(239 quotes found)
“Take jazz or blues; you can't disregard that part of the African-American experience, or even try to transcend it. They are affirmations and celebrations of the value and worth of the African-American spirit. And young people would do well to understand them as the roots of today's rap, rather than some antique to be tossed away.”
August Wilson
“I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”
Muhammad Ali
“The simple truth is that balding African-American men look cool when they shave their heads, whereas balding white men look like giant thumbs.”
Dave Barry
“If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.”
Malcolm X
“Black women have always been these vixens, these animalistic erotic women. Why can't we just be the sexy American girl next door?”
Tyra Banks
“To be a Negro in America is to hope against hope.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not ent”
Maya Angelou
“[Winning his party's nomination in 2000 will be considerably easier for Gore if he can lock up the African-American vote, which accounts for as much as a quarter of the Democratic-primary total. So he is courting the party's most loyal voters at every opportunity. At a time when there is little federal money to spread around, Gore has championed the Administration's empowerment-zone program, which pours millions of dollars into depressed areas like inner Detroit. During the fall campaign, he visited black churches on Sundays with a rousing sermon that an aide described as] very un-Al Gore, ... The Vice President will not have any problem connecting with ethnic minorities.”
Dennis Archer
“African-American voters will make a difference.”
Ken Warren
“[Farrakhan's invitation comes even as other African American leaders, from Reverend Al Sharpton to hip-hop superstar Kanye West, call for greater acceptance of gay people.] This could signal a turning point in our community, ... We are seeing an unprecedented discussion about sexuality in the black community. I'm confident that 20 to 30 years from now we will look at homophobia in the same light that we now look at racism.”
Keith Boykin
