Quotes about blackness (2672 quotes, page 27)

“Being gay isn't a choice, just like being black isn't a choice…I don't stop. I do not give up. I do not take America's 'no' to my identity for an answer.”

Saeed Jones (1985) American poet

On being Black and gay in the United States in “'We're All Struggling': Writer Saeed Jones Reflects On Identity And Acceptance” https://www.npr.org/2019/11/06/776747102/we-re-all-struggling-writer-saeed-jones-reflects-on-identity-and-acceptance in NPR (2019 Nov 6)

“…I had a lot of different reasons for writing the book but at its core was the desire to write for black teenage girls growing up reading books they were absent from. That was my experience as a child. Children of Blood and Bone is a chance to address that. To say you are seen.”

Tomi Adeyemi (1993) American author

On her primary motivation to write Children of Blood and Bone in “Tomi Adeyemi: ‘We need a black girl fantasy book every month’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/10/tomi-adeyemi-interview-children-of-blood-and-bone-sarah-hughes in The Guardian (2018 Mar 10)

Chance , Reading , Girl , Children

“"In Nigeria I'm not black…We don't do race in Nigeria. We do ethnicity a lot, but not race. My friends here don't really get it. Some of them sound like white Southerners from 1940. They say, 'Why are black people complaining about race? Racism doesn't exist!'”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) Nigerian writer

It's just not a part of their existence."

On how views of race differ in Nigeria than the United States in “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘I Wanted To Claim My Own Name’” https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-novelist-ted-speaker-interview in Vogue (2015 Nov 3)

People

“Comrades. Our labour has ended, the armed struggle has begun... The invincible flames of the reovlution will glow, turning to lead and steel... There will be a great rupture and wel will be the makers of the new dawn ... We shall convert the black fire into red and the red into pure light.”

Abimael Guzmán (1934–2021) Peruvian communist

Quoted, Priestland, David. The Red Flag

Light

“Racial history lays so heavily on black people – slavery, migration, racism. But I don’t want my characters to be hidden by that…”

Diana Evans (1971) British novelist

Source: On addressing racism in her writings in “Diana Evans: 'There's a ruthlessness in me towards writing'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/19/diana-evans-interview-ordinary-people in The Guardian (2018 Mar 19)

People , History

“If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Interview with African American radio host Charlamagne tha God on "The Breakfast Club", as quoted in * 2020-05-22
Joe Biden, in testy interview, says 'you ain’t black’ if you're undecided over him vs. Trump
Nicholas Wu
USA TODAY 2020
Source: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/05/22/biden-you-aint-black-if-you-cant-decide-between-trump-and-biden/5242706002/

Problem

“When white terrorists bomb a black church and kill five black children, that is an act of individual racism, widely deplored by most segments of the society. But when in that same city—Birmingham, Alabama—five hundred black babies die each year because of the lack of proper food, shelter and medical facilities, and thousands more are destroyed and maimed physically, emotionally and intellectually because of conditions of poverty and discrimination in the black community, that is a function of institutional racism.”

Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998) American activist

Black Power: The Politics of Liberation, 1967, p. 4, co-authored with Charles V. Hamilton

Communication , Baby , Children , Food

“I have seen a German youth camp, housing six thousand children around the age of ten, display in tree-high letters the words: ‘You were born to die for Germany!’ I have seen babies of six and seven, black-shirted and belted, march in Italy in military drill. I have seen children in Russia kindergartens taught how to adjust gas masks and the strategy of trench warfare.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 34-35

Baby , Tree , Housing , Children

“Lynchings in the past have significantly shaped race relations in the present. A killing such as George Floyd’s lands on black people with a much heavier psychological weight because of lynching’s legacy. Too many white people fail to recognize this, and that needs to change. The hurt is too great, the simmering fear and anger too volatile, to bury forever. All Americans who would seek or demand a nation that is fairer to every citizen, less racist, and more peaceful have a responsibility to know this history in detail. … Confronting this ugliness would be difficult for everyone, of course, but it should be attempted. Ignorance and denial certainly have not worked, because this American wound still bleeds.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

Hurt , Peace , Anger , History

“The reality is that racial lynchings were a frequent and normal feature of life in the South. This unique method of murder was a devastating form of terrorism that imposed a constant threat to all black people. The white authority structure did not only tolerate or encourage these killings but used the fear of lynchings to control and oppress black people.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

Fear , Life , Reality , People

“I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things, Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made [[America] what it is today. Big impact”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2017, February
Source: Donald Trump's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/frederick-douglass-trump/515292/ February 1, 2017

People , Learning

“There was such a dearth of films like that…And the high-school teen movie is a genre that I love. Everything at that age is so heightened and dramatic, and high-school movies capture that so perfectly. But those films are all white, too; there’s no black teen movie genre that exists in the same way.”

Issa Rae (1985) American actress and writer

On how she didn’t see herself represented in the teen film genre in “Issa Rae: ‘I’ve not started writing season four of Insecure yet. We needed a break’” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/13/issa-rae-interview-insecure-little in The Guardian (2019 Apr 13)

School , Age , Way , Love

“Thinking about racism in terms of just black and white is a further "invisibilization."”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

We have to recognize the commonality of experience of racism among people of color. Sometimes racism is based on skin color or other physical features; it can have added components of culture, language and legal status -- as in the case of people of Mexican descent.…
On racism in "Unite and Overcome!" https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-1997/unite-and-overcome in Teaching Tolerance (Spring 1997)

Thinking

“… I had my own personal experiences with prejudice. I was the only child of color in primary school, junior high and high school. I went through all those years feeling like a freak in one all-white school after the other. The family next door wouldn't let their daughter play with me because I was Mexican. I got on a bus once in D.C. with my father, who was very dark, and they told us to go to the back of the bus, where black people had to sit in those years. All this created in me a feeling of empathy and solidarity with people of color and formed the roots of my commitment to fighting for social justice and against racism.”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

On becoming a political activist in "Unite and Overcome!" https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-1997/unite-and-overcome in Teaching Tolerance (Spring 1997)

School , Family , Justice , Personality

“Women’s studies has long constructed black feminism as a form of discipline inflicted on the field and has imagined black feminists as a set of disciplinarians who quite literally whip the field into shape with their demands for a feminism that accounts for race generally, and for black women specifically.”

Jennifer Christine Nash Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies

Source: Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality (2018), p. 12

Study , Imagination , Women

“I was impacted in a way that I didn’t expect...We see black death all the time, and I don’t know what it was about this, but I know I went home and then I woke up in the middle of the night crying.”

Alicia Garza (1981) Co-founder of the Black Lives Matter International movement

How the movement that’s changing America was built and where it goes next, By Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/black-lives-matter-jamil-smith-1014442/ (16 June 2020)

Home , Time , Night , Cry

“When we think about how we address problems in this country, we often start from a place of trickle-down justice. So using white folks as the control we say, well, if we make things better for white folks then everybody else is going to get free. But actually it doesn't work that way.... When we talk about the wage gap, we often say women make 78 cents to every dollar that a man makes. You all have heard that before. But those are the statistics for white women and white men. The reality is that black women make something like 64 cents to every 78 cents that white women make. When we talk about Latinas, it goes down to about 58 cents. If we were to talk about indigenous women, if we were to talk about trans women, it would even go further down. So again, if you deal with those who are the most impacted, everybody has an opportunity to benefit from that, rather than dealing with the folks who are not as impacted, and expecting it to trickle down.”

Alicia Garza (1981) Co-founder of the Black Lives Matter International movement

An Interview with the Founders of Black Lives Matter, Ted Talks, https://www.ted.com/talks/alicia_garza_patrisse_cullors_and_opal_tometi_an_interview_with_the_founders_of_black_lives_matter?language=en (October 2016)

Justice , Country , Problem , Thinking

“Race and racism is probably the most studied social, economic and political phenomenon in this country, but it's also the least understood. The reality is that race in the United States operates on a spectrum from black to white. Doesn't mean that people who are in between don't experience racism, but it means that the closer you are to white on that spectrum, the better off you are. And the closer to black that you are on that spectrum the worse off your are.”

Alicia Garza (1981) Co-founder of the Black Lives Matter International movement

An Interview with the Founders of Black Lives Matter, Ted Talks, https://www.ted.com/talks/alicia_garza_patrisse_cullors_and_opal_tometi_an_interview_with_the_founders_of_black_lives_matter?language=en (October 2016)

Study , Reality , People , Country

“Racism is rare in Brazil. I'm fed up with this mania of always pitting blacks against whites, gays against heterosexuals. People say I'm homophobic, racist, fascist, xenophobic, but I won the election. [...] If I was racist, what would I have done on seeing a black fall into the water? I'd have folded my arms.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

In an interview to Luciana Gimenez broadcasted on 7 May 2019. Racism 'rare' in Brazil, says far right Bolsonaro https://www.france24.com/en/20190508-racism-rare-brazil-says-far-right-bolsonaro. France 24 (8 May 2019).
2019

Water , People

“Pride to me is a celebration of self. It is a celebration of being fully aware of and proud of your existence. And it's also historically a major monumental moment for the queer community. It was started by a black trans woman. And the movement is still around because we are still looking to feel empowered and still looking for visibility for all of our members.”

Lauren Jauregui (1996) Cuban-American singer and songwriter

[Lauren Jauregui Talks Coming Out in the Digital Age, Teases Debut Solo Album: 'I'm So Proud Of It', https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8517545/lauren-jauregui-teases-debut-solo-album-video, Billboard, June 27, 2019]

Self-confidence , Feeling , Communication

“I feel more welcome among the black communities than I do among Coloureds”

P. W. Botha (1916–2006) South African prime minister

Upon the resignation of Allan Hendrickse from cabinet, as quoted by Michael Parks, Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-25-mn-4089-story.html, 25 August 1987

Feeling , Communication

“We will not shy away from engaging in the hard work to take on the damaging legacy of slavery and our treatment of Native Americans, or from doing the daily work of addressing systemic racism and violence against Black, Native, Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and other communities of color.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

21 March 2021 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/21/statement-by-president-biden-on-the-international-day-for-the-elimination-of-racial-discrimination/
2021, March 2021

Color , Communication

“In society, we do horrible things to one another because we don't see the person it affects. We don't see their face. We don't see them as people. Which was the whole reason the hood was built in the first place, to keep the victims of apartheid out of sight and out of mind. Because if white people ever saw black people as human, they would see that slavery is unconscionable. We live in a world where we don't see the ramifications of what we do to others, because we don't live with them. It would be a whole lot harder for an investment banker to rip off people with subprime mortgages if he actually had to live with the people he was ripping off. If we could see one another's pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 222
Born a Crime

World , Personality , Pain , People

“The only way then to deal with the black man whom we find in America—is to give him his rights, cordially, frankly, fully.The freedman is a man, neither more nor less.”

Basil Manly Jr. (1825–1892) American minister and theologian

"Our Brother in Black", Seminary Magazine 2 (1889), pp. 137–39, as quoted in Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary https://sbts-wordpress-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/sbts/uploads/2018/12/Racism-and-the-Legacy-of-Slavery-Report-v4.pdf#page=6 (December 2018), by R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, p. 40

Way

“Dust to dust by the broken dreams of the humanity,
you ain't got a lot to say, the words are sad,
now, our companion, the pains of the heart
The indifference kills with no shame or concern, killing me,
killing you, watch the end of the blessing, for the blind in the heart war has taken its tax. He has wrapped us in black wings
and one day, the sun stopped, the rain stopped falling,
the flowers didn't look high,
the sky emptied of stars
then a tear dripped from the heart and became our breath
we need a sacred tear,
before the fall.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: https://allpoetry.com/alexis_karpouzos

Star , Flowers , Indifference , Tear

“It is time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget: that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American Flag.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Freedom , Time , Forgetting , Wisdom

“Do you know what black stripe is?”

Adam Rakunas American author

he said. “It’s a warning. It’s nature’s way of telling us what a bad idea it is to rely too much on one plant.”
Source: Windswept (2015), Chapter 22 (p. 287)

“God is not interested in the freedom of black men or brown men or yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, the creation of a society where every man will respect the dignity and worth of personality. So when we sing We Shall Overcome, we are singing a hymn of faith, a hymn of optimism, a hymn of faith in the future.
I can still sing that song because I have faith in the future. I believe that we, as Negroes, are going to gain our freedom in America because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution (1965)

Personality , Optimism , Men , God

“We must never substitute a doctrine of Black supremacy for white supremacy. For the doctrine of Black supremacy is as dangerous as white supremacy. God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men but God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, the creation of a society where all men will live together as brothers”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

"Social Justice and the Emerging New Age" address at the Herman W. Read Fieldhouse, Western Michigan University (18 December 1963)
1960s

God , Freedom , Men

“As the only black kid in my primary school playground, animals had become my friends. By 15 I was vegan, although I didn't give up honey until 16. For a while my mother thought it was just "a rasta phase."”

Benjamin Zephaniah (1958) English poet and author

… I can honestly say I've not been tempted to give up veganism in 27 years. I sometimes smell a chip shop and like the smell but then feel guilty because fish might be part of it. But I'll go home and make vegan chips. After all these years, my favourite food is my mother's butter bean stew with whole potatoes, yam and dasheen. I don't think I've ever made a meal for her, to be honest. I think she would consider it a failing of her motherhood and say "Boy, get out the kitchen."
"Interview: Benjamin Zephaniah" by John Hind, TheGuardian.com (18 July 2010) https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/18/benjamin-zephaniah-life-on-a-plate

School , Animals

“The priest’s breath was sour and hot as he moved towards me…Then there was blackness...I remembered every single moment up to a point…Then it’s concreted over. What’s buried there? Is it something worth exhuming?..Yes. Maybe if I say it, it will lose its power over me.”

Gabriel Byrne (1950) Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator

On confronting the memories of his sexual abuse by a priest in “Gabriel Byrne: 'There’s a shame about men speaking out. A sense that if you were abused, it was your fault'” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/nov/08/gabriel-byrne-its-an-obscenity-to-tell-innocent-children-theyre-going-to-hell in The Guardian (2020 Nov 8)

“In reading authors, when you find
Bright passages that strike your mind,
And which perhaps you may have reason
To think on at another season,
Be not contented with the sight,
But take them down in black and white;
Such a respect is wisely shown
That makes another's sense one's own.”

John Byrom (1692–1763) Poet, inventor of a shorthand system

"A Hint to a young Person, for his better Improvement by Reading or Conversation"
Miscellaneous Poems (1773)

Reading , Season , Thinking , Sense

“If we had a starship, we could move near a black hole, stay there for a half hour and then come out. Outside hundreds of years could have gone. So we could... come away from the black hole into the far future easily.”

Carlo Rovelli (1956) Italian physicist

Carlo Rovelli: The nature of time (Apr 10, 2020)

Future

“I'm extremely gratified that people have heard and are taking ownership of Black Lives Matter. People now know that in their respective industries and countries, they have the responsibility to ensure that Black people are respected, protected and affirmed.”

Opal Tometi (1984) Nigerian–American writer, strategist and community organizer

Source: Black Lives Matter Was Always Designed to Be a Global Movement, Vice] (7 July 2020)

Country , People

“One of the biggest lie is the perception that a back cloth is a satanic fabric. Wake up my black brothers and sisters. It's just an invention made by a genius black man from a mutuba tree -Edy kasawuli”

Edykasawuli7

Tree , Lie , Clothes , Sister

“It is indisputable that the blacks have benefited from certain benefits of civilization.”

Albert I of Belgium (1875–1934) third King of the Belgians

The visit of King Albert I to the Belgian Congo in 1928. Between propaganda and reality. https://www.congoforum.be/Upldocs/Het_bezoek_van_koning_Albert_I_aan_Belgi.compressed.pdf

“We also believe that we cannot truly become free when marginalised Black communities are kept at the margins and are forgotten. We don't believe that there can be a trickle-down social justice. We believe that people on the margins must be brought centre.”

Opal Tometi (1984) Nigerian–American writer, strategist and community organizer

Black Lives Matter Was Always Designed to Be a Global Movement, Vice] (7 July 2020)

Justice , People , Communication

“When you're sitting at home or living at a slower pace and you see that Black folks in your community are attacked, killed, murdered by vigilantes and by the police, you wake up, you rise to action, and you rise quickly.”

Opal Tometi (1984) Nigerian–American writer, strategist and community organizer

Black Lives Matter Was Always Designed to Be a Global Movement, Vice] (7 July 2020)

Home , Communication

“I was interested in giving folks like black, poor people who’ve been marginalized, brutalized, an opportunity to have more visibility. Before seven years ago, we could barely get the news to talk about police violence, let alone police death.”

Opal Tometi (1984) Nigerian–American writer, strategist and community organizer

How the movement that’s changing America was built and where it goes next, By Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone, (16 June 2020)

People , Death

“I’m going to go out there and represent the U.S.A., represent World Champions Centre, and represent Black and brown girls over the world. At the end of the day, I’m not representing U.S.A. Gymnastics.”

Simone Biles (1997) American gymnast

"Simone Biles and the Weight of Perfection" in The New York Times (24 July 2021) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/sports/olympics/simone-biles-gymnastics.html

Girl , World

“Thick smoke like a herd of black horses was rising over the massive building and being blown around by the wind.”

Ismail Kadare book Chronicle in Stone

Ismail Kadare, Chronicle in Stone

Horse

“We were born as a blank page and we will die as a black page.”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Si nasce come una pagina bianca e si muore come una pagina nera.

“All my dreams are in black and white. I believe this is the main reason why I can't be a racist in life.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Dreams , Life

“My God can neither be imagined nor described. He is infinite. Tall or short, fat or thin, old or young, black or white. These are the human attributes that we try to apply to God into our limited minds.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God , Imagination

“Rastafarianism is bringing black people back to the socalled promised land. The bodies live in Africa, but the mentalities are somewhere in the Middle East.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People

“Naming is important. In many black cultures you learn the importance of giving the right name or not naming things…”

Danez Smith American poet

On the importance of naming in “INTERVIEW WITH DANEZ SMITH” http://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-danez-smith/ in The White Review (June 2018)

Learning

“We are all human beings—the same human beings. Don’t categorize that you are yellow, you are white, you are Black, and white is better than yellow or Black or any other skin color. That’s stupid things to compare. We are all different and beautiful.”

Youn Yuh-jung (1947) South Korean actress

Max, Gao, ‘Minari’ Actress Youn Yuh-Jung Knows the Awards “Mean Nothing to Me”, Observer, 2021-02-15, 2021-06-08 https://observer.com/2021/02/youn-yuh-jung-interview-minari/,

Beauty , Color , Stupidity

“In Black Magic, the Devil means the employment of the Grand Magical Agent for a wicked purpose by a perverted Will.”

Eliphas Levi (1810–1875) French writer

Miscellaneous Quotes On the Subjects of Magic and Magicians
Source: The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum, Eliphas Levi, Translated by W. Wynn Westcott, London, George Redway, 1896, p. 60.

“Black clouds whelm on the city,
Till it seems the city must yield.
Our chain-mail glitters under the moon,
Metal scales agape.”

Li He (790–816) Chinese writer

Opening lines
"Ballad of the Grand Warden of Goose Gate" (《雁門太守行》)
Original: (zh-TW) 黑雲壓城城欲摧，甲光向日金鱗開。

“We need a movement to #DefundTheMilitary. Why spend so much $ for a dept that can’t pass an audit, can’t win a war, and brings so much death and misery to black and brown people around the world?”

Medea Benjamin (1952) American political activist and author

Twitter https://twitter.com/medeabenjamin/status/1275043766601203717 (22 June 2020)
2014, 2020

War , People , World , Death

“The black man's brake, if we are to believe, is the lack of prophets and spiritual masters”

Bavua Ntinu André (1939–2013) Spiritual master of the PSV

https://www.lephareonline.net/grand-maitre-bavua-a-une-solution-pour-lafrique-noire/ Grandmaster Bavua has a solution for black Africa D-I.K, lephare, Grandmaster Bavua has a solution for black Africa on June 01, 2010.

“There are people who seriously think sea rescue activists like me rescue Black lives because we hate white people. Some white people feel personally threatened by the fact that human rights apply to everyone equally. White priviledge needs to end if we want justice, ever.”

Carola Rackete (1988) German merchant navy captain

Source: Twitter https://twitter.com/CaroRackete/status/1276852825432166401 (27 June 2020)

Hate , Personality , People , Sea

“It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim or a Mexican or someone black, I feel like the doubters would have supported me a lot much more. A lot more. And that says a lot about the place that we are in our country right now.”

Jussie Smollett (1982) American actor, singer, director and photographer

14 February 2019 interview with ABC excerpt in tweet https://twitter.com/abc/status/1096026425768005632 promoting their coverage https://abcnews.go.com/US/chicago-pd-locate-persons-interest-alleged-racist-attack/story?id=61075518
also quoted by Global News https://globalnews.ca/news/4960466/jussie-smollett-first-interview-since-alleged-attack/ and CNN https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/16/entertainment/jussie-smollett-attack/index.html and New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/arts/television/jussie-smollett-interview.html and Entertainment Weekly https://ew.com/tv/2019/02/14/jussie-smollett-attack-interview-good-morning-america/ and The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/jussie-smollett-in-first-tv-interview-youd-believe-me-if-i-said-attackers-were-black and Desert https://www.deseret.com/2019/3/27/20669388/jussie-smollett-says-i-am-a-man-of-faith-after-charges-were-dropped and RealClearPolitics https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/02/14/jussie_smollett_pissed_at_critics_if_i_blamed_a_muslim_or_a_mexican_doubters_would_support_me.html and Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/jussie-smollett-addresses-assault-doubters-good-morning-america-2019-2 and NBC https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/probe-alleged-jussie-smollett-attack-shifts-whether-actor-staged-incident-n972516 and PageSix https://pagesix.com/2019/02/16/nigerian-brothers-confirmed-to-be-in-surveillance-video-of-jussie-smollet-attack/, all of whom mutually left out the following sentence...

Country , Support , Feeling

“We come together to mourn the lives lost to the same racist system that devalues Black lives and devalued the lives of Anthony and JoJo.”

Mark Ruffalo (1967) American actor

Source: 19 November 2021 tweet https://twitter.com/MarkRuffalo/status/1461807227476582407

“The news was highly coloured, even if the print was black and white.”

Genevieve Cogman (1972) novelist and game designer

Source: The Lost Plot (2017), Chapter 9 (p. 118)

“In all my novels… I deal with the many problems and prejudices which exist for Black people in Britain today.”

Buchi Emecheta (1944–2017) author

Source: On her major themes in “Interview with Buchi Emecheta” http://www.emeagwali.com/nigeria/biography/buchi-emecheta-voice-09jul96.html (Philip Emeagwali)

People , Problem

“Black women all over the world should re-unite and re-examine the way history has portrayed us.”

Buchi Emecheta (1944–2017) author

Source: On how Black women should challenge historical representations (as quoted in “Buchi Emecheta: Nigerian author who championed girls dies aged 72” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38757048 in BBC News in BBC News; 2017 Jan 26)

History , Way , World , Women

“Our people humanized the violent, inhumane slave plantation society that the British colonialists had established, (but) we are still faced with the insidious nature of a culture that is intended to dehumanize black people wherever black or blackness is found, and our parliaments therefore, while we shall be in the vanguard of removing all laws of discrimination, it is the mental emancipation that shall forever always matter.”

Mia Mottley (1965) prime minister of Barbados

Mia Mottley (2021) cited in: " Mia Mottley: Barbados’ first female leader on a mission to transform island https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/03/mia-mottley-barbados-first-female-leader-mission-to-transform-island" in The Guardian, 3 December 2021.

People , Law , Nature

“I intend to act as tough as possible ... Together we will overcome this black period in the history of Kazakhstan.”

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (1953) Kazakh politician

Source: Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (2021) cited in: " State of emergency in Kazakhstan as Tokayev asks CSTO's help https://www.dailysabah.com/world/asia-pacific/state-of-emergency-in-kazakhstan-as-tokayev-asks-cstos-help" in Daily Sabah, 5 January 2021.

History

“I probably seem quite at ease now saying I’m mixed race, I’m black, I’m Zambian, but for a while that was quite torturous, quite angsty. As a young woman I wasn’t very tender or nice to myself…Now I’m older, I’m much more able to be tender and kind to the younger me that I see in the book.”

Namwali Serpell (1980) Zambian feminist academic and writer

Source: On coming to terms with her mixed race identity in “Namwali Serpell: 'As a young woman I wasn’t very nice to myself'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/30/namwali-serpell-the-old-drift-interview in The Guardian (2019 Apr 30)

Books

“To me, blackness is just part of what the family is.”

Namwali Serpell (1980) Zambian feminist academic and writer

Source: On how the binary system of race differs in Zambia from the United States in “Namwali Serpell: 'As a young woman I wasn’t very nice to myself'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/30/namwali-serpell-the-old-drift-interview in The Guardian (2019 Apr 30)

Family , Parting

“Blacks who lack a proper killing rage are merely victims of the genocidal campaign that white America is waging against them.”

David Horowitz (1939) Neoconservative activist, writer

from the 1999 book Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes.
1990s

Rage

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”

Colin Kaepernick (1987) American football quarterback

Source: quoted in Colin Kaepernick explains why he sat during national anthem, Steve Wyche, Aug 27, 2016, 2016 https://www.nfl.com/news/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-anthem-0ap3000000691077,

Country , People , Color

“As a black woman I feel a responsibility to black people and to women. My responsibility is not to be compromising. Even if the content is not positively biased or doesn’t fall in line with an agenda or ideology, I want people to be satisfied by the honesty.”

Theresa Ikoko English psychologist, playwright

Source: quoted in Award winning and unapologetic playwright Theresa Ikoko brings Girls to Soho Theatre, Mattie Lacey-Davidson, 29th September 2016, 2016, en, 25 January 2022, 2022 https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/leisure/latest/14770119.award-winning-and-unapologetic-playwright-theresa-ikoko-brings-girls-to-soho-theatre/,

People , Feeling , Women

“We have room for the man with an honest dream,
With his heart on fire and his eyes agleam;
We have room for the man with a purpose true,
Who comes to our shores to start life anew,
But we haven't an inch of space for him
Who comes to plot against life and limb.
We have room for the man who will learn our ways,
Who will stand by our Flag in its troubled days;
We have room for the man who will till the soil,
Who will give his hands to a fair day's toil,
But we haven't an inch of space to spare
For the breeder of hatred and black despair.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: When Day is Done (1921), No Room for Hate, stanzas 1 and 2

Despair , Life , Learning , Dreams

“How can Christian theology truly speak of the hope of Jesus Christ, unless that hope begins and ends with the liberation of the poor in the social existence in which theology takes shape? In America this means that there can be no talk about hope in the Christian sense unless it is talk about the freedom of black, red, and brown people.”

James H. Cone (1938–2018) American theologian

Source: God of the Oppressed (1975, 1997), p. 128 (1975 edition)

Freedom , People , Hope , Christ

“People love to classify things as black and white, good or bad, but I’ve seldom met any one who can be neatly defined and classified…”

Silvia Moreno-Garcia (1981) Canadian writer

Source: On the grayness of her characters in http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/author-spotlight-silvia-moreno-garcia/ “Author Spotlight: Silvia Moreno-Garcia”] in Nightmare Magazine (Nov 2015)

People , Love

“I would rather have stayed in the theater and done comedy. Comedy in film (was) so narrow for women. I was much happier doing very black comedy onstage, and I could never find anything of that ilk on film. The closest to what I might have accomplished was `Working Girl.'”

Sigourney Weaver (1949) American actress

“Dream Weaver" (Dec 3, 1997)

Girl , Women

“When I was bleeding to death in my Black Hawk helicopter after I was shot down, I didn't care if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender, black, white or brown.”

Tammy Duckworth (1968) United States senator from Illinois

Tammy Duckworth in "White House to instruct Pentagon on how to implement president's transgender ban in the military" http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-transgender-ban-20170824-story.html by Brian Bennett and David S. Cloud, LA Times, (August 24, 2017)

Help , Death

“If you notice, I have more people supporting me in the black community that have announced for me, because they know me.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

21 November 2019 https://www.vice.com/en/article/vb5wm8/biden-says-hes-from-the-black-community-7-moments-you-missed-from-the-democratic-debate
2010s, 2019

Support , People , Communication

“Because we are so accustomed to talking about race in terms of black and white, we often fail to recognize and contest expressions of racism that target people of color who are not black.”

Angela Davis Are Prisons Obsolete?

Source: Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), Chapter Two

People , Color

“I like extreme. I never like to be normal. F*** normal. I’m the black sheep in life. I’m the weird one and I like that.”

Dave Leduc (1991) Canadian Lethwei fighter (born 1991)

As quoted in South China Morning Post https://www.scmp.com/sport/martial-arts/other-martial-arts/article/3021025/maybe-i-was-born-myanmar-another-life/ (August 2, 2019)
On Lethwei

Life

Quotes about blackness page 27

Quotes about blackness
page 27