46 Quotes by Ijeoma Oluo

"You can’t ‘get over’ something that is still happening. Which is why black Americans can’t ‘get over’ slavery or Jim Crow. It may be quite a while—likely past all of our lifetimes—before white people will be able to say ‘nigger’ without harming black people."

"Don't insist that people give you credit for your intentions."

"When somebody asks you to ‘check your privilege’ they are asking you to pause and consider how the advantages you’ve had in life are contributing to your opinions and actions, and how the lack of disadvantages in certain areas is keeping you from fully understanding the struggles others are facing and may in fact be contributing to those struggles."

"It is not your job as a person of color to educate people on their racist actions . . . but it is always your right to stand up for yourself when you choose to."

". . . language has been one of the first tools deployed in efforts to oppress others. Words are how we process the world, how we form our societies, how we codify our morals . . . All oppression in race, class, gender, ability, religion -- it all began with words."

"For all of the pedestals MLK is now put on, far above the reach of ordinary black Americans, Martin was in his life viewed as the most dangerous man in America."

"In order for a police force to be effective, it has to earn the trust of its people. But to those who only scratch the surface, to those who do not investigate their simplistic opinions about the root cause of crime in inner cities and the animosity between police forces and communities of color, the answer is simply more policing. But what we need is different policing. Policing not steeped from root to flower in the need to control people of color."

"Conversations on racism should never be about winning."

"White women will heap praise on my words calling for the destruction of the patriarchy, and then turn around and ask why I have to ‘be so divisive’ or say dismissively that I ‘sound like Al Sharpton’ when I dare bring up race."

"Note: ‘people like you’ is a good warning that a conversation is about to head into pretty racist territory."