sacrosanct right to aspire to a better life on land where they can live and work with dignity while respecting the environment.
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