Lawrence

“Despair is also often premature: it’s a form of impatience as well as of certainty.”
― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power

“Challenge yourself to be a healer and activist for justice. Don't feel you have to choose one or the other. Be both. See activism as a form of social healing and interpersonal healing as a form of social justice. Transform and heal yourself as you transform and heal the world.”
― Fania Davis, The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Healing, and US Social Transformation

“The issue of race, however, has been with us since our earliest beginnings as a nation. I believe it is even deeper and sharper than the other points of contention. It has bred fears, myths, and violence over centuries. It is the source of dark and dangerous irrationality, a current of social pathology running through our history and dimming our brighter achievements.

Most of the time the reservoir of racism remains stagnant. But--and this has been true historically for most societies--when major economic, social, or political crises arise, the backwaters are stirred and latent racial hostility comes to the surface. Scapegoats must be found, simple targets substituted for complex problems. The frustration and insecurity generated by these problems find an outlet in notions of racial superiority and inferiority.”
― Bayard Rustin, Down the Line: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin

“Accountability requires five key elements: (1) acknowledging responsibility for one’s actions; (2) acknowledging the impact of one’s actions on others; (3) expressing genuine remorse; (4) taking actions to repair the harm to the degree possible, and guided when feasible by the people harmed, or “doing sorry”; and (5) no longer committing similar harm.”
― Danielle Sered, Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair