Mohammed Hany

“I am a man and what I have to recapture is the whole past of the world, I am not responsible only for the slavery involved in Santo Domingo, every time man has contributed to the victory of the dignity of the spirit, every time a man has said no to an attempt to subjugate his fellows, I have felt solidarity with his act. In no way does my basic vocation have to be drawn from the past of peoples of color. In no way do I have to dedicate myself to reviving some black civilization unjustly ignored. I will not make myself the man of any past. My black skin is not a repository for specific values. Haven’t I got better things to do on this earth than avenge the blacks of the 17th century?

I as a man of color do not have the right to hope that in the white man there will be a crystallization of guilt towards the past of my race. I as a man of color do not have the right of stamping down the pride of my former master. I have neither the right nor the duty to demand reparations for my subjugated ancestors. There is no black mission. There is no white burden. I do not want to be victim to the rules of a black world. Am I going to ask this white man to answer for the slave traders of the 17th century? Am I going to try by every means available to cause guilt to burgeon in their souls? I am not a slave to slavery that dehumanized my ancestors. It would be of enormous interest to discover a black literature or architecture from the 3rd century B.C, we would be overjoyed to learn of the existence of a correspondence between some black philosopher and Plato, but we can absolutely not see how this fact would change the lives of 8 year old kids working the cane fields of Martinique or Guadeloupe. I find myself in the world and I recognize I have one right alone: of demanding human behavior from the other.”
― Franz Fanon

“عندما يفهم الشرقي أنه من جنس أدنى في الدرجة الثانية ويعتقد أن الغربي من الجنس الأعلى و في الدرجة الأولى وصانع للثقافة ، فإن علاقته به ستشبه علاقة الطفل بأمه ، علاقةمن هذا الصنف سوف تقوم تلقائياً بين المستعمَر ((بفتح الميم)) والمستعمِر ((بكسرها)) ، فالمستعمر يسمي دولته "الوطن الأم" ، أما الآسيويون والأفارقة فهم أطفل مفتقرون إلى التربية عليهم أن ينشئوا في حجره ، وفي جدلية سوردل تقوم هذه العلاقة : العلاقة بين الأم والطفل ، فالأم تنهر طفلها ، والطفل يلوذ بحضن الأم خوفاً منها وطلباً للأمان ، وهذه الجدلية تمحو نفسها بنفسها وتصير عامل جذب وتبعية ، وعندما يحس الشرقي أنه غثاء وهباء ، منتسب إلى دين منحط ، ومنتم إلى عرق ثقافته و جمالياته وفنونه وأشعاره و نظمه الاجتماعية وتاريخه وشخصياته التاريخية ومفاخره الماضية كلها منحطة وأنه لا يملك شيئاً قط ، يحس تلقائياً بالعار ، ويتهم نفسه بأنه من عرق منحط ومن أجل أن يدفع هذه التهمة عن نفسه ، يتشبه بالغربي حتى يقول بعد ذلك : لست من هذا العرق المتهم ، إنني من صنفكم ويتظاهر بأنه يشبهه ، يشبهه في الحياة والسلوك والتصرفات والحركات والسكنات والزينة وأسلوب العيش”
― Ali Shariati, العودة إلى الذات

“The bulk of the advertising directed at children today has an immediate goal. “It’s not just getting kids to whine,” one marketer explained in Selling to Kids, “it’s giving them a specific reason to ask for the product.” Years ago sociologist Vance Packard described children as “surrogate salesmen” who had to persuade other people, usually their parents, to buy what they wanted. Marketers now use different terms to explain the intended response to their ads—such as “leverage,” “the nudge factor,” “pester power.” The aim of most children’s advertising is straightforward: Get kids to nag their parents and nag them well.”
― Noam Chomsky, Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power

“I’ve wrestled with alligators,
I’ve tussled with a whale.
I done handcuffed lightning
And throw thunder in jail.
You know I’m bad.
just last week, I murdered a rock,
Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick.
I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”
― Muhammad Ali