| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 31605 |
| QUOTATION: | Lately ... Americans have begun to understand that trouble does not start somewhere on the other side of town. It seems to originate inside the absolute middle of the homemade cherry pie. In our history, the state has failed to respond to the weak.... You could be white, male, Presbyterian and heterosexual besides, but if you get fired or if you get sick tomorrow, you might as well be Black, for all the state will want to hear from you. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | June Jordan (b. 1939), U.S. poet, civil rights activist. “Problems of Language in a Democratic State,” Moving Towards Home: Political Essays (1989, first published 1982). |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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