African American Quotes - Page 17

• If you're going to get in the ring and try to take the belt, you have to prepare to get hit.

  Stanley Crouch

  Words Of Wisdom, Trying, Belts

  4 Copy quote

• There is no way that we know what is going on between the African American and the Asian American. We don't understand what an Indigenous American is. We don't understand what a Latino American is

  Edward James Olmos

  Asian, Way, Latino

  17 Copy quote

• Really, the potential for, first of all, any college graduate today is enormously good. These are good times for anyone with a college degree today, particularly African Americans. With a college degree today, you really breach the unemployment rate.

  Alexis Herman

  Inspirational, Funny, Graduation

  4 Copy quote

• There's good reason to be excited. You have the first woman running who is qualified, and a very attractive African-American who has demonstrated crossover appeal. I got involved in politics 40 years ago during the civil rights movement, so yes, it's an exciting thing.

  Joe Biden

  Running, Rights, Years

  "Biden officially running for president". MSNBC.com, January 31, 2007.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• If Id lived prior to the 1980s, it would have been different, because I would have been playing to prove African Americans are equal. Now, I dont necessarily feel I have to play for black people, because obviously theyre doing everything in all sports. If I can go out there and play for myself and not feel I have to stand for something other than what I want to do, thats good.

  Venus Williams

  Sports, Play, People

  4 Copy quote

• Will African-Americans break away from the pack thinking and reject immorality-- because that's the reason the family's breaking apart--alcohol, drugs, infidelity. You have to reject that, and it doesn't seem--and I'm broadly speaking here, but a lot of African-Americans won't reject it

  Bill O'Reilly

  Thinking, Alcohol, Drug

  19 Copy quote

• You see the one thing I've always maintained is that I'm an American Indian. I'm not a Native American. I'm not politically correct. Everyone who's born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American. We are all Native Americans. And if you notice, I put American before my ethnicity. I'm not a hyphenated African-American or Irish-American or Jewish-American or Mexican-American.

  Russell Means

  Native American, Ethnicity, Mexican

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

  184 Copy quote

  Show source

• [According to Twitter] 24 percent of American Twitter users are African-American. That's about twice as high as African-Americans are represented in the population.

  Ethan Zuckerman

  Technology, Population, Internet

  4 Copy quote

• Yeah, remember, under the Bush administration, welfare — I mean, excuse me, poverty among African Americans and among single unmarried women, poverty was at the lowest rate ever in the history of this country. So Obama’s policies are not working, Bush polices worked! For long a time as a matter of fact.

  Rick Santorum

  Country, Mean, Long

  4 Copy quote

• Remember that everyone's life is measured by the power that individual has to make the world better-this is all life is.

  Booker T. Washington

  World, Remember, Life Is

  31 Copy quote

• Sen. Joe Biden, on the day of announcing his candidacy for president of the United States, called Barack Obama the first mainstream African-American who is articulate, bright, and . . . clean. I think we've seen the shortest presidential campaign in history.

  Jay Leno

  Thinking, Presidential, Biden

  4 Copy quote

• People had their image of what a cowboy was, ... A lot of it was perpetuated by the media presentations of the cowboys in fiction and old Westerns. And because of the tenure of the times, African-Americans were left out. As a result, reality was distorted.

  Philip Roberts

  Reality, Cowboy, Media

  4 Copy quote

• All the books that were being published by African-American guys were saying 'screw whitey', or some variation of that. Not the scholars but the pop books. And the other thing they said was, 'You have to confront the oppressor.' I understand that. But you don't have to look at the world through his eyes. I'm not a stereotype; I'm not somebody else's version of who I am. And so when people said at that time black is beautiful – yeah? Of course. Who said it wasn't? So I was trying to say, in The Bluest Eye, wait a minute. Guys. There was a time when black wasn't beautiful. And you hurt.

  Toni Morrison

  Beautiful, Hurt, Book

  "Toni Morrison: 'I want to feel what I feel. Even if it's not happiness'". Interview With Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. April 13, 2012.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• In the Shadow of Slavery covers two and a half centuries of black life in New York City, and skillfully interweaves the categories of race and class as they affected the formation of African American identity. Leslie Harris has made a major contribution to our understanding of the black experience.

  Eric Foner

  New York, Race, Class

  8 Copy quote

• The lives of most men are patchwork quilts. Or at best one matching outfit with a closet and laundry bag full of incongruous accumulations. A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.

  Jesse Owens

  Quilts, Men, Words Of Wisdom

  54 Copy quote

• The point is, you have an ethnic heritage and you have a human heritage. Your human heritage includes everything of human value.

  Stanley Crouch

  Words Of Wisdom, Heritage, Humans

  4 Copy quote

• Selfishness is the most constant of human motives. Patriotism, humanity, or the love of God may lead to sporadic outbursts sweep away the heaped-up wrongs of centuries; but they languish at times, while the love of self works on ceaselessly, unwearyingly,burrowing always at the very root of life, and heaping up fresh wrongs for other centuries to sweep away.

  Charles W. Chesnutt

  Roots, Self, Humanity

  Charles W. Chesnutt (2008). “The Portable Charles W. Chesnutt”, p.382, Penguin

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• At the heart of all that civilization has meant and developed is 'community' - the mutually cooperative and voluntary venture of man to assume a semblance of responsibility for his brother.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Brother, Responsibility, Heart

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• Schooling is what happens inside the wall of the school, some of which is educational. Education happens everywhere, and it happens from the moment a child is born-some say before-until it dies.

  Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

  Education, Children, Wall

  22 Copy quote

• When will we address the fact that rich, white people think they know what's in the best interest of children of African-Americans and Latinos - no matter what the parent's income or education level.

  Karen Lewis

  Children, Thinking, White

  "Lewis Points Finger At ‘Rich White People’ For School Problems". chicago.cbslocal.com. June 19, 2013.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Some say we are responsible for those we love. Others know we are responsible for those who love us.

  Nikki Giovanni

  Love, Responsible, Knows

  Nikki Giovanni (1975). “The women and the men”, William Morrow &Company

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Affirmative action is not going to be the long-term solution to the problems of race in America, because, frankly, if you've got 50 percent of African-American or Latino kids dropping out of high school, it doesn't really matter what you do in terms of affirmative action. Those kids aren't going to college.

  Barack Obama

  School, Kids, College

  "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer, edition.cnn.com. July 27, 2008.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• How is this any different than the big boat argument of people when it came to African-Americans after the Civil War, decided, 'Put them on a boat and send them back where they came from?' You know, he says it in polite language, but that's what Romney's been saying, 'Get home where you came from, start all over again.'

  Chris Matthews

  War, Home, People

  4 Copy quote

• An environmental revolution is taking shape in the United States. This revolution has touched communities of color from New York to California and from Florida to Alaska - anywhere where African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans live and comprise a majority of the population. Collectively, these Americans represent the fastest growing segment of the population in the United States. They are also the groups most at risk from environmental problems.

  Robert D Bullard

  New York, Native American, Alaska

  15 Copy quote