Avery Brooks Quotes

I think that all people who feel that there is injustice in the world anywhere should learn as much of it as they can bear. That is our duty.

The most important thing my grandfather taught me was that the most noble way to use your skills, intellect and energy is to defend the marginalized against those with the greatest power - and that the resulting animosity from those in power is a badge of honor.

As straight Americans we have two choices: we can choose to sit back and enjoy our rights as we have them, or we can realize that it is actually not freedom at all when our friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues do not share these basic rights.

If you're the person whose problems were solved when you were born, your job is to try and help the people who aren't in that situation. It's very easy to say you're tired of political discussion when all of your problems are solved. I keep trying to think of it that way.

You can only appreciate freedom when you find yourself in a position to fight for someone else's freedom and not worry about your own.

I've always stood for my people, with my people, but some guys just don't have voices like that. I don't like the pressure some people put on others. Some people are just not built for it. Some guys just play basketball, they don't talk, they don't post. Everybody in the '60s wasn't in the civil rights movement.

Justice, particularly for the oppressed and marginalized in our society, never comes without great effort and sacrifice.

The better we understand how identities and power work together from one context to another, the less likely our movements for change are to fracture.

The inability of those in power to still the voices of their own consciences is the great force leading to change.

To be in a situation where you have no rights whatsoever is something I wish everybody could experience. People's attitudes would change. It would be a better place.

Do not allow to slip away from you freedoms the people who came before you won with such hard knocks.

We shall suffer no attachment to literature, no taste for abstract discussion, no love of purely intellectual theories, to seduce us from our devotion to the cause of the oppressed, the down trodden, the insulted and injured masses of our fellow men.

No change can come if those who are impacted the most by discrimination are not willing to stand up for themselves.

I'm a political poet - let us say a 'human' poet, a poet that's concerned with the plight of people who suffer. If words can be of assistance, then that's what I'm going to use.

I have lectured at the U.N. and travelled widely, giving lectures on human rights and gender inequalities in universities. But this is a life I do not wish to live. I don't want to be a showcase, I want to be in a battlefield where I can stand beside the oppressed and the poor.

Writing is powerful. Whether it's a little girl hiding from the Nazis in an attic, or Amnesty International writing letters on behalf of political prisoners, the power of telling stories is usually what causes change.

Even if I have a good day, I still am aware of other people that are going through really hard, tumultuous things. I don't want to be the person who has a platform and neglects the things I see in my life and experiences.

To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being. You have to care about people who have no power.

Each one of our ideas should benefit the people with less power than us.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.

While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

A lot of the issues today may not affect us personally, but we can't stay in our comfort zone when it comes to protecting our brothers and sisters. We have to get out there and use our voices for them as well.

One of the greatest things I fear is letting down my people. I wouldn't live with that type of conscience, of having let down my people after they've been brutalized for so long.

I have left my home, my family, and my job, and I am raising my voice. To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot.