American Gods (TV Series)

The Greatest Story Ever Told (2019)

Demore Barnes: Mr. Ibis

Quotes 

• Mr. Nancy : You old as dirt, bird-beak. Why the fuck you didn't ride the carousel?

  Mr. Ibis : I choose peace.

  Mr. Nancy : [scoffs]  Egyptians told tales of the sacred Book of Thoth, which contains the secrets of the gods and brings misery, pain, and suffering to anyone who reads it.

  Mr. Ibis : And grants a bird's-eye view to he who writes it. I am old as dirt, and I have seen things as you have.

• Mr. Nancy : I am not a god, in the sense that I can tolerate exploitation, oppression, and repression. My worshippers know freedom ain't free. They know the most potent weapon of control for the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. They know slavery is not a condition. Slavery is a cult! Human trafficking is a cult! Slavery got a rebrand, like mother fuckin' the alt-right! And snatched - another one gone. Every thirty seconds, another chocolate-brown/caramel/yellow/high-yellow/redbone refugee girl with melanin in her skin gets snatched. Every 30 seconds. And to make matters worse, these dazzling new plantation owners built a pipeline to take our children from school to prison quicker than a cut can bleed. And the lucky ones go from school to the NFL, where they don't even let them niggers take a knee. They've been programmed from birth with shitty food options, contaminated drinking water, gun violence, police brutality, and trauma after trauma after trauma. PTSD? No therapy. Missing? No amber alert. Alone? Vulnerable. Snatched - another one gone.

  Mr. Ibis : I hear you, brother. And I hear them. I hear each voice, and I write each name.

  Bilquis : We have lived long enough to know these troubles are timeless. Suffering is not sacred, and moral law is final.

  Mr. Ibis : And sooner or later, they all lay before me. War need not be the answer.