“I am so proud to be a daughter of Oakland, California. And as most of you know, I was born just up the road at Kaiser Hospital. And it was just a few miles away my parents first met as graduate students at UC Berkeley where they were active in the civil rights movement.”— Kamala Harris, ktvu.com
“An increasingly militant group has it in mind to demand now, with violence if necessary, the rights it has long been denied.’ If we must die abroad for democracy we can't have,’ I heard a friend of mine say, 'then we might as well die right here, fighting for our rights.'”— Bayard Rustin, explorepahistory.com
“Now I tried, secondly, to make it clear that in a sense forcing them into that position did not create violence but rather brought already-existing violence to the surface so that they recognized its existence and were able to deal with it. I pointed out that there are many, many times—and this is a…”— Bayard Rustin, blogcitylights.com
“For example, I have knowingly sat at the table… and in the front of a bus in the South with white people, aware of the fact that when I did so, I was bringing to the surface a fear in them which was in a sense more profound than if I had struck them, and this is in part due to the fact that if I had…”— Bayard Rustin, blogcitylights.com
“I think that, in other words, following the election, the major purpose of the civil rights movement are three: Keep in motion and on the streets. Two, broaden the base of the protest by getting many, many more white elements into it. And thirdly, proceed to make demands which are in keeping with fu…”— Bayard Rustin, americanradioworks.publicradio.org
“If you had 50 Negroes who were willing to sit in the restaurant, go to jail, be beaten, have cigarette ends stuffed down their neck, have their hair clipped, have their hair burned, if they would merely sit, that institution, that restaurant could be changed in a few days.”— Bayard Rustin, americanradioworks.publicradio.org
“From 1955 until 1963, the Negro people's attention was given to those things which most highly revealed the basis of their revolt. And the key word is dignity. The one place where it was clear that one was not being treated with dignity was in public accommodations, because they had to come up again…”— Bayard Rustin, americanradioworks.publicradio.org
“The question invariably arises as to what, in fact, is the nature of the civil rights movement today? And I am one who claims that it is, at once, a movement for integration into the American society, as it now exists, and simultaneously a revolutionary movement. If one were to ask the average Negro…”— Bayard Rustin, americanradioworks.publicradio.org
“I'm sympathetic insofar as I think the 'cultural appropriation' critique has often gone too far. But what needs to be known is that African-American artists have created incredible, magical intellectual property -- only to have it monetized by white people, while the black artist gets nothing. That'…”— PieChart Guy, nytimes.com
“[Cultural] appropriation suggests theft, and a process analogous to the seizure of land or artifacts. In the case of culture, however, what is called appropriation is not theft but messy interaction. Writers and artists necessarily engage with the experiences of others. Nobody owns a culture, but ev…”— Kenan Malik, nytimes.com