Alicia Garza

Growing up in a school that was majority white, my understanding of the world was that I was different but that differences shouldn't be talked about because it's uncomfortable.

Protest is best used when it's part of a strategy that involves escalating tactics that build pressure on targets.

I think that there is an element where leadership is lonely, but I also believe that it doesn't have to be like that.

We need to make sure we're creating spaces to create new leaders and new types of leadership.

Certainly, we have to make sure our police forces do not have weapons of mass destruction with which they can terrorize our communities.

When we sit and think about what the world needs to looks like in order for black lives to actually matter, there is a debate: What is going to make our communities safe? How do we deal with harm? How do we solve problems that come up in our communities?

Although police terrorism plays a specific role on behalf of the state, it is not the totality of what state violence looks like or feels like in our communities.

The Clintons use black people for votes but then don't do anything for black communities after they're elected. They use us for photo ops.

The demands of the Civil Rights era weren't limited to voting rights - they strove for an end to segregation in all aspects of life, including housing, employment, and public accommodations.

Every successful social movement in this country's history has used disruption as a strategy to fight for social change. Whether it was the Boston Tea Party to the sit-ins at lunch counters throughout the South, no change has been won without disruptive action.

This country was created from stolen land and stolen labor. And from a moral perspective, but also from a practical one, everybody knows that when you steal, you're always looking over your shoulder because you know that somebody may steal it back.

As you keep pulling back the layers of how deeply rooted anti-blackness and white supremacy are in this country, it is exhausting, and it is traumatizing.