This Is the Fire Quotes

“I had an opportunity to know, and this is what I chose to believe. I had an opportunity to speak, and this is what I chose to say. I had an opportunity to act, and this is what I chose to do.”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“I want to see monuments to the victims of lynching instead of monuments to the lynchers. I was to see stories by Black people, not stories about us, and I believe it's imperative that Black creators approach those stories with a keen awareness that it's not just Black people watching.”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“White supremacy is hardware. It’s machinery. Racism is software. It’s programmed.”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“The rest of the world is averting their eyes with shock and dismay. I say this not because I hate my country but because I love my country, because I am willing to fight for my country and speak hard truth on my country’s behalf. I say this because we genuinely need to know: How—how—does this end?”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“must swallow our righteous wrath, making it clear that we will do our best to forgive, though we dare not ever forget.”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“It doesn’t matter if you are racist or not racist or anti-racist; our society is racist.”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“forced us into the fire. And then he poured gasoline on”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“This is the fire. We’re in it. JFK and Obama led us to the rainbow; Trump forced us into the fire. And then he poured gasoline on it. If only he had responded sooner and more intelligently to the pandemic. If only he’d been an unaffected opportunist instead of a slumlord on steroids. If only he’d never taken out full-page newspaper ads calling for the deaths of innocent Black men. If only he had or had not made a thousand choices that resulted in a critical dearth of leadership at a moment when leadership was desperately needed. If he’d set an example of competent”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“creeping unkindness and tightfisted cronyism of an anti-intellectual administration.”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“Fun Fact: That little song you hear played by an ice cream truck—you know, the one that kinda sounds like “Turkey in the Straw”—yeah, that song is actually called “Nigger Love a Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!” I kid you not. Google it. That’s what that is.”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“crucial task before us now is to protect the world into which they’ll emerge so that when their moment comes, they still have a democracy, a climate, and a humanity worth fighting for.”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism

“gather information, weed out the BS, set bias aside, and speak the truth, hoping to combat the comforting lies”
― Don Lemon, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism