Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist
Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), p. 38
Quotes about blackness page 5
“The crow wished everything was black, the Owl, that everything was white.”
William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist
“Night gives a black look to everything, whatever it may be.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Source: Essays and Aphorisms
Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden
Source: Evil Thirst
“If you're in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark.”
Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood
Source: Norwegian Wood (1987)
“The sun's gone dim, and the moon's gone black. For I loved him, and he didn't love back.”
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist
Pearl Cleage (1948) American novelist
Source: Deals with the Devil, and Other Reasons to Riot
Glen Cook book Shadows Linger
Source: Shadows Linger (1984), Chapter 33, “Juniper: The Encounter” (p. 367)
“Excuse me, have you seen Death? Big guy with black feathery wings? Likes to reap souls?”
Rick Riordan (1964) American writer
Source: Percy Jackson's Greek Gods
Thomas Gilovich (1954) American psychologist
Source: How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
“Maybe I want a black eye. Did you think of that?”
Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel
Source: Clockwork Angel
Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Jessica Bird book Lover Revealed
Source: Lover Revealed
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, (1963)
Source: I Have A Dream
“The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Steve Biko (1946–1977) anti-apartheid activist in South Africa
Statement quoted in the Boston Globe (25 October 1977)
Context: Even today, we are still accused of racism. This is a mistake. We know that all interracial groups in South Africa are relationships in which whites are superior, blacks inferior. So as a prelude whites must be made to realize that they are only human, not superior. Same with blacks. They must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior.
Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist
Foreword to The Dreaded Comparison: Animal Slavery and Human Slavery (1996) by Marjorie Spiegel, p. 14 http://books.google.com/books?ei=je4zTPjrBcmTnQfXmMCLBA&ct=result&id=8u_tAAAAMAAJ&dq=dreaded+comparison+%22exist+for+their+own%22&q=%22exist+for+their+own%22.
“Amelie had on black pants, a black zip-up hoodie, andrunning shoes.
So wrong.”
Rachel Caine (1962) American writer
Source: Carpe Corpus
Yann Martel book Life of Pi
Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 74, p. 232
Context: Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. I thank God it always passed. A school of fish appeared around the net or a knot cried out to be reknotted. Or I thought of my family, of how they were spared this terrible agony. The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving.
“Menacing lines of black tomorrows on the horizon.”
Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848–1907) French novelist and art critic
Source: Becalmed
“I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.”
Huey P. Newton (1942–1989) Co-founder of the Black Panther Party
Bell Hooks book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
p. 12.
Source: Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984), Chapter 1: Black Women: Shaping Feminist Theory, p. 13-14.
Context: Recent focus on the issue of racism has generated discourse but has had little impact on the behavior of white feminists towards black women. Often the white women who are busy publishing papers and books on "unlearning racism" remain patronizing and condescending when they relate to black women. This is not surprising given that frequently their discourse is aimed solely in the direction of a white audience and the focus solely on changing attitudes rather than addressing racism in a historical and political context. They make us the "objects" of their privileged discourse on race. As "objects," we remain unequals, inferiors. Even though they may be sincerely concerned about racism, their methodology suggests they are not yet free of the type of remain intact if they are to maintain their authoritative positions.
Context: Racist stereotypes of the strong, superhuman black woman are operative myths in the minds of many white women, allowing them to ignore the extent to which black women are likely to be victimized in this society and the role white women may play in the maintenance and perpetuation of that victimization.... By projecting onto black women a mythical power and strength, white women both promote a false image of themselves as powerless, passive victims and deflect attention away from their aggressiveness, their power, (however limited in a white supremacist, male-dominated state) their willingness to dominate and control others. These unacknowledged aspects of the social status of many white women prevent them from transcending racism and limit the scope of their understanding of women's overall social status in the United States. Privileged feminists have largely been unable to speak to, with, and for diverse groups of women because they either do not understand fully the inter-relatedness of sex, race, and focus on class and gender, they tend to dismiss race or they make a point of acknowledging that race is important and then proceed to offer an analysis in which race is not considered.
Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo
Variant: It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo
“Wrapped in a police blanket, I watched the rain and smoked one black cigarette after another…”
Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary
“Whatever it means to be a friend, taking a black eye for someone has to be in it.”
Gary D. Schmidt book The Wednesday Wars
Source: The Wednesday Wars
Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer
Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things
“Why don't they make the whole plane out of that black box stuff?”
Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
Stephen King book The Gunslinger
Source: The Gunslinger
“A black-sharded lady keeps me in a parrot cage.”
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer
“I've got a black-belt in crazy, and I know where you live.”
Marjorie M. Liu (1979) American writer
Source: Tiger Eye
