“We can feel sad, hurt, demoralized. But we can’t give up.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“My morning rituals are typical. I wake up yearning for a few extra moments of rest. I express gratitude to a higher power for the breath in my body and the blessings in my life. I shower. I dress. I eat breakfast. I exchange laughter and words with my beloveds, embracing each other as we say our daily goodbyes.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“When I was growing up, my family was plagued by poverty. My mother, a single parent, worked around the clock to make sure her children – me, my five brothers, and three sisters – could eat and have a safe place to sleep. We hardly saw her.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I have been arrested several times protesting.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Myself and the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, but in truth, we are loving women whose life experiences have led us to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Presidential elections and the voter experience have long been fraught for black people. From racist poll taxes to made-up literacy tests to the egregious rollback of voting rights over the past 50 years, American democracy has, at times, felt like a weird and failed social experiment.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Throughout every presidency since the heist of our country from indigenous peoples, the black American experience has been exceptional in its discomfort. And no chief executive of this great nation has, in earnest, developed a unique plan to remedy that discomfort.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“The brutal history of colonialism is one in which white people literally stole land and people for their own gain and material wealth.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“So many stories have been told about Black Lives Matter. The beauty of building out a decentralized network, the beauty of building out something that’s a hashtag, is that so many people can take it and run with it. The bad part about that is so many folks can take it and run with it – and misuse it and co-opt it.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“In ‘When They Call You a Terrorist,’ I reflect on my time growing up in Van Nuys, California, surrounded by my devoted family and supportive friends, weaving our experiences into the larger picture of how predominantly marginalized neighborhoods are under constant systemic attack.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“When you grow up with a significant amount of trauma, you are realizing it as you get older, and you’re realizing the ways you can recover from that trauma. The things that I have witnessed and that I have been through, it’s going to take a lifetime to undo.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Black Lives Matter was born out of our unwavering love for black people and our undeniable rage over a system that has historically dehumanized black people.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Like any organizer worth their salt, I’m open to critique, but I won’t be bullied or treated badly. I’m an imperfect human, and as such, I have a proclivity to make mistakes. And while I make mistakes, I am not my mistakes.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I am part of a legacy of queer black women who have fought for the freedom of black people across the globe.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I have never felt the grips of patriarchy and its need to erase black women and our labor… so strongly until the creation of Black Lives Matter.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Policing has never been about public safety: its origins are rooted in social control, the denial of people’s human rights, securing the U.S. borders, recapturing escaped, enslaved Africans, and upholding racist, homophobic, and transphobic laws.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“We rarely know what motivates somebody in their work, and it’s usually a particular moment in their life. For me, that moment is my brother’s incarceration and the ways in which this country has decided to neglect, abuse, and sometimes torture people with severe mental illness, especially if they’re black.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“In order to reverse the maternal health crisis for black women in the U.S., we need concrete policies from our leaders and better protocols from hospitals.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Wherever there are communities fighting for freedom and liberation, there are serious tensions.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“What does it look like to build a city, state, or nation invested in communities thriving rather than their death and destruction? To ask this question is the first act of an abolitionist.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I knew marriage was not the answer to changing the conditions for poor, black, queer folks. So I never felt compelled to get married – it just didn’t seem important. But even if marriage wasn’t right for me at the time, or a quick fix toward black empowerment, I found it repulsive that loving same-sex couples were refused the right.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I think part of what we’re seeing in the rise of white nationalism is their response to Black Lives Matter, is their response to an ever-increasing fight for equal rights, for civil rights, and for human rights.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“White people who voted for Trump decided to invest in a president who underwrites white supremacy in the guise of populism.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“We will not stop fighting until every single black life is provided the type of love and support we so desperately deserve.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“What was most important, for me, is that I could share what I experience as a young person – in particular, what impact incarceration and policing had on my life and my family’s life.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Before BLM, there was a dormancy in our black freedom movement. Obviously many of us were doing work, but we’ve been able to reignite a whole entire new generation, not just inside the U.S. but across the globe, centering black people and centering the fight against white supremacy.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“In 2013, I helped create a black-centered political will- and movement-building project called #BlackLivesMatter.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Tamir Rice, Tanisha Anderson, Mya Hall, Walter Scott, Sandra Bland – these names are important. They’re inherently important, and the space that #BlackLivesMatter held and continues to hold helped propel the conversation around the state-sanctioned violence they experienced.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“The black radical agenda, which pushes us closer to freedom and the agenda to which I subscribe, calls for an eradication of white supremacy and an adoption of values and traditions endowed from the black experience.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I developed ‘Power: From the Mouths of the Occupied’ while I was an Artist in Residence at Kalamazoo College.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Statistics are easy to remove ourselves from. A story, you are implicated in, and you have to choose what side you are going to be on.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Wherever black people are in America, criminalization exists. Wherever there is a white-dominant space, deep racism exists as well – no matter how progressive. If you cut too far into that progressive, if you do something that’s too radical, white racism will emerge.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“’The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman’ is a reminder that people across the world are rebelling against norms and forging new paths for the most marginalized people in their own communities.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Black Lives Matter has become what black communities all over the world have needed it to become. At times, it is a hashtag; at other moments, it is a declaration, a cry of rage, a sharing of light. It has become a movement that is international, worldwide in its scope of liberation for black and oppressed people everywhere.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“We live in a world where black people are targeted for death and destruction, and we should not be surprised when moments such as these occur – in fact, Charlottesville confirms the violence that black people endure every day.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I don’t like how cruel humans can be.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I don’t dislike my appearance at all.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I am scared every day.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“We keep calling for accountability and reinvestment and a push for all of us to imagine a world where black people are not policed but instead supported and loved and cared for. Where our families can feel safe and inspired and protected.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I was trained within a black radical tradition that encouraged struggle within our own movements because it sharpens collective analysis – bringing us closer to the tools we need to achieve liberation.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Freedom means the U.S. government not being the main threat to countries around the world.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I am an abolitionist. What does this mean? Abolitionist resistance and resilience draws from a legacy of black-led anti-colonial struggle in the United States and throughout the Americas, including places like Haiti, the first black republic founded on the principles of anti-colonialism and black liberation.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“With abolition, it’s necessary to destroy systems of oppression. But it’s equally necessary to put at the forefront our conversations about creation. When we fight for justice, what exactly do we want for our communities?”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Our communities must demand dignified housing, satisfying jobs, and proper labor conditions; our educational system must be culturally relevant, multi-lingual, and teach our histories. Our value should not be determined by legal records.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Since his inauguration, Trump has signed numerous executive orders that negatively impact poor, black and brown, queer, Muslim, and other communities.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“The Trump administration has done everything in its power to uphold the harsh racist reality we have faced.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Local law enforcement agencies, national police authorities, and other state-operated surveillance has created a hostile environment for communities at the margins.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Under Trump, black lives will become even more vulnerable to state violence.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“My first reaction to Trump being elected was a visceral one. I cried for black people in general but, more particularly, for those of us at the margins who have been struggling and who have never received enough support.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“A racist and misogynist should not be a president in 21st-century America.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Racism has its boot squarely wedged on the neck of black communities, and we don’t want to be told that hard work and responsibility are the answer.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“The Black Lives Matter National Network and the movement at large are sophisticated. We’re not easily won over by talking points and campaign trail pledges. We want to see meaningful collaboration and a genuine transformation of American democracy.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Policing was developed, created, and implemented for the elite, and – in the case of the United States – the elites were and almost entirely remain white, upper middle class, cisgender straight men.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“The only way to gain the kinds of often-generational wealth that the 1% has been able to gain is through controlling the populations it relied on to make its wealth.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Generations of black women have anxiously watched as our children walk out into a world set against them. We teach them how to respond to police and how to react to racist comments, knowing that these lessons are not guaranteed to protect our children.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Black women’s lives have never been shown any value in America.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“During my high-risk pregnancy, I consistently experienced subpar care from my hospital, which led me to hire two midwives instead. They provided me with excellent and loving care, and they made my pregnancy a truly special and powerful moment in my life.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Each and every one of us has multiple identities, and this is a fact that should be celebrated. I for example, am a queer black woman who grew up poor in Los Angeles.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Individuals are complex and deserve to be recognized as such.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“For those looking outside-in, it’s not fair – or accurate – to assign someone an identity based off the first thing that we see.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“When folks say ‘identity politics’ don’t matter, it simply reinforces the norm of a white, middle-class, cis narrative and further marginalizes the rest of us who don’t share that identity.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“#BlackLivesMatter is about black pride and black power and standing up against a world that tries to annihilate us.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Once upon a time, Bill Clinton was widely perceived as an ally and advocate for the needs of black people. However, it is the Clinton administration’s Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act that set the stage for the massive racial injustice we struggle with in law enforcement today.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“As a black millennial, I remember with horrid detail how Democratic policies ravaged my community and destroyed my family.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“My personal history, along with the history of many black people in this country, is rife with trauma born out of anti-black policies aided and facilitated by presidents and their administrations.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“With Black Lives Matter, we knew from the very beginning that it wasn’t just going to live online. We were like, ‘We’re creating this thing and then it’s also going to live with black folks on the street and protests and organizations.’ It was very important for us to use the hashtag as a way to have a larger conversation and as an organizing tool.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I think publicly declaring that mistakes are a part of how we grow and how we heal is absolutely necessary.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I’ve been in movement work since I was 16 years old. Black Lives Matter becomes an important part of the story, but it’s not the only part of the story.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“The story of Black Lives Matter starts before Black Lives Matter. The story of Black Lives Matter, for me, starts with my childhood.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“With support from techies, designers, artists and thousands of activists across the country, Black Lives Matter is now an online-to-offline political movement, affirming the humanity and resilience of black communities.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“The Internet is the most democratic communication platform in history, largely because we’ve had network neutrality rules that make sure all web traffic is treated equally, and no voices are discriminated against.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Because of network neutrality rules, activists can turn to the Internet to bypass the discrimination of mainstream cable, broadcast, and print outlets as we organize for change.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“#BlackLivesMatter was born online but now lives in street actions, in conversations in our homes, and in the dignity swelling in our hearts. That is the power of the open Internet, and it is why we must do everything we can to protect black voices. Our lives depend on it.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Black women voted against Roy Moore not because they necessarily wanted the other guy; they voted against Roy Moore because they knew that would be better for the people of Alabama and, to be frank, better for the rest of the country.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“The unfortunate reality is the alt-right has captured white people’s imagination.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Black Lives Matter is our call to action. It is a tool to reimagine a world where black people are free to exist, free to live. It is a tool for our allies to show up differently for us.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I grew up in a neighborhood that was heavily policed. I witnessed my brothers and my siblings continuously stopped and frisked by law enforcement. I remember my home being raided. And one of my questions as a child was, why? Why us? Black Lives Matter offers answers to the why.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I think our work as movement leaders isn’t just about our own visibility but rather how do we make the whole visible. How do we not just fight for our individual selves but fight for everybody?”
― Patrisse Cullors
“What we acknowledged as a nation during the one-and-a-half year trial of George Zimmerman is that the white majority’s public imagination of black people was based on their fear of us, not the reality of who we are.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Many of us believed that Black Lives Matter would move this country to not only reckon with white racism but to usher in new laws and practices that would curb vigilantism and law enforcement violence. But, instead, white nationalism was nurtured and began to take root among the American people.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“We need to fight for a new human rights movement that recognizes and values black life.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I fight to prioritize black mothers and black children because we deserve to live in a world where our healing is centered and our lives are treated with dignity, respect, and care.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I read everything and anything related to being queer. I found solace in reading authors like Audre Lorde and bell hooks, who would become my activist staples – their words helped me grow up and taught me how to be bold and courageous. By studying them, I came to understand that being young and queer and black would not be easy.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“We should be developing spaces and places that are thinking about how we care for the group vs. asking the individual to take care of themselves.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“We have to look at queerness as a means towards challenging normativity.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“In high school, I came out to my friends as queer. My entire world opened up; this was a monumental step toward unveiling my truest self. I had my first girlfriend when I was sixteen years old.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“The first thing that Black Lives Matter had to do was remind people that racism existed in this country because when we had Obama, people thought we were post-racial. That was the debate. Is racism over? And very quickly, we understood that it was not over.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Trump is literally the epitome of evil, all the evils of this country – be it racism, capitalism, sexism, homophobia.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I want to see Black Lives Matter be able to ultimately reduce law enforcement funding.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“The movement for black lives isn’t just about black people. Black liberation has never just been about black people. It’s been about a fight for our humanity, for our dignity.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“It was white people who got Trump into office.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I’ve been an activist since I was a teenager. I was always curious about what we would now call social justice. I remember just trying to navigate growing up poor in an overpoliced environment with a single mother and a father who was in and out of prison.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Every community has crime and violence; it’s a part of being human. This idea that black communities are more violent than others is just false. But black folks fight the hardest for our communities. Before governments do, before other people do, we’re the first ones to show up. We are the first ones to fight for our lives.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“When I was younger, I had these romantic ideas about the Black Panther Party and what it meant to be a part of the civil rights movement. Then we’re here, and it’s dangerous. And it’s dangerous to say, ‘Black lives matter.’”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Our decentralized, localized leadership structure has really allowed for Black Lives Matter structures in their own communities to take on the state and take on some of the most egregious acts against black people.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I think what’s so powerful about Black Lives Matter is we’re the first movement able to take on law enforcement and make it a popular discussion.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Through Black Lives Matter and social media, we’ve been able to have a really challenging discussion with America about police and how much it is investing in policing.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Black Lives Matter is one iteration of a much larger struggle to fight for black people’s freedom.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“I think so much of my life had me growing up under extreme poverty and really challenging conditions, with having the police in my neighborhood and seeing the impact of over-incarceration. Having a father love up on me and remind of who I was, and my strength against those conditions, really shaped why I’m an organizer today.”
― Patrisse Cullors
“Colin Kaepernick is one of the leaders in the movement for black lives. His role as an athlete and activist is not only motivating but inspiring.”
― Patrisse Cullors
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