“The duality of American society today need no longer be reinforced by laws, for it is now and has long been in the minds of men: The Harlems of America, as opposed to those who decide the fate of America’s Harlems. This is essentially a historical continuation today, of yesterday- the plantation mentality, system and division, in the cloak of 20th century enlightenment.” -The Panther 21
“Because he who controls distribution, controls the wealth. It doesn’t matter what arena you’re in. That’s the reason you don’t have independent Black grocery stores. That’s why you don’t have a daily Black newspaper. That’s why Essence Magazine is no longer Black owned.” -Catherine Hughes
“A man is worked upon by what he works on. He may carve out his circumstances, but his circumstances will carve him out as well.” -Frederick Douglass
“Consider that for generations now the cathode-ray glow of our national campfire, the televised reflection of the American experience- and, by extension, that of the Western free-market democracies- has come down to us from on high. Westerns and police procedurals and legal dramas, soap operas and situation comedies- all of it conceived in Los Angeles and New York by industry professionals, then shaped by corporate entities to calm and soothe as many viewers as possible, priming them with the idea that their future is better and brighter than it actually is, that the time is never more right to buy and consume.” -David Simon
“Your ancestors dragged these black people from their homes by force; and in the white man’s quest for wealth and an easy life they have been ruthlessly suppressed and exploited, degraded into slavery. The modern prejudice against Negroes is the result of the desire to maintain this unworthy condition…I believe that whoever tries to think things through honestly will soon recognize how unworthy and even fatal is the traditional bias against Negroes.” -Albert Einstein
“My fight in the boxing ring was only to make me popular. I never enjoyed boxing. I never enjoyed hurting people, knocking people down. But this world only recognizes power, wealth, and fame- according to their procedures.” -Muhammad Ali
“We can’t look to the enemy to validate us. That’s not their job. That’s not what we do. They only validate us when we’re wrong. When we’re at our worse.” – Anthony Browder
“You can watch a documentary of someone’s entire life on their phone. We live in a world where, increasingly, nothing remains secret. And one of the signs of true wealth and power may end up being that privacy will become a commodity only for those who have the serious money to buy it. For everybody else, all the world really will be a stage, with all the people on it self-consciously playing their role.” -Chloe Combi [Source: National Geographic February 2018]
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the white Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set a timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
“The outstanding and most prominent of man’s beliefs are those which were forced upon him, or which he absorbed of his own volition, under highly emotionalized conditions, when his mind was receptive. Under such conditions, the evangelist can plant the idea of religion more deeply and permanently during an hour’s revival service than he could through years of training under ordinary conditions, when the mind was not in an emotionalized state.” -Napoleon Hill