Do Better Quotes

“Those most oppressed do not owe you thanks for acting in allyship (it’s just the right thing to do), but we deserve gratitude for showing you the way. For teaching you, holding space for you, and leading the charge toward our collective liberation. Gratitude means crediting our words and work, remunerating us, and otherwise supporting us physically, mentally, emotionally, and energetically. We don’t need you to be a voice for the voiceless, because nobody is without a (metaphorical) voice. We just need you to pass the damn mic.”
― Rachel Ricketts, Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy

“My desire for perfection cannot become the enemy of progress.”
― Rachel Ricketts, Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy

“Spirit animal— An appropriated concept assigned to the sacred rituals of some Indigenous tribes by colonial forces. The tribes that do have a concept related to a “spirit animal” have specific traditions that go along with it, as the spirit serves a specific function in their belief system. Not to be used by anyone outside of such tribes. Try “animal friend” or “spirit guide.”
― Rachel Ricketts, Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy

“You have a right to your rage, and you can still lean into joy. For those comprising oppressed identities, our joy is part of the revolution. Learning how to cultivate it, keep it, demand it, and own it. Without fear, without guilt, without shame. Joy is our birthright. Each and every one of us, especially those of us who have been conditioned to feel unworthy of it.”
― Rachel Ricketts, Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy

“To deny the existence of grief endured by all humxns is doing racial justice a serious disservice. Harm is cyclical. And the extent to which white people are unable or unwilling to address their grief and trauma is the extent to which we can rest assured a world free from the systems of white supremacy they created, perpetuate, and benefit from will never come to pass.”
― Rachel Ricketts, Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy