DeRay Mckesson Quotes

It was clear to us that social movements and activism can only take us so far in our mission.

You have to get an individual who's willing to actually struggle with the system to change it. As long as you have people who - to make substantive changes, to make infrastructure changes.

Rebellion is obsolete - change things from the inside working out.

Activism, to me, I don't know if it really works. It may work for somebody else, but it does not work for me.

Occupy is anything but a protest movement. That's why it has been so hard for news agencies to express or even discern the 'demands' of the growing legions of Occupy participants around the nation, and even the world.

Activism could be defined as activities engaged in by individuals to change there of others situation.

You have to try to build support around causes. It is uniting to campaign on a single issue, and it is never just a single issue; it's always more than that.

We proved that with civility, common sense, building bridges, working with coalitions and working with people one at a time, we could do something. … I can speak for the middle. … The real issue is the system itself.

People who have been empowered by positive change are demanding quick solutions to current problems.

You can live within the institutions and work hard to change them.

Activists take the risks, while advocates are professional tinkerers with the system. What's necessary is for those who are advocates to support those who are activists and to envision themselves as activists.

I believe activism is the true source of change in the world. Pushing to change social structures in communities that you are a part of is critical for making real lasting change.

People are not going to change because an activist goes around shouting.

As the Occupy Movement demonstrated, it's tough to change anything when you're talking about everything.

I'd like to transform the system in very fundamental ways, but you've got to do that in every way that you can. You can't wait for some magic bullet or some magic politician or some magic anything to have that happen. You got to get out there and use your vote.

Neither one of us believe that you can fix the culture from within by just throwing money and people at the system. There has to be a systemic change within the system.

It's important that people press from the outside. It's important that people are able to make change from the inside. Both of those things are important. Protest is fundamentally a political act.

One's got to change the system, or one changes nothing.

Where progress has been made, wherever any kind of injustice has been overturned, it’s been because people acted as citizens, and not as politicians. They didn’t just moan. They worked, they acted, they organized, they rioted if necessary to bring their situation to the attention of people in power. And that’s what we have to do today.

One does not fight to influence change and then leave the change to someone else to bring about.

By themselves, they are not enough; we also need to engage in political action.

We're all connected by the system, and we all have to be a part, I think, of changing it.

A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.

It's the reason why I am always interested in engaging in people who are pushing us and pushing against the status quo. But having been an activist, the only thing that I'm always encouraging activists to do is, once you have raised the issue, and even through controversial means, you have to come behind it with an agenda and the possibility of reconciliation if power meets your demands.

That to be an activist, you have to stay active. For me, it's profound; it's not something you choose to do every five years because it's chic to say it.