Top 84 Quotes & Sayings by Alicia Garza
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American activist Alicia Garza.
Last updated on December 22, 2024.
There is no separation between the black community and the LGBT community. As a black, queer woman myself, I often have to assert, right, that it's not one or the other but that I am all of these things.
I think that there is an element where leadership is lonely, but I also believe that it doesn't have to be like that.
I think race and racism is probably the most studied social, economic, and political phenomenon in this country, but it's also the least understood.
When we address the disparities facing black people, we get a lot closer to a true democracy where all lives matter.
I'm in favor of people getting in where they fit in. Wherever you feel you can make the greatest contribution, you should.
We want to see a world where black lives matter in order for us to get to a world where all of our humanity is respected.
We need to make sure that we have an honest, honest conversation and that we engage honest practices around how racism operates in this country. It's not just about people being mean to each other.
For us, #BlackLivesMatter is really a re-humanization project. It's a way for us to love each other again, to love ourselves, and to project that love into the world so that we can transform it.
Black Lives Matter started from a post that I put on Facebook after the acquittal of George Zimmerman. I woke up in the middle of the night sobbing, just trying to process what had happened and wanting to find community around being in a lot of grief and having a lot of rage.
My mom has this thing where she doesn't sugarcoat stuff.
Find an organization that you want to support and get involved. You can give money or give time.
People think that we're engaged with identity politics. The truth is that we're doing what the labor movement has always done - organizing people who are at the bottom.
The police are not taking accountability for the violence that they enact in our communities, and yet there isn't as much outrage about that as there is about some broken windows and lost property.
It's actually OK to be unique and have your own contributions, to celebrate what it means to be black, how we've survived and thrived through the worst conditions possible.
The best advice I ever got as an organizer was that if you can organize your family, you're a good organizer.
If you're quiet, knowing that there's a culture of racism inside most police departments, and you're not saying anything, you are on the wrong side of history.
The reality is that race in the United States operates on a spectrum from black to white. Doesn't mean that people who are in between don't experience racism, but it means that the closer you are to white on that spectrum, the better off you are. And the closer to black that you are on that spectrum, the worse off your are.
For me, it's clear Beyonce sees herself as a part of the movement for black lives and believes that black lives matter - and ultimately, that's what matters.
The Black Lives Matter movement has to, by its very nature, be intersectional because of the complexities of who black people are in this country and throughout the world.
We need to make sure we're creating spaces to create new leaders and new types of leadership.
We need the best and the brightest thinkers, strategists, coders, surveillance experts, tech geeks, and disruptors to utilize all of the tools we have available to us to build the world that we want to see. A world where black lives matter. A world where all lives matter.
We've said from the very beginning Black Lives Matter is a network and also, as a broad set of individuals, is an organization moving to transform the way our society values black lives. It's not an 'Internet movement.'
I'll be honest with you: I think that it's really difficult, this framing around 'good cops' and 'bad cops.' Policing, as a system, is incredibly corrupt, period.
There is hope for humanity, but in order for us to get there, we really have to interrogate not just what it takes to change laws, but what it takes to change culture that supports laws that uplift humanity and also supports laws that serve to denigrate it.
How do we stop violence, looting, and riots? The way that we stop that is by making sure that people have the things that they need to thrive.
Sometimes you have to put a wrench in the gears to get people to listen.
I have a lot of respect for President Obama, and while I deeply disagree with some of his actions or lack of action on issues I care about, I still recognize the significance of the first black presidency and the challenges that come with that.
My definition of feminism is a social, political, economic system by which all genders are valued, respected, and can live dignified lives.
I think that building political power has to come from the outside and from within. Meaning, we have to build political alternatives to the existing system, and we have to try to impact what is happening in the existing system.
I think that we are all deeply, deeply committed to the liberation of black people. And so, when you put people together who have and share that commitment, the sky is the limit.
Black Lives Matter was created as a response to state violence and anti-black racism and a call to action for those who want to fight it and build a world where black lives do, in fact, matter.
I'll be honest with you, I really struggle with the conversation around gun control.
Ultimately, policing in and of itself is problematic.
Certainly, we have to make sure our police forces do not have weapons of mass destruction with which they can terrorize our communities.
We understand that, in our communities, black trans folk, gender-nonconforming folk, black queer folk, black women, black disabled folk - we have been leading movements for a long time, but we have been erased from the official narrative.
All in all, Donald Trump appeals to people who want to be seen the way that Donald Trump sees them.
This country was created from stolen land and stolen labor. And from a moral perspective, but also from a practical one, everybody knows that when you steal, you're always looking over your shoulder because you know that somebody may steal it back.
The Clintons use black people for votes but then don't do anything for black communities after they're elected. They use us for photo ops.
The open source nature of the Internet is both a blessing and a curse, because just as much as we can watch what's happening around the world, we can also be watched.
One of the beautiful things about a movement is that there are many strategies and many tactics contained within it. Not every participant in a movement is required to do exactly the same things.
When we sit and think about what the world needs to looks like in order for black lives to actually matter, there is a debate: What is going to make our communities safe? How do we deal with harm? How do we solve problems that come up in our communities?
If I don't watch the news in a day, I think the potential for humanity is incredible. But anytime I look at the news, I'm like, 'We're in really big trouble.'
The biggest misconception about Black Lives Matter is that BLM is just one entity; Black Lives Matter is an organization and a network. We are a part of the movement, but we are not the movement.
Black Lives Matter is not just concerned with what happens in policing. The disregard, the disrespect, and the lack of dignity for black life transcends through the fabric of our society.
Every successful social movement in this country's history has used disruption as a strategy to fight for social change. Whether it was the Boston Tea Party to the sit-ins at lunch counters throughout the South, no change has been won without disruptive action.
We are clear that all lives matter, but we live in a world where that's not actually happening in practice. So if we want to get to the place where all lives matter, then we have to make sure that black lives matter, too.
Saying 'black lives matter' both literally and figuratively restores people's dignity.
'Socialism' became this weird household word partially because right-wingers call Obama a socialist, which he is the farthest from.
I need to create an environment where I can be my best self, and that means being unapologetic about saying no to things that don't serve me or move me closer to my purpose and the things that I care about the most.
Police violence is the tip of the iceberg when it relates to the conditions overall of black people across the globe.
It took me a long time to figure out that I didn't have to do everything, that it was actually a lot more helpful if I did a couple things really, really well than a whole bunch of things really badly, or nothing at all, because the whole thing was overwhelming.
It's hard to be a leader when you have to make hard choices and when you have to do what's right, even though people are not going to like you for it.
I am not ready to give up this country without a fight.
Growing up in a school that was majority white, my understanding of the world was that I was different but that differences shouldn't be talked about because it's uncomfortable.
I grew up in Marin County, which is a wealthy suburb of San Francisco.
We all lose when bullying and personal attacks become a substitute for genuine conversation and principled disagreement.
The reason that I started the Black Futures Lab is because I have some clarity about what I think needs to happen in relationship to electoral organizing. It's not a destination. It is a set of tools that we use to engage people that we care about, en masse, around issues that are important to us.
Although police terrorism plays a specific role on behalf of the state, it is not the totality of what state violence looks like or feels like in our communities.
Just like we don't live in a two-dimensional world, we don't live two-dimensional lives.
When people say, 'Well, I don't talk to my family because they're all conservatives,' or 'I don't talk to my family because they're racist,' I'm, like, 'No, no, no; that's exactly who you need to be talking to.'
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