Quotes About Representation

One white reviewer in 1937 [said he] had difficulty believing that such a town as Eatonville, inhabited and governed entirely by negroes, could be real.

If Wright, Ellison, Brown, and Hurston were engaged in a battle over ideal fictional modes with which to represent the Negro, clearly Hurston lost the battle. But not the war.

The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again. So she put something in there to represent the spirit like a Virgin Mary image in a church. The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired.

If I'm playing an Indian in a Hollywood film, I won't do it in any funny Indian accent.

I could never get cast with an Indian accent. I was not getting cast.

I've accepted stuff even if it's a few lines, because I think it's better to be seen.

I believe it's important to have equal opportunities as a black actor. My way of fighting for it is through my art, by not accepting that there are roles that aren't for me.

The industry has always been accepting of gay artists, but a particular thing for me is to see gay artists of color.

I think when you play for your country, in whatever sport it is, that's the biggest accomplishment in the world.

My very first account was @BlackBarbie, which is what my friends called me growing up. Then I thought, 'You can either call yourself that, or you can find something that will matter to dark-skinned girls.' So I came up with @melaniin.goddess.

As an MP, it is my job to hold the government to account.

It's important for people to listen and take time to watch what's going on in these shows, especially the ones like 'Top Boy' that are painting an accurate picture.

The most exciting thing I've seen is directors not only being open to actors coming in the room with different abilities but actively looking at ways that the story can be enlarged with disabled actors.

Art is activism.

In government, one actress is enough.

I come from a space where I wouldn't say all, but most of the films have really shortchanged women. I don't mean just the actresses, even just depicting us in that culture.

The issue of doing an adaptation of a book is the theater of the mind, and so you always face that.

People are really excited right now to see women in new roles. When I was young, as a crazy football addict, it wasn't something I saw, and maybe that's why I thought it was never something I can do.

I've played a lot of people where someone will say, 'This is based on my sister, and such and such happened.' But I don't think I ever played someone who, 'This is their name, and this is their address, and this is what they looked like.'

Theater should address the stories of its communities, or I don't know why it's here.

We have to spend a lot more time training people to be good advocates of U.S. business.

Why can't black women on stage tell stories that can affect white men in the audience?

A lot of us just want to lead normal, regular lives. I want to go in for a role and if I can play that part, my trans identity shouldn't affect me.

I just have always been so interested in the way actors and actresses present themselves to the world because I think it is very important and it affects the way people see you as an actor.