African American Quotes - Page 32

• African Americans are doing a lot already, but I think we have an opportunity right now to change politics in a way that will result in substantial help for people in need during the economic crisis. And then as the economy recovers, we can see dramatic progress against hunger and poverty.

  David Beckmann

  Thinking, Opportunity, People

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• We live in a very powerful country that has worldwide impact. It really is a democracy, so it puts a call to the faithful to get off the couch, right now! I hope we don't have one in three African American kids hungry 10 years from now. There is no reason for that. Forget everything else. We know how to feed kids. We can feed kids without distorting incentives and stuff.

  David Beckmann

  Country, Powerful, Kids

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• My mom is Jamaican and Chinese, and my dad is Polish and African American, so I'm pretty mixed. My nickname in high school was United Nations. I was fine with it, even though I identify as a black woman. People don't realize it hurts my feelings when someone looks at my hair or my eyes, and says, "But you're not actually black. You're black, but you're not black black, because your eyes are green." I'm like, "What? No, no, I'm definitely black." Even some of my closest friends have said that. It's been a bit touchy for me.

  Ayesha Curry

  Mom, Hurt, Dad

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• Blackness is not simply a reactionary title or identity; that is indeed the "negative" way of characterizing African American identity.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Identity, Negative

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• Blackness also has positive dimensions, those that bear the political meanings of African American people, among other blacks, who have struggled for self-determination and freedom for centuries. The absence of such an identity doesn't automatically guarantee that we will be free of the images and ideals that fuel stereotypes about black identity. Changing the name will not alter the reality.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Reality, People, Political

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• Ironically, there is a history of black/Irish communion here in the states; Irish and African American brothers and sisters have often found common cause in fighting the bigotry both communities faced earlier in the 20th century. However, white skin privilege among the Irish separated them from blacks, who had no such advantage to fall back upon. The solution is to fight bigotry and racism wherever they appear, and to root out the forces of oppression as conscientiously as possible.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Brother, Fall, Fighting

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• Too often the media assumes that "poverty" is an African American or a Latino issue. Of course, that's nonsense. While a higher percentage of the African American and Latino population does live in poverty as compared to the white population, when overall numbers are looked at, it is clear that people of all races, ethnicities, and colors, are represented amongst America's poor.

  Sasha Abramsky

  People, Poverty, Assuming

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Despite all of the civil rights gains of the past several decades, when it comes to economic opportunity, African Americans and Latinos still experience far more unemployment than do whites and Asians, average wages are lower, and household wealth is lower. A smaller percentage of African Americans and Latinos attend, and complete, college, than is the case with whites and Asians, and a higher percentage end up in prison. All of these are indicators of massive disparities in opportunity, and these disparities are mirrored in poverty data.

  Sasha Abramsky

  Past, Opportunity, College

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Jim Jones started out as a civil rights crusader in Indianapolis. As a young preacher in the mid-50s, he used members of his congregation to integrate lunch counters and all-white churches in rich neighborhoods; they'd just march in and sit down at the pews and see what happened. Often they were received with racist insults, and once with a bomb threat. But the fact that you had this charismatic, white man, aggressively promoting racial equality, was a huge draw for African Americans, many of whom felt the Civil Rights Movement had stalled by the late 60s.

  Julia Scheeres

  Men, Church, Racist

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Food historian Jessica B. Harris says African American cuisine is simply what black people ate. When I think about what my family ate, we ate what people think of as soul food on special occasions, on holidays, but our typical diet was leafy greens and nutrients and tubers - food that was as fresh as being harvested right before our meal. Whatever was in season, that's what we were eating. It was being harvested right from our backyard.

  Bryant Terry

  Holiday, Thinking, People

  "MoJo Video: Bryant Terry’s Vegan Soul Kitchen". Interview With Brittney Andres, www.motherjones.com. April 10, 2009.

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• In terms of addressing some of the most impacted communities and historically excluded communities - often of color, often low income - there is this adage in specifically African American communities that on every corner in low income neighborhoods you'll find a liquor store.

  Bryant Terry

  Community, Liquor, Term

  "MoJo Video: Bryant Terry’s Vegan Soul Kitchen". Interview With Brittney Andres, www.motherjones.com. April 10, 2009.

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• The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world: two million people. One out of every eight prisoners in the world is an African American. We are warehousing people as a profit to shareholders or for benefits to communities that get to host federal prisons. It is modern slavery. The whole future of America's black community is at risk. One out of every three young black men in Washington, D.C., is under one arm or the other of the criminal justice system. These are the continuing consequences of slavery.

  Randall Robinson

  Men, People, Justice

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• Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable. That's one of the beauties of African American life. There was this thing called slavery and adjustments were made. It literally destroyed millions, but it didn't destroy the inner lives of all the people who experienced it. There are still horrible things that go on because of the myth of race, but we don't have to succumb totally. If I had only a negative side of things to present, I think I would have much less of a drive to do it. Because what would be the point?

  John Edgar Wideman

  Book, Thinking, People

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• When I was 17, I worked in a mentoring program in Harlem designed to improve the community. That's when I first gained an appreciation of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when African-Americans rose to prominence in American culture. For the first time, they were taken seriously as artists, musicians, writers, athletes, and as political thinkers.

  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

  Appreciation, Taken, Athlete

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• None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.

  Marian Anderson

  Character, Black, Skins

  Marian Anderson (1956). “My Lord, what a Morning: An Autobiography”, p.42, University of Illinois Press

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• I could fall in love with a sumo wrestler if he told stories and made me laugh. Obviously, it would be easier if someone was African-American and lived next door and went to the same church. Because then I wouldn't have to translate.

  Maya Angelou

  Falling In Love, Doors, Laughing

  "No surrender" by Gary Younge, www.theguardian.com. May 24, 2002.

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• Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Practice, People, Design

  Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Emperor of Rome.), Alice Zimmern (189?). “Meditations”

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• One of the things that has to be faced is the process of waiting to change the system, how much we have got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from and where we are going.

  Ella Baker

  History, Waiting, Who We Are

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• I'm the whitest guy you will ever meet. The first time I saw an African-American, my dad had to tell me to stop staring.

  Glenn Beck

  Dad, Guy, Saws

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• From being a little girl in the projects, going through all of the mess that I was going through, to ending up at the Inauguration for the first African-American president, I'm speechless right now because I never thought I'd - I never ever - I couldn't even see that far. Even when I ended up in the music business I couldn't see that.

  Mary J. Blige

  Girl, President, Littles

  "Piers Morgan Tonight", transcripts.cnn.com. December 7, 2011.

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• I think if we are actually going to accept our generation's responsibility, that's going to mean that we give our children no less retirement security than we inherited from our parents.

  Carol Moseley Braun

  Inspirational, Retirement, Children

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• I'm not going to be joining ZZ Top. You know they can't play my stuff. It's too complicated.

  James Brown

  Play, Joining, Stuff

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• Latinos, Asians, African-Americans, women - we're all trying to find our place in this world of cinema and television and theater. And the great thing with comedy is that most of the time, you could be orange. It doesn't matter, as long you're funny.

  Sandra Bullock

  Orange, Long, Trying

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• I am an American. Black. Conservative. I don't use African-American, because I'm American, I'm black and I'm conservative. I don't like people trying to label me. African- American is socially acceptable for some people, but I am not some people.

  Herman Cain

  People, Black, Trying

  "Herman Cain on Why 'The Black Guy Is Winning': Jeffrey Goldberg". Bloomberg, June 13, 2011.

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• This whole notion that all African-Americans are not going to vote for Obama is not necessarily true. I believe a third would vote for me, based on my own anecdotal feedback. Not vote for me because I'm black but because of my policies.

  Herman Cain

  Believe, Black, Vote

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