“Notice that no one was saying ‘All Lives Matter’ before people started saying ‘Black Lives Matter.’ So ‘All Lives Matter’ is a response to ‘Black Lives Matter.’ Apparently, something about the statement ‘Black Lives Matter’ makes us uncomfortable. Why is that?”— John Halstead, huffingtonpost.com
“You see them [Black Lives Matter protesters] marching and you see them on occasion, at least — I’ve seen it — where they’re essentially calling, ‘Death to police.’ And that’s not acceptable.’”— Donald Trump, washingtonpost.com
“White people expect me to be held accountable for some shitty things some black person did, but tell them they have a responsibility to fight against white supremacy and suddenly they're unique individuals that shouldn't be judged as a collective.”— Kat Blaque, ivy-baby-sweetheart.tumblr.com
“Ultimately this involves three unfathomably rich and famous and annoying people who will continue to be unfathomably rich and famous and annoying. But what Taylor did is a form of what Darth Susans have been doing since America’s inception. Using the inherent empathy and benefit of the doubt her Whi…”— Damon Young, verysmartbrothas.com
“I am sick of writing this poem but bring the boy. his new name his same old body. ordinary, black dead thing. bring him & we will mourn until we forget what we are mourning & isn’t that what being black is about?”— Danez Smith, sadeandriazabala.com
“I demand a war to bring the dead boy back no matter what his name is this time.”— Danez Smith, sadeandriazabala.com
“The prison therefore functions ideologically as an abstract site into which undesirables are deposited, relieving us of the responsibility of thinking about the real issues afflicting those communities from which prisoners are drawn in such disproportionate numbers. This is the ideological work that…”— Angela Davis, amazon.com
“This is urgent. Continued failure to deal with our country’s race-based historical traumas dooms us to perpetually re-enact them.”— Fania Davis, yesmagazine.org
“The losers under this injustice system are the young people I know and love.”— Mariame Kaba, thenewinquiry.com
“How much time will I spend finding the correct words to say that the color of a person’s skin is not justification for ending their life? And how much time will elapse until those words mean anything to the people who actually kill us?”— Kara Brown, jezebel.com
“Being a black parent, especially of a black boy, comes with the added onus of having to protect your child from a country that is out to get him—a country that kills someone that looks like him every 28 hours, a country that will likely imprison him by his mid-thirties if he doesn't get his high sch…”— Jazmine Hughes, gawker.com
“To be black in America is to exist in haunting, mundane proximity to death at all moments.”— Hannah Giorgis, buzzfeed.com
“I don’t know where we go from here because those of us who recognize the injustice are not the problem. Law enforcement, militarized and indifferent to black lives, is the problem.”— Roxane Gay, nytimes.com
“Who the hell wants to have a police officer put their hand on them or yell and scream at them? It’s an awful experience. Every black man I know has had this experience. Every one of them. It is hard to believe that the world is your oyster if the police can rough you up without punishment. And when…”— Roland G. Fryer Jr., nytimes.com
“Protest is this idea of telling the truth in public, and I’ll never be afraid to tell the truth. What I heard in the jail cell and the conversations we had is that the arrests will not stop people from telling the truth, and that people remain as committed to this work today as they were two days ag…”— Deray Mckesson, yahoo.com
“Taking on systemic racism—and rebuilding trust between police and citizens—will require contributions from us all.”— Hillary ClintonVerified account, twitter.com
“People don't have any mercy. They tear you limb from limb, in the name of love. Then, when you're dead, when they've killed you by what they made you go through, they say you didn't have any character. They weep big, bitter tears - not for you. For themselves, because they've lost their toy.”— James Baldwin, amazon.com
“Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise”— Maya Angelou, poets.org
“The concept of reverse racism is flawed, if not absolutely ridiculous. Most, if not all of the negative responses from people of color toward white people, are reactions to the hatred, violence, cruelty and brutality that they were shown by white people for centuries. Much of the foundation of the m…”— Lauryn Hill, sohh.com
“If I go outside and try to hail a cab and he passes me for the white woman standing right there, that racism is still alive and kicking. And we have to change that. And I'm not blaming the white lady, she needed a cab too.”— Queen Latifah, billboard.com