My activism did not spring from being black...The racial injustice that was present in this country during my youth was a challenge to my belief in the oneness of the human family. Bayard Rustin More Quotes by Bayard Rustin More Quotes From Bayard Rustin Let us be enraged about injustice, but let us not be destroyed by it. Bayard Rustin destroyed injustice We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers. Bayard Rustin ubuntu community peace If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end. Bayard Rustin democracy desire mean People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself. Bayard Rustin given fighting people If we want to do away with the injustice to gays it will not be done because we get rid of the injustice to gays. It will be done because we are forwarding the effort for the elimination of injustice to all. And we will win the rights for gays, or blacks, or Hispanics, or women within the context of whether we are fighting for all. Bayard Rustin gay fighting winning We are all one - and if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way. Bayard Rustin hard knows way When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him. Bayard Rustin acknowledge-you dignity society If we desire a society in which men are brothers, then we must act towards one another with brotherhood. If we can build such a society, then we would have achieved the ultimate goal of human freedom. Bayard Rustin brother goal men You have to join every other movement for the freedom of people. Therefore join the movement as individuals against anti-Semitism, join the movements for the rights of Hispanics, the rights of women, the rights of gays. In other words, I think that each movement has to stand on its own feet because it has a particular agenda, but it can ask other people. Bayard Rustin gay rights thinking The real radical is that person who has a vision of equality and is willing to do those things that will bring reality closer to that vision. . . Bayard Rustin radical vision real If I do not fight bigotry wherever it is, bigotry is thereby strengthened. And to the degree that it is strengthened, it will, thereby, have the power to turn on me. Bayard Rustin turns degrees fighting Gays are beginning to realize what blacks learned long ago: Unless you are out here fighting for yourself then nobody else will help you. I think the gay community has a moral obligation to continue the fight. Bayard Rustin gay fighting thinking The only weapon we have is our bodies, and we need to tuck them in places so wheels don't turn Bayard Rustin weapons body needs To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true. Bayard Rustin behave ifs Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new ‘niggers’ are gays. It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people. Bayard Rustin gay law people The moral man is he who is opposed to injustice per se, opposed to injustice wherever he finds it; the moral man looks for injustice first of all in himself. Bayard Rustin men looks firsts God does not require us to achieve any of the good tasks that humanity must pursue. What God requires of us is that we not stop trying. Bayard Rustin ubuntu humanity peace Every indifference to prejudice is suicide because, if I don’t fight all bigotry, bigotry itself will be strengthened and, sooner or later, it will return on me. Bayard Rustin prejudice fighting suicide You have to join every other movement for the freedom of people. Bayard Rustin movement people Bigotrys birthplace is the sinister back room of the mind where plots and schemes are hatched for the persecution and oppression of other human beings. Bayard Rustin birth-place plot mind
