Quote of the Day

How many of you realize that black soldiers who had fought valiantly for American liberties sometimes returned home to die on the lynching tree because racist whites resented them for wearing the uniform or hoisting the American flag?

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 113

Quote of the Day

There's a Native American saying that goes something like, "Show me who you love, and I'll know who you are."  If you want to get to the heart of a person you're trying to get to know, find out who or what it is they love.  Let someone know who or what you love, too.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 137

Quote of the Day

How many of you who claim that [Colin] Kaepernick is unpatriotic realize that many black men put on an American uniform and fought overseas, only to return home to be spurned and denied the rights for which they fought?

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 113

Quote of the Day

The odds are skyrocket high that you've got something in common with anyone you meet, if you listen sincerely enough.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 137

Quote of the Day

Yes, yes, some will say -- but not all Republicans are like Trump.  Not all of them even like Trump.  It is true that parts of the Republican establishment finally, and unconvincingly, rebelled against Trump.  But it was these same "reasonable" Republicans who ignored his early impact.  They refused to listen to those who insisted that his vitriol was destructive to the country.  As long as it didn't impact Republican, or white, interests, the lives Trump imperiled didn't matter.  Now that he has been elected president, many Republicans have overcome their misgivings and enthusiastically returned to the fold.  The party for which he is now standard-bearer must be held accountable for his creation.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 110-111

Quote of the Day

Stuff tends to sell when it's made from a completely different perspective than most people are used to.  Art and craft have value because they can make people think and feel things that they aren't used to thinking or feeling.  The truer you are to yourself while you are making your stuff, the more success you'll find in selling it.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 132

Quote of the Day

Trump, more than anything else, signifies the undying force of the fear unleashed by Obama's presidency.  He manipulates a confused and self-pitying white public.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 110

Quote of the Day

You don't have to pay attention to who may or may not look at (your art).  Make art because it's better than being mean and/or hurting anyone, including yourself.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 131

Quote of the Day

Barack Obama so spooked the bigoted whites of this country that we are now faced with a racist explicitness that we haven't seen since the height of the civil rights movement.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 110

Quote of the Day

The good news about suicidal longing is that it's got the potential to fuel great art.  The better news is that whatever has got you thinking about killing yourself will lose its power when you use it to make art instead.  The best news is that you don't have to be an artist for this alternative to work.  Everyone, I repeat, everyone, can make art that speaks to someone.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 131

Quote of the Day

Trump's efficacy as an ambassador of unrepentant white innocence, and ignorance, and privilege, doesn't depend on whether his personal racial views add up to bigotry.  What he's done in public will suffice to pass judgment.  Trump's political popularity took off when he sullied the citizenship of Barack Obama, the nation's first black president.  The "birther" claims were driven by unwarranted skepticism about the place of Obama's birth and the status of his birth certificate.  Trump's recent assertion that Obama is an American still rang false and appeared as little more than an attempt to deflect responsibility for his vicious views onto his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.  His admission that he said Obama was born in America to keep his campaign going was a moment of ruthless honesty that sealed the case.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 109-110

Quote of the Day

Artistic genius is usually not the product of a life easily lived.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 131

Quote of the Day

(Donald Trump) possesses a brutally appealing magnetism that, tragically, amplifies the most virulent rumblings of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia this country has reckoned with in quite some time.  That is because Donald Trump is the literal face of white innocence without consciousness, white privilege without apology.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 109

Quote of the Day

Hollywood -- Hollywood, where shiny tan white people play Egyptian pharaohs and queens -- never told my mom that Cleopatra looked like her.  That Cleopatra had dark skin and a round body.

-- Gabourey Sidibe, This Is Just My Face, p. 28-29

Quote of the Day

Making people laugh is an excellent way to deflect violence and insults, and reclaim our own voices.  It's smoke and mirrors.  It gives you the control to focus audience attention where you want it and explore the parts of your suffering that you find humor in.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 130

Quote of the Day

It is harder to indict forces and institutions than the individuals who put a face to the problem.  Institutional racism is a system of ingrained social practices that perpetuate and preserve racial hierarchy.  Institutional racism requires neither conscious effort nor individual intent.  It is glimpsed in the denial of quality education to black and brown students because they live in poor neighborhoods where public schools depend on the tax base for revenue.  Minority students, like the ones I teach at Georgetown, are more often beset by economic and social forces than overt efforts to deny them equal education.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 107

Quote of the Day

The standards of beauty in America's uber-culture are purposefully set too high so that we will buy anything in our frantic scramble to become attractive.  We are meant to feel crushed, inadequate, and less-than so that we'll buy more and more things in the vain hope of "fixing" ourselves.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 128

Quote of the Day

There is a big difference between the act of owning up to your part in perpetuating white privilege and the notion that you alone, or mostly, are responsible for the unjust system we fight.  You make our request appear ridiculous by exaggerating its moral demand, by making it seem only, or even primarily, individual, when it is symbolic, collective.  By over dramatizing the nature of your personal actions you sidestep complicity.  By sidestepping complicity, you hold fast to innocence.  By holding fast to innocence, you maintain power.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 105

Quote of the Day

Making peace with ourselves over something we've done is how we teach ourselves not to do dishonorable things in the future.  If we need time away in order to make that kind of peace, then we should take that time.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 123-124

Quote of the Day

The most radical action a white person can take is to acknowledge this denied privilege, to say, "Yes, you're right.  In our institutional structures, and in deep psychological structures, our underlying assumption is that our lives are worth more than yours."

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 104

Quote of the Day

Try it out: spend one day living like you're some visiting dignitary in a world that welcomes and celebrates people like you.  That's what living your life is supposed to feel like, no matter what kind of freak or outsider other people might think you are.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 111-112

Quote of the Day

This is why the cry "Black Lives Matter" angers you so greatly, why it is utterly offensive and effortlessly revolutionary.  It takes aim at white innocence and insists on uncovering the lie of its neutrality, its naturalness, its normalcy, its normativity.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 104

Quote of the Day

Everyone deserves to feel cared for, respected, and welcome.  So, shouldn't we learn how to do that for ourselves?

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 111

Quote of the Day

White fragility is a will to innocence that serves to bury the violence it sits on top of.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 103

Quote of the Day

Less and less movement is a sign of less and less life.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 107

Quote of the Day

As my brave white student discovered, whiteness claims so loudly its innocence because it is guilty, or at least a lot of white folk feel that way.  This is why, of course, your resistance to feelings of guilt is absurdly intense.  There is a terror in accepting accountability, because it doesn't end with your recognition that something is rotten in Denver or Detroit.  It suggests something is amiss across our country.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 100

Quote of the Day

Showing up for one another with authenticity and vulnerability -- and sticking together through life's hard times -- is what bonds us the deepest to each other.  When we learn to connect with people in this way, we foster intimate and lasting, ride-or-die relationships.  Ultimately, the moments of sorrow and fear we sit through together will also give us our moments of greatest nourishment, as both givers and receivers.  So yeah: learning to show up can be scary.  But is the temporary fear and discomfort worth it?  More than anything.

-- Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell, There Is No Good Card for This, p. 243

Quote of the Day

No one is perfectly kind, compassionate, and generous.  But you can live a kinder, more compassionate, and generous life by following just one simple rule: DON'T BE MEAN.

-- Kate Bornstein, Hello, Cruel World, p. 96

Quote of the Day

Justice is what love sounds like when it speaks in public.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 100

Quote of the Day

For a griever, there is rarely any more comfort than companionship on the awful path of sorrow.  Hopefully, that path will also include joy in time.  But there is no guarantee that it will, and there is no timeline for when it does.  There is no human gain in shying away from that reality, as difficult as it may feel.  That is the plight of the griever; that is the plight of the witness.

-- Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell, There Is No Good Card for This, p. 225