Michelle Alexander Quotes

I do not think that we have a systemic racism problem with law enforcement officers across this country.

The fate of millions of people—indeed the future of the black community itself—may depend on the willingness of those who care about racial justice to re-examine their basic assumptions about the role of the criminal justice system in our society.

We've got to do everything possible to improve policing, to go right at implicit bias.

When you say you want to talk about racial justice, that's not the same as I want to do something about racial justice. Saying I want to hold police accountable is doing something. Saying that I want to take money out of politics, big money, is doing something.

The horrific cases in Ferguson, in Staten Island with the death of Eric Garner, and all across the country serve as stark reminders that we must have a say in who polices us, and how that policing is done. We must, we must, let our voices be heard on Election Day.

We need to work for a day when police shootings are rare and not the stuff of our daily news.

I realize I will always be the poster child for police brutality, but I can try to use that as a positive force for healing and restraint.

Laquan McDonald is a wake-up call to all of us. It's a reminder there's a lot broken.

I think that the dialogue between police officers and the black community has to get better, but not better in a way where, 'Oh, let's talk about it when something horrible happens.' The dialogue has to be going on consistently, every day.

We were raised in the black community not to trust the police, and I believe, in the white community, they were raised to actually be a policeman.

There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality.

I feel like I've built big enough platform and still building my platform for us to get justice for Breonna Taylor.

With so much racial tension and issues between the police and black and minority ethnic groups, there needs to be more in-depth conversations if we're going to fix anything.

I want to see Black Lives Matter be able to ultimately reduce law enforcement funding.

I'm sick of watching 'Blue Lives Matter' supporters idly stand by any police officer simply because he wears blue, ignoring the facts that should make them cringe in disbelief and horror. Police brutality is systemic, not anecdotal.

When one in three Black men are in prison, those larger systemic injustices become a part of what it means to love our neighbor as ourself. We care about dismantling institutional racism. That begins in relationships when you see injustice happen.

I'm in favor of everything with regards to ending institutional racism.

The national conversation around white entitlement, around institutionalized racism, the Black Lives Matter movement, I think, came about in large part because of the widening and broadening of our understanding of inequality. That conversation was begun by Occupy.

White supremacy is so deep-seated that it's hard to see it eliminated. But we could definitely push it back.

Let's give it up for the Secret Service. I don't want to be too hard on those guys. You know, because they're the only law enforcement agency that will get in trouble if a black man gets shot.

If O.J. had been accused of killing his black wife, you would not have seen the same passion stirred up.

Most middle-class whites have no idea what it feels like to be subjected to police who are routinely suspicious, rude, belligerent, and brutal.

When it comes to police officers, I have concerns about the training that they receive. This whole notion of implicit bias, looking at people and having stereotypical reactions to them on the basis of their ethnicity.

I've thought from the start that a parallel federal investigation into the death of Michael Brown is important. I also believe that our state and local elected officials have been given a responsibility by the people who they work for to get to the bottom of this tragedy.

The best way to protect young black, brown, men of color, women of color, is to actually stop profiling, stop the prejudice, and stop the judgment first.