Haki R. Madhubuti Quotes & Sayings

To maintain the ability to admit and grow from our mistakes rather than let them defeat us represents best the inner strength of a people. — Haki R. Madhubuti

Studies that bring clarity and direction to the black male situation as an integral part of the black family/community are unpopular, not easy to get published and very dangerous. — Haki R. Madhubuti

One of the great tragedies of modern education is that most people are not taught to think critically. The majority of the world's people, those of the West included, are taught to believe rather than to think. It's much easier to believe than to think. People seldom think seriously about that which we are taught to believe, because we are all creatures of imitation and habit. — Haki R. Madhubuti

They who humble themselves before knowledge of any kind generally end up the wiser and as voices with something meaningful to say. — Haki R. Madhubuti

Street culture is a culture of containment. Most young people do not realize that it all too often leads to a "dead end". "Street culture," as I am using the term, is a counterforce to movement culture. Street culture in contemporary urban reality is synonymous with survival at all costs. This world view is mostly negative, because it demands constant adjustment to circumstances that are often far beyond young people's control or understanding, such as economics, education, housing, employment, nutrition, law, and so forth. — Haki R. Madhubuti

To be black
is
to be
very-hot. — Haki R. Madhubuti

Many people have serious academic degrees but cannot find a job, and sadly their degrees are so limited that they cannot even think about how to create a job for themselves. — Haki R. Madhubuti

Ideas and their creators run the world ... one's place in the world is due partially to the ideas that a culture has forced on one and/or the ideas that a person "freely" accepts and uses. — Haki R. Madhubuti

It is true that we do not recognize greatness among us. Our measurements of importance are generally faulty and speak mainly to the superficialities of life, e.g., where one lives, the type of clothing one wears, the cars one drives, to the number of bodyguards that one employs to carry bags and open and close doors. — Haki R. Madhubuti

People find a sense of being, a sense of worth and substance being associated with land. Association with final roots gives us not only a history but proclaims us heirs to a future. — Haki R. Madhubuti

Learning to take hold of one's life is very difficult in a culture that values property over life. — Haki R. Madhubuti

U feel that way sometimes wondering: wondering, how did we survive? — Haki R. Madhubuti

To measure your needs by that which is projected via mass media is a mistake that has no mercy. The average person views a minimum of one thousand advertisements a day. To say "no" to the most outrageous commercials is an act of responsibility that needs to be taught early and often. — Haki R. Madhubuti