Quotes About Race

People look to 'Dear White People' as an encyclopedia of our culture. But it's also art, and there are characters with different perspectives.

Race impacts 90 percent of our society - and I'm probably undershooting that figure. I find this fascinating and like to address it when pertinent.

Everyone is very aware that, not only do we have a race problem, but it's so pervasive that it affects national and global politics on a scale that I don't think a lot of people imagined.

Much of America is petrified to bring up race, especially in public forums - the media, in particular.

Whether you're Michael Waltrip or Jeff Gordon or Richard Petty, you can't be the Daytona 500 champion without it having an impact on people around you. When I say that, I mean the race fans. They want to congratulate you for winning the biggest race of the year. It has changed people's perception of me.

This is a dream come true to race for 'The King' Richard Petty Motorsports, the iconic No. 43 and for all the fans and partners that have and continue to support this team.

The more disgruntled the white people are, the happier they are to see me, that has to be it. I do really well in Boston, I do really well in Cleveland, I do really well in Philly, Jersey, certain parts of Florida. Places where there are really really aggressive white people tend to love me.

There was a time I was no longer going to be black. I was going to be an 'intellectual.' When I was first looking around for colleges, thinking of colleges I couldn't afford to go to, I was thinking of being a philosopher. I began to understand then that much of my feelings about race were negative.

I routinely get e-mails from readers who are disgusted because they feel the race card is played too much and inappropriately. (By the way, can someone put the phrase 'race card' in a cryogenic chamber and never thaw it? It demeans what is still a real struggle).

You can't pick and choose the rules depending on the colour of someone's skin. That is what the racists do.

At the end of 'Endgame,' the shield was given to Sam and he said, 'It feels like it's someone else's.' That conversation, for me, was the most important conversation to have. A Black man picking up the shield - what was that going to look like?

When you go to an art museum, the thing you're least likely to encounter is a picture of a black person. When it comes to ideas about art and about beauty, the black figure is absent.

When I do a picture and it's 90% black, like 'Bird,' I use 90% black people.

Affirmative action has a negative effect on our society when it means counting us like so many beans and dividing us into separate piles.

Watch the walls come down, whether it's in the South or on Wall Street. When the walls come down, what do we find? More markets, more talent, more capital and growth. Which means that the race and sex discrimination stunt economic growth. It's not good for capitalism. It's not good for America's growth. And it's not morally right.

Perhaps we Germans are a bit sensitive when it comes to walls and race.

The world belongs to no one. There are very few people who fit into the world. And part of the struggle of every human life is to somehow claim a place on the planet, but it's at the forefront of the experience of the wandering race. The wandering people.

My novels are about a generation of Americans who lived between 1940 and 2000, who resisted the postwar political and cultural forces by choosing a wandering life of impoverishment and wonder. Inevitably, race and economics are a big part of their stories. Childhood, childishness, and children are never far.

I've always been quite scared about talking about race. You don't wanna rock the boat because you want to keep working.

People wanna say that they're part Native American or mixed, or anything other than black. We're raised to believe that there's something better about not being fully black, something eccentric about it. I'm saying I used to tell girls that I was mixed, which is a bold-faced lie!

Guess what, Beyonce? White people like your music, too. White people buy your songs on iTunes, memorize your lyrics, and admire your talent and beauty. Little white girls wanna be like you just as little black girls do, but instead of that, you'd rather perpetuate the great battle of the races.

I wanted to be pale. I didn't wanna go in the sun, because I was in school with a lot of white girls. I remember one girl said to me, 'You look better pale.' And I was like, 'Well, you're tan!' She was like, 'It's not the same.'

I can't think of the last Asian that I ran into that talked about internment camps. But black people always want to talk to me about slavery.

I enjoyed physical education and lunch time. The social aspect of school was great, but as soon as I left school, I wanted to get out there and race. I couldn't sit still for long.