Quotes About Diversity

My father is from Jamaica, my mother is from the U.K., but I was adopted as an infant by a really wonderful family in Alberta, Canada. What we refer to as 'Texas of the North.'

Growing up as a gay boy in West Texas, I definitely felt like a bit of an outcast sometimes - that there was a world that I would never be a part of.

In order to make a change, I have to exist in a traditionally homophobic space such as hip-hop. If I were to just be this queer rapper who only spoke to queer kids... I don't think I could as effectively make a change for another young, black, queer kid growing up in Texas.

I grew up in Texas, and I think anybody who grows up in the Midwest or in the South, it's just a different way of life.

I grew up in America - I was born and raised in Texas. I might look different, but at the same time, I'm pretty American.

I am hopeful that there are three or four Harvey Milks. It would be nice to have one in California and one in New York and one in Texas and Oklahoma-it would be fantastic. Maybe even one in Salt Lake City. I would like that.

I grew up as a little gay boy in Paris, Texas, which was a very conservative community and I had a strong religious background as well.

My father 'Pappy' who is black, is from Galveston and Fort Worth, Texas. My mother, who is white, is from San Diego.

The system in which I came up in was that every territory had to have a black, a white... if you went to Texas you had to have somebody that was a cowboy or one that was from Mexico. There wasn't that many Afro Americans in the business at the time so I moved around a lot. But every time I moved around, I made money.

How amazing is it that when a young gay or lesbian person has their first crush, no matter where they live in the country, they can imagine that all the way to marriage? When I first experienced a crush, in Texas, there was maybe a second of butterflies that were then dammed in by the fear of what that meant.

I came from a prep school in New Jersey, so I get that when I got to FSU, some people weren't sure about me - I didn't play in Florida or Texas or at a powerhouse high school.

Moving from Cameroon to Texas, that was a change. Learning English, the culture, everything was different so I had to adjust.

Texas kind of operates as if we're our own little country.

I take a lot of pride in being from Texas. I love all parts of Texas - even the things I hate about Texas I love.

As a small kid from Texas, I just imagined that Hollywood was this world that was really foreign and far away and I didn't see many Asians on screen, so I had no idea that I could even be a part of it.

I want to do all kinds of things. I want to do some comedy. I'd love to do a romantic comedy, and I'd love to do some period pieces with classical text. I'd love somebody to cast me as Macbeth, but for a film. I just want to be all over the place.

I think each film should be regarded as its own specific text.

Right out of school, I did this show called 'Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.' It is based on a classical text with new music - not necessarily confined by a certain genre. It was a diverse, interesting group of musicians, actors, nonactors, and singers all creating this thing that is bigger than all of us.

4chan is a framework of pictures and text. I've always been extremely hands-off with dictating what gets posted, past general categories and rules. I support providing a place to discuss anything, although I don't agree with everything that's posted.

The weight of expectation is huge. But for me, that pressure has been outweighed by getting text messages from mums I know saying how huge it is for their mixed-race daughters that I am playing Hermione.

It has been established that most Indians have the same DNA profile irrespective of caste, religion, or region. Yet we find our text books talking about India being multiethnic.

I think a lot of people don't have any idea of how deeply segregated our schools have become all over again. Most textbooks are not honest in what they teach our high school students.

This is what I have learned: Any white person living in the United States will develop opinions about race simply by swimming in the water of our culture. But mainstream sources - schools, textbooks, media - don't provide us with the multiple perspectives we need.

If everyone in your class has heroes, and they can relate to them in textbooks and literature, and then you don't see any of your heritage there, you feel less than. And I always wanted to be able to make Latin kids like myself feel more than.