Sister Souljah

Sister Souljah (born Lisa Williamson in 1964) is an African-American community organizer, author and musician.

Sister Souljah in 1997

Quotes

• Souljah was not born to make white people feel comfortable. I am African first! I am black first! I want what's good for me and my people first.
  • "The Hate That Hate Produced" (1992)

• If there are [any good white people], I haven't met them. Where are they?
  • Remarks in her video for "The Final Solution: Slavery's Back in Effect" (1992)

• My definition of "good" is that you understand that this is a question of power, that you be willing to give up some power, that you be willing to give up some resources, that you be willing to pay black people reparations for our years and years of service in this country, that you be willing to go home and tell your white mother and father about white racism and how it affects and kills black people in our communities. That's my definition of good white people and I haven't met any like that.
  • Television special, The Issue is Race: A Crisis in Black and White (1992)

• Mills: Even the people themselves who were perpetrating that violence, did they think that was wise? Was that a wise reasoned action?
  Souljah: Yeah, it was wise. I mean, if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?… White people, this government and that mayor were well aware of the fact that black people were dying every day in Los Angeles under gang violence. So if you're a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person? Do you think that somebody thinks that white people are better, are above and beyond dying, when they would kill their own kind?
  • Regarding black-on-white violence in the Los Angeles riots, quoted in David Mills (16 June 1992) "In Her Own Disputed Words; Transcript of Interview That Spawned Souljah's Story" The Washington Post

• Bill Clinton is like a lot of white politicians. They eat soul food, they party with black women, they play the saxophone, but when it comes to domestic and foreign policy, they make the same decisions that are destructive to African people in this country and throughout the world.
  • The Today show (16 June 1992)

• Racism is a system of power and in the absence of power you cannot be considered a racist.
  • "We Are at War", speech at Cheyney State University (1994)

About Sister Souljah

• Her comments before and after Los Angeles were filled with a kind of hatred that you do not honor today and tonight.… If you took the words "white" and "black," and you reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech.
  • Bill Clinton, speech to the Rainbow Coalition (13 May 1992), referring to the Washington Post and "Final Solution" quotations above. See Clinton (2005) My Life