Alicia Garza Quotes

United States, Activist
January 4, 1981

Alicia Garza (born January 4, 1981) is an African-American activist and editorial writer who lives in Oakland, California. She has organized around the issues of health, student services and rights, rights for domestic workers, ending police brutality, anti-racism, and violence against trans and gender non-conforming people of color. Her editorial writing has been published by The Guardian, The Nation, The Feminist Wire, Rolling Stone, HuffPost and Truthout. She currently directs Special Projects at the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Garza also co-founded the Black Lives Matter movement.

Also known as Writer

It took me a long time to figure out that I didn't have to do everything, that it was actually a lot more helpful if I did a couple things really, really well than a whole bunch of things really badly, or nothing at all, because the whole thing was overwhelming.

Alicia Garza
- Time
- Long
- Couple
If you're to look at people's social networks, not a lot of white people have a social network that has lots of black people - it doesn't happen. It makes sense to me that online would be as segregated as offline because it's just mimicking patterns that exist in real life.

Alicia Garza
- People
- Life
- Real

The best advice I ever got as an organizer was that if you can organize your family, you're a good organizer.

Alicia Garza
- Good
- Family
- Advice
What it takes to get people from liking and sharing and retweeting to organising is a hard and long process. Technology has really changed the game in terms of how people participate and what they decide to participate in.

Alicia Garza
- People
- Long
- Game
There is no separation between the black community and the LGBT community. As a black, queer woman myself, I often have to assert, right, that it's not one or the other but that I am all of these things.

Alicia Garza
- Black
- Community
I have a lot of respect for President Obama, and while I deeply disagree with some of his actions or lack of action on issues I care about, I still recognize the significance of the first black presidency and the challenges that come with that.

Alicia Garza
- Black
- Respect
- Action
Find an organization that you want to support and get involved. You can give money or give time.

Alicia Garza
- Time
- Money
- Support
'Socialism' became this weird household word partially because right-wingers call Obama a socialist, which he is the farthest from.

Alicia Garza
- Weird

I think race and racism is probably the most studied social, economic, and political phenomenon in this country, but it's also the least understood.

Alicia Garza
- Country
- Political
- Racism
Certainly, we have to make sure our police forces do not have weapons of mass destruction with which they can terrorize our communities.

Alicia Garza
- Police
There has to be a readjustment of resources that is being diverted to police and policing as opposed to community health services, and there certainly has to be control over the police by the communities that they are supposed to protect and serve.

Alicia Garza
- Community
- Control
- Health
The demands of the Civil Rights era weren't limited to voting rights - they strove for an end to segregation in all aspects of life, including housing, employment, and public accommodations.

Alicia Garza
- Life