African American Quotes - Page 31

• There's probably more of a struggle to get material and narratives published that really speak to black culture. And that has a lot to do with the mergers and buyouts and the corporations being more in control of the purse strings. We find that the projects have to come with higher expectations rather than books that just should be published. That's disturbing because we might find fewer and fewer children's books by African Americans or with black cultural themes.

  Jerry Pinkney

  Children, Struggle, Book

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• African American writers and artists, by the very nature of what they do, will actually enhance or bring together people in a way that might be very, very healthy.

  Jerry Pinkney

  Artist, People, Healthy

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• One of the ongoing crises in America is institutional racism. We have a very broken criminal justice system. We live in a country where there are more people in jail than any other country on Earth. There are some 2.2 million people currently incarcerated and they are disproportionally African American and Hispanic. Unarmed African Americans have been abused and sometimes killed while in police custody. Clearly these are issues that must be dealt with and changed.

  Bernie Sanders

  Country, America, Jail

  Source: www.ebony.com

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• Many White people are not sensitive to the kind of abuse that African Americans, especially younger African Americans, receive at the hands of police officers and police departments. I think for most Whites their experience with the police has been good or neutral because they don't interact with the police as much as those in the Black community.

  Bernie Sanders

  Thinking, White, Hands

  Source: www.ebony.com

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• I'd been taught from an early age that I was in the other category on the standardized tests. You know, I had to go down the checklist - Caucasian, African-American, Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, and then, you know, at the bottom is other. So, you know, very early on I was taught, in a way, that I was somehow this anomaly.

  Jordan Peele

  Age, Asian, Anomalies

  Source: www.npr.org

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• I think we have to get beyond the idea that we have to categorize people. We can now have action movies with two stars where one might be African American and one might be Asian American. One of them doesn't have to be white, and the other one doesn't have to be the ethnic sidekick. We're way over that. And I think it's happening in society, too.

  Roger Ebert

  Stars, Thinking, Two

  Source: progressive.org

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• Even in the era of the first black president, racism is still the most intractable issue in USA. Regarding poverty, half of all Americans are either in or near poverty. Poverty is certainly worse for African-Americans now than it was during King's lifetime.

  Tavis Smiley

  Kings, Issues, Usa

  "Tavis Smiley on repositioning Dr. King as a revolutionary". Interview With Kam Williams, baystatebanner.com. December 11, 2014.

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• All of my history as an African-American woman, as a Jewish woman, as a Muslim woman. I'm bringing everything I ever knew, and all the stories I've read - everything good, strong, kind and powerful. I bring it all with me into every situation, and I will not allow my life to be minimized by anybody's racism or sexism or ageism.

  Maya Angelou

  Strong, Powerful, Racism

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com. December 2000.

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• Words can't even describe how much Olympic medals means to me, because of all the hard work, sacrifice and effort I put in at the gym, and also because of how much my family supported me and sacrificed their dreams for mine. It also means a lot to me, knowing that I became the first African American to win the individual all-around gold medal.

  Gabby Douglas

  Dream, Mean, Hard Work

  Source: pridepublishinggroup.com

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• Identity is very personal...identity is political. My identity is what is and it is what it's gonna be. And I don't think that any information will change that profoundly...I [already] know that I am a Black woman, and a Black woman who has mixed some heritage, like most African Americans.

  Jamilah Lemieux

  Thinking, Political, Black

  Source: www.ebony.com

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• I identify as African American. I identify as Black. Black is something I share with other descendants of Africa, African-American is something I share with other Black descendants of America and both of those identities are of equal importance to me.

  Jamilah Lemieux

  Black, Identity, Share

  Source: www.ebony.com

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• We forget the conditions - not only in slavery - but after slavery, when there was this purposeful locking out of African Americans from economic opportunity. Or we forget today's incarceration rates, and educational and housing discrimination; all of these things. We pretend that everything that has happened happened long ago, and then we act as if we all now just treat each other equally, everything will be fine.

  Ben H. Winters

  Educational, Opportunity, Long

  Source: therumpus.net

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• People talk about Jim Crow as if it's dead. Jim Crow isn't gone. It's adjusted. Look at the disproportionate sentences meted out to blacks caught up in the criminal justice system. There's a problem when people profit from putting and keeping African Americans in prison. We need to do a better job as a nation understanding the real values the country's built upon in terms of fairness, equality and equal opportunity.

  Aldis Hodge

  Real, Opportunity, People

  Source: www.theskanner.com

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• The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were all written by affluent white males, but to discuss them in any meaningful way, you have to bring in the roles of African Americans - the enslaved blacks - and the roles of women, who were scarcely acknowledged by those documents. You have to discuss why slavery wasn't outlawed by the Constitution, why women weren't given the votes. The Bill of Rights isn't about dead white males anymore, and it's not just about live white males either; it's about every minority group that exists.

  Russell Freedman

  Meaningful, Independence, Slavery

  Source: www.hbook.com

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• I happen to think that Hillary Clinton is a beacon of hope for younger girls, as was Barack Obama in other inspirational areas. We've now had an African American president, possibly a woman president, it's pretty cool. As far as she is concerned, whether man or woman, she is capable and experienced to be president.

  Alex Meneses

  Girl, Men, Thinking

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• I'm one of those persons who think that watching black people suffer is not an idea of entertainment. I know a lot about African American history, which is just American history, it's always been very fascinating to me. The premise of the play is remembering and honoring those persons whose stories would never be taken into account.

  Harry Lennix

  Taken, Thinking, People

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• The United States Justice Department, in my opinion, hasn't done a damn thing to alleviate this horrible manifestation of racism, bigotry and hate against blacks - the first African American President has done nothing. Even if he were inclined to do something to rectify what we are experiencing as a nation, I don't know if can go as far as an artistic expression can go, as salve for the collected suffering of the people.

  Harry Lennix

  Hate, Justice, Racism

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• I guess I don't have a candidate who makes my heart go pitter-patter the way I wish it would. I'm thinking, here's an African American candidate - yes! And here's a woman candidate - yes! Why can't I get behind either one of them? Don't tell me I have latent sexism or racism that I need to confront. I don't believe that. I think we are so burned by the current situation that we want somebody that it isn't possible to have. We want someone who definitely looks like the messiah.

  Sara Paretsky

  Believe, Heart, Thinking

  Source: progressive.org

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• Historically, the argument is we stole the country from the Indians. America stole the labor of African Americans for over 200 years under slavery. America took half of Mexico by force in the Mexican War. American foreign policy, the progressives say it's based on theft. Why? Because look, America is very active in the Middle East. Why? The Middle East has oil. Notice that America doesn't get involved in Haiti or Rwanda because they don't have any oil.

  Dinesh D'Souza

  Country, War, Mexican

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• There should be no surprise that forgotten America, no matter their ethnicity, because we see that Mr. Trump was able to get Hispanic voters, African American voters. Oh my God, the majority of, of, of the women voters that he was able to amass, even though he was painted as the other, my party, the Democratic party, did not listen to the voices of the forgotten America.

  Nina Turner

  Party, Surprise, Forgotten

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

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• The fact is, yes, statistically, African Americans and Latinos are getting hit harder, but it`s something that we can have real solidarity across racial lines on, to raise the minimum wage, to lower the cost of going to college, to make sure there`s real consumer protection.

  Keith Ellison

  Real, College, Protection

  Source: www.msnbc.com

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• You take for example the environmental movement is a big deal in my district. You know, you might say, yeah, more African Americans are suffering from asthma and air pollution-related illnesses, but there`s a lot of white folks, a lot of white kids with inhalers. So, you just got to talk to the reality of everyone, not exclude anyone. And make sure that people know that you care about them too. I think if you do that, we can get there.

  Keith Ellison

  Kids, Reality, Thinking

  Source: www.msnbc.com

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• The War on Drugs is a war on people, but particularly it's been a war on low-income people and a war on minorities. We know in the United States of America there is no difference in drug use between black, white and Latinos. But if you're Latino in the United States of America, you're about twice as likely to be arrested for drug use than if you're white. If you're black, you are about four times as likely to be arrested if you're African American than if you are white. This drug war has done so much to destroy, undermine, sabotage families, communities, neighborhoods, cities.

  Cory Booker

  War, People, Community

  Source: hightimes.com

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• We started America with the sin of slavery that led right into the post-reconstruction period which was the greatest period of domestic terrorism in our country's history. Then after that, we had Jim Crow emerge and just when the Jim Crow laws were ending came the onslaught of the drug war. Well, the drug war has so perniciously effected, insidiously infected communities of color that in some ways it has come full circle, and we now have more African Americans under criminal supervision than all of the slaves in 1865. This is a profoundly unjust war.

  Cory Booker

  War, Community, Drug

  Source: hightimes.com

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• Just as if you do a mash-up of reality from the point of view of African Americans in this country, you're going to end up with something that will say, "This is Black Lives Matter." It's not that people necessarily have started out from that premise. But if you're looking at reality, that will be the result because that is reality.

  Margaret Atwood

  Country, Reality, People

  "Margaret Atwood answers the question: Is 'The Handmaid's Tale' a feminist book?". www.latimes.com. April 24, 2017.

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