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" The history of blackness is also a history of erasure. "
DeRay Mckesson
Also
Blackness
The History Of
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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. "
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" 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. "
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" Systemic change rarely comes overnight. "
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" The activism of marginalized people often comes with visibility and being heard. Which can lead people to believe that recognition and awareness is the actual end point. And it is not. "
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" I'm not a politician. I'm somebody who knows the world can be better, and I'm willing to fight for it. "
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" Too often, the elected individuals we put our public trust in disappoint us. "
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" I wasn't a very good writer before college. I don't think I was a very good reader. "
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" 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. "
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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. "
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" I think that I, because of student government and because of working in Baltimore, knew how to be creative with very little resources. "
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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. "
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" Twitter is half me trying to live in the world and half me processing and sharing the world. I share a lot, and some of that is to keep me honest. "
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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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" I think about freedom as not only as the absence of oppression but also the presence of justice and joy. "
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" I'm not convinced that stealing an iPhone is a felony or stealing a bike is a felony. "
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Bike
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" 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. "
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" People in power make the path to power. It means that we will always get the same system, and it's one that is not necessarily in the interest of people's lives. "
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" You are enough to start a movement. Individual people can come together around things that they know are unjust. And they can spark change. "
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" I have a big following on Twitter, and Twitter has been invaluable for mobilizing and quickly sharing information. But I'm not really sure that people are learning deep content on Twitter. "
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" Baltimore is a city of possibility, and we've got to challenge the traditional pathways of politics and politicians who lay those paths. "
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" 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. "
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" It is not a new tactic for people to use any avenue they can to silence black activists. "
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" There is nothing romantic about teargas. Or smoke bombs or rubber bullets or sound cannons. "
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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. "
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" The student newspapers are as important to me as the 'New York Times.' "
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" I love Baltimore. This city has made me the man that I am. "
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" The police, at their best, do three things; they prevent crime, they respond to crime, and they solve crime. In all three of those buckets, they need the trust of the community to do it, so I believe that if we restore the trust that we will change the way police are experiencing communities and ways that will preserve life and make everyone safer. "
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" I have a platform, and I can help. I can be in spaces that reporters will never be in because I'm a protester. "
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" 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. "
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" I grew up in a world of Officer Friendly. It was just the image I had. "
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