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" I am often asked what it is like to be on the 'front line.' But I do not use the term 'front line' to describe us, the protesters. Because everywhere in America, wherever we are, our blackness puts us in close proximity to police violence. "

DeRay Mckesson

Violence

Police

America

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" It is one thing to talk about fundraising and another to do it as a candidate, and I have learned so much about how much money it costs to run a campaign and what it means to raise money. "

" The history of blackness is also a history of erasure. "

" I think people who are not from here think the Inner Harbor is the only center for culture or fun in the city, and there's so much more to Baltimore. The Harbor's a beautiful place, but there are so many gems embedded in other communities that don't get as much visibility. "

" So many of us don't know what we want; we just know we don't want what we have. We spend 99% of the time talking about how bad it is, but only 1% of the time talking about how we can do something about it. "

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" As a protester, I protested because I had to, not because it was exciting. I don't want to get tear-gassed again. "

" It will always be important that people continue to push on the system from the outside. It will also be important that people make the changes that we know are necessary on the inside. "

" For our kids to go to school, they must be alive, and for adults to work, they must not be in jail. "

DeRay Mckesson

Kids

School

" If anything, any success that I have ever experienced has been because people who didn't have to care about me did, and they pushed me to see things in myself that I did not see in myself at the time. "

DeRay Mckesson

Time

People

" I actually get very little phone calls. I get way more tweets and texts. My phone rarely rings. "

" Everybody has told the story of black people in struggle except black people. The black people in the struggle haven't had the means to tell the story historically. There were a million slaves, but you see very few slave narratives. And that is intentional. "

" I am excited to return to city schools... and to continue doing the work to ensure that every child in Baltimore City receives a world-class education. "

" Laws on hate speech and hate crimes do important work in a world that has been rooted in racism and bigotry since the inception of this country, which was not founded on ideals of justice. "

" There are very few things that I don't talk about - even my relationships. "

" I'm not convinced that stealing an iPhone is a felony or stealing a bike is a felony. "

" Bowdoin was the first place that I fell in love with. When I visited, I just had never been to a place with that many resources and that much access to information. That was stuff that you saw in movies. I didn't know that existed in real life. "

" When I reflect on the Colbert interview, it moved so quickly that what we didn't do was define white privilege, and I wish we had done that. White privilege is the benefit resulting from white being seen as the standard, regardless of gender and income. "

" You're not born woke. Something wakes you up. "

" Politics is compromise, by its very nature. But we never compromise on our values and beliefs. "

" As a gay black man, it's important to me to show up - that I'm able to show up as my whole self, in every space that I'm in, because that's how I'm able to be the most true to who I am. "

" A lot of organizers are trying to figure out how do we create entrances for people so they can be involved in the work in a way that makes them feel is aligned to the things they're interested in and not the things the organizer is interested in? "

" I am running to be the 50th mayor of Baltimore in order to usher our city into an era where the government is accountable to its people and is aggressively innovative in how it identifies and solves its problems. "

" I love Baltimore. This city has made me the man that I am. "

" I'm a black, gay man, and I should be able to live in a world where I'm able to live in the complexity of my identity in a way that is safe and secure, like everyone else. "

" I was a teacher. I also worked at Harlem Children's Zone. I moved back to Baltimore and opened up an after-school, out-of-school program on the west side and then worked in two public school districts, in Baltimore and Minneapolis. "

DeRay Mckesson

Teacher

Two

" Most of my life's information is public. I got a text one day from a hacker who texted me all of my credit card information. "

" People are more afraid of black unity than black rage. "

DeRay Mckesson

People

Black

" I will never forget the first time I was teargassed or the night I hid under my steering wheel as the SWAT vehicle drove down a residential street. I will never forget that it was illegal - in St Louis, in the fall of 2014 - to stand still. "

" People like to act like we don't have a legacy of racism here. I think people get really uncomfortable with it. We know that we can't change it unless we address that. "

" Sometimes, the hate that I endure is not necessarily about me but about the space I'm in. "