Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner.
I believe that each of us-no matter what our age or background or walk of life-each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.
For African-American people, I am in the business of inventing a reality that gives a different perspective - on history, on crime, on art, on love.
All Blaxploitation is, is the opportunity for an African-American cast or lead actor or actress to do the same things that a white action hero gets to do.
My father and I made genetics history. We were the first African-Americans and the first father and son anywhere to have their genomes sequenced.
There's a place in me that can really relate to being the underdog. I'm always fighting to overcome the obstacle. I can really understand what's that about.
I always say African American history is the quintessential American story. It's about perseverance and resilience - something everyone can relate to.
The first thing I did [in Michigan] was join a picket line of a pizzeria in Ann Harbor in 1963 that didn't allow African Americans to eat there.
I knew that there were several, among African-American leaders, who had been put out by me because of my failure or reluctance to endorse Sen. Kerry.
Nothing came easy. I was just born with a need to explore every part of my mind. And with long searching and hard work, I became devoted to my restlessness.
I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.
Some say we are responsible for those we love. Others know we are responsible for those who love us.
My friend was about to introduce me when she looked at me and smiled and said, "Whose little boy are you?"
Lots of African-American people really so adore Barack Obama that they're unwilling to even be mildly critical of him.
We must serve consciously as caring role models, emphasizing the ethic of service, not consumption.
Remember that everyone's life is measured by the power that individual has to make the world better-this is all life is.
It requires enormous energy for us to cut the African American uninsured rate by a third. A lot of scars.
History is the land-mark by which we are directed into the true course of life.
Take that bone out of your nose and call me back (to an African American female caller).
It doesn't matter how you travel it, it's the same road. It doesn't get any easier when you get bigger, it gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it.
And Hillary Clinton is going to do nothing for the African- American worker, the Latino worker.
When I got near teen age, I was so happy with my friends and the African-American culture that I couldn't imagine not being part of it.
The point is, you have an ethnic heritage and you have a human heritage. Your human heritage includes everything of human value.
A moment of anger can destroy a lifetime of work, whereas a moment of love can break barriers that took a lifetime to build.
To understand how Republicans lost the African American vote, we must first understand how we won the African American vote.
We had particular policies in this country that resulted in the larger share of poverty that we have in African-American communities.
We can revolutionize the attitude of inner city brown and black kids to learning. We need a civil rights movement within the African-American community.
If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.
While the banks got big bailouts, a sizeable chunk of African-American wealth evaporated because so many people lost homes.
People who don't vote have no line of credit with people who are elected and thus pose no threat to those who act against our interests.
It will be up to each of you to make sure that young people, African Americans, Latinos and women who powered our victory in 2008 stand together once again.
What you do to-day that is worthwhile, inspires others to act at some future time.
The whole idea of the first female president is not nearly as momentous or exciting as the first African-American.
The African-American community, the community within the inner cities has been so badly treated.
And when the time is right, I hope that African Americans will again look to the party of emancipation, civil liberty, and individual freedom.
One of the things that's really, really present in 'Between the World and Me' is, I am in some ways outside of the African-American tradition.
Let the brain go to work, let it meet the heart and you will be able to forgive.
Barack Obama happens to be the first African-American, and so criticism of him is and always was gonna be racism, and therefore not permitted.
We have to protect our inner cities, because African-American communities are being decimated by crime, decimated.
Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.
I'm going to help the African-Americans. I'm going to help the Latinos, Hispanics. I am going to help the inner cities.
No human being can be more human than another human being. I liberate you from my ignorance.
To those African-Americans suffering in our country, I say, what do you have to lose? Vote for Trump, I'm going to fix it.
I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.
African-Americans now 45 percent poverty in the inner cities. The education is a disaster. Jobs are essentially nonexistent.
In order to be profoundly dishonest, a person must have one of two qualities: either he is unscrupulously ambitious, or he is unswervingly egocentric.
I'm asking for the vote of every single African-American citizen. You're living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs.
We're also going to fix our inner cities. Forty-five percent of African-American children are - under the age six - are living in poverty.
I fully understand that the African-American community has suffered from discrimination and that there are many wrongs that must still be made right.