Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist

by Franchesca Ramsey

I once saw a quote that said, “Be who you needed when you were younger.”

That’s the thing about turning points: Facing a new direction doesn’t mean there’s not another long road in front of you.

No matter what you do, people who are dedicated to seeing marginalized people as second-class citizens will be upset when marginalized people insist that they are not second-class citizens.

“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”

“It’s okay for a movement to be focused on a specific group or cause. ‘Save the rainforest’ doesn’t mean ‘Fuck all the other trees.”

Racism should never have happened and so you don’t get a cookie for reducing it. —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

Some of my favorite books to get you started: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn; The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander; Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks; We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love and So Much More by Janet Mock.