Richard Grimes Quotes

Your not going to change the hearts and minds. You have to change to law.

I did nothing but international liberation politics for ten years, and usually it was like, you gain an inch, you lose a half an inch. It's slow going, man.

My job as an artist is to speak up for those who might be perceived as the losers. Or those who can't shout. No wonder public-school people always get into politics or acting: they're taught to shout that much more loudly.

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 put all my time into Indian rights, and I think this is something I know something about, and I think that my time is best spent insofar as my political views are concerned.

I'm a person who's always been politically active and passionate about people's rights.

I don't think rappers have a responsibility, but for me, I gotta say something. I can't just look at injustice and keep quiet.

I've always viewed the 'Ed Show' as being a voice for the voiceless.

I'm an activist.

Regardless of how much media coverage will be received, talking and raising awareness about social injustice isn't enough.

I'm ready to fight, and I'm ready to make sure progressive includes progress.

Even if you can't be an activist every day, when you can be, do it.

You just have to find your activism, and don't let anyone tell you what that should look like. If you're doing the work, and you're getting someone to think, you're on the right path.

As I grew older and got into the late teens and early 20s, I wanted to be a voice of the people. You know, getting locked up all the time and going through so much oppression and seeing it all around myself, I wanted to be a voice for it.

I'm a feminist with a capital 'F' and have always had a passion for policy.

My mother informed me that the way to be a change agent to create change, the first line of defense, or however you want to phrase that, is politics and government.

I am mindful that the goal of protest is not more protest, but the goal of protest is change.

Each of us should choose which course of action we must take; education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes, but let it not be said that we did nothing.

You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can't be neutral.

I'm realizing this more and more that it's one thing to get involved with your own political beliefs and stand behind you believe in personally.

We must make an issue, create an event, and establish a national position for ourselves: and never may expect to be respected as men and women, until we have undertaken some fearless, bold, and adventurous deeds of daring . . .

While acting is what I do for a living, activism is what I do to stay alive.

Nelson Mandela stood up against a great injustice and was willing to pay a huge price for that. That's the reason he's mourned today, because of that struggle that he performed I mean, what he was advocating for was not necessarily the right answer, but he was fighting against some great injustice, and I would make the argument that we have a great injustice going on right now in this country with an ever-increasing size of government that is taking over and controlling people's lives, and Obamacare is front and center in that.

There's still a place for marching for instance with the Black Lives Matter movement, we've seen the importance of causing a scene, being on the streets and making your demands and your voice heard.

When John Kennedy was assassinated I was twenty-three, a stockbroker on Wall Street and married, and I never ever thought that politics would be anything that I would be a part of. But I realized that I had to get involved. Then, when Martin Luther King was assassinated and the Vietnam War was raging, I felt that my world was falling apart. I had these two beautiful children - three and one - and I just said, "I have to make it better."