John Hume Quotes

Society is better off without certain people.

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

The structure of apartheid is still rooted in the Haitian society. When you have apartheid, you don't see those behind the walls. That is the reality of Haiti.

To hold a people in oppression you have to convince them first that they are supposed to be oppressed.

Anything can be used for or against the welfare of women - or the welfare of anyone - depending on who controls it.

I think there's an element where people get very comfortable in their ghetto. Which is fair enough.

Not only are whites kicking us; they are telling us how to react to being kicked.

The Negro has the simplest of alternatives: live a life of constant humility or ever-threatening danger.

The worst crime of any type of state is just that it always tries to force the rich diversity of social life into definite forms and adjust it to one particular form

As the oppressor minority subordinates and dominates the majority, it must divide it and keep it divided in order to remain in power.

Although police terrorism plays a specific role on behalf of the state, it is not the totality of what state violence looks like or feels like in our communities.

We increasingly live in societies based on the vocabulary of 'choice' and a denial of reality - a denial of massive inequality, social disparities, the irresponsible concentration of power in relatively few hands, and a growing machinery of social and civil death.

Racism is a way to gain economic advantage at the expense of others. Slavery and plantations may be gone, but racism still allows us to regard those who may keep us from financial gain as less than equals.

The rich stick together; the poor and the marginalised are thrown together.

What people don't know about oppression is that the oppressor works much harder. You always grew up being told you were not smart enough or not fast enough, but we all lived from the time we were children to beat the system.

What characterizes a member of a minority group is that he is forced to see himself as both exceptional and insignificant, marvelous and awful, good and evil.

If I feel any marginalisation, it's because the things that concern me aren't so important to other people.

Life is now a war zone, and as such, the number of people considered disposable has grown exponentially, and this includes low income whites, poor minorities, immigrants, the unemployed, the homeless, and a range of people who are viewed as a liability to capital and its endless predatory quest for power and profits.

When you use the term minority or minorities in reference to people, you're telling them that they're less than somebody else.

It's funny how people who ain't never been down there can think that America is so fair and that we should be alright. It's funny that the people who have their foot on our neck are telling us, 'Get up. What's wrong with you?'

Why do you all push us around?

I usually play disenfranchised youth.

Bill Cosby is a famous black guy who has a bully pulpit the size of the world; it's global. He puts his colossal foot on the vulnerable necks of poor people, and as a result of that, we don't have a balanced conversation.

Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.

I'm concerned about - the oppression of the poor.