Read Until You Understand Quotes

“In religious terms, each time the oppressed chooses to forgive the oppressor, each time, on those rare occasions, they find themselves having a modicum of power over them and offering them mercy instead of vengeance, might be interpreted as an act of mercy in favor of the oppressor. Black history is replete with these instances.”
― Farah Jasmine Griffin, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature

“Each chapter provides an autobiographical meditation that may be informed by some mixture of history, philosophy, or politics. Read Until You Understand demonstrates how a people have lived with style, grace, brilliance, and beauty in the face of persistent crisis and catastrophe. This is one of the many underappreciated gifts of Black Americans to the nation they have helped to shape and build. In fact, because of”
― Farah Jasmine Griffin, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature

“Read Until You Understand is structured around specific concepts, themes, and ideals. These have been chosen from a myriad of possibilities because they most consistently emerge in literature written by Black American authors. They also have the potential to transcend the differences that divide us. All people feel despair, long for love, create beauty, and face death.”
― Farah Jasmine Griffin, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature

“In the midst of a hostile society, a society that wants our labor or our death, we live in pursuit of justice, in pursuit of freedom, and longing for a bit of grace. How shall we live, how shall we treat each other, how shall we treat our compatriots, some of whom are guilty of crimes against us? Each year a multiracial group of students take my class,”
― Farah Jasmine Griffin, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature