Maxine Waters Quotes

When marginalized people gain voice and center their own experiences, things begin changing. And we see this in all kinds of grassroots movements.

We cannot reform institutional racism or systemic policies if we are not actively engaged. It's not enough to simply complain about injustice; the only way to prevent future injustice is to create the society we would like to see, one where we are all equal under the law.

Now that we are in power, we must ask ourselves, ‘how can we develop a truly just system rather than do to the elite what they have done to us?’

The net of law is spread so wide, No sinner from its sweep may hide. Its meshes are so fine and strong They take in every child of wrong. O wondrous web of mystery ! Big fish alone escape from thee !

If the power was equitable, then our boards, then our commissions, our contracting, our wealth-building opportunities would all look very different.

If we don't center the voices of marginalized people, we're doing the wrong work.

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.

As I have always said, those closest to the pain should be closest to the power.

It's not enough just to elect people of color and women of color and progressives. We need to make sure that they have a work plan and that they are - continue to align with the communities that helped get them to where they're at.

If your white privilege and class privilege protects you, then you have an obligation to use that privilege to take stands that work to end the injustice that grants that privilege in the first place.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Diversity on the bench is critical. As practitioners, you need judges who 'get it!' We need judges who understand what discrimination feels like. We need judges who understand what inequality feels like. We need judges who understand the subtleties of unfair treatment and who are willing to call it out when they see it!

Injustice is censured because the censures are afraid of suffering, and not from any fear which they have of doing injustice.

I am a strong believer that without justice, there is no peace. No lasting peace, anyway.

People have a right to have their lives witnessed; if we coexist with the systems that abuse people, then we have a duty to understand.

In every human society, there is an effort continually tending to confer on one part the height of power and happiness, and to reduce the other to the extreme of weakness and misery. The intent of good laws is to oppose this effort and to diffuse their influence universally and equally.

Those who commit injustice bear the greatest burden.

If a policy is wrongheaded, feckless and corrupt, I take it personally and consider it a moral obligation to sound off and not shut up until it's fixed.

There are all kinds of under-represented groups in the literary establishment.

He will bring us all, rich and poor, white and black, to his judgment seat.

I want to be the voice of the people; black, white, everyday, oppressed people. A person trying to make it and to do it right.

The law is cruel.

My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life.

People have got to get together and work together. I'm tired of the kind of oppression that white people have inflicted on us and are still trying to inflict.

We've begun to get justice.