I Don't Know What America Has Really Learned. We Are Too Quick To Do What's Expedient On Behalf Of Our Culture Of Greed And Hedonism. We're Quite Prepared To Go To Conditions Of Tyranny In Order To Sustain That Culture, And We Do It In The Name Of Democracy, When Nothing Could Be More Undemocratic. We Do It In The Name Of Saving The Values Of Our Society, When The Way We Behave Corrupts Those Values. We Do It In The Name Of God In Whom We Believe, When In Fact We Have Corrupted Our Own Vision Of The Christian Journey.

-Harry Belafonte

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I Don't Know What

Harry Belafonte

Topic

Christian

Believe

Journey

More From Harry Belafonte

You Can Be Arrested And Not Charged. You Can Be Arrested And Have No Right To Counsel.

Arrested

Wherever I Found Resistance To Oppression, Whether In Africa, In Latin America, Certainly Here In America In The South, I Joined That Resistance. I Took Part In The Labor Movement, In Social Movements, In The Church Community. I Felt That It Was The Honorable Thing To Do And Still Do.

Latin

America

Community

I've Always Been Supportive Of The Right Of Israel As A State, And I've Always Fought Against Anti-semitism, Even In My Own Community.

Israel

Community

Supportive

I Would Hope With All My Heart, That Jay Z Not Take Personally What Was Said... I Would Like To Take This Opportunity To Say To Jay Z And Beyonce: I’m Wide Open, My Heart Is Filled With Nothing But Hope And The Promise That We Can Sit And Have A One-on-one To Understand Each Other.

The Usa Has More People In Prison That Any Other Country, Including Countries With Much Larger Populations. 13% Of The Population Is Black But 80% Of The People In Prison Are Black, Mostly For Soft Crimes.

Country

Usa

People

I Think Being Born In America And Growing Up Exclusively Within The American Boundaries Of Race And Race Oppression Is A Very Different Experience For Those Of Us Who Grew Up Under The Boundaries Of Race And Race Experience In The Caribbean Or For Those Who Grew Up In Africa.

Growing Up

Thinking

America

John Say's It's James Who Started First, James Tells The Story In Reverse. I Drag My Belt From Off Me Waist, You Should Have Heard Dem Screaming Round De Place.

Family

Should Have

Stories

Anti-democracy...is A Virus That Exists, And Pro-democracy Is The Antibody To That Virus, And I Think We Have To Become Vigilant, And We Have To Stay On Top Of The Issues Of Democracy And Freedom.

Freedom

Thinking

Issues

I Didn't Like The Wiz And It Wasn't Because Black People Were Doing It. I Didn't Like The Wiz Because It Was A Badly Made Movie Off A Classic. Why Are You Remaking Something Unless You Have Something Better In Mind?

People

Black

Mind

I Don't Think That (u.s. President) George Bush...is A Man Of Honor.

Men

Thinking

Honor

Fascism Is Fascism. Terrorism Is Terrorism. Oppression Is Oppression.

Oppression

Terrorism

Fascism

Through Electing Officials That Will Protect The Constitution And Commit Themselves To The Rights Of The People And The Health Of The Nation, We Will Be Able To Ensure That No Group Of Ideologues And No Private Sector Institution Can Coopt Our Rights, Take Us Into Senseless Wars And Steal The Nation From Its People.

War

Rights

People

I Don't Find Inspiration On Wall Street. I Don't Find That In Beverly Hills. I Don't Find That In Places Where Opportunity Resides Unbridled, And I Think The Real Creative Energy And The Real Juice Is In Where People Are Caught, In The Economic Abyss.

Wall

Real

Inspiration

Turning Against The Church I Also Had To Turn Against A Lot Of The Teachings Of People In My Family Who Were Very Much Of The Church And Caught In It, And Every Time I Turned To Find Where Resides The Good In The Church, All I Saw Was The Demonic, The Lucifer Of The Journey.

Teaching

Journey

People

I Am Who I Am Despite What America Has Put Before Me. I Am Who I Am Despite The Obstacles That We Have All Faced Based Upon Race And Based Upon Social And Spiritual Humiliation.

Spiritual

Who I Am

America

Art In Its Highest Form Is Art That Serves And Instructs Society And Human Development.

Art

Creativity

Society

You Can Cage The Singer But Not The Song.

Music

Song

Singers

I Realized That Most White Americans Knew Very Little About Our History And Our Struggle, And Were Having Difficulty Understanding The Basis For Our Agitation And Our Resistance And Our Complaints. I Also Discovered That While Black Americans Had A Sense Of The Beauty And Tragedy Of The Journey From The Time Of Slavery Until Now, We Were Not Rooted In The Specifics. I Thought One Way To Familiarize People With That History Would Be Through The Voices Of The Great Folk Artists.

Struggle

Artist

Journey

When I Was Born, I Was Colored. I Soon Became A Negro. Not Long After That I Was Black. Most Recently I Was African-american. It Seems We're On A Roll Here. But I Am Still First And Foremost In Search Of Freedom.

Long

African American

Black

Many Who Have Nothing Opposed To The Few Who Have Everything, And As Long As These Disparities Remain, As Long As These Distances Remain Between People And Forces, I Think We'll Be In A Perpetual State Of Upheaval.

Distance

Thinking

Long

Bring It On. Dissent Is Central To Any Democracy.

Democracy

Dissent

In The Gun Game, We Are The Most Hunted. The River Of Blood That Washes The Streets Of Our Nation Flows Mostly From The Bodies Of Our Black Children.

Children

Gun

Blood

I Became An Anti-fascist, And The More I Saw What Was Happening To The Peoples Of Europe, The Jews, The More I Saw The Deep Cruelty And Inhumanity Of That System And Its Philosophy Of White Supremacy.

Philosophy

Europe

White

We Have The Opportunity Now To Look At The Two Billion People In The World Who Suffer From The Most Abject Poverty, Hunger, Disease, And Devastation. Add To That Another Two Billion People Who Are Just Plain Poor. If You Look Into The World Of Those Caught In Economic Oppression, Illiteracy, Disease, And Sexism, Then You'll Understand More Clearly What We Have To Do.

Opportunity

Two

People

In Poor Environment, I Find Great Inspiration. Many Of The Men And Women Whom I Admire As Artists, The Things They Write, The Songs They Sing, The Admission Is Filled With Inspired Moments To Overcome Oppression.

Song

Inspiration

Writing

The Only Thing Left For Barack Obama To Do Is To Work Like A Third World Dictator And Just Put All These Guys In Jail.

Jail

Guy

World

Where Is The Raised Voice Of Black America? Why Are We Mute?

Voice

America

Black

Since I Have Escaped The Harshness Of The Economic Bounds Of Poverty, I Have Stayed Very Connected To It Spiritually. I Reside And Live And Go And Socialize And Exist Among Those Who Suffer Daily From The Relationship That They Have To Poverty, Black Men And Women Who Are Incarcerated. Actually, All People Who Are Incarcerated, Not Just Black.

Men

People

Black

Each And Every One Of You Has The Power, The Will And The Capacity To Make A Difference In The World In Which You Live In

Inspirational

Change

Power

Not Since The Early Days Of The Civil Rights Movement Has America Been Given An Opportunity As Great As The Opportunity We Have Now. It's One Thing For Us To Avenge Our Pain, Our Anger, And Our Rage By Targeting Bin Laden And A Handful Of Men Who Have Wrought This Villainy. But One Should Be Wise Enough To Ask, What Fueled All This? What Continues To Sustain The Possibility That This Will Not Go Away? I Think The Answer Is Poverty.

Wise

Pain

Men

There's An Old Saying In The Days Of Slavery, There Are Those Slaves Who Lived On The Plantation, And There Were Those Slaves Who Lived In The House. You Got The Privilege Of Living In The House If You Served The Master To Exactly The Way The Master Intended To Have You Serve Him. That Gave You Privilege. Colin Powell Is Permitted To Come Into The House Of The Master, As Long As He Will Serve The Master According To The Master's Dictates. Now, When Colin Powell Dares To Suggest Something Other Than What The Master Wants To Hear, He Will Be Turned Back Out To Pasture.

Long

House

Want

I Like Colin Powell, I Like His West Indian Background, I Like His Intellect, I Like A Lot Of Things That He Does And His Style. What Is At Fault Here Is A Policy That's Taking This Country To Hell.

Country

Style

Faults

We Have Got To Bring Corporate America To Its Knees

America

Knees

Globalization

When I Go Across The Country, Whether It's Albuquerque, New Mexico, Whether It's Birmingham, Alabama Or Milwaukee, Wisconsin, There Are Always Forces At Play That I Choose To Relate To And Extract Inspiration From, And As Long As They Stay Committed To The Struggle Against Poverty, I Find A Role For Myself.

Country

Struggle

Inspiration

These Children And Their Parents Know That Getting An Education Is Not Only Their Right, But A Passport To A Better Future - For The Children And For The Country.

Education

Country

Children

No Matter What The Greatest Tyrant In The World, The Greatest Terrorist In The World, George W. Bush Says, We're Here To Tell You: Not Hundreds, Not Thousands, But Millions Of The American People ... Support Your Revolution.

Tyrants

People

Support

Each Time We Arrive At A New Level In Extricating Ourselves From Economic, Social, Spiritual Domination, We Have A Moment When We Dance In The World Of These New Experiences, Only To Find That The Music Soon Stops, The Dance Ends, And We're Struggling Once Again To Save Ourselves From Being Thrown Back Into Those Conditions.

Spiritual

Struggle

New Experiences

The Catholic Church Had Strict Racial Attitudes And Intolerance For Anybody Who Was Not Catholic. When I Look At A Lot Of Black Ministers And What Went On In The Black Church, I Was More Caught Up With Those Who Were In Cadillacs And Shiny Suits Than I Was With Those Who Were Kingian In Their Style.

Attitude

Catholic

Black

Children Who Have Lost Parents To Hiv/aids Are Not Only Just As Deserving Of An Education As Any Other Children, But They May Need That Education Even More. Being Part Of A School Environment Will Prepare Them For The Future, While Helping To Remove The Stigma And Discrimination Unfortunately Associated With Aids.

Children

School

Fighting

I'm Called A Folk Singer, And I'm Not Too Sure About That. I Went About My Life Approaching Music Not From The Point Of View Of A Singer, But From The Point Of View Of An Actor. That's How I First Started To Sing.

Views

Actors

Singers

From The Point Of View Of The Poor, The Hungry, The Disenfranchised, The Wretched Of The Earth... There Will Never Be Peace Until Their Condition Has Been Alleviated And Until Their Humanity Is In Full Bloom.

Views

Humanity

Earth

Why Are We Mute? Where Are Our Leaders, Our Legislators? Where Is The Church?

Leader

Church

Mute

Although We Had A Lot Of Villainy Here In America, Adolf Hitler Was Certainly The Most Visible Illustration Of What Would Happen If Fascism Went Unchallenged.

Illustration

America

Fascism

When I Went To Japan I Sang In Japanese; When I Went To Greece I Sang In Greek. When I Went To Spain, I Sang In Spanish. I Couldn't Speak It Very Well, But I Sang, I Was Beautiful In Singing It. These Things Just Constantly Attracted People To The Uniqueness Of Who I Was And The Way In Which I Performed.

Beautiful

Japan

People

The Human Spirit Is Resilient And Truth - No Matter How Long You Abuse It And How Long You Try To Crush It - Will, As Dr. King Would Say, Rise Up Again, And In The Final Analysis Will Prevail.

Crush

Kings

Long

When I Was 40 And Looking At 60, It Seemed Like A Thousand Miles Away. But 62 Feels Like A Week And A Half Away From 80. I Must Now Get On With Those Things I Always Talked About Doing But Put Off.

Half

Week

Miles

Poverty Continues To Exist. Its Appearance Seems To Be Relentless In Evidencing Itself Not Only To All The Things We Experience Here In America, But Certainly What We See Globally. And I Don't See Anywhere Any Philosophical Analysis That Suggests We Know How To Get Out Of This.

Philosophical

America

Analysis

America Can No Longer Afford To Be As Arrogant As We've Been. We Can No Longer Exempt Ourselves From The Global Family Of Concern.

America

Arrogant

Concern

Our Foreign Policy Has Made A Wreck Of This Planet. I'm Always In Africa... And When I Go To These Places I See American Policy Written On The Walls Of Oppression Everywhere.

Wall

Wrecks

Oppression

I Think There's A Lot That The Larger Society Could Have Been Taught Or Can Be Taught, But I'm Not Sure - Given How Unyielding The Larger Society Has Been - That Much Has Been Learned.

Thinking

Unyielding

Taught

If I've Impacted On One Heart, One Mind, One Soul, And Brought To That Individual A Greater Truth Than That Individual Came Into A Relationship With Me Having, Then I Would Say That I Have Been Successful.

Success

Heart

Soul

We [americans] Move About The World Arrogantly, Calling Wars When We Want, Overthrowing Governments When We Want. There Is A Price To Be Paid For It -- Look At 9/11. [that] Wasn't Just Bin Laden. Bin Laden Didn't Come From The Abstract. He Came From Somewhere, And If You Look Where ... You'll See America's Hand Of Villainy.

War

Moving

Government

My Formative Years, Until I Was 12, Was All Shaped By Jamaican Culture, By That Economy, By The People In My Family, Who Are Agriculturalists, Who Were Plantation Workers, Who Harvested Those Crops And Took Them Down To The Boats Run By The United Food Company, To Load Those Ships At Night, Hence All The Songs That I Sing That Come From That Environment.

Running

Song

Night

I Think [g.w.] Bush Has A Very Selfish, Arrogant Point Of View. I Think He Is Interested In Power, I Think He Believes His Truth Is The Only Truth, And That He Will Do What He Wants To Do Despite The People.

Selfish

Believe

Thinking

I Delighted In The Music Of Africa, The Earliest Of The Slave Plantation Songs, The Transformation Into Christianity And All That Christianity Brought To The Lives Of The Africans Who Were Forced To Come To America.

Song

America

Transformation

I Grew Up In A School System . . . Where Nobody Understood The Meaning Of Learning Disorder. In The West Indies, I Was Constantly Being Physically Abused Because The Whipping Of Students Was Permitted.

School

West Indies

Students

I Am A Man Who Perceives Life In A Certain Way, A Man Who Rejects Things That Defecate On Humankind, Who Rejects Anything That Will Not Give People Room For Dissent.

Men

People

Giving

The Sham Engineers Of The Music Industry, Who Steer The Wheels Of Public Opinion, Are Driving The Good Features Of Calypso Into The Ground. I Shudder To Think What These Greedy Men Will Eventually Do To This True Art Form.

Art

Men

Thinking

Artists Are The Gatekeepers Of Truth. We Are Civilization’s Anchor. We Are The Compass For Humanity’s Conscience.

Artist

Anchors

Civilization

I Come From A Sense Of Struggle, A Sense Of Using The Instruments That Were Given To Me To Manipulate The Environment In Which I Found Myself, And Joined Up With Those Who Are Equally As Skillful At Manipulating That Environment, As Was I.

Struggle

Environment

Given

I Not Only Think That They (u.s. Leaders) Are Misguided, But I Think They Know Exactly What They Are Doing And I Think That They Are Men Who Are Possessed Of Evil.

Men

Thinking

Evil

Terrorism Is In Many, Many Ways The Final Utterance Of Voices Unheard.

Voice

Finals

Utterance

Do Not Submit. It Is Extremely Critical That Repression Be Met Full Head-on And That It Be Resisted With Every Fiber In Our Being. There Is Just Absolutely No Compromise That Can Be Made With It.

Fiber

Compromise

Being There

Without Compromise Repression Would Be Defeated. Just As Some Cancers Feed On Hormones, Compromise Becomes The Hormone Of Oppression.

Cancer

Would Be

Compromise

I Think America Offers A Dream That Cannot Be Fulfilled As Easily Anywhere Else In The World As It Could Be Fulfilled Here. Although Oppression Was Common To All Of Us, Those Styles Of Oppression Gave Us The Opportunity To See The World In Dimensions We Didn't Quite See Growing Up In Any One Place.

Dream

Growing Up

Opportunity

Carmen Jones Was The First All-negro Film That Became A Great Box-office Success. It Established The Fact That Pictures With Negro Artists, Pictures Dealing With The Folklore Of Negro Life, Were Commercially Feasible. This Was A Sign Of Growth That Had Occurred In The United States And Throughout The World.

Artist

Office

Growth

To Really Know What Progress We’re Making For Children, We Have To Know How Many Children We Have To Begin With. The Simple Act Of Counting Is An Expression Of A Country’s Intent To Take Care Of Its People.

Country

Children

Simple

Pop Culture Has None Of The Vibrancy That You Find In The Folk Culture, Where People Speak Directly To Their Own Experience In The Human Condition.

People

Culture

Vibrancy

Hitler Had A Lot Of Jews High Up In The Hierarchy Of The Third Reich. Color Does Not Necessarily Denote Quality, Content Or Value. If A Black Is A Tyrant, He Is First And Foremost A Tyrant, Then He Incidentally Is Black. Bush Is A Tyrant And If He Gathers Around Him Black Tyrants, They All Have To Be Treated As They Are Being Treated.

Color

Tyrants

Black

I Think That They [bush Administration] Are Men Who Are Possessed Of Evil.

Men

Thinking

Evil

Bin Laden Didn't Come From The Abstract. He Came From Somewhere, And If You Look Where ... You'll See America's Hand Of Villainy.

Hands

America

Looks

Colin Powell's Committed To Come Into The House Of The Master. When Colin Powell Dares To Suggest Something Other Than What The Master Wants To Hear, He Will Be Turned Back Out To Pasture.

House

Want

Masters

This Generosity That Has Been Offered To The United States Says Very Much About The Venezuelan Spirit.

Usa

Generosity

United States

More Than Once My Mother Would Point Out: "harry Belafonte Is The Best-looking Man On The Planet."

Mother

Men

Planets

I Think Now, With Our Technology, Our Capacity To Grow Food, Our Ability To Stop Raping The Earth And Destroying The Ecology And Killing Off Fellow Creatures, We Have A Chance To Bring A New Harmony And A New Path To Human Development.

Thinking

Technology

Path

I'm Very Familiar With Poverty. I Find It Easy To Be With, Whether I'm In America Or In Africa Or In Asia. Wherever I Go And Find The Environment Of Those Who Are Living In Poverty And Resisting Poverty Is A Great In Which I Have Great Comfort.

America

Comfort

Asia

As A Matter Of Fact, Compromise Is What Oppression Feeds On.

Matter

Facts

Compromise

In My Earliest Of Years, My Mother Was A Huge Force In My Life. She Was For All Intents And Purposes, A Single Parent. My Father Had Abandoned Us. He Was An Alcoholic And A Physical Abuser. My Mother Lived Through That Tyranny And Made Her Living As A Domestic Worker. She Was Uneducated But She Brought High Principles And Decent Values Into Our Existence, And She Set Lofty Goals For Herself And For Her Children. We Were Forever Inspired By Her Strength And By Her Resistance To Racism And To Fascism.

Mother

Children

Father

If You Believe In Justice, If You Believe In Democracy, If You Believe In People's Rights, If You Believe In The Harmony Of All Humankind - Then You Have No Choice But To Back Fidel Castro As Long As It Takes!

Believe

Rights

Long

We've Come To This Dark Time In Which The New Gestapo Of Homeland Security Lurks Here, Where Citizens Are Having Their Rights Suspended.

Dark

Rights

Citizens

Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.

2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.

2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.

2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.

3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.

3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.

3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.

4. Proper Usage of Quotes

4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.

4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.

4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.

5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.

5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.

6. Quotes in Different Contexts

6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.

6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.

6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.

7. Punctuation and Formatting

Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:

Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.

Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.

Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.

8. Ethical Considerations

Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes

Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.

Conclusion

Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.

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Christian Nestell Bovee