Afros Quotes

• The further jazz moves away from the stark blue continuum and the collective realities of Afro-American and American life, the more it moves into academic concert-hall lifelessness, which can be replicated by any middle class showing off its music lessons.

  Amiri Baraka

  Moving, Reality, Blue

  Imamu Amiri Baraka (1984). “Daggers and javelins: essays, 1974-1979”, William Morrow & Co

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• In Italy, I had an Afro, and a lot of the kids came up and felt my hair. It really was funny. I wish I had understood Italian.

  Sugar Ray Leonard

  Sports, Kids, Italian

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.

  Ida B. Wells

  Race, Fallen, Shows

  Ida B. Wells-Barnett (2014). “On Lynchings”, p.3, Courier Corporation

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• The only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense.

  Ida B. Wells

  Gun, Self, Defense

  Ida B. Wells (2014). “The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader”, p.71, Penguin

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• Since the age of 12, all my musical thinking has been influenced by Afro-American music.

  Alexis Korner

  Thinking, Musical, Age

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• The South resented giving the Afro-American his freedom, the ballot box and the Civil Rights Law.

  Ida B. Wells

  Law, Rights, Giving

  Ida B. Wells-Barnett (2014). “On Lynchings”, p.16, Courier Corporation

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• The Afro-American is not a bestial race.

  Ida B. Wells

  Race

  Ida B. Wells-Barnett (2014). “On Lynchings”, p.3, Courier Corporation

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• I might be a Cuban American, but I'm also an Afro-Cuban American.

  Jon Secada

  Might, Cuban

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• The mob spirit has grown with the increasing intelligence of the Afro-American.

  Ida B. Wells

  Spirit

  Ida B. Wells-Barnett (2009). “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.21, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• When I have my Afro and walk down the street, there's no doubt that I'm black. With this [straightened] hair, if I talk about being black on air, viewers write and say, "You're black?!" I feel [straightening your hair] is giving up a sense of your identity. Let's be honest: It's an effort to look Anglo-Saxon.

  Jami Floyd

  Giving Up, Writing, Hair

  "Your Race, Your Looks". Glamour's Women, Race and Beauty panel, www.glamour.com. February 3, 2008.

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• I see other black women imitate my style, which is no style at all, but just letting our hair be itself. They call it the Afro Look.

  Miriam Makeba

  Hair, Black, Style

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• The Afro-American experience is the only real culture that America has. Basically, every American tries to walk, talk, dress and behave like African Americans.

  Hugh Masekela

  Real, America, Trying

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• The common goal of 22 million Afro-Americans is respect as human beings, the God-given right to be a human being. Our common goal is to obtain the human rights America has been denying us. We can never get civil rights in America until our human rights are first restored. We will never be recognized as citizens there until we are first recognized as humans.

  Malcolm X

  America, Rights, Justice

  "Racism: the Cancer that is Destroying America", Egyptian Gazette, August 25, 1964.

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• The miscegenation laws of the South only operate against the legitimate union of the races; they leave the white man free to seduce all the colored girls he can, but it is death to the colored man who yields to the force and advances of a similar attraction in white women. White men lynch the offending Afro-American, not because he is a despoiler of virtue, but because he succumbs to the smiles of white women.

  Ida B. Wells

  Girl, Men, Yield

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• For the Afro-American in the 1920's being a 'New Negro' was being 'Modern'. And being an 'New Negro' meant, largely, not being an 'Old Negro', disassociating oneself from the symbols and legacy of slavery - being urbane, assertive militant.

  Nathan Huggins

  Legacy, Slavery, Modern

  Nathan Irvin Huggins (1995). “Revelations: American History, American Myths”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• A lot of great art comes from the Afro-American male experience. Black men are geniuses, and many times their desperation, their position as being pariahs, leads them to great originality.

  Ishmael Reed

  Art, Men, Black

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• The 22 million or 30 million, whatever the case may be, Afro-Americans in the United States were still Africans.

  Malcolm X

  United States, May, Cases

  Source: www.panafricanperspective.com

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• Since the main problem that American, the Afro- Americans have is a lack of cultural identity. It is necessary to teach [people] that they had some type of identity, culture, civilization before they were brought here.

  Malcolm X

  Civilization, People, Identity

  Interview with Robert Penn Warren, whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu. June 2, 1964.

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• My work sometimes can be abstract and appear not to have a direct relationship to Afro-American concerns, but, in fact, it is based on that.

  Donald Byrd

  Facts, Sometimes, Abstract

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• I've had every haircut you could possibly imagine: mullet, tail, dreadlocks, afro, crew cut. It's always been an expression of who I am.

  Marc Forgione

  Cutting, Who I Am, Expression

  "Marc Forgione: What It's Like to Be the Next Iron Chef". Interview with Eli Rosenberg, www.esquire.com. November 22, 2010.

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• Yes, (Bush is a) racist. We all knew that but the world is only finding it out now. As Texas's governor, Bush led a penitentiary system that executed more people than all the other U.S. states together. And most of the people who died from (the) death penalty were Afro-Americans or Hispanics. (Bush) promoted a Conservative program, designed to eliminate everything Americans had accomplished so far in matters of race and equality.

  Danny Glover

  Race, Texas, People

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• In every project, I always look for the depth of humanity inside of it. I'm just trying to say if we can help in some way heal the equation with [Afro-Americans] what's going on with us as people.

  Forest Whitaker

  People, Humanity, Trying

  Source: collider.com

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• I look at the problem of the twenty-two million Afro-Americans as being a problem that's so broad in scope that it's almost impossible for any organization to see it in its entirety.

  Malcolm X

  Organization, Two, Twenties

  Interview with Robert Penn Warren, whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu. June 2, 1964.

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• Adam Clayton Powell's entire political career has to be looked at in the entire context of the American history and the history of, and the position of the Afro- American or negro in American history. [He] has done a remarkable job in fighting for rights of black people in this country. On the other hand, he probably hasn't done as much as he could or as much as he should because he is the most independent negro politician in this country.

  Malcolm X

  Country, Jobs, Independent

  Interview with Robert Penn Warren, whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu. June 2, 1964.

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• It is the system itself that, that is incapable of producing freedom for the twenty-two million Afro-Americans. Just like a chicken can't lay a duck egg, a chicken can't lay a duck egg, because the system of the chicken isn't constructed in the way to produce a duck egg. And just as that chicken system can't produce, is not capable to, of producing a duck egg, the political and economic system of this country is absolutely incapable of producing freedom and justice and equality and human dignity for the twenty-two million Afro-Americans.

  Malcolm X

  Country, Eggs, Two

  Source: nyx.uky.edu

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