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Black people have always been more than our pain. The joy is so much a part of how we have survived and thrived.
DeRay Mckesson -
I've never been a surrogate for Bernie, Hillary, or the DNC.
DeRay Mckesson
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There are very few things that I don't talk about - even my relationships.
DeRay Mckesson -
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.
DeRay Mckesson -
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.
DeRay Mckesson -
I think about freedom and the urgency around our imagination. If you can't imagine it, you can't fight for it.
DeRay Mckesson -
Baltimore is a city of possibility, and we've got to challenge the traditional pathways of politics and politicians who lay those paths.
DeRay Mckesson -
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?
DeRay Mckesson
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We have to create a world where people can show up as whole people every single time.
DeRay Mckesson -
People are not as imaginative as they think they are.
DeRay Mckesson -
I am mindful that the goal of protest is not more protest, but the goal of protest is change.
DeRay Mckesson -
Politics is compromise, by its very nature. But we never compromise on our values and beliefs.
DeRay Mckesson -
I'm not desensitized to death.
DeRay Mckesson -
The difference between equity and equality is that equality is everyone get the same thing and equity is everyone get the things they deserve.
DeRay Mckesson
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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 -
It is not a new tactic for people to use any avenue they can to silence black activists.
DeRay Mckesson -
There will always be a rule. There will be people who break the rules. There will be consequences. We fundamentally think these things will be true for a time. The question becomes, What are the consequences? Who enforces the consequences? What are the worst consequences?
DeRay Mckesson -
You're not born woke. Something wakes you up.
DeRay Mckesson -
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.
DeRay Mckesson -
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.
DeRay Mckesson
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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.
DeRay Mckesson -
What we know to be true is that comfort isn't always freedom. People confuse the two.
DeRay Mckesson -
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.
DeRay Mckesson -
I've worked in two public school districts, Minneapolis and Baltimore, one as a senior leader. And while we might not always have agreed with the union, and we might have had deep differences, they came to the table.
DeRay Mckesson