DeRay Mckesson Quotes

DeRay Mckesson

Profession : Activist

Birth : July 9, 1985

Protest is political. It is as political as what our conception of America is.

DeRay Mckesson

I love Baltimore. This city has made me the man that I am.

DeRay Mckesson

What we choose to do today and tomorrow will shape our future and build our reality.

DeRay Mckesson

Too often, the elected individuals we put our public trust in disappoint us.

DeRay Mckesson

I am running to be the 50th mayor of Baltimore in order to usher our city into an era where the government is accountable to its people and is aggressively innovative in how it identifies and solves its problems.

DeRay Mckesson

I think about freedom as not only as the absence of oppression but also the presence of justice and joy.

DeRay Mckesson

I think about freedom and the urgency around our imagination. If you can't imagine it, you can't fight for it.

DeRay Mckesson

So many of us don't know what we want; we just know we don't want what we have. We spend 99% of the time talking about how bad it is, but only 1% of the time talking about how we can do something about it.

DeRay Mckesson

I am excited to return to city schools... and to continue doing the work to ensure that every child in Baltimore City receives a world-class education.

DeRay Mckesson

I've never been a surrogate for Bernie, Hillary, or the DNC.

DeRay Mckesson

I have a big following on Twitter, and Twitter has been invaluable for mobilizing and quickly sharing information. But I'm not really sure that people are learning deep content on Twitter.

DeRay Mckesson

Find an issue that's important to you, and be as curious and close to it as possible.

DeRay Mckesson

I think hope is the belief that tomorrow can be better than today, and I don't lose hope.

DeRay Mckesson

A lot of organizers are trying to figure out how do we create entrances for people so they can be involved in the work in a way that makes them feel is aligned to the things they're interested in and not the things the organizer is interested in?

DeRay Mckesson

Activism in the street is truth-telling, and organizing is talking to people for a specific goal.

DeRay Mckesson

We have to create a world where people can show up as whole people every single time.

DeRay Mckesson

As a gay black man, it's important to me to show up - that I'm able to show up as my whole self, in every space that I'm in, because that's how I'm able to be the most true to who I am.

DeRay Mckesson

Twitter is half me trying to live in the world and half me processing and sharing the world. I share a lot, and some of that is to keep me honest.

DeRay Mckesson

There are very few things that I don't talk about - even my relationships.

DeRay Mckesson

I'm not ashamed to be gay.

DeRay Mckesson