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I'm going to be me as I am, and you can beat me or jail me or even kill me, but I'm not going to be what you want me to be.

Steven Biko

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Steven Biko
Age: 30 †
Born: 1946
Born: December 18
Died: 1977
Died: September 12
Activist
Civil Rights Advocate
Politician
Trade Unionist
Writer
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Bantu Stephen Biko
Jail
Beat
Beats
Kill
Even
Going

More quotes by Steven Biko

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The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Steven Biko
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Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.
Steven Biko
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The logic behind white domination is to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country.
Steven Biko
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If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude.
Steven Biko
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The system concedes nothing without demand, for it formulates its very method of operation on the basis that the ignorant will learn to know, the child will grow into an adult and therefore demands will begin to be made. It gears itself to resist demands in whatever way it sees fit.
Steven Biko
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The oneness of community for instance is at the heart of our culture.
Steven Biko
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We are experiencing new problems every day and whatever we do adds to the richness of our cultural heritage as long as it has man as its centre
Steven Biko
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Any warning normally implies, even if it is tacit, that there should be changes
Steven Biko
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In all fields black consciousness seeks to talk to the black man in a language that is his own
Steven Biko
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I think the central theme about black society is that it has got elements of a defeated society
Steven Biko
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This is white man's integration, an integration based on exploitative values
Steven Biko
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It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.
Steven Biko
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Sure there are a few good whites just as much as there are a few bad Blacks. However what we are concerned here with is group attitudes and group politics. The exception does not make a lie or the rule - it merely substantiates it.
Steven Biko
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What Black Consciousness seeks to do is to produce real black people who do not regard themselves as appendages to white society. We do not need to apologise for this because it is true that the white systems have produced through the world a number of people who are not aware that they too are people.
Steven Biko
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In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift - a more human face.
Steven Biko
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To a large extent the evil-doers have succeeded in producing at the output end of their machine a kind of black man who is man only in form. This is the extent to which the process of dehumanization has advanced.
Steven Biko
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It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realize that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality.
Steven Biko
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Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.
Steven Biko
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The great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the world an industrial and military look but the great gift still has to come from Africa - giving the world a more human face.
Steven Biko
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A community is easily divide when their perception of the same thing is different
Steven Biko