DeRay Mckesson Quotes

DeRay Mckesson

Profession : Activist

Birth : July 9, 1985

I think about Twitter as the friend that's always awake. It's why I tweet so much.

DeRay Mckesson

I think the reality is that there's a role for everybody to play in the work of social justice and that we have to organize everybody. That means that Silicon Valley has to be organized, the fashion industry has to be organized, the formerly incarcerated have to be organized, the teachers.

DeRay Mckesson

I think that Silicon Valley and technology can play a huge role in redefining what community looks like and how people come together and what authentic relationships look like, but that is not only their burden.

DeRay Mckesson

Most of my life's information is public. I got a text one day from a hacker who texted me all of my credit card information.

DeRay Mckesson

It will always be important that people continue to push on the system from the outside. It will also be important that people make the changes that we know are necessary on the inside.

DeRay Mckesson

I'm not a politician. I'm somebody who knows the world can be better, and I'm willing to fight for it.

DeRay Mckesson

If you close your eyes and think about where you feel the most safe, you're probably not going to tell me it's in a room full of police. You feel safe where you're around people that love you, when you have food and shelter, when you're being pushed to be your best self and learn.

DeRay Mckesson

Systemic change rarely comes overnight.

DeRay Mckesson

I actually get very little phone calls. I get way more tweets and texts. My phone rarely rings.

DeRay Mckesson

People are more afraid of black unity than black rage.

DeRay Mckesson

People often confuse visibility with a lot of other things. Sometimes I become a proxy for things that just aren't true about me. People will say, 'DeRay got millions of dollars in grants.' That's just not true... I'm broke.

DeRay Mckesson

The police, at their best, do three things; they prevent crime, they respond to crime, and they solve crime. In all three of those buckets, they need the trust of the community to do it, so I believe that if we restore the trust that we will change the way police are experiencing communities and ways that will preserve life and make everyone safer.

DeRay Mckesson

I think about all of my students who were math-phobic, who didn't believe they could learn math, who didn't understand, who didn't think they were smart enough, and by the end, they understood that they already had the gifts, and my job was to help them access them, and I believe that.

DeRay Mckesson

My father and mother deeply loved me and my sister.

DeRay Mckesson

If anything, any success that I have ever experienced has been because people who didn't have to care about me did, and they pushed me to see things in myself that I did not see in myself at the time.

DeRay Mckesson

It is one thing to talk about fundraising and another to do it as a candidate, and I have learned so much about how much money it costs to run a campaign and what it means to raise money.

DeRay Mckesson

Asking people for money is really different than asking people for their support.

DeRay Mckesson

Being mayor is about offering a vision for the city, putting the right people in the right place, and executing that vision.

DeRay Mckesson

I've worked in two public school districts, Minneapolis and Baltimore, one as a senior leader. And while we might not always have agreed with the union, and we might have had deep differences, they came to the table.

DeRay Mckesson

Laws on hate speech and hate crimes do important work in a world that has been rooted in racism and bigotry since the inception of this country, which was not founded on ideals of justice.

DeRay Mckesson