Opal Tometi Quotes

Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.

Liberty without equality is a name of noble sound and squalid result.

This is not the land of the free. It is only sporatically and often unwittingly the land of the brave.

How can you stand for the national anthem of a nation that preaches and propagates, 'freedom and justice for all,' that is so unjust to so many of the people living there?

Nationalism has nothing to do with the rule of law, justice, or opportunity.

After all, acknowledging unfairness then calls decent people forth to correct those injustices. And since most persons are at their core, decent folks, the need to ignore evidence of injustice is powerful: To do otherwise would force whites to either push for change (which they would perceive as against their interests) or live consciously as hypocrites who speak of freedom and opportunity but perpetuate a system of inequality.

To think, I have had more than 60 years of hard struggle for a little liberty, and then to die without it seems so cruel.

I grew up with injustice and could do nothing about it. But once in America, I had freedom of choice.

From the U.S. Capitol Building to the White House, our national symbols that represent freedom to so many of us, were built by people who were anything but free.

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

Human rights are praised more than ever - and violated as much as ever.

You see, Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties. It doubts our concern. It questions our commitment. Because there is no way we can look at what's happening in Africa, and if we're honest, conclude that it would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else.

See, justice is a joke in this country, and it stinks of its hypocricy.

What is worst about America was acted out. What is best in America doesn't export.

It always has been and forever will be impossible for slavery or any kind or form of injustice to produce a great poet.

Most people don't get a fair crack of the whip.

Of course, there can be serious injustices within free societies.

Only very slowly and late have men come to realize that unless freedom is universal it is only extended privilege.

What good to me is the festive garment of freedom when I am in a slave's smock at home?

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

I'm very lucky. The public happens to like me. Maybe they like me because I use every opportunity to talk about injustice.

They who have put out the people's eyes reproach them for their blindness.

Equality is a monster.

If they come for me in the morning, they will come for you at night.

The rankest form of hypocrisy. Laws that are good enough for everybody else ought to be good enough for us.