My poetry is me trying to reconcile my own life and opportunities I've had with opportunities my students aren't given and how profoundly unfair that is. — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
Until affirmative action is described and understood as one mechanism by which to make amends for historical wrongdoing against members of marginalized communities, it… — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
If our principles are only our principles when it is convenient for us, when they align with our visceral emotional responses, then they are,… — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
The U.S. prison system, over all, disproportionately affects black and brown people, but people of color are overrepresented to a greater degree in private… — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
America's economy cannot be disentangled from the free labor that built it, just as America's culture cannot be unbound from the black artists who… — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
In sixth grade, my status as a Boy Scout was not something I went out of my way to share. In fact, I spent… — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
The history of racial violence in our country is both omnipresent and unspoken. It is a smog that surrounds us that few will admit… — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That's ridiculous. If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have… — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
When the power of private prisons is diminished, so, too, is their ability to engage in back-door political lobbying that has an impact on… — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
Systemic racism always takes a toll, whether it be by bullet or by blood clot. — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
One does not read a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks with hopes that it will grant him a career in engineering; he does so because… — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
Education is a human right - a recognition of dignity that each person should be afforded. — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
Preparing oneself for the possibility of confronting racism triggers something that slowly chips away at physical and emotional well-being. — Clint Smith Copy Share Image
