African American Quotes - Page 40

• 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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• As an African-American, as a woman I think that I've been sensitized to the way in which history privileges the white male and the way in which certain aspects of history, the things that we are taught in school, the things that are handed down never, never entered the picture though they might have been very important.

  Rita Dove

  School, Thinking, White

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. November 19, 2009.

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• I have a well-balanced show. It's 50/50 on men/women, and also African-American/white writers, it's the same thing. I have four African-American writers, and four non-African-American writers.

  Wanda Sykes

  Men, White, Four

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans - the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans.

  Ray Nagin

  New Orleans, Cities, Chocolate

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• When I walk in the door sometimes, I'm already an anomaly. Because I'm working in a genre that African-American's don't typically engage in.

  Kevin Grevioux

  Doors, Anomalies, Sometimes

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• America has been very open to immigrants in terms of laws, getting loans - it has been helping immigrants more than it's been helping African Americans in starting a small business. That's key, whether you're starting a restaurant or a laundromat.

  Marcus Samuelsson

  Keys, Law, America

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• All the struggles that were fought for here in the United States for African Americans, you now enjoy the privileges of. You now come here and can enjoy privileges that were fought for by African Americans over several generations.

  Danai Gurira

  Struggle, United States, Generations

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I think there are white alumni out there who wouldn't mind having an African American president of their school, but would be reluctant to have an African American coach, because he represents the school so. I think it's just sheer backward racism.

  Frank Deford

  School, Thinking, White

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I don't think you can explain why all these other sports and college basketball have a fair representation of African American coaches, but college football doesn't. You can dig and scramble and scratch, but at the end of the day I think it's just pure, old-fashioned racism.

  Frank Deford

  Basketball, Sports, Football

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• They think America is like a major league in entertainment. For me personally being here for the past year-and-a-half, I know some of the arguments and discrepancies African American actors have with the opportunities here.

  Aml Ameen

  Opportunity, Thinking, Past

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• I am more of a conservationist, myself. And people have come to me and said, "Wow, you're an African-American conservationist!" And my response is, "No, I'm a conservationist who happens to be black."

  Jerome Ringo

  People, Black, Wow

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• I am the first African-American chairman of any major conservation organization in history. That's a big step.

  Jerome Ringo

  Organization, Firsts, Steps

  "The Pioneer". Interview with Erik Kancler, www.motherjones.com. April 25, 2005.

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• The most important thing in my life is that trying to ameliorate, redeem, the image in particular of African American men, or Black men - I don't really even like that term, "African American," because we're Black people.

  Harry Lennix

  Men, People, Black

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• This is America, where a white Catholic male Republican judge was murdered on his way to greet a Democratic Jewish woman member of Congress, who was his friend. Her life was saved initially by a 20-year old Mexican-American gay college student, and eventually by a Korean-American combat surgeon, all eulogized by our African American President.

  Mark Shields

  Gay, College, White

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• I'm an American; I'm not an African-American. I'm an American.

  Raven-Symone

  "Raven-Symone: I'm not gay, and I'm not African-American". edition.cnn.com. October 6, 2014.

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• That argument doesn’t make any sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and as a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American, we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we’ve progressed as a society? Well, if we’ve progressed as a society, then you don’t jump to somebody’s defense just because they’re African-American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right? So I won’t assert myself.

  Kobe Bryant

  Defense, Culture, Want

  "Whom Does Kobe Bryant Represent?". Interview with Ben McGrath, www.newyorker.com. April 1, 2014.

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• Ultimately, the main reason that you want more women in the sciences is the same reason you want more gay men in the sciences. It's the same reason you want more Latinos or African Americans; it's because if you come at a problem from a different perspective, you will be offering a creative vision that wasn't there before.

  Cara Santa Maria

  Gay, Men, Offering

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• People take pride in being Irish-American and Italian-American. They have a particular culture that infuses the whole culture and makes it richer and more interesting. I think if we can expand that attitude to embrace African-Americans and Latino-Americans and Asian-Americans, then we will be in a position where all our kids can feel comfortable with the worlds they are coming out of, knowing they are part of something larger.

  Barack Obama

  Attitude, Kids, Pride

  Source: www.politico.com

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• Very few Black people ever embraced back to Africa movements, and very few actually, a tiny number actually went back to Africa. They said, "We are going to make America live up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States." They produced one of the world's great cultures; they produced individuals who were just as brilliant and made contributions to the world civilization. In fact, they produced a world-class civilization, the African American civilization, in music, in dance, in oratory, in religion, in writing.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Writing, Civilization, Class

  "Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. October 21, 2013.

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• We have to stop making excuses. One of the things that I'm careful to show is the horrendous effects of institutional and structural racism, but in the end, you can't wait for white man or a Black man to come riding in on a white horse to save you. We have to save ourselves, and that's the lesson of "The African Americans."

  Henry Louis Gates

  Horse, Men, White Man

  "Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. October 21, 2013.

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• You know what needs to be done when you're a writer. You know what the job is, particularly if you're an African American writer, or if you deal with people, or if your subjects are poor people or people who need voice. So you don't really need to know whether or not you are doing the right thing. What you have to be wary of if you're doing the right thing to the right level that will surpass your own life. I'm hoping that my work will surpass my own life.

  James McBride

  Jobs, Voice, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

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