Black Quotes

Black people are the only segment in American society that is defined by its weakest elements. Every other segment is defined by its highest achievement. We have to turn that around.

I think, as a white person, I do not want to speak for a black person.

...black music is a group music. That's why I don't like doing a solo saxophone thing: My feeling stems from rhythm, I really have to feel that rhythmic thing happening.

The resistance to black-and-white is huge, in the way that you have to sell the film. It's difficult to distribute around the world.

Anybody under the age of forty knows hip-hop, gospel and R&B pretty well, and it's all a part of what we consider to be 'black music.' There is a natural synergy between the three.

This is about black people selling out other black people.

Black jurors sit on juries every day and convict black people every day.

Religion is a fascinating black hole to me.

I find it weird when [model] agents say, 'You're the only black girl booked for the show. Isn't it great?' Why is it great?

In black America there's such a thing as passing, the black people who are light skinned and they will pass for white.

I wear black diamonds instead of regular ones because I’m not flashy, just flossssy.

I did a book in 1996, an overview of black history. In that process I became more aware of a lot of the black inventors of the 19th century.

I've been in situations where I was 'black boy white,' or 'white boy black.' People didn't know, "Is he the whitest black person in the world or is he the blackest white person in the world?"

The movie 'Black Cat,' from 1934, is one of my favorite movies.

One of the things I'm going to say out there is how grateful I am - and how grateful the world is - for the tremendous gift of the black people, of jazz.

I spent seven months in Africa and came back saying there isn't anything you can say about black people that you couldn't say about, say, pink people except that they're black.

It's really not enough to just have black women. A really good idea could be to comment on how they are treated by society.

We still have a long way to go but if we work together and we work hard, you'll see black people in positions you never thought we'd be in. I thought I would never see a black President.

I am a black woman poet and I sound like one.

No one should advocate any peaceful suffering to black people, unless the black - white man is going to practice the same kind of peaceful suffering.

Men who are proud of being black marry black women; women who are proud of being black marry black men.

It would be the easiest thing in the world for the white man to destroy all Black Muslims.

No black person married to a white person can speak for me!

I am not an American; I am one of twenty-two million black people who are victims of Americanism.

If power is abstraction, which many black men, black women, and people of color have very little voice in, well, then I want to sit at the table.

I love Tumi because of the lifetime guarantee. And their luggage is just so solid. Looks good. Versatile. My carry-on bag is Tumi. My hanging bag is Tumi. My big suitcase is Tumi. All black. Love it.

Nothing is out of our realm, because it has nothing to do with color. As black people, we're not different from anyone else, other than the exterior.

My black-and-white work is more of a celebration and the color work became more of a critique of society.

I do consider myself part of black history.

Black women have not historically stood in the pulpit, but that doesn't undermine the fact that they built the churches and maintain the pulpits.

There is a kind of strength that is almost frightening in Black women. It's as if a steel rod runs right through the head down to the feet.

There aren't a lot of roles in period movies for black people. It sucks because I love that era. But, I love musicals. I love the show Glee, and I wouldn't mind being on that either.

Black people watch more television than anybody else, which makes it legitimate to talk about television. Its anesthetizing effect has been quite real. But that concern isn't new.

Another reason for switching to color is world television. In a few years, it will all be in color, and you can't compete against that with black-and-white films.

So much of the world and the systems that we live within are made to keep us from feeling like we're free. The way that black women in American came to be is just diametrically opposed to being free.

I don't claim to say, "All black women are like me," because they're not.

A lot of wars are fought between black and whites daily in America. But if it's something I want to be with, the people who started it were black, I wouldn't not get in it.

All black Americans have slave names. They have white names; names that the slave master has given to them.

Everything the black people are doing comes from the Honorable Elijah Mohammed. They are black now, they don't want to be called Negroes. This come from the Honorable Elijah Mohammed.

It's impossible for 30 million black people to be violent against 170 million - we need a mental revolution, unity in coming together, and not physical.

If there are older black people in the audience that I can see I will not say the n-word. I know they grew up with a different meaning.

I think when you're younger you have a more black-and-white view of things. You're more exclusively dedicated.

I had forgotten that Jess felt about long words the way that racists feel about black people: She hated them, and wanted to send them back from where they came from.

Everything about us black people is complicated, us being here, being a minority, being a woman, all those things are complicated.

Black Poetry is not for Black People...it is for everybody

It's near impossible to make a movie in black and white in the system.

I love black-and-white movies that are about contemporary subjects.

A lot of black-and-white films generally have a color version that will be used for TV.

My intellectual achievement was retarded when I went to high school. I sort of sank into a black hole because I had to go to the high-achieving, academic public high school.

I'm still trying to do films about black women.