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" Knowing that there is a community of people on every corner of this planet that believes in justice, that is willing to sacrifice, and that is willing to take a stand is the most heartening thing. "

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" We deserve to live in a world where there's no impunity, but beyond this question of impunity, there are all these structures that are actually doing a disservice to our people. "

Opal Tometi

Deserve

Our

People

" The reality is that anti-black racism is a global phenomenon, and it looks different in each context, but if you look at the outcomes, if you listen and look at the experiences, you will see that it's clear, and it's happening across the globe. "

" I'm really looking for an agenda that looks at safety for our communities beyond policing. "

" If things aren't working for us, it is our duty to rise up. "

Opal Tometi

Rise

" My mom, my aunts, and all the Nigerian women in my life have been so fierce and strong. I have only grown up around powerful women, so I have a strong sense of self and our power. "

" Many thought that the abolition of slavery, the end of Jim Crow, and the legislative progress of the Civil Rights Era, among other watershed moments, would have fundamentally done away with the racist structures that have long oppressed black people. However, we know that has been far from the case. "

" We must create a committee to address the long-standing discrimination against black people in America. "

" Civility is the recognition that all people have dignity that's inherent to their person, no matter their religion, race, gender, sexuality, or ability. "

" We can't continue to sit on our hands and sit idly by as people are being brutalized, disenfranchised, and left out of the system. "

" As an immigrant justice advocate, I, of course, want legal status for everyone trying to make it in this country. "

" My parents migrated to Phoenix, AZ, in the '80s, and I watched them work tirelessly to provide for me and my siblings as they encouraged us to pursue our dreams. "

Opal Tometi

Phoenix

Work

" I challenge us all to have the courage of our convictions to fight for a fair, justice and inclusive society. "

" Black immigrants and refugees have just as much at stake in the fight to make Black Lives Matter as African Americans do. "

" The U.S. government has rarely, if ever, used the criminal history of a certain immigrant population in determining if the whole community should be allowed to remain in the country under a humanitarian program, like TPS. "

" To fully understand the black immigrant experience in the U.S., we must understand it not in contrast to the African-American experience, but central to it. "

" I think the two-party system isn't working for us. And it hasn't worked for us for generations - let's be very, very honest about that. "

" Being in the immigrant rights space, I've heard a lot of transactional talk with questions like, 'When will black people show up for immigrants?' "

" The valuation of profit over people impedes human rights across much of the world. "

" African-Americans and black immigrants share a resilience and a determination for a better life. "

" We have to start imagining a new reality - this will mean fewer police and more social workers and teachers. This will mean creating more economic possibilities and investment that preserves and does not displace our communities. "

" We deserve a multiracial democracy that works for all of us. "

Opal Tometi

Works

Democracy

" Get involved in your neighborhood. That's how I got really, really committed to the immigrant rights movement. "

" I have two younger brothers, and I know my parents have spoken to them about driving and interacting with police. They didn't have those conversations with me, but they did have conversations about being exceptional black people. "

Opal Tometi

People

Parents

" Police cannot be allowed to continue aggressive, violent, and often unconstitutional policing with impunity. "

" When we say 'Black Lives Matter,' we're not saying that any other life doesn't matter. That has never, ever been our message. Our message has always been from a place of love. "

" To me and to a number of other activists from the U.S., we believe that the human rights movement has to evolve and understand the global implications of structural racism. This means engaging the United Nations and a variety of other human rights bodies. "

" Implicit bias - our subconscious associations of race - permeates everything that we do. And we must pursue systemic accountability to fix it. "

" Trump's racism has clearly driven his policy decisions during his first year in office - from his Muslim ban and his despicable treatment of DREAMers to his ruthless ramp-up of immigration raids and the callous termination of protections for Haitians and Salvadorans who fled natural disaster and violence. "

" We came in as organizers before creating the Black Lives Matter network and project, and we are still organizers, strategists, political thinkers, and philosophers, so we actually have a lot ideas and a lot of really thought out strategies. "

" Far from ending, systemic racism reinvents itself to conform to what is publically acceptable, leaving the quality of black life diminished and more permanently fixed with each passing decade. "