The Color of Life Quotes

“I think about James Baldwin, whose words are just now beginning to seep into my soul, who also once wrote, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.”3 He knew then, just as I’m learning now, that books connect us to the experiences of other people, of both the dead and those who are alive, to show us that we’re not alone, to provide us with a sense of belonging.”
― Cara Meredith, The Color of Life: A Journey toward Love and Racial Justice

“And a narrative of slavery continues, today’s shackles the injustice of mass incarceration of black and brown men, and systems of whiteness that do not affirm equality, liberty, and justice for all. It’s hard to ignore the facts when “more African American adults are under correctional control today—in prison or jail, on probation or parole—than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. The mass incarceration of people of color is a big part of the reason that a black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery.”
― Cara Meredith, The Color of Life: A Journey toward Love and Racial Justice

“The homeless man sitting by the road begging for beer money? Christ made manifest. The grocery clerk standing on her feet all day saying a thousand hellos to a thousand different strangers? Christ made manifest. The nun walking through the subway station, the Buddhist monk catching the city bus, the window washer scrubbing the side of a Manhattan sky rise five hundred feet in the air? Christ made manifest, Christ made manifest, Christ made manifest. The image of God imprinted on every human, everywhere—the shiny stuff of heaven made tangible across the faces of ethnicities and cultures and people groups.”
― Cara Meredith, The Color of Life: A Journey toward Love and Racial Justice

“I want a quick fix for my experiences of racial brokenness.10 I want to slap a bandaid on the problem of pain, especially if I feel shame, especially if the burden of guilt lies on people who look like me. But this is no way to live, for this is no way to heal, nor is it any way to grow.”
― Cara Meredith, The Color of Life: A Journey toward Love and Racial Justice

“Our privileges are the things not within our own control that push us forward and move us ahead from that starting line,” writes activist Luvvie Ajayi.7 But privilege, as has often been stated, means being born on third base and going through life thinking you hit a triple.”
― Cara Meredith, The Color of Life: A Journey toward Love and Racial Justice