African American Quotes - Page 33

• You make real progress when somebody is honest enough to say something that's really uncomfortable. Of course when you're a candidate's wife and when you're first lady and the first African-American first lady to boot, that is very, very hard to do.

  Jodi Kantor

  Real, Wife, Progress

  Source: www.npr.org

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• Most of all, I dislike this idea nowadays that if you're a black person in America, then you must be called African-American. Listen, I've visited Africa, and I've got news for everyone: I'm not an African.

  Whoopi Goldberg

  Ideas, America, Black

  The Daily Telegraph Interview, April 20, 1998.

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• I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don't have to be defined by that.

  Robert Griffin III

  America, Never Change, Defined

  " Local Robert Griffin III: If he's a "cornball", give us more" by Alfonzo Porter, www.washingtonpost.com. December 19, 2012.

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• I don't play too much into the color game, because I don't want to be the best African American quarterback, I want to be the best quarterback.

  Robert Griffin III

  Play, Color, Games

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• Warren Moon and Doug Williams really didn't run that much. That's the negative stereotype when it comes to African-American quarterbacks, that most of us just run. Those guys threw it around. I like to think I can throw it around a little bit.

  Robert Griffin III

  Running, Thinking, Moon

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• Reinvigorating the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, making sure that in our Department of Education, where we see evidence of black boys being suspended at substantially higher rates than white boys for the same behavior, in the absence of that kind of rigorous enforcement of the nondiscrimination principle, then the long-standing biases that I believe have weakened, but are still clearly present in our society, assert themselves in ways that usually disadvantage African Americans.

  Barack Obama

  Believe, Boys, Rights

  Source: www.theatlantic.com

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• You know Latin people? African-American people? How our skin ages more slowly? Even though we're dramatic, we move our faces, we eat higher-fat foods, we're the ones with fewer wrinkles - it makes you wonder.

  Salma Hayek

  Latin, Moving, Wrinkles

  "Salma Hayek Talks Acne, Depression, & Botox" by Kacy Ray, www.foxnews.com. April 5, 2012.

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• People who are overweight face discrimination. African-Americans face discrimination. Women face discrimination and sexism. So I don't have the luxury of not being tolerant of anyone.

  Octavia Spencer

  Luxury, People, Faces

  Source: www.npr.org

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• To understand how Republicans lost the African American vote, we must first understand how we won the African American vote.

  Rand Paul

  Firsts, Vote, Republican

  "Sen. Rand Paul's Speech at Howard University". www.realclearpolitics.com. April 10, 2013.

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• The history of African-American repression in this country rose from government-sanctioned racism. Jim Crow laws were a product of bigoted state and local governments.

  Rand Paul

  Country, Government, Jim Crow Laws

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• But of course, now we're told we're in recovery but this sure doesn't feel like a recovery to more than 9 percent of the Americans out there who are unemployed, or the 16 percent of the African-Americans, 11 percent of Hispanics in the same position, or the millions who can only find part-time work or those who have even stopped looking for a job.

  Rick Perry

  Jobs, Recovery, Unemployed

  "Texas Gov. Rick Perry Announces Presidential Bid". www.realclearpolitics.com. August 13, 2011.

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• Part of that is ordinary African-Americans, you come out of your house and you see the conditions in your neighborhood and you see, folks in your neighborhood doing certain things that, are irresponsible. You know, the thing I always think about, you get up early in the morning to go to work and there's some dude outside drinking and you come home and the same dude is outside drinking hanging on the corner. And then this engenders a level of anger I think and a level of shame.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Morning, Drinking, Home

  Source: www.npr.org

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• We all remember that [Donald] Trump was one of the leaders of the so-called birther movement trying to delegitimize the presidency of our first African-American president Barack Obama, which is an outrage.

  John Lewis

  Leader, President, Trying

  Source: abcnews.go.com

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• I am fine with my books being categorized as African-American literature but I hope they are also considered Haitian-American literature and American literature. All of these things are part of who I am and what I write.

  Roxane Gay

  Book, Writing, Who I Am

  Source: therumpus.net

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• The same would be true for something like Social Security, where historically, if you just read the law and the fact that it excluded domestic workers or agricultural workers, you might not see race in it, unless you knew that that covered a huge chunk of African Americans, particularly in the South.

  Barack Obama

  Race, Law, Would Be

  Source: www.theatlantic.com

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• Higher minimum wages, full-employment programs, early-childhood education: Those kinds of programs are, by design, universal, but by definition, because they are helping folks who are in the worst economic situations, are most likely to disproportionately impact and benefit African Americans. They also have the benefit of being sellable to a majority of the body politic.

  Barack Obama

  Impact, Design, Childhood

  Source: www.theatlantic.com

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• The designation is useful and necessary and sometimes limiting but it is only limiting to people who think, for example, that African-American literature couldn't possibly be something they could be interested in or relate to. They have limited imaginations, which is sad.

  Roxane Gay

  Thinking, People, Imagination

  Source: therumpus.net

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• If you want to get at African American poverty, the income gap, wealth gap, achievement gap, that the most important thing is to make sure that the society as a whole does right by people who are poor, are working class, are aspiring to a better life for their kids.

  Barack Obama

  Kids, Class, People

  Source: www.theatlantic.com

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• There's a whole lot more to the African-American community than entertainment and sports.

  J. C. Watts

  Sports, Community, Entertainment

  "Watts launches African-American channel". Interview with Helena Andrews, www.politico.com. July 17, 2008.

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• I do think, however, that there's a very diverse point of view in the African-American community. There's a lot of different voices that need to be heard. I don't claim and pretend to know the thoughts and opinions and ideas of all African-Americans.

  J. C. Watts

  Thinking, Views, Ideas

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• I guess probably in my time in politics, it continued to be affirmed to me that the African-American community, despite being subscription television's most valuable customers, they are very underserved by cable and satellite television programming options.

  J. C. Watts

  Community, Television, Satellites

  "Watts launches African-American channel". Interview with Helena Andrews, www.politico.com. July 17, 2008.

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• I would flip this the other way and say over 90 percent of African-Americans voted against Donald Trump.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Way, Flip, Trump

  Source: www.npr.org

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• The symbolic value of having an African-American president has certainly eased some racial tensions in America, but they're not gone.

  Naomi Wolf

  America, President, Gone

  "Naomi Wolf on Obama: 'His record on civil liberties is shocking'". Interview with Killian Fox, www.theguardian.com. October 13, 2012.

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• And thus goes segregation which is the most far-reaching development in the history of the Negro since the enslavement of the race.

  Carter G. Woodson

  Race, History, Development

  Carter G. Woodson (2006). “The Mis-Education of the Negro”, p.102, Book Tree

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• This is, for an accomplished Latino, an accomplished African American, an accomplished anyone who disproves stereotypes, it's a constant battle in your life.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Battle, Stereotype, Accomplished

  Source: eldiariony.com

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