African American Quotes

There is no way that we know what is going on between the African American and the Asian American. We don't understand what an Indigenous American is. We don't understand what a Latino American is

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover these precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

I was taught from a young age that many people would treat me as a second-class citizen because I was African-American and because I was female.

The treatment of African and African American culture in our education was no different from their treatment in Tarzan movies.

There is nothing in the world common to man, that man cannot do.

I think, though, as African-American women, we are always trained to value our community even at the expense of ourselves, and so we attempt to protect the African-American community.

African Americans watch the same news at night that ordinary Americans do.

I'm African-American by my culture, not by my color. Race does not exist.

That's not an accident that Donald Trump didn't begin with, say, trade or jobs or anything, that he actually began by otherizing the first African-American president of the United States.

I was repeatedly told that there isn't an African American woman who can open a show on Broadway. I said, 'Well, how do we know? How do we know if we don't do it?' I said, 'I think you're wrong.'

I fully understand that the African-American community has suffered from discrimination and that there are many wrongs that must still be made right.

We must serve consciously as caring role models, emphasizing the ethic of service, not consumption.

The first thing I did [in Michigan] was join a picket line of a pizzeria in Ann Harbor in 1963 that didn't allow African Americans to eat there.

Obamanomics, his imposition of European-style socialism is not working for African-Americans. It is not working for Latinos and African-Americans.

I am so hip even my errors are correct

We had two African American writers [Eric Monte and Michael Evans] on the show ['Good Times'] that knew Cabrini Green inside and out, and that's why we set it there.

There's a place in me that can really relate to being the underdog. I'm always fighting to overcome the obstacle. I can really understand what's that about.

Slavery is a memory of something we cannot remember, and yet we cannot forget.

I grew up in church. That's how most young African American musicians learn how to perform. You could be six years old and playing organ or drums in front of thousands or hundreds of people.

We must protect the civil rights of American citizens - African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, and all Americans - by ensuring that their jobs, wages, and well-being come first.

I stay connected in my head. I'm spiritually and psychologically connected to African-Americans. They are my people, and that will never change.

People who don't vote have no line of credit with people who are elected and thus pose no threat to those who act against our interests.

Take that bone out of your nose and call me back (to an African American female caller).

I will go to the NAACP convention, and explain to the African-American community why they should demand paychecks instead of food stamps.

I want to be the voice for those people who are going through the same thing, like little African American boys and girls getting bullied at school.

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

I did not get on the bus to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home.

I would love to get a role that changes the landscape of being an African American woman in television and film.

It doesn't matter how you travel it, it's the same road. It doesn't get any easier when you get bigger, it gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it.

I think Muslims in particular are facing similar obstacles African Americans did, historically.

I don't think people have been able to deal with the fact that African American filmmakers can make movies about life and relationships.

People ask me if I miss the States. I miss African Americans. But not the U.S. government or all the things they put me through. I miss African American culture, our speech, dance and cooking.

No human being can be more human than another human being. I liberate you from my ignorance.

African Americans have always known that a little bit of paranoia was healthy for us.

I feel like I come from a smaller off shoot of black people because I am mixed. People say I’m African American but that doesn’t include the other half of me.

Being black, I'm involved in the reparations movement. It's focused toward the African-American audience. We could begin to heal.

I always say African American history is the quintessential American story. It's about perseverance and resilience - something everyone can relate to.

I'm African American, I'm a lot of other things, a musician and an artist. But that woman part holds the most pain for me. And therefore, obviously, the most lessons.

Currently, more than 4.7 million African Americans receive Social Security benefits, and nearly 8 million people with disabilities depend on Social Security for their daily sustenance.

You didn't elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth.

Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time.

And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery

People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they're African American. They're not us. They're impostors.

I feel like we need to make new superheroes, African-American superheroes, that people would accept.

We did really, really badly with older African-American voters. I mean we got decimated.

Ajamu Baraka comes out of the tradition of the African-American intellectuals, the people who really been standing up for African-American rights and economic rights and workers rights.

The most important thing is to be happy and true to yourself. I don't want to look back at this in 30 years from now and say, 'I did it all to make them happy and I didn't enjoy.'

I was looking for excellence in any color or gender it comes in. Some of my top people are African American but not all of them.

We’ve gone through the names—Negro, African American, African, Black. For me that’s an indication of a people still trying to find their identity. Who determines what is black?

If we do with Latinos what we did with African-Americans, Republicans and conservatives will be doomed.