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There are a whole lot of historical factors that have played a part in our being where we are today, and I think that to even to begin to understand our contemporary issues and contemporary problems, you have to understand a little bit about that history.
Wilma Mankiller
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Understanding contemporary issues requires knowledge of historical context.

Wilma Mankiller emphasizes the importance of history in shaping our present circumstances. She asserts that to navigate and address contemporary problems effectively, one must first grasp the historical factors that have influenced current societal dynamics.

Themes

HistoryContemporary IssuesUnderstandingContextProblems

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on social justice, this quote could illustrate the necessity of historical awareness.

More from Wilma Mankiller

My name is Mankiller, and in the old Cherokee Nation, when we lived here in the Southeast, we lived in semi-autonomous villages, and there was someone who watched over the village, who had the title of mankiller. And I'm not sure what you could equate that to, but it was sort of like a soldier or someone who was responsible for the security of the village, and so anyway this one fellow liked the title mankiller so well that he kept it as his name, and that's who we trace our ancestry back to.
Wilma MankillerRead
It's like everybody's sitting there and they have some kind of veil over their face, and they look at each other through this veil that makes them see each other through some stereotypical kind of viewpoint. If we're ever gonna collectively begin to grapple with the problems that we have collectively, we're gonna have to move back the veil and deal with each other on a more human level.
Wilma MankillerRead
Women in leadership roles can help restore balance and wholeness to our communities.
Wilma MankillerRead
Growth is a painful process._x000D_ If we’re ever going to collectively begin to grapple with the problems that we have collectively, we’re going to have to move back the veil and deal with each other on a more human level.
Wilma MankillerRead
I want to be remembered as the person who helped us restore faith in ourselves.
Wilma MankillerRead
Everybody is sitting around saying, 'Well, jeez, we need somebody to solve this problem of bias.' That somebody is us. We all have to try to figure out a better way to get along.
Wilma MankillerRead

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