Black Person Quotes

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  No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

  Alice Walker

  Friendship, Fake Friends, Memorable

  Alice Walker (2013). “The Alice Walker Collection: Non-Fiction”, p.17, Hachette UK

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• I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person.

  Harriet Tubman

  Hands, Black History, African American

  "Harriet, The Moses of Her People". Book by Sarah H. Bradford, 1886.

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• 

  Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Barack Obama (2008). “An American Story: The Speeches of Barack Obama : a Primer”, Independent Publishing Group

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• 

  The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.

  Marcus Garvey

  Greatness, Racism, Black

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• No person has the right to rain on your dreams.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Dream

  Marian Wright Edelman (2013). “The Measure of our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours”, p.29, Beacon Press

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• I don't judge people by their sexual orientation or the color of their skin, so I find it really hard to identify someone by saying that they're a gay person or a black person or a Jewish person.

  Diana Ross

  Gay, Color, People

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• When I was in Mecca I noticed that their, they had no color problem. That they had people there whose eyes were blue and people there whose eyes were black, people whose skin was white, people whose skin was black, people whose hair was blond, people whose hair was black, from the whitest white person to the blackest black person.

  Malcolm X

  Eye, Hair, Blue

  Source: nyx.uky.edu

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• I don't think I'm really so unique. If every black person looked at their life they would quickly discover that they have been influenced by every type of music prevalent in America.

  Roy Ayers

  Unique, Thinking, America

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• Speaking as a black person, welfare is the worst thing that's ever happened to us.

  Charles Evers

  Funny, Black, Welfare

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• Blacks don't square dance. If you see a black person square dancing, it is definitely the seventh sign.

  Tommy Davidson

  Squares, Dancing, Black

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• When someone asks me about violence, I just find it incredible, because what it means is that the person who’s asking that question has absolutely no idea what black people have gone through, what black people have experienced in this country, since the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa.

  Angela Davis

  Country, Mean, Ideas

  "The Political Monologue of the Year: Angela Davis", www.indiewire.com. November 3, 2011.

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• Certainly I feel like I'm the tip of the arrow at times because certainly the national media wants to talk about the fact that I'm a black Republican and some people think of that as zany that a black person would be a conservative but to me what is zany is any person black, white, red, brown or yellow not being a conservative.

  Tim Scott

  Thinking, Arrows, Media

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• I love that as a black person I've experienced not being a minority. I think that's helped me to combat the minority mentality people can have here, which can stop them scaling the heights.

  David Oyelowo

  Thinking, People, Black

  "'In my head, this is massive'". Interview with Emma John, www.theguardian.com. August 1, 2005.

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• So, to say Obama is progress is saying that he’s the first black person that is qualified to be president. That’s not black progress. That’s white progress. There’s been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years. The question is, you know, my kids are smart, educated, beautiful, polite children. There have been smart, educated, beautiful, polite black children for hundreds of years. The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced. Let’s hope America keeps producing nicer white people.

  Chris Rock

  Beautiful, Children, Smart

  Interview with Frank Rich, www.vulture.com. November 30, 2014.

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• They always try to make it like jocks discriminate against gay people. I've been a big proponent of gay marriage for a long time, because as a black person, I can't be in for any form of discrimination at all.

  Charles Barkley

  Gay, Long, People

  "Charles Barkley: I Had Gay Teammates". www.espn.com. May 18, 2011.

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• A black Christian is like a black person with no memory.

  Chris Rock

  Christian, Memories, Black

  "8 Black Celebrities Who Don’t Believe In Jesus", atlantablackstar.com. August 29, 2013.

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• So, to say Barack Obama is progress is saying that he's the first black person that is qualified to be president. That's not black progress. That's white progress.

  Chris Rock

  White, Black, Progress

  64 Copy quote

• NHPrimary Trivia: The Republican candidates have not spoken to a black person since Herman Cain dropped out.

  Andy Borowitz

  Black, Cain, Trivia

  FaceBook post by Andy Borowitz from Jan 11, 2012

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• I consider myself a human being, a Christian, a father, a husband, so many things, before being a black person.

  David Oyelowo

  Christian, Husband, Father

  "David Oyelowo takes the civil rights fight to the acting profession" by Mark Lawson, www.theguardian.com. February 13, 2015.

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• I would hate to say as a non-African-American person that it would be wrong for a black person to direct white people in a movie. Wouldn't that be awful of me to say that? The only sympathizing thing I might say for people that want to [grumble] is that a filmmaker should have an understanding for the place where the people you're portraying are coming from.

  Mick Jagger

  Hate, Should Have, White

  "Mick Jagger & Chadwick Boseman Talk 'Get On Up,' James Brown and a Rolling Stones Biopic". Interview with Tatiana Siegel, www.billboard.com. July 25, 2014.

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• No black person married to a white person can speak for me!

  Malcolm X

  White, Black, Married

  Source: teachingamericanhistory.org

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• I think, as a white person, I do not want to speak for a black person.

  Jill Stein

  Thinking, White, Black

  Source: www.justicenewsnetwork.com

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• I also know that I have represented for us a certain kind of journalist and for me over the years when an older Black person comes and tells me how proud they are of me and the way I represent us on television, or when a younger person says to me, 'Hey Mr. Gordon, I watched you growing up and my parents made me watch you,'.

  Ed Gordon

  Growing Up, Years, Parent

  Source: www.ebony.com

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• Black people don't hijack planes, alright? Now I'll be the first to admit, we steal a lot of stuff, but we do not hijack planes. In fact, in the history of aviation, a black person has never even attempted to hijack a plane. Do you want to know why? Because you can't sell an airplane.

  Alonzo Bodden

  Airplane, People, Black

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• Part of the popularity with Louis Farrakhan has less to do with the content of his message and more to do with the form that he portrays himself - as being a free, black person who speaks what is on his mind with boldness and fearlessness. Who is willing to pay the consequences.

  Cornel West

  Black, Mind, Pay

  Source: www.pbs.org

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