A biography for DeRay Mckessonhasn’t been written yet.
“I'm not a politician. I'm somebody who knows the world can be better, and I'm willing to fight for it.”
“I am not naive enough to believe that voting is the only way to bring about transformational change, just as I know that protest alone is not the sole solution to the challenges we face.”
“When Trump says, 'Make America great again,' he is referencing an era when people were singled out and harmed because of their race and religious beliefs, and when violent enforcement of Jim Crow masqueraded as the will of the people.”
“I was a teacher. I also worked at Harlem Children's Zone. I moved back to Baltimore and opened up an after-school, out-of-school program on the west side and then worked in two public school districts, in Baltimore and Minneapolis.”
“It will always be important that people continue to push on the system from the outside. It will also be important that people make the changes that we know are necessary on the inside.”
“I think people who are not from here think the Inner Harbor is the only center for culture or fun in the city, and there's so much more to Baltimore. The Harbor's a beautiful place, but there are so many gems embedded in other communities that don't get as much visibility.”
“There will always be a rule. There will be people who break the rules. There will be consequences. We fundamentally think these things will be true for a time. The question becomes, What are the consequences? Who enforces the consequences? What are the worst consequences?”
“What we choose to do today and tomorrow will shape our future and build our reality.”
“Music helps shape the way people think about the world and act in the world.”
“Justice that is not rooted in equity, in social welfare, and in community is not justice at all.”
“I am often asked what it is like to be on the 'front line.' But I do not use the term 'front line' to describe us, the protesters. Because everywhere in America, wherever we are, our blackness puts us in close proximity to police violence.”
“Expressing and loving myself is often so much more complex than 'out' affords me.”
“If City Hall started projecting swastikas, no one would say 'You know what? Free speech.' People would say that is wrong.”
“Protest is political. It is as political as what our conception of America is.”
“Black people have always been more than our pain. The joy is so much a part of how we have survived and thrived.”
“The arts scene in Baltimore is really rich and very vibrant. It's one of the untold stories of the city.”
“There are very few things that I don't talk about - even my relationships.”
“Everybody has told the story of black people in struggle except black people. The black people in the struggle haven't had the means to tell the story historically. There were a million slaves, but you see very few slave narratives. And that is intentional.”
“What we know to be true is that comfort isn't always freedom. People confuse the two.”
“People like to act like we don't have a legacy of racism here. I think people get really uncomfortable with it. We know that we can't change it unless we address that.”