20th Century African American Women

"Ilhan Omar and myself, for the experiences that we all went through—I mean, and it wasn’t Muslims that elected us. It was non-Muslims. That is a huge, again, inspirational, powerful message. And I feel like this—you know, people call it the blue wave and the pink wave and the Muslim wave. It’s this rainbow that is like coming to Congress...all of the people that are running are just an incredible array of what we really love about our country and the beauty of our country. And I can’t wait to hold her hand as we walk through the halls of Congress. She brings so much courage. I was like, “Please don’t let me be the only one, Ilhan.” And she’s like, “I got it.” And so, I’m thrilled that Congresswoman-elect or candidate Omar will be joining me."

"I am sure @AOC and every member of Congress who cares about children will sign on. Super proud of @BettyMcCollum04 for her leadership on this issue"

"I am told every day that I am anti-American if I am not pro-Israel. I find that to be problematic and I am not alone. I just happen to be willing to speak up on it and open myself to attacks."

"It's all about the Benjamins baby."

"Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel."

"A “pro-life” agenda looks like: gun safety laws, universal school meals, Medicare for All, universal pre-k, combating the climate crisis"

"You get what you organize for!"

"Bombing a hospital is among the gravest of war crimes. The IDF reportedly blowing up one of the few places the injured and wounded can seek medical treatment and shelter during a war is horrific."

"Just as we honor the humanity of the hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians and 9 Americans who were killed this weekend, we must honor the humanity of the innocent Palestinian civilians who have been killed and whose lives are upended."

"I condemn the horrific acts we are seeing unfold today in Israel against children, women, the elderly, and the unarmed people who are being slaughtered and taken hostage by Hamas. Such senseless violence will only repeat the back and forth cycle we've seen, which we cannot allow to continue. We need to call for deescalation and ceasefire. I will keep advocating for peace and justice throughout the Middle East."

"when we engage in the creation of our foreign policy, we are truly disconnected from the foreign nations that it will impact and the humans who are going to be impacted by our foreign policy. And so, even as we think about capitalism and we think about our trade policies and we think about the creation of jobs and we think about the fight for unionized labor here, oftentimes when we talk about dignified workplace, we don’t connect that to be something that someone else deserves in another country. And so, when you’re thinking about Mexico or Honduras or El Salvador or any of these countries that we might ship our jobs to and have a working environment there, we don’t think about the fact that these organizations, these corporations are now going to be exploiting workers over there. It’s not just that we are losing jobs, but there is literally going to be an exploitation of workers over there."

"I think the shock that our presence really has brought is that for too long people have gotten used to having mediocre white men show up and think they own the day, without anybody ever questioning their credentials, their qualifications and their vision for a broken America. And for the first time you have women, who should be apologetic, who should feel small, who might visibly be small, who come in and know their place, understand their power, fully execute their vision and never, never really look shaken by the insecurities that many who thought they were powerful feel now that their power is challenged. And so, for me, I feel like, you know, people are often wondering, like, “If you’ve got all of these challenges, Ilhan, how do you still continue? Or why do you all feel like you thrive in your controversies?” And it’s because we don’t live in controversy. We live in constant struggle for the truth, and we live in constant struggle in remaking America in its image of freedom and liberty for all, not the image of the past, but the image of what the future of America should look like."

"I always find an opportunity in every challenge. And I know that at this moment, we have had an opportunity to see every — every broken system reveal itself. We have had an opportunity for people to recognize what they are not only losing, but what they could gain. We have had an opportunity to allow for the racists and the bigots to fully tell on themselves. And we have had an opportunity for people who have never really imagined themselves fully powerful in the corridors of power to recognize that they cannot be muzzled, intimidated and silenced, that we are not ever going to be dismissed unless we allow ourselves to be dismissed."

"I think, for many of us, you know, 2016 was going to be an election year where we were going to decide what kind of country we were going to be. It was very clear that on one side there was someone running for president who presented an extreme danger, not only to our democracy, but to the very lives of the American people. ..our presence, really, and our elections were not only to resist the harmful policies that are coming from this administration and that have now become the norm, but it’s to restore hope."

"to those fighting for democracy and the right to vote each and every day: never give up."

"anger is misplaced on individuals. It should be directed at the way society is set up. Then it should be used to change the way society is set up."

"I'm still on the journey to find our America. Although it might not be the reality every day for everyone in this country, the American dream isn't just something immigrants talk about who are coming to or want to come to this land. It is part of the American psyche and ultimately what we citizens of the United States are all searching for."

"I want to help all those who feel small to feel large; to give strength to all those who believe they are weak; to make loud those who think they are voiceless. To me, that is the American dream."

"My strength doesn't come from a lack of fear but from an overpowering sense of moral outrage."

"There has never been a member of Congress who looks or sounds anything like me."

"I ran for government precisely to challenge the systemic injustices faced by those perceived in our society as not worthy."

"My hijab is a personal reminder of the tension between submission and struggle."

"The politics of "moral clarity and courage," which I often reference, includes lending one's voice and listening. There is no way to do the kind of work I do, to have the honest dialogues that lead to solutions to constituents' issues, without bumping into things and hurting others. That's just human nature. Ideally, though, I remedy it. While not popular in the Trumpian vision for America, introspection and contrition are signs not of weakness but of strength."

"Freedom of thought and speech-the essence of what it means to be human-is my right no matter the color of my skin or my religion. It's the right of people who speak with accents or whose hair texture is different. Religious minorities, the formerly incarcerated, those without bank accounts or homes, the neurodiverse. No label should rule out participation."

"We all have our blind spots."

"You can't take away the past; you can only add to the narrative. There is a narrative about Muslims that already exists. I'm not here to undo or rewrite history. That is propaganda or an impossibility. What I, and others, can do is expand on the notion of what it means to be Muslim, continue the story line that survives alongside us."

"One of the most toxic misperceptions of my faith is that because I'm a Muslim, I hate Israel and the Jewish people. Although that couldn't be further from reality, whenever I criticize Israel, it is filtered through this lens."

"I am a human, not a figurehead."

"Living authentically is the best form of resistance."

"My brand of optimism is based on my denying myself any sense of victimization and taking comfort in the fact that whatever difficulties present themselves today, they will not exist tomorrow. I believe that by pushing hard enough, you will eventually end up somewhere better. Some have observed that I have an "iron spine." I prefer to see it as a process of figuring out how to channel every challenge into an opportunity. That mentality, which worked in the state house, has always worked for me."

"From the Muslim ban onward, I had the painful realization that even though most of what the administration was going to throw at us was very personal in that their proposals would have an actual impact on me and those that I love, I couldn't grieve because I had to show up for my constituents and the country. At least when I was fighting for them, I was no longer afraid."

"I believe you get what you organize for"

"Your success and the successes of others you inspire can heal your wounds."

"When I stood up for Noor, I was standing up for every single Somali-not just on that day but every day forward. As I later wrote in an op-ed for the Star Tribune: "I am a 31-year-old Somali-Muslim woman, a mother of three and an unapologetic progressive. Some suggest that as a woman, I meddle in political affairs and need to be "put in my place." Some say I deserved what I got because my opinions are contrary to those of a few male political leaders in our community. In addition, a small group has decided that one Somali elected official is enough and now the community should sit down and be quiet." I would never be quiet, even if threatened with violence. If a Somali candidate wants to run for office of his own free will, no permission from the political establishment is required."

"It's my belief that in public service, if you aren't making someone uncomfortable, you aren't doing your job."

"As a refugee who has escaped tragedy, you never stop thinking about all those who didn't make it out, how much they suffered and how many died."

"I'm a Muslim and live as such, but I'm also a humanist. Just as I believe in God, so also do I believe that we are all connected no matter our faith, belief in science, race, or country of origin. We all have an ability to enrich one another not in spite of our differences but because of them."

"I'm centered by the hijab, because it connects me to a whole set of internally held beliefs."

"War doesn't restore. It just robs. It takes everything."

"Ensuring that the democratic system is prepared for all the challenges it faces ignites me to this day. From increasing access for new Americans united in their excitement to participate to reaching out to the disillusioned to explain the purpose of their involvement, those who are conscious of what isn't working have a responsibility to figure out how to make it better. But it all starts with just showing up, and that's something all of us can do."

"we can't eradicate problems unless we put ourselves in the shoes of those impacted by the solutions we implement."

"The more invested we are in one another, the better all of us ultimately will be. This is the philosophy of interconnectedness that I operate on as a legislator in a country where there is enough abundance to achieve all our goals. It is the opposite of the myth of scarcity, where what's mine necessarily takes away from yours. We become obsessed with who has more and depressed about all that we lack. This mentality is what pits minority groups against one another in a fight for scraps. Those propping up the status quo are happy to see us so distracted. I would like to reframe the old adage that one person's gain is another's loss. I want your loss to be my loss; your gain, mine, too."

"I truly believe the America that we all want and deserve is not just a myth but a place that could actually exist. But only if we work for it, and not just individually-not just for ourselves, our families, or our ethnicities, religions, or other groups to which we belong. We need to work for it together."

"Education had always been deeply prized on both my mother's and father's sides of the family. For a period when Awoowe, my paternal grandfather, lived with us back in Somalia, he would call me into his room each morning before I left for school to make sure I understood that I was a beneficiary of the attributes of Araweelo, a Somali queen who fought for the rights of women and the disenfranchised."

"Michelle was so mature beyond her years, so thoughtful and perceptive. She really prodded me about what the job would be like because she had lots of choices. I offered it to her on the spot, which was totally inappropriate because I should have talked to the mayor first. But I just knew she was really special. Barack never grills. That's part of what is so effective about him: He puts you completely at ease, and the next thing you know he's asking more and more probing questions and gets you to open up and reflect a little bit. That night we talked about his childhood compared to my childhood and realized we both had rather…unusual childhoods. Married in 1983, separated in 1987, and divorced in 1988. Enough said. He was a physician. He passed away. I want to say in about 1991. We grew up together. We were friends since childhood. In a sense, he was the boy next door. I married without really appreciating how hard divorce would be. I have to tell you: My daughter is in seventh heaven about me being in Vogue. Nothing else I have done has fazed her at all. But this! She's like, 'Oh, Mom. You don't understand. This is really big.' I have never heard him yell,Ever. Not once in seventeen years. He's not a yeller. Because my dad worked at the university, he could swing by and take Laura to school and pick her up from her first day of nursery school until the day she graduated from high school. They would often have breakfast and have these wonderful conversations."

"Hi, this is Roseanne Barr and I'd like to welcome you to my own studio, where I'm able to speak for myself to my fellow and sister Americans without the filter of the biased media," she said. "This was my statement from the very beginning and it will continue to be forever because it is the truth. When ABC called and asked me to explain my 'egregious and unforgivable tweet,' I told them I thought Valerie Jarrett was white. And I also said, 'I'm willing to go on The View, Jimmy Kimmel, or whatever other show you want me to go on and explain that to my audience.'"

"@ValerieJarrett i don't know if u saw it, but I wanted2 apologize to u 4 hurting and upsetting u with an insensitive & tasteless tweet. I am truly sorry-my whole life has been about fighting racism. I made a terrible mistake wh caused hundreds of ppl 2 lose their jobs. so sorry!"

"You need your medication!"

"The President’s behavior towards me made me wonder: What did he have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow Republican? It was not really about asking him to do more, was it? Or was it something else? … However, this gave me a clear vision of his world as it is. No real relationships, just convenient transactions. That is an insufficient way to implement sincere service and policy. This election experience and these comments shines a spotlight on the problems Washington politicians have with minorities and black Americans – it’s transactional, it’s not personal. … You see, we feel like politicians claim they know what’s best for us from a safe distance, yet they’re never willing to take us home. Because Republicans never take minority communities into their home and citizens into their homes and into their hearts, they stay with Democrats and bureaucrats in Washington because they do take them home — or at least make them feel like they have a home."

"Each child born and unborn has the potential to open up our world and take us to places and spaces we've never imagined … Each living child carries with him or her the potential for greatness. … Every time we kill a child, we, all of us, suffer … We lose a little of ourselves and a whole lot of our future. … Forty-one years ago that couple from Haiti could have made the choice to abort, but they didn’t. They chose life. They didn’t choose what might have been; they chose what is to come. They went and followed and fostered that life, and the future and the dreams that baby would bring. … I'm certain that this couple would never have thought that that child would become the first black female Republican ever to be elected to Congress."