Tim Wise Quotes

The margins don't get erased by simply insisting that the powers-that-be erase them.

Oppression costs the oppressor too much if the oppressed stand up and protest.

The concessions of the privileged to the unprivileged are so seldom brought about by any better motive than the power of the unprivileged to extort them

Social change can be painful for all involved—oppressor and oppressed.

You don't fight injustice by asking to become part of the system that committed the injustice against you in the first place. That's like a freed slave striving to become a slave owner.

The oppressed never free themselves - they do not have the necessary strengths.

Look at the forces against me. They don't want me out. They're afraid I'll cause trouble if I get out.

When you're talking about an authority figure oppressing against people, it's the people that hold that authority figure up. If you want to get free of this bondage, then we need to think about ways to free ourselves rather than looking to the oppressors to free us.

Don’t play with us. If you’re not going to give us justice, let us go so that we may help ourselves….We can’t want for benevolent white people to give us handouts.

Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.

The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise.

It was imperative to make common cause with the oppressed in order to secure a new system opposed to the ambitions and governing habits of the oppressors.

Only when we recognise our privilege, we will be able to make a change for others.

I don't know why people like being oppressed.

When in the course of human development, existing institutions prove inadequate to the needs of man, when they serve merely to enslave, rob and oppress mankind, the people have the eternal right to rebel against, and overthrow, these institutions.

Aristocracy is always cruel.

I think people really need to think what it's like to have all of society arrayed against you.

But you know, the system almost destroyed itself while it was goin' on trying to destroy us.

My sole ambition is to rid Mexico of the class that has oppressed her and given the people a chance to know what real liberty means. And if I could bring that about today by giving up my life, I would do it gladly.

Who Rebels? Who rises in arms? Rarely the slave, but almost always the oppressor turned slave.

Segregation is that which is forced upon an inferior by a superior. Separation is done voluntarily by two equals.

Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power. You will take it.

The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.

Social paralysis is strong and stands firmly in the way of change on the ground level. As allies, we have to prepare ourselves to step into the fire when necessary, even - and especially - when said fire is merely a still-lit cigarette tossed carelessly onto the street.

We call ourselves a free nation, and yet we let ourselves be told what cabs we can and can't take by a man at a hotel door, simply because he has a drum major's uniform on.