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" 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. "

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" 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. "

DeRay Mckesson

People

Story

Struggle

" If Trump is president, I think that his administration will do real structural damage that will take years or decades for us to undo. "

" The difference between equity and equality is that equality is everyone get the same thing and equity is everyone get the things they deserve. "

" Trump wants to take us back to a time when people like him could abuse others with little to no consequence, when people like him could exploit the labor of others to build vast amounts of wealth, when people like him could create public policy that specifically benefited them while suppressing the rights and social mobility of others. "

" It's important to acknowledge the danger when we provide an academic venue for racism. It's interesting to hear people push the, quote, 'free speech' narrative in this way. They deny the speech of the people who disagree. "

" 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. "

" I think of protest as confrontation and disruption, as the end of silence. "

" Justice that is not rooted in equity, in social welfare, and in community is not justice at all. "

" I take statements that portray untrue statements about me seriously. "

DeRay Mckesson

Seriously

Portray

" The first time I was ever impressed with Patagonia as a brand was when they released the 'Don't Buy This Jacket' campaign. That campaign highlighted their understanding of their role in a larger environmental justice space. "

" I wasn't a very good writer before college. I don't think I was a very good reader. "

" I just couldn't believe that the police would fire tear gas into what had been a peaceful protest. I was running around, face burning, and nothing I saw looked like America to me. "

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

" Some people are more interested in fighting than winning. "

" I think about freedom as not only as the absence of oppression but also the presence of justice and joy. "

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

DeRay Mckesson

People

Black

" 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

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

" A cacophony of whispers is also noise. There are many ways to be heard, and there are many ways to be visible. There are many ways to be seen. "

" We question these issues of race and struggle and white privilege because we know that those issues are real and because those issues have real implications in black communities. And white supremacy is not only dangerous, but it is deadly. "

" When I think about protest, I worry so much that people think about it only as standing in the streets. And I say that as someone who has been standing in the streets of cities across the country - but at the root of it is this idea of telling the truth in public. "

" 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. "

" Find an issue that's important to you, and be as curious and close to it as possible. "

" Too often, the elected individuals we put our public trust in disappoint us. "

" I am not naive enough to believe that voting is the only way to bring about transformational change, just as I know that protest alone is not the sole solution to the challenges we face. "

" I think about all of my students who were math-phobic, who didn't believe they could learn math, who didn't understand, who didn't think they were smart enough, and by the end, they understood that they already had the gifts, and my job was to help them access them, and I believe that. "

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

" When Trump says, 'Make America great again,' he is referencing an era when people were singled out and harmed because of their race and religious beliefs, and when violent enforcement of Jim Crow masqueraded as the will of the people. "

" The arts scene in Baltimore is really rich and very vibrant. It's one of the untold stories of the city. "

" If you close your eyes and think about where you feel the most safe, you're probably not going to tell me it's in a room full of police. You feel safe where you're around people that love you, when you have food and shelter, when you're being pushed to be your best self and learn. "