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Van Jones Quotes

Total quotes: 7
“Too many of us seem to approach liberal causes and conversations mainly by looking for ways to show other progressives where they are wrong. Too many of us can deconstruct everything but can't reconstruct anything and make it work.”
— Van Jones, Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together
Tagged: Politics, Internet Culture
“Dr. King, people forget, was not this beloved figure that everybody put on a pedestal. He was considered one of the most dangerous people in America by the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigations.”
— Van Jones, 13th
Tagged: Slavery, BLM, racism, History, MLK
“[Leftists] are in danger of becoming the bullies who may have tormented us in our youth. We have to address and correct this "call-out culture" if we are going to build a coalition strong enough to replace Trumpism.[...] We must have a ceasefire in the 'who's the wokest of them all' war.”
— Van Jones, Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together
Tagged: Politics, Being Woke, Leftist Politics, Internet Culture
“I spent my twenties in a drug-infested den of crime and inequity: Yale University. I saw more drugs being done in more ways, off of more surfaces, by more kinds of people than I ever saw in any black community. Well, the cops never kicked in the doors. The police never showed up.”
— Van Jones, Van Jones On Prison Reform: Late Night With Conan O'Brien
Tagged: Reform, Prison, racism, BLM, Black Lives Matter, Institutional Racism, Jail
“You have a lot of people who sometimes seem like they don't know the difference between tweeting and organizing. In the Democratic Party there's a lot of social media, a lot of complaining, a lot of grandstanding, a lot of fainting, like guys: are you knocking on any doors? Are you doing the actual work? ”
— Van Jones, Video of CNN Coverage In Aftermath of 2017 Elections
Tagged: Politics, Organizing, The left
“It's hard to be a parent tonight for a lot of us. You tell your kids, 'Don't be a bully.' You tell your kids, 'Don't be a bigot.' You tell your kids, 'Do your homework and be prepared.' Then you have this outcome and you have people putting children to bed tonight. They're afraid of breakfast. They're afraid of, how do I explain this to my children.

I have Muslim friends who are texting me tonight saying 'Should I leave the country?' I have families of immigrants that are terrified tonight. This was a white-lash. This was a white-lash against a changing country. It was a white lash against a black president, in part, and that's the part where the pain comes.”
— Van Jones,
Tagged: Election 2016
“We’re building Trump’s coalition for him by basically treating [his supporters] as if they’re all ‘deplorables’ and irredeemables or stupid people who we need to fix, and that’s the problem. That’s the elitism. We are operating — listen, both parties suck right now because the liberals think we’re the party of the working people and the poor people and the downtrodden, but we have allowed a strain of very nasty elitism to take root in our party such that we don’t even see it anymore.

Then the Republicans suck because they see themselves as the party of color-blind meritocracy, but they’ve allowed a section of horrible bigots, including outright neo-Nazis, to take up residence in their party and they either deny it or downplay it.

Neither party now seems to be capable of actually respecting all Americans. This is a major problem. This isn’t a left-right problem; this is a right-wrong problem. This is a major problem. I’m trying to stick up for progressive values but also to build a bridge of respect back over to Trump voters because not all of them signed on to all the worst stuff that he said — just like not all of Hillary’s voters signed on to everything she said.”
— Van Jones, Van Jones on how he saw Hurricane Trump coming — and why “both parties suck right now”
Tagged: Election 2016, Donald Trump, Divided States Of America
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