Lakeith Stanfield Quotes

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

The great are only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!

If we accept the rule of those who think they are the bosses and lords of Mexico, nothing will change for the people on the bottom.

Progress is always relative: to the oppressed, it can only be viewed as an all or nothing deal - if oppression continues, even in a modified form, then the system must still be attacked until that injustice is eradicated.

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

Power is never so overwhelming that there's no room for resistance.

There's nothing automatic about political change, about liberation.

Women have to be extremely careful about choosing something that they consider an act of defiance that can really be used to further their enslavement.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

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

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.

I don't know why people like being oppressed.

A status not freely chosen or entered into by an individual or a group is necessarily one of oppression and the oppressed are by their nature (i.e., oppressed) forever in ferment and agitation against their condition and what they understand to be their oppressors. If not by overt rebellion or revolution, then in the thousand and one ways they will devise with and without consciousness to alter their condition

Not only was I not born to be a slave; I was not born to hope to become the equal of the slave master.

This is the power of the powerful to define, to structure, to say, 'This is the way the world works.' It's enormous power. Among the powers of the weak, I think the first one is the power not to believe the powerful.

We're not trying to take power away or rule anybody - we're just trying to get up from under the rulers.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

People have to liberate themselves, because liberation is not a single act. It's a question of eternal vigilance. Otherwise, you'll just become enslaved by someone else.

There will be no prison which can hold our movement down.

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

Is anarchism desirable? Well, who does not seek freedom? What man, unless willing to declare himself in bondage, would care to call any control agreeable? Think about it!

I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born.

My instincts are always against people who want to fasten some sort of hegemony onto things.

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

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