Sun Yung Shin Quotes

• “Most white Minnesotans have forgotten that they were strangers here once. Or that they are not native to this land.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “Tell me the truth of the matter. When I don't understand, I will not protest or judge or correct, I will simply listen harder. I am here to recognize you as my fellow human being with a story.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “Because it is psychological. I see the boys in the park, the young boys, smoking and playing basketball when they should be in school. I couldn't understand why when I first arrived. Now, I am starting to see. It is because they have been told in school, in their community, on the street, that they are nothing, and so they have started to believe it. Once that happens, it is over. You can't be a man, a husband, a father. You can't do anything, once you start to believe that.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “So what do you do if you are imprisoned for your race and ethnicity? The message is, Those are your crimes.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “Niceness is not fairness.
  Peace (or the absence of open conflict) is not justice.
  Comfort is not guaranteed.
  Until we dismantle this system, we will insist, in words and actions: Change is necessary.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “if little is expected from someone, everything is a win and a cause for celebration. We are wired this way, as human beings; when the goal is low, most of us fall to it rather than set our aim beyond.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “Before America, I was not Black. I was not adrift in a sea of White that I constantly had to come to terms with, against which my very humanity is measured--by Whites, Blacks, the world, and even myself. Black exists only because America is White.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “Life is wealth and relationships are wealth. Domination, subjugation, exploitation, and the luxury of looking away is a poverty of the soul.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “Before moving to America, I did not see the world through a "Black" lens...We had doctors, teachers, wealthy men. Indeed, we had successful men of all stripes. We did not have Black doctors, Black businessmen, or any so-called role models. We had people doing things we children knew we could just as easily do when we grew up.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “The Korean word for tree rose in his mind, surprising him, like a fish breaking the surface of a calm pond.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “I longed for the Confederate flags of the South, because at least the South had clear lines of demarcation and warning. In Minnesota, there were only smiling faces, open classroom doors, and a stinging persistent coldness that let me know that I was in a new, different place that wasn’t really welcoming—and that this place was resistant to me calling it home.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “Black exists only because America is White.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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• “Sight is about contrast. You cannot see an object if there is nothing to contrast it against.”

  Sun Yung Shin

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