Michael Dyson Quotes

A hashtag is not a movement.

Twitter, it can be said, completely changed the way activism is done, who can participate, and even how we define it.

It's about using social media for social change: creating a community of advocates who can use their voices on behalf of the voiceless, or leverage their talents, skills, knowledge, and resources to put more children into classrooms, or pressure their elected representatives to get global education top of the agenda.

It is my hope that people today will see that, in another time, in another period, when we saw the need for people to speak up, to organize, to mobilize, and to do something about injustice, we came together.

We are at the point where we can mobilize all of this righteous indignation into a powerful mass movement.

21st-century activism is different perhaps in the sense that the individual can be more present in the process, especially via social media, but the underlying drivers remain the same as desire to change the status quo.

Sometimes things need to get really bad before they can ever get better. Really bad can become untenable if enough people get sick of it. That was a big thing about why I ended up taking part in that rally [against police brutality] and ended up voicing my opinion and declaring what side I was standing on.

Whether you have a hundred friends on Facebook or whether you're on TV or whatever, at every level, everybody has a platform. We all have a responsibility, given what's going on, to speak using that platform as much as we can, and to engage. Whether that's calling members of Congress, marching, getting involved locally, getting involved with Let America Vote, or if all you can get done during the day is you see the news and you want to make sure your hundred friends on Facebook know what you think about it, that is a really important part of this.

it is immoral for powerless people to accept this powerlessness. They may not succeed in getting power but they can fight for it, and if enough fight for it, it makes it very difficult for the people with the big sticks.

They're [social media] amazing tools to communicate information - especially about different causes or crises or movements.

Social media and young people, art, music, all communications make this one of the most active times for activism. It will be a time of change.

I think we're at a time where people just want to join together and cause change. People don't want to live like this any more.

AIM in essence is a movement rather than just an organization. It is a manifestation of the desperation of our people.

This is what people do in America. They get out. They demonstrate. They let their voices with heard.

We need to keep ringing the bell, wake people up to get our democracy together. Farm workers are like a symbol, and it is good that people are paying attention.

Young people are tremendously frustrated because they don't see politics as changing anything. They see it as perpetuating a system that frankly doesn't work and no matter who you vote for things don't really change. Social media is where I think a bold message will wake them up. We saw that a little bit in the Occupy movement. Over the next three years, I think young people are going to wake up and be empowered.

People need to know what's going on. People need to wake up.

We need more radicalism among us before we can speak as becomes a suffering, oppressed, and persecuted people.

I like to see the people awake and alert.

Indeed, the best practical reason to think that social media can help bring political change is that both dissidents and governments think they can. All over the world, activists believe in the utility of these tools and take steps to use them accordingly. And the governments they contend with think social media tools are powerful, too, and are willing to harass, arrest, exile, or kill users in response.

There never was a social change in America without angry people at the heart.

I grew up with protests, marches, demonstrations, struggle. But I come from a clan of community workers.

There is no degree of human suffering which in and of itself is going to bring about change. Only organisation can change things.

And the spirit of revolution will not die while the hearts of these workers continue to beat.

Social media is not just another way to connect feminist and activist voices - it amplifies our messages as well.