Quotes About Race

When I was in school, I conceptually didn't want black people to have context, to take it out of all that history. I wanted nothing to indicate where they are or what time it is, to place them anywhere.

I think that society is aspiring towards racial indifference, but the reality of life is not that. And so when you meet someone, you can see their race - it's right there on their face - and I feel like it's interesting.

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 there is inequality, and that equates with colour, then I'm going to deal with it.

My whole life is an interracial relationship! It's inescapable. I am who I am.

The inferior complex is now extended to all Europe, save Nordics.

We have to deal with the way that race influences our criminal justice system.

Could it be that my circle is largely black and that it is why I am influential in black circles but not in white circles?

Obviously no language is innate. Take any kid from any race, bring them up in any culture and they will learn the language equally quickly. So no particular language is in the genes. But what might be in the genes is the ability to acquire language.

If only the authorities could be made to realize that the forces leading them on in the armament race are just insane.

White liberals are the most racist people I've ever met in my entire life. They define everything by race. They want people to be able to get into college with lower grades and lower school scores simply because they are African American. That's insane.

If you're looking at the people who head the institutions, there are very few African Americans or people of colour. I'm talking about the major theatres that position themselves as serving all audiences. What you find is, by and large, people who are shaping what we see, and the people who are the tastemakers are white.

I think the music defends myself. I don't think anyone should put a race on any genre. It's just a way of expressing yourself through instruments and sounds, right? People can just listen to the music.

Do you know how big of an insult that is to me - to say that I had to be brave to confront some ignorant white folks?

I think it's always been especially hard for black people to let go of musicians who do heinous things because music is such an integral part of our existence.

I grew up in L.A. in a school that was diverse, but it was not really integrated, so I didn't ever fully fit in with the black girls or the white girls or the Latina girls.

Either we want to have segregation or integration. And if we don't want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the Image Awards, where you're only awarded if you're black.

I don't want the whole of my writing or my intellectual energy given over to race because I have diverse interests.

People in the industry thought it was laughable that I should be going up for things that didn't clearly state what race the part was intended for.

Today, the competition is considerably more intense.

You have to know this: running a 100m race is an intense experience. You have a lot of emotion at the end of the race. It is not easy to control that when you win.

Hip-hop has globalized a conception of blackness that has had a political impact, whether or not it had a political intent.

Growing up, I never known anybody in my family actually to interact with a person of color.

Kids that I went to school with didn't know how to interact with black people like that. There were only, like, three or four black kids in the class.