Lakeith Stanfield Quotes
It's a hard thing when you've got guns pointed at you, to still stand up for what you believe in. Jimmie Lee and his family did that, and several others.
Blay, Zeba. "Actor Keith Stanfield On 'Selma,' Mike Brown, And Staying Genuine." HuffPost, 8 Jan. 2015.
This quotation is used by the moderate Egyptians and other moderate Arab leaders as well as Israelis and other experts in combating Islamic Fundamentalism to illustrate the thinking process of the Muslim fundamentalist terrorist leader. They are more than willing to sacrifice those they lead (though rarely themselves) if they think that something is to be gained. But if there is nothing to be gained, their “moral” responsibility requires not “wasting” their followers’ lives. Therefore, the way these experts believe they should deal with the radicals is to face them with overwhelming force (a variant of the Powell Doctrine) and never concede anything or let them gain anything from violence. A single concession makes the terrorism, sacrifice and violence worthwhile, but if there is no gain, the leader has wasted the lives of his followers and is less likely to initiate another attack.
The Muslim Brotherhood Government had just been deposed by a popular coup d’etat carried out by the Egyptian military. The Brotherhood flooded into the streets to protest the coup and some of them attacked police with weapons. The military overreacted and in an effort to clear the demonstrators from the streets killed hundreds of them. This brought out signs like this.
LaKeith Lee Stanfield, sometimes credited as Keith Stanfield, is an American actor and musician. He made his feature film debut in the independent drama Short Term 12 (2013), an adaptation of the 2008 short film in which he had also appeared, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. He received further recognition for his roles in numerous biopics such as civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson in Selma (2014), Snoop Dogg in Straight Outta Compton (2015), Patrick Haynes in Snowden (2016), and William O'Neal in Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), for which he garnered an Academy Award nomination.
