“Black people have had to become great at seeing ourselves where we are not present because that’s where we grew up. I see myself in Downton Abbey. Even before they introduced the black character, I was right there. Some weeks I was upstairs, some weeks I was downstairs! But it is different when you have a character who looks like you, so I’m glad to have plugged that gap a little bit.”

—  Suzan-Lori Parks

On the United Kingdom being behind the United States when it comes to incorporating Black characters in “Suzan-Lori Parks: 'People in America are often encouraged not to think'” https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/21/suzan-lori-parks-interview-royal-court-father-comes-home-from-the-wars-obama in The Guardian (2016 Sep 21)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Black people have had to become great at seeing ourselves where we are not present because that’s where we grew up. I s…" by Suzan-Lori Parks?
Suzan-Lori Parks photo
Suzan-Lori Parks 5
American writer 1963

Related quotes

Benedict Cumberbatch photo

“If I’m playing someone who’s smart, suddenly every character I’ve played is smart. If I’m playing a bad guy, every character is a bad guy. I suppose it’s that thing where people want to see a through-line to understand you. I mean, you know, I have played pretty ordinary people too.”

Benedict Cumberbatch (1976) English actor and film producer

"Benedict Cumberbatch interview" in TimeOut https://www.timeout.com/kuala-lumpur/film/benedict-cumberbatch-interview (21 November 2016)

Frank Welker photo

“I like looking at the characters. Seeing them always brings up some voice or attitude. I am much more visual and that works so much better than having someone tell me what the character is all about”

Frank Welker (1946) American actor

Frank Welker Q&A http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/09/16/frank-welker-qa (September 15, 2009)

Julian Fellowes photo

“What is a week-end? Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey.”

Julian Fellowes (1949) English actor, dramatist, director, novelist, producer and screenwriter
Bert McCracken photo

“It's always fun to climb into a dress when you're having a party, right? So we were having a party and I did just that, I poured myself into a dress. When I woke up - and I woke between the kitchen cabinets - I wasn't wearing the dress any longer. No idea where it went. It was a nice dress as well, a little black number. Do I look good in a dress? Always.”

Bert McCracken (1982) American musician

On the oddest experience while at a party, reported in WENN staff (December 6, 2007) "The Things They Say", World Entertainment News Network.

John Boyega photo

“I ain't paying money to always see one type of person on-screen…Because you see different people from different backgrounds, different cultures, every day. Even if you're a racist, you have to live with that. We can ruffle up some feathers.”

John Boyega (1992) British Nigerian actor

On the diversity in Star Wars in “John Boyega on Star Wars, Detroit, and Staying Sane with the Help of Robert Downey Jr.” https://www.gq.com/story/john-boyega-star-wars-detroit-and-robert-downey-jr in GQ Magazine (2017 Jul 17)

Suzan-Lori Parks photo

“I am the white woman character, black woman character. I am the black man character, the white man character…I have to stand in that person’s shoes.”

Suzan-Lori Parks (1963) American writer

On embodying every one of her characters in “Pulitzer Prize Winner Suzan-Lori Parks Questions ‘Woke-ness’ With Her Latest Off-Broadway Play” http://www.playbill.com/article/pulitzer-prize-winner-suzan-lori-parks-questions-woke-ness-with-her-latest-off-broadway-play in Playbill (2019 Mar 1)

Chris Cornell photo

“Every time I know we have to go out on tour, there’s about three or four weeks where I’m terrified—where I start thinking: That’s not me. I’m not Freddie Mercury.”

Chris Cornell (1964–2017) American singer-songwriter, musician

Then I go out onstage and it’s like diving into the cold Puget Sound after spending five weeks in Hawaii—there’s a shock to the system, but the fear goes away. You get used to it, which is pretty cool, because if I stopped performing, I could just disappear and end up being some weird chattering man that walks the streets in rags, staring only at the pavement. At first you rationalize that going to a club where people recognize you is a bad idea; then going to a neighborhood bar becomes a bad idea, too. Going to the grocery store becomes a bad idea. Answering the phone becomes a bad idea. Then every time the dog barks, you think the National Guard is on your roof ready to drill holes in the shingles and shoot at you. So I have to deal with the outside world on sort of a maintenance level—go out to a bar every so often and just be around people.
Interview with Details Magazine, December 1996 https://pitchfork.com/features/article/10081-chris-cornell-searching-for-solitude/,
On being anti-social

Sara Paxton photo

“I have to find the right part of myself and put it into that character. I feel like everyone has a full deck of cards and I just have to pull the right card for that character. The more comedic roles come easier to me though because I see myself as a silly, easy-going person.”

Sara Paxton (1988) American actress, model and singer

Sara Paxton on The Innkeepers, Shark Night 3-D and Julia Roberts Marathons (June 23, 2011)

DJ Paul photo

“Man, I really ain’t have no downtime since the fucking 90’s but I don’t really work fast but I don’t really work slow. So I have been around a lot of producers, some of the top producers in the business and I’ve seen producers go in, I’m talking about producers that have hit songs right now on the radio. I’ve seen some of these producers get up and make 100 beats a week, and out of these 100 beats they make a week, you know 400 a month, maybe one of them will end up on their own artists project. That was never the case with me. If I went into the studio and made 5 beats week all five of those at least four of those would be on the album and three of them would be singles. I just work different, when I go in I hit hard, I strike right on the nose right off the top and I don’t have to live in the studio like you see some artists doing even though I live in the studio but I just be doing other stuff.”

DJ Paul (1977) American rapper and record producer

Interview with Three 6 Mafia Founder DJ Paul http://therapfest.com/behind-lyrics-interview-three-6-mafias-founder-dj-paul/

Cornel West photo

“I focus on popular culture because I focus on those areas where black humanity is most powerfully expressed, where black people have been able to articulate their sense of the world in a profound manner. And I see this primarily in popular culture. Why not in highbrow culture? Because the access has been so difficult. Why not in more academic forms? Because academic exclusion has been the rule for so long for large numbers of black people that black culture, for me, becomes a search for where black people have left their imprint and fundamentally made a difference in terms of how certain art forms are understood. This is currently in popular culture. And it has been primarily in music, religion, visual arts and fashion.”

Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist

"Cornel West interviewed by bell hooks" in Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life (1991)

Related topics