Being Black Quotes

#1. I talked to members of my family, and did some personal research that didn't really have anything to do with the time and place I was writing about, but that gave me a feeling of the experience of being black in a time and place where it was very difficult to be black.

Octavia Butler

#2. I certainly know about the oppression and prejudices of being black and a woman and from the South.

Clarice Taylor

#3. The double jeopardy of being black and female in a racist and sexist society may well make one less afraid of the sanctions against success. A non-subservient black woman is by definition a transgressive- she is the ultimate outsider.

Mamphela Ramphele

#4. Comedies in Hollywood is usually the path of least resistance when it comes to being black in Hollywood and putting movies together. They would rather make us laugh than cry, in some respect.

Ice Cube

#5. They're calling being black a look? How progressive of them.

Justine Larbalestier

#6. I did it to myself. It wasn't society ... it wasn't a pusher, it wasn't being blind or being black or being poor. It was all my doing.

Ray Charles

#7. Being Black and poor is, I think, radically different from being anything else and poor. Poor, to most Blacks, is a state of mind. Those who accept it are poor; those who struggle are middle class.

Nikki Giovanni

#8. My activism did not spring from my being gay, or, for that matter, from my being black. Rather, it is rooted fundamentally in my Quaker upbringing and the values that were instilled in me by my grandparents who reared me.

Bayard Rustin

#9. It is utterly exhausting being Black in America - physically, mentally, and emotionally. While many minority groups and women feel similar stress, there is no respite or escape from your badge of color.

Marian Wright Edelman

#10. Being black only helps them. Many times they get sponsors because they are black. And they have had a lot of advantages because they can always say, 'It's racism.' They can always come back and say, 'Because we are this color, things happen.'

Martina Hingis

#11. I never had that thing about being black. If the whole world was like that, maybe there would be more harmony and love.

Tina Turner

#12. We cannot continually barricade ourselves under some falsified idea of race, because our idea of blackness and race is simply reactionary. Africans didn't walk around Africa being black and proud, they walked around proud.

Saul Williams

#13. Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.

Steven Biko

#14. A piece of cloth that is called "linen" has more validity than calling you and me "black" or "negro." "Cotton" has more validity as cotton than yours and my being "black."

Jamaica Kincaid

#15. I've pretty much learned I can let that [being black] hinder me if I want to ... or I can fight for different kinds of roles.

Halle Berry

#16. Playing rock 'n' roll music, it's going to be integrated, but being black you didn't want to go into some neighborhood where you weren't wanted.

Gail Ann Dorsey

#17. The thing about being black and having a different accent, in the beginning, is that it makes you foreign.

C. C. H. Pounder

#18. When you go to a club it's not about being black or white or heavy or thick. I'm shaking my ass because I want to shake my ass, not 'cause "I'm dancing like a black girl!"

Miley Cyrus

#19. I feel the feminist movement has excluded black women. You cannot talk about being black and a woman within traditional feminist dialogue.

Katori Hall

#20. This being Black History Month, I would like to ask people to celebrate the similarities and not focus on the differences between people of color and not of color.

Lynn Swann

#21. I try to take people at face value and then beyond, taking them out of face value and out of the category of being Black, Latino, Asian, White, Jewish, Muslim or Christian or Atheist, none of that matters to me.

Immortal Technique

#22. I understand now that the only time black people don't feel guilty is when we've actually done something wrong, because that relieves us of the cognitive dissonance of being black and innocent, and in a way the prospect of going to jail becomes a relief.

Paul Beatty

#23. I do remember being teased by my cousins on my mom's side for not being black enough. And then I'd spend the summer with my dad and be sent to all white summer camps where I was 'that black girl.'

Lauren London

#24. The way I was taught, being black was a plus, always. Being a human being, being in America, and being black, all three were the greatest things that could happen to you. The combination was unbeatable.

Leontyne Price

#25. When I walk out into the street or go to the toilet, I don't think of myself as being black. Of course, other people think of me as black when I walk into a pub. Obviously being black is a part of me.

Steve McQueen

#26. There's nothing worse, I guess, than being black in an all-white church or being southern and being a liberal.

Lee Hazlewood

#27. I've never excluded myself because of color. It's never been part of the radar, when I look at anything I do. The majority of the roles that I've played have had very little to do with being black. It doesn't matter what color you are.

Michael Jai White

#28. Because I'm black?" I straight out ask, hating that being different can be a code word for being black, for something that isn't white. "No" - he

Sona Charaipotra

#29. It's like the specter of segregation has brought the city of Dickens back together again." I decided to give my new career as City Planner in Charge of Restoration and Segregation another six months. If things didn't work out, I could always fall back on being black.

Paul Beatty

#30. My activism did not spring from being black ... The racial injustice that was present in this country during my youth was a challenge to my belief in the oneness of the human family.

Bayard Rustin

#31. Being the first person to go to college that really related to me from the movie [The Butler] because being black and going to college everyone puts so much hope into you.

Lee Daniels

#32. I am very aware of being black and female because that's what I am.

Susan Rice

#33. I'm comfortable being old ... being black ... being Jewish.

Billy Crystal

#34. You don't have to be African American to really enjoy 'Frisky Business'. But as far as being black, a lot of people in New York have been stopped and frisked, so that hits home for them.

Jessica Williams

#35. It's hard being black. You ever been black? I was black once - when I was poor.

Larry Holmes

#36. Sometimes I wish Darth Vader had been my father. I'd have been better off. I wouldn't have a right hand, but I definitely wouldn't have the burden of being black and constantly having to decide when and if I gave a shit about it. Plus, I'm left-handed.

Paul Beatty

#37. Well, there were definitely elements of my rise in radio that had to do with my being black. But going back as far as Walter Winchell, Army Archerd and Hedda Hopper, legendary wags would grab a radio microphone and talk about what Errol Flynn and other stars were up to.

Wendy Williams

#38. We need to get past the point where being black and a male means that I am likely to mug you for your wallet, likely to have a minus 15 on my IQ, likely to not go to college and likely to wear my pants below my arse.

John Amaechi

#39. I've always met more discrimination being a woman than being Black ... men are men.

Shirley Chisholm

#40. Funny is not a color. Being black is only good from the time you get from the curtain to the microphone.

Flip Wilson

#41. I think that it would be more true to life, true to the Bible. I wouldn't have a problem with a black man playing Jesus. Being born in that part of the world, he would be more close to being black than white anyway. Although what he did transcended all races.

Robert Matthews

#42. If we should ever get to Heaven, we shall find nobody to reproach us for being black, or for being slaves.

Jupiter Hammon

#43. I do not feel inhibited or bound by what I am. That does not mean that I have never had bad scenes relating to being Black and/or a woman, it means that other people's craziness has not managed to make me crazy.

Lucille Clifton

#44. I'd like to think that when I sing a song, I can let you know all about the heartbreak, struggle, lies and kicks in the ass I've gotten over the years for being black and everything else, without actually saying a word about it.

Ray Charles

#45. I could easily have decided that life was cruel, that being black meant everything was stacked against me.

Ben Carson

#46. The American police had shot another child for being black and outside, and the child had died, there on the pavement in the company of his killers.

Sarah Moss

#47. Of my two handicaps, being female put many more obstacles in my path than being black.

Shirley Chisholm

#48. The beauty of being black in American society is that black has always been an inclusive definition. White has always been an exclusive definition. I think one of the challenges for white people is to figure out how to have a more inclusive picture of who their families are, of who they are.

Benjamin Jealous

#49. Is America ready for a black president? Well, I say we just had a retarded one. When did being black become a bigger deterrent than being retarded?

Chris Rock

#50. I think that it's hard enough being an adolescent and wanting so much to fit in with your peers, your schoolmates, and to erase any sign of difference, to be part of the group. And being biracial but also being black in a predominately white school marked me as different.

Natasha Trethewey

#51. It was bad enough being black...How much lower down the social scale could one go than to be seen as a black, uneducated rugby league player.

Cec Thompson

#52. The less I talk about being black, the better.

Idris Elba

#53. Being tall and big was probably more painful than being black.

Wendy Williams

#54. We Negro writers, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line.

Langston Hughes

#55. I don't think being black has held me back at all. Being black makes you strong.

Anita Baker

#56. It's a lot easier being black than gay. At least if you're black you don't have to tell your parents.

Judy Carter

#57. Being black or white isn't an accomplishment. What you do with your life - or what you accomplish with your life - dictates what you should be proud of.

Charles Barkley

#58. Being black and speaking properly are not mutually exclusive. My father was an African, and he spoke beautifully at home. Nelson Mandela speaks beautifully. Should Mandela put his hat on backwards and say, 'Yo, homey, this is Nelson. Yo, Winnie, yo, this is def'?

Franklyn Ajaye

#59. I grew up around hip-hop so I didn't think it was about being cool or being black or being white or whatever.

Chad Hugo

#60. There haven't been enough profound things written about what being black means and what a black character is. Nobody knows.

James Earl Jones

#61. Learn to love being black.

Don Lemon

#62. Woman, I'm not Roland's sister, or his daughter, either! You maybe didn't notice a small but basic difference in the color of our hides, namely his being white and mine being black.

Stephen King

#63. [ ... ] atheists are the most reviled minority in the United States. Polls indicate that being an atheist is a perfect impediment to running for high office in our country (while being black, Muslim, or homosexual is not).

Sam Harris

#64. I had to confront my fears and master my every demonic thought about inferiority, insecurity, or the fear of being black, young, and gifted in this Western culture.

Lauryn Hill

#65. Being a blues singer is like being black two times.

B.B. King

#66. The race is your face. Obviously, I come from a mixed background. Who I am and how I look and being black.

Neneh Cherry

#67. Loving God is like my being black. I just am. [No one says] 'You know what? I'm gonna be blacker today!' It's my culture. It's not something I put on or take off or show more. You just communicate that in the way you live your life.

Angela Bassett

#68. Gwen thinks Lazar disrespected her because she's black. And look I mean you're aware of my policy when it comes to that kind of situation."
"Your policy is 'What do I know about being black?'"
"What do I know about being black? ...

Michael Chabon

#69. Being black, I'm involved in the reparations movement. It's focused toward the African-American audience. We could begin to heal.

Cassandra Wilson

#70. Do you know, it's funny, but I never thought of being blind as a disadvantage, and I never thought of being black as a disadvantage.

Stevie Wonder

#71. Being gay is harder than being black. I didn't have to come out black. I didn't have to tell my parents about what its like to be black.

Wanda Sykes

#72. I find, in being black, a thing of beauty: a joy; a strength; a secret cup of gladness.

Ossie Davis

#73. Being black, Latino, or Asian is not a genre. Romantic comedies, thrillers, action - those are genres. I think there's a lot of people who want to have the conversation. I don't think people are afraid of it, I just think it's the time to have that conversation. Race is not a genre.

Mara Brock Akil

#74. I learned this living among a people whom I would never have chosen, because the privileges of being black are not always self-evident.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

#75. The burden of being black is that you have to be superior just to be equal. But the glory of it is that, once you achieve, you have achieved, indeed.

Jesse Jackson

#76. Being black has a lot to do with my ...

Willi Smith

#77. I love being black in America, and especially being black in Hollywood.

Will Smith

#78. He thinks being black means having plenty of attitude; I think having plenty of knowledge is what black is all about;

Eric Jerome Dickey

#79. I've never bothered about my color. I never had that thing about being black. If the whole world was like that, maybe there would be more harmony and love. Maybe. I don't have a problem with being black in a white country or being with my people.

Tina Turner

#80. I was so beat down as a young person - being black, being gay, being unable to assimilate because I could never, ever pull off being butch.

Billy Porter

#81. I had read them and congratulated myself for being black, as if I had chosen to be, because black women were feminists before there was a name for it.

Carleen Brice

#82. I don't mind being black. I'm black out loud. It's more than the people that they are, it's the condition that they represent.

Mos Def

#83. On the one hand, there is no reason that a black person needs to live a portion of his or her life being concerned about the people of color around him. On the other hand, if you don't you're crazy.

Henry Hampton

#84. I feel that sometimes, holding yourself as black, saying that is your sole identity, can sometimes stand in your way of being a member of the humanity of man, being a member of the family of the divine.

Giancarlo Esposito

#85. Deep within, every human being hoards a pitch-black riddle. The darkness of the iris is nothing other than the starless night, the darkness deep in the eye is nothing other than the darkness of the universe.

Lars Gustafsson

#86. For black people, being around white people is sometimes like taking care of babies you don't like, babies who throw up on you again and again, but whom you cannot punish, because they're babies.

Hilton Als

#87. A film fable so structured that all alchemical searchings are clearly filmwise (gold being discovered cinematically in each sequence ot mixed black-and-white and color) so that when the drama-discovery is actually made, it acts as a deliberate anti-climax of aesthetic perfection.

Stan Brakhage

#88. With Rock Band, you can play along to Black Sabbath or Nirvana and possibly find new ways of appreciating their artistry by being allowed to perform parallel to it. Rock Band puts you inside the guts of a song.

Carrie Brownstein

#89. Barry Bonds is outspoken. I think that the people of Pittsburgh felt, it's a syndrome of you've got to apologize for being successful if you're successful (as well as) black and outspoken.

Dave Parker

#90. You should never rely on interviews with musicians as being factual. Most of them are mangled and even have made up stuff in them, that is to say, made up stuff by the writer or editor.

Frank Black

#91. Being a mathematician is a bit like being a manic depressive: you spend your life alternating between giddy elation and black despair.

Steven G. Krantz

#92. The world we live in is made up of polar opposites, black/white, male/female, night/day, and a human being who possesses both masculine and feminine - vulnerability and strength - is intriguing to us, whether they be a singer or actor or dancer, intrigues us, because THAT Is who we really are.

RuPaul

#93. When you have the national narrative being "crack is awful and black people are using it," why go against that narrative when you want to get that publication in The New York Times or wherever? It encourages people to play right into it.

Carl Hart

#94. Keeping the Union together, freeing slaves and being assassinated all added up to creating 'Lincoln the myth.' He overcame a lot of his own prejudices and became what many would consider the first black man's president.

Henry Louis Gates

#95. Thick smoke like a herd of black horses was rising over the massive building and being blown around by the wind.

Ismail Kadare

#96. I never said I wasn't Black ... I want to make that very clear. I said, I am not African-American. I never expected my personal beliefs and comments to spark such emotion in people. I think it is only positive when we can openly discuss race and being labeled in America.

Raven-Symone

#97. These little black circular shapes were a result of him being a carrier of a parasite known as Toxoplasma gondii

Soroosh Shahrivar

#98. The War on Drugs, cloaked in race-neutral language, offered whites opposed to racial reform a unique opportunity to express their hostility toward blacks and black progress, without being exposed to the charge of racism.

Michelle Alexander

#99. It's just cheaper to be White in America than it is to be Black, because of educational advances, because of the police incidents, because of the poverty we grow up in as African-Americans. So, it's just cheaper in this country if you're born a Caucasian than being born a Black person.

Warren Ballentine

#100. The last thing he felt was Bethany being pulled from his limp arms. A finality of black crashed over him in waves he couldn't surface from, welcoming him into the nothingness that dug in deep, refusing to ever let him go.

Jennifer L. Armentrout