Susan L. Taylor Quotes

With abolition, it's necessary to destroy systems of oppression. But it's equally necessary to put at the forefront our conversations about creation. When we fight for justice, what exactly do we want for our communities?

The day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he's within his rights, when his own freedom is being jeopardized, to use any means necessary to bring about his freedom or put a halt to that injustice, I don't think he'll be by himself.

I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem just to avoid violence.

Oh, happy day when the enemies of ascendancy have got to confess that people of color rock.

There's nothing automatic about political change, about liberation.

I'm an Afro-realist. I take what comes, and I do my best to affect what is unacceptable in society.

In the women's movement, women needed men to stand up and say, 'This isn't right.' In the civil rights of the '60s, it took people of all color to demand equal rights.

... a legitimate revolution must be led by, made by those who have been most oppressed: black, brown, yellow, red, and white women—with men relating to that the best they can.

To demand these God-given rights is to seek black power

The times when black women have been successful in confronting and overcoming the structural and institutional sexism and racism that persists in our society have been when we are thoughtful and strategic about speaking up. It's when we've done what it takes to introduce and implement our ideas and our plans to make things better.

I am grateful to the activists and women who created the Black Lives Matter movement because I feel like they let me know I wasn't crazy.

If you ever think about me, and you ain't gonna do no revolutionary act, forget about me. I don't want myself on your mind if you're not going to work for the people.

I think that black people making art, women making art, and certainly black women making art is a disruptive endeavor - and it's one that I enjoy extremely.

The essence of Ferguson is the spirit of the people, and I'm so happy to see the spirit because I haven't seen it like that since the Civil Rights Movement.

Black people come in so many different bodies, genders, and sexualities, so it's important that we're conscious of that so we can fight for a world that embraces and uplifts black people of every kind. Our voices are powerful and have the ability to make change.

All black art, post-slavery, has always tried to prove in its own way that a black life is the equivalent of anyone else's.

I collaborated with so many people from Chicago - so many Black people, young Black women organizations like BYP100 and Assata's Daughters. Just being out there, I saw what a community mobilizing can accomplish in terms of freedom and how music and my words in my music can play a significant part in that.

The history of political movements in the African diaspora is that the solution to the problem is never in the hands of people who are advancing the movement. I try and operate on my own terms.

Black women have historically had the most to lose and have therefore been the fiercest fighters for justice.

Black Lives Matter is really an affirmation for our people. It's a love note for our people, but it's also a demand. We know that the system was not designed for justice for us.

We actually know that all lives do matter. And we believe it is so much so that we had to create Black Lives Matter.

The hope of remaking the world is indispensable in the struggle of oppressed men and women.

The sooner our society admits that the Negro Revolution is no momentary outburst soon to subside into placid passivity, the easier the future will be for us all.

The only thing I really feel is necessary is that the black people, not only in Mississippi, will have to actually upset this applecart. What I mean by that is, so many things are under the cover that will have to be swept out and shown to this whole world, not just to America. This thing they say of "the land of the free and the home of the brave" is all on paper.

I began to realise that we are all oppressed which is why I would like to do something about it, though I'm not sure where my place is.