---
title: "3 Engaging Quotes By Dean Spade"
description: "3 Engaging quotes by Dean Spade. Plus more from Dean Spade and more Engaging sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4b3/dean-spade-13866_accounts_i-often-notice-how-students-can-gain-the_1402309.jpg"
---

> [I often notice how students can gain the capacity to use certain critical methodologies through engaging with very different texts - how…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/i-often-notice-how-students-can-gain-the-capacity-to-use-certain/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4b3/dean-spade-13866_accounts_i-often-notice-how-students-can-gain-the_1402309.jpg)

> [We should interact with legal reform tactically, knowing that it will not meet our ultimate goals but asking whether there are ways…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/we-should-interact-with-legal-reform-tactically-knowing-that-it-will/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0d7/dean-spade-13866_asking_we-should-interact-with-legal-reform-tac_1746593.jpg)

> [I am often talking about the ideas collected in Normal Life in contexts that are not academic, or that are full of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/i-am-often-talking-about-the-ideas-collected-in-normal-life-in/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/512/dean-spade-13866_able_i-am-often-talking-about-the-ideas-colle_3000335.jpg)

## Other authors on Engaging

## More by Dean Spade

> [Because my graduate academic training at law school was not one that included most of the intellectual traditions I find useful for understanding the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/because-my-graduate-academic-training-at-law-school-was-not-one-that/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [One of the concepts I was having trouble illustrating was the concept that administrative systems create narrow categories of gender and force people into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/one-of-the-concepts-i-was-having-trouble-illustrating-was-the-concept/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [Let’s be gentle with ourselves and each other and fierce as we fight oppression.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/let-s-be-gentle-with-ourselves-and-each-other-and-fierce-as-we-fight/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [More conservative advocacy work often encourages portrayals of trans people as people who deserve rights. Deservingness, of course, corresponds to national racial, gender and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/more-conservative-advocacy-work-often-encourages-portrayals-of-trans/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [Instead of focusing on what the law says about trans people, which is really what the law is saying about itself as a protector…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/instead-of-focusing-on-what-the-law-says-about-trans-people-which-is/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [In addition to encouraging us to participate in narratives of "deservingness" that cast large parts of our constituencies as "undeserving," legal reform strategies encourage…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/in-addition-to-encouraging-us-to-participate-in-narratives-of/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> ["Oppression" or "systems of oppression" operate as a shorthand terms in much writing and speaking so that we do not have to list all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/oppression-or-systems-of-oppression-operate-as-a-shorthand-terms-in/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [I am interested in recent scholarly work examining the emergence of women's studies and ethnic studies departments and the development of the neoliberal university.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/i-am-interested-in-recent-scholarly-work-examining-the-emergence-of/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [Choosing an agenda that supports the apparatuses of racial violence always pays better.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/choosing-an-agenda-that-supports-the-apparatuses-of-racial-violence/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [My work is heavily influenced by critiques that many critical intellectual traditions, especially Critical Race Theory, have made of reform projects focused on legal…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/my-work-is-heavily-influenced-by-critiques-that-many-critical/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [Legal reform organizations are usually trying to portray their constituents as "hard workers," as "not criminals," as citizens, as part of normative family arrangements,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/legal-reform-organizations-are-usually-trying-to-portray-their/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [One particular debate that I have seen play out again and again is whether trans people who have more traditional gender expressions or who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/one-particular-debate-that-i-have-seen-play-out-again-and-again-is/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [There are sharply different, competing models of what trans advocacy looks like - those that seek to follow the path laid out by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/there-are-sharply-different-competing-models-of-what-trans-advocacy/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [Legal reform has significant dangers: changing only the window-dressing of harmful systems but leaving the violence of the systems in tact, failing to provide…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/legal-reform-has-significant-dangers-changing-only-the-window/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

> [Law reforms in the US, ostensibly enacted to prohibit racism, have proven ineffective because they focus on bad intentions of individuals and fail to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-spade/law-reforms-in-the-us-ostensibly-enacted-to-prohibit-racism-have/)

[Dean Spade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-spade/)

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