When white supremacy becomes institutional, it begins to harm the very people who are not simply outside of it because of their race, it begins to harm the folk who look like the folk who want to be in charge. Martin Luther King, Jr., understood this, Malcolm X understood this, James Baldwin really understood this.
Interpretation
Institutional white supremacy negatively impacts not only minority groups but also those within the dominant group who appear similar to the oppressors.
In this quote, Michael Eric Dyson emphasizes that white supremacy, when entrenched in institutions, creates harm that transcends racial boundaries. It suggests that even individuals within the dominant group, who may share similar traits with those in power, can be adversely affected by systemic oppression and discrimination. This perspective is reflective of the insights of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin, who recognized that the destructive nature of racism does not only marginalize the oppressed but ultimately undermines the moral and ethical foundation of society as a whole.
In practice
In a speech discussing systemic injustice, one could reference this quote to highlight the broader impacts of institutional racism.
Hip hop scholarship must strive to reflect the form it interrogates, offering the same features as the best hip hop: seductive rhythms, throbbing beats, intelligent lyrics, soulful samples, and a sense of joy that is never exhausted in one sitting.
Oprah Winfrey represents the most ingenious and creative expression of black spiritual genius in the public mainstream that we've had in quite a long time, if ever.
My ambition didn't grow out of nowhere. It was planted in me by a community that nurtured me.
When Dr. King was murdered, I had no idea who he was. But as soon as I heard his words on television that night when I was 9 years old, I was dumbstruck, awestruck by their power.
I grew up in Detroit. I was a teen father. I lived on welfare for three years. I have a brother serving life in prison, though I believe he's innocent.
George Bush ran a campaign where he bragged about being an anti-intellectual, dismissing his Harvard and Yale pedigree, pretending he was an American every day, ordinary everyman, and as a result of that, played up his fumbling speech because it signified that he was a good guy. That is deeply and profoundly anti-intellectual.
If there is a knower of tongues here, fetch him; There's a stranger in the city And he has many things to say.
I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person's life. God is in everyone's life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else - God is in this person's life. You can - you must - try to seek God in every human life.
Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.
There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.
I defy you to find any real will, any reasoning force, outside of life. And everything is there; there is, in the world, no other will than this force which impels everything to life, a life even broader and higher.
In Tetrad form, the artifact is seen to be not neutral or passive, bur an active logos or utterance of the human mind or body that transforms the user and his ground.
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