We are very much at the center of culture. John Edgar Wideman John Edgar Wideman on African Americans impacting culture April 8, 2015 Source: NPR, 2011
I think black people, across class, have many moments in our lives when we feel utterly powerless to change the direction of situations. bell hooks
African-Americans are not a monolithic group. So, we tend to talk about the black community, the black culture, the African-American television viewing audience, but there are just as many facets of us as there are other cultures. Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Race is such a strange construct because you have to learn what it means to be black in America. So you have to learn that watermelon is supposed to be offensive. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi
Nonetheless, increasingly, as a black woman in America, I do not feel alive. I feel like I am not yet dead. Roxane Gay
And I think it's important that we not lose sight of that message and continue to show and make progress in areas where, for the most part, African Americans still, to a certain degree, are not given the same types of opportunities. And while there has been tremendous progress made, there's yet still tremendous progress to be made. Greg Anthony
You may feel like you’re not afforded an opportunity because you’re not a specific look. It sometimes presents its own challenges being a chocolate girl. Naturi Naughton
I've tried to explain to a lot of interviewers that Celie has nothing to do with the black experience. It's like, they were saying Celie is black and you are black and so you have all these things in common. Celie could be Oriental, Puerto Rican, and these same specific things could have happened to her. Whoopi Goldberg
Do you know, it's funny but I never thought of being blind as a disadvantage, and I never thought of being black as a disadvantage. I am what I am. I love me! And I don't mean that egotistically – I love that God has allowed me to take whatever it was that I had and to make something out of it. Stevie Wonder
My wearing my hair in locs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough. Zendaya Coleman
Every little black child grew up seeing that getting along with white people meant grinning and acting clowns. It helped white people to feel easy about what they had done, and were doing, to Negroes, and that's carried right on over to now. Miles Davis
I think that one is not burdened by America's terrible racial history, and I think when people say to me, 'You're different. You're not angry,' in some ways it also feels that I'm being made complicit for something that I don't want to be complicit in. Because in some ways they're saying, 'You're one of the good ones.' And I think to say that is to somehow ignore the reality of American history. So for example, people will say, 'Oh, you're so easy to get along with.' And they'll tell me some story of some African-American woman they knew who just wasn't like me. Which I find quite absurd. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I think people assume that because I talk the way that I talk that I grew up with money and then I've had to say, 'No, I grew up poor.' And then I was like, 'Why do I have to play this game where the only black experience that's authentic is the one where you grew up in poverty?' Aisha Tyler
Black people in this country were obliged for centuries to laugh when they weren’t tickled and scratch when they didn’t itch. Maya Angelou
Something that my mother instilled in me, as a biracial woman herself, and me being biracial, was that the world was going to view me as a black woman, no matter what I decided to do. Misty Copeland
Whatever this country is willing to do to the least of us, it will one day do to us all. Killer Mike (Michael Render)
There is already harsh criticism of African American hair in society without the help of ignorant people who choose to judge people others based on the curl of their hair. Zendaya Coleman
When you’re a black man in a hoodie, all of a sudden you’re a criminal. That’s something we shouldn’t have to deal with, but we do. It’s a double standard. We can’t cover our head when it’s cold and raining because God forbid someone sees us and puts our life in danger. Mike Colter
I'm interested in living in a post-racist world, where being African American doesn't dictate limitations on what I can do – but I don't want to live post-race. Our differences are so fascinating and wonderful. We don't want to all be the same. Who wants that? Hitler did, but who else? Kerry Washington
I find it offensive. It's a way for people to separate themselves from African-Americans...a way of saying 'I'm better than that.' I'm black because that's the way the world sees me. People aren't calling Barack Obama biracial. Most people think there's a black president. Paula Patton
Because here’s the thing -- the road ahead is not going to be easy. It never is, especially for folks like you and me. Because while we’ve come so far, the truth is that those age-old problems are stubborn and they haven’t fully gone away. First Lady Michelle Obama
I was in Tucson, at a writer's conference, and I challenged my host to pull out his dictionary and look up the words "white" and "black." And he looked up the word white, and he came up with things like white, unmarked by malignant influence, of desirable condition, a sterling man, a bright, fair and honest. Then you look up the word black, and you get a villain, marked by malignant influence, unqualified, violator of laws, etc. And these are actual definitions in a Webster's dictionary. So this is a part of the linguistic environment, so that when white America looks at a black, they see the opposite of everything that they are. August Wilson
What would America be like if we loved black people as much as we love black culture? Amandla Stenberg
I bring something to the table as a woman; I bring something to the table as a woman of color. So I feel like, if it’s the only thing you focus on, then it’s a danger, and if you never talk about it then it’s a danger. Kerry Washington
There's no black male my age, who's a professional, who hasn't come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn't hand them their car keys. President Barack Obama
