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This righteous attitude confronts an outstretched hand with a fist. Shaming the poor not only saves the wealthier classes money but also makes them feel virtuous. It's akin to the self-satisfaction felt by the thin in the presence of the obese and the sober when comparing themselves to those with a drug or alcohol problem. We succeeded, they think. These others failed. It is this mindset, once again, that sustains the shamescape.

— The Shame Machine by Cathy O'Neil (Page 58)

That's what shame can do. Conditioned to it, we carry its mandates in our minds. In this way, it's as deep within us as our language or religion. Its walls serve their function inside our heads. Fearing to venture beyond its confines, where we might feel the pain of shame, we shrink from opportunities, from fun, from love. That's how shame colonizes our lives.

— The Shame Machine by Cathy O'Neil (Page 25)

We exist in a lineage of Maroons, rebels, and revolutionaries, people who decided to live free or die, as the motto goes, since the first enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas. While our struggle is not new, the dynamics we face are the products of ever-evolving global economic and political systems set up to exploit those living on the margins. Despite centuries of Black freedom struggle in the Americas we continue to fall short of getting free. Our people’s history of resistance is not fully known or valued—despite serving as a model for liberation struggles throughout the world. Knowledge must be democratized. Principled debate and struggle distributes knowledge and generates ideas. And in doing so, people can have radical visions of their very own. Political discomfort is necessary for growth.

— Unapologetic by Charlene A. Carruthers (Page 41)

Our history of resistance shows what oppressed humans will do when freedom and collective liberation are on the horizon. Our resistance is richly textured, and our tactics range from armed rebellion and self-defense to various forms of noncooperation (e.g., sit-ins and boycotts) to cultural preservation—all under various threats of violence. Knowing we are part of the Black radical tradition, young Black people feel a duty to fight for our freedom, as directed by Assata Shakur. This responsibility is both a birthright and a burden.

— Unapologetic by Charlene A. Carruthers (Page 24)

One thing was now very clear to me. If we continue to be a society of people who are severely under-slept and overworked; who switch tasks every three minutes; who are tracked and monitored by social-media sites designed to figure out our weaknesses and manipulate them to make us scroll and scroll and scroll; who are so stressed that we become hypervigilant; who eat diets that cause our energy to spike and crash; who are breathing in a chemical soup of brain-inflaming toxins every day—then, yes, we will continue to be a society with serious attention problems. But there is an alternative. It’s to organize and fight back—to take on the forces that are setting fire to our attention, and replace them with forces that will help us to heal.

— Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (Page 273)

We are fighting for our lives against formidable enemies, but we are optimistic and steadfast in the idea that we can learn to treat each other better. We are participating in various projects of abolition—abolition of prison, abolition of capitalism, and abolition of patriarchal violence. We are practicing and theorizing as we go. We are seeking to eradicate oppressive systems in the world. And all our effort is worth it.

— Unapologetic by Charlene A. Carruthers (Page 18)