Hearts and Hands Quotes

“A friend once told me a story about a former Black Panther leader in a Midwest community who in the 1960s had his phone tapped, while federal agents followed him everywhere. Forced to go underground, he later entered the drug trade & eventually got good at it. However, he told my friend, soon after this nobody kept tabs on him--he wasn't followed or harassed. He later became the number one drug dealer in the area. As he said this, my friend noted a breaking in his voice; the pain, perhaps, of being pushed away from being a committed community activist.”
― Luis J. Rodríguez, Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times

“The difference was that the children in Bryn Mawr were expected to succeed (which is its own distorted pressure). In my neighborhood, however, they were expected to fail, and if someone manages to succeed, they are often considered special, "not like the others," establishing a breach between that youth and their community. The young man who wondered why us "inner city" folk lacked the fortitude to "pick ourselves up" didn't even see how many resources and support systems existed for him to make it. Nobody does it alone. The self-made person, the so-called rugged individualist, is mostly farce. We all need help.”
― Luis J. Rodríguez, Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times