James Baldwin Quotes

When a system of oppression has become institutionalized it is unnecessary for individuals to be oppressive.

When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior.

America is a fundamentally good country. We have good people with good values who want to do the right thing. But the structures of power that exist are working to their own ends to extend their capability at the expense of the freedom of all publics.

Kafka truly illustrates the way the environment oppresses the individual. He shows how the unconscious controls our lives.

Black people have always been used as a buffer in this country between powers to prevent class war.

I think people have to recognise that the traditional modes of authority weren't that great.

Nobody calls on black women to find out what they're thinking about because we're always part of somebody else's agenda.

Power, privilege, and violence are not, and never were, strictly Southern issues in America.

I've always thought that there are many things still left in society that are detached from the sense of ordinary people. I won't overlook them and I will determine what is right before taking bold action.

Homophobia, racism, and sexism are all rooted in the same oppression that causes a group of people to internalize the oppression they've experienced and then continue the cycle of abuse. Simply put, hurt people hurt people.

Certain people cause so many problems, not only to the running of the town and the country, but to people themselves.

Let's demonstrate, illustrate, the ways in which our communities are being undermined time and time again, and make sure that the broader public and those in power choose to stand with us.

While white women and men of color also experience discrimination, all too often their experiences are taken as the only point of departure for all conversations about discrimination. Being front and center in conversations about racism or sexism is a complicated privilege that is often hard to see.

The oppressed want at any cost to resemble the oppressors." "They call themselves ignorant and say the 'professor' is the one who has knowledge and to whom they should listen." "Almost never do they realize that they, too, 'know things' they have learned in their relations with the world.

The further away you get from being a straight white man, the less freedoms you have to figure out who you are and negotiate what you mean to society.

I find it really unique that the black community, who has been oppressed and is still oppressed, can find a way to oppress themselves, and ourselves, within it.

There are many, many different kinds of intersectional exclusions - not just black women but other women of color. Not just people of color, but people with disabilities. Immigrants. LGBTQ people. Indigenous people.

When you're a young black man, you're not allowed to be emotional. One of the reasons I act is people pay me to be emotional.

I'm a straight white man - I have options, and I'm not blocked on a consistent basis when I wake up in the morning because of my race, sex, and orientation.

In my life, I've been able to really examine society in a way most people who aren't outsiders don't get a chance to do.

There is a great silver lining to the 45th presidency, which is, it's hard to swallow that he is existing, which gives us the silver lining, which is a great uncovering of the historical disenfranchisement and marginalization of so many people in this country for so long.

Only a straight white person would have no concept of what visibility is. They've never contended with anything but visibility.

I feel myself in ways to be the product of internalized male gaze.

It's really difficult for mainstream - let's say, cable outlets - to talk about things like income inequality, wealth inequality when the advertisers that are funding their shows are the same corporations that want to ensure that the same system continues.

We can't continue to sit on our hands and sit idly by as people are being brutalized, disenfranchised, and left out of the system.