African American Quotes - Page 40

• In 2012 President Obama didn't go anywhere near African-American communities. Why? Because unemployment was so high there, he didn't want to address it.

  Rudy Giuliani

  Community, President, Unemployment

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• I'm so tired of the left trying to divide us by race. One of the things I said today in my speech, we're not Indian-Americans, African-Americans, Irish-Americans, rich Americans, poor Americans. We're all Americans.

  Bobby Jindal

  Tired, Race, Trying

  "Is the Confederate flag controversy a Democratic problem?". "The Hannity Show", www.foxnews.com. June 25, 2015.

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• I have always, or for the most part, identified myself as a biracial person. Much to the chagrin of a lot of African-American people that I meet, because it's almost like there's a betrayal, an intrinsic betrayal: "Don't do that, brotha, we need you. We need you here, in this fold."

  Keegan-Michael Key

  Betrayal, People, Needs

  "Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele of Key & Peele". Interview With Jesse Thorn, tvclub.kinja.com. March 20, 2012.

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• I've always thought of myself as an African-American comedian, African-American man, everything.

  Jordan Peele

  Men, Comedian

  "Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele of Key & Peele". Interview With Jesse Thorn, tv.avclub.com. March 20, 2012.

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• I'm first generation American, and my parents were both from Nigeria. And so I always say that I'm literally an African American. So my last name is Famuyiwa, it's different. And so that was a part of my experience from people not being able to pronounce it to not sort of having sort of a shared, common history with a lot of the kids that I was growing up with because my parents were from Africa.

  Terry Gross

  Growing Up, Kids, Names

  Source: www.npr.org

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• I feel at home in a lot of places, but I am truly an African-American.

  Yaya DaCosta

  Home, Feels

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• People can graduate from beauty school and know everything about white hair and nothing about African-American hair.

  Tracie Thoms

  School, White Hair, People

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery

  Trent Franks

  Children, Community, Black

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• We must never forget that Black History is American History. The achievements of African Americans have contributed to our nation's greatness.

  Yvette Clarke

  Greatness, Achievement, Black History

  "Black History Is American History" by Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 10, 2010.

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• There are not many of us African American Sister Presidents, and those of us who are in this field do not have an easy time of it. Why the story goes that one Black woman college president died and went to hell, and it was two weeks before she realized that she wasn't still on the job.

  Johnnetta B. Cole

  Education, Jobs, College

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• Crisis' seems to be too mild a word to describe conditions in countless African-American communities. It is beyond crisis when in the richest nation in the world, African Americans in Harlem live shorter lives than the people of Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations of the world.

  Johnnetta B. Cole

  Racism, People, Community

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• I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother's side was not an Indian chief.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Mother, Native American, Grandfather

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.152, Feminist Press at CUNY

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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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• I grew up in church. That's how most young African American musicians learn how to perform. You could be six years old and playing organ or drums in front of thousands or hundreds of people.

  Robert Glasper

  Years, People, Church

  "How Jazzman Robert Glasper Won Over the Hip-Hop Heads". Interview with Jacob Blickenstaff, www.motherjones.com. June 29, 2015.

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• I do think that it's a responsibility when there are so few of us as African Americans to kind of get to that place of success in a positive light. We should take a stance and stand for something and use that platform for positivity.

  Misty Copeland

  Responsibility, Positivity, Thinking

  Source: bknation.org

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• I've tried the female thing. I was in a movie called Dinner for Schmucks a couple of years ago with Steve Carell and I created a female character for that movie. And after a few months of trying her out on the road it just didn't work. I mean, I can think like a terrorist, I can think like a white trash guy, I can even try and think like an African American, but I can't figure out how a woman.

  Jeff Dunham

  Couple, Character, Mean

  TheCelebrityCafe.com interview, thecelebritycafe.com. November 23, 2011.

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• In the closing years of the nineteenth century, African-American historians began to look at their people's history from their vantage point and their point of view.

  John Henrik Clarke

  Views, Years, People

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• It doesn't matter how you travel it, it's the same road. It doesn't get any easier when you get bigger, it gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it.

  James Brown

  Matter, Easier, Bigger

  James Brown, Bruce Tucker (2014). “James Brown: The Godfather of Soul”, p.104, Head of Zeus

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• Up until, really, Roosevelt, African-Americans largely voted ninety per cent Republican. That was the political origins, that's what their political voice was in the Republican party. During that history, that last sixty or seventy years of history, the Republican party effectively walked away from the community. They were afraid to really embrace civil rights even though they embraced civil rights legislation. And so it's not enough to just to put it on paper, you gotta actually show up and be in the community, and understand what that struggle was really about.

  Michael Steele

  Party, Struggle, Rights

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• In fact, the Harvard study data indicates that 70 percent of African American children attend schools that are predominately African American, about the same level as in 1968 when Dr. King died.

  Bobby Scott

  Kings, Children, School

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• I know that if a team had a derogatory name for African Americans, I would help those who helped extinguish that name. I have quite a few friends who are Native Americans. And even if I didn’t have Native American friends, the name of the team is disrespectful.

  Mike Carey

  Team, Native American, Names

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• When I became a director, I wanted to convince a very reluctant Sidney into allowing me to go on the journey of his life. Sidney had gone ahead of every other African American actor.

  Lee Grant

  Journey, Directors, Gone

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• Just because a black man is running the RNC doesn't mean black folks are going to, 'Oh, OK, I will be a Republican.' Just as with the election of President Obama. All the problems and concerns that are very important to African Americans don't get solved overnight.

  Michael Steele

  Running, Mean, Men

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• I don't think there's enough breadth to the stories told about African-Americans.

  Geoffrey S. Fletcher

  Thinking, Stories, Enough

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Puerto Ricans are Americans. We've been American citizens since 1917. We fought the same battles, made the same sacrifices. We've lost our land in the same way that Native Americans lost their land, and we've been the subject of discrimination and racism in the same way that African Americans have. We've suffered the full spectrum of oppression, and yet we've been off the map 4,000 miles away so we haven't even been able to argue our case.

  Nelson Antonio Denis

  Native American, Sacrifice, Land

  "The Lost History of Puerto Rico’s Independence Movement". Interview with AJ Vicens, www.motherjones.com. April 21, 2015.

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