Quotes About Identity

Without somebody to watch me, laugh at my jokes, tell me what to do, ask me questions, race me to the river, make me guess the names of birds, or challenge me to count the silvery fish in a school, there was nothing for me to do. Without somebody to be somebody to, it was as though I wasn't somebody myself.

To be known for one's saddest story is not the road to notoriety anyone would willingly choose.

As a man with cut hair, he did not identity the rhythm of three strands, the whispers of coming and going, of twisting and tying and blending, of catching and of letting go, of braiding.

Names are strange and special gifts. There are names you give to yourself and names you show to the world, names that stay for a short while and names that remain with you forever, names that come from things you do and names that you receive as presents from other people. If your name is true, it is who you are.

I'm not what they expect. About once a year I get discovered, get called a diamond in the rough.

Around us she didn't bother with English at all, and in Indian her words poured like thick whiskey that had never seen water, like hootch straight from the barrel.

As a man with cut hair, he did not identify the rhythm of three strands, the whispers of coming and going, of twisting and tying and blending, of catching and of letting go, of braiding.

They intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are. Aldous Huxley

We learn what it means to be human from Scripture's opening act of creation and what it means to be Christian from its closing act of redemption. If redemption restores creation, then the point of being a Christian is to restore our humanity.

I have two dream roles: One would be a biopic of someone I admire and respect and the other one would be some sort of action drama film similar to a 'Bourne Identity.' I just really want to do an intelligent action drama film.

What color am I, Thomas?" "About two shades darker than caramel," answered Thomas. "Damn, Thomas. I'm black. We don't watch golf. We watch football, basketball and dominoes." "I can see you at nighttime, Washington, so you're not black." "Do you see caramel as an option when you fill out the U.S. Census, Thomas?" "No, I don't. But there is a place that states other. Check that one next time.

People get it wrong and think it's about being good enough, when in reality it's about being lost and not knowing it.

Once when he was slapping me back and forth, one hand holding my neck, the other whipping across my cheeks, I caught a glimpse of a picture of him on the mantel – ten years old in a Cub Scout uniform. He looked so proud; his grin was so sweet. Freckles, bright eyes, combed hair still wet. Adorable. I wanted to ask him; how did you grow up to be who you are? Who taught you to hit?

Only the right name gives beings and things their reality. A wrong name makes everything unreal. That's what lies do.

That is because Donald Trump is the literal face of white innocence without consciousness, white privilege without apology. Each

Maleness has functioned in our race much like whiteness has in the larger culture: its privileges have been rendered normal, its perspectives natural, its biases neutral, its ideas superior, its anger wholly justifiable, and its way of being the gift of God to the universe.

Beloved, there is something black folk fear, whether you can see it or not, whether some of us black folk will say it or not. Our fear is that you believe, that you insist—finally, tragically, without hesitation, with violent repercussions in tow—that, in all sorts of ways, we are still your nigger. It

Obama had always to field demands from some blacks to be blacker, and the wish of many whites to whitewash the story of American race and politics.

President Lyndon Baines Johnson once argued, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.

The black church is quite literally a sounding board for vetting ideas and voicing frustrations so black folk can stay sane in the midst of America's denial of black humanity.

Slavery made America a slave to black history. As much as white America invented us, the nation can never be free of us now. America doesn't even exist without us. That's why Barack Obama was so offensive, so scary to white America. America shudders and says to itself: The president's supposed to be us, not them. In that light, Donald Trump's victory was hardly surprising.

Yes, yes, I know many of you are proud to be Irish, or Italian, or Polish, or Jewish. And those ethnic groups are as real as any other groups with identifiable cultures, languages, and histories. But when your ancestors got to America, they endured a profound makeover. All of your polkas, or pubs, or pizzas, and more got tossed into a crucible of race where European ethnicities got pulverized into whiteness.

The failure to see color only benefits white America. A world without color is a world without racial debt.

We should not be post-racial: seeking to get beyond the uplifting meanings and edifying registers of blackness. Rather, we should be post-racist: moving beyond cultural fascism and vicious narratives of racial privilege and superiority that tear at the fabric of "e pluribus unum.