When the Stars Begin to Fall Quotes

“Black Americans recognize the necessity of standing in solidarity, but they also have a human desire to be distinct and unique. Racism attacks both. It exacerbates the need for unity while also reducing black people to a throng of carbon copies—it makes solidarity an existential imperative and mutes the individualism of each group member. The consequence is a group seen as homogenous by those on the outside looking in and as heterogeneous by those on the inside peering out, creating a destructive incongruence between how black citizens are viewed and how they view themselves.”
― Theodore Roosevelt Johnson III, When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America

“because national apologies are not moral gestures—they are political ones.”
― Theodore Roosevelt Johnson III, When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America

“America is the only nation founded on an idea—not an identity. That idea is the notion that the condition of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life.”33”
― Theodore Roosevelt Johnson III, When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America

“Instead, the fact that racism is an existential threat is less about the durability of the United States as a sovereign entity and more about the death of the American idea.”
― Theodore Roosevelt Johnson III, When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America

“This kind of discrimination painfully reveals an ugly truth to a country justifiably proud of its progress: one does not have to be called a nigger to be treated like one.”
― Theodore Roosevelt Johnson III, When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America

“That is, some want the dreamed America because it means racism can no longer be used as a crutch, while others will be glad that it can no longer be used as a cudgel.”
― Theodore Roosevelt Johnson III, When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America