Top 100 People Of Color Quotes
#1. 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
#2. The primary victims of Katrina, those who were given the least help by the government, those rescued last or not at all, were overwhelmingly people of color largely hidden from the mainstream of society.
Jonathan Kozol
#3. I think there is a big difference between expressing the pain and anger that many African Americans and other people of color may feel versus language that I think now crosses the line and goes into hate.
Michael Nutter
#4. What I find astounding is that we've had a president who is black in office for the past eight years, who gets most of his funding from the liberal elite in Hollywood. Yet, there are not very many roles for people of color. How can that be? And why is it just now being addressed?
Stacey Dash
#5. People of color are actually no more likely to be guilty of drug crimes and many other offenses than whites.
Michelle Alexander
#6. Whereas for most whites racism is prejudice, for most people of color racism is systemic or institutionalized.
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
#7. I always emphasize the historic role of people of color in organizing and protesting to achieve justice.
Howard Zinn
#8. 'Black film,' that term allows studios to just marginalize a movie and say, 'We've made our black film. We've made our film with people of color in it,' as opposed to, 'I just feel like people of color should be in every genre.'
Gina Prince-Bythewood
#9. Films really can change a conversation and change someone's thinking and perception, especially with people of color at the center. It rarely happens. I think it's important for both the community but also the world to see people of color in all genres, especially love stories.
Gina Prince-Bythewood
#10. For people of color - especially African Americans - the idea that racist cops might frame members of their community is no abstract notion, let alone an exercise in irrational conspiracy theorizing. Rather, it speaks to a social reality about which blacks are acutely aware.
Tim Wise
#11. The U. S. is becoming more hostile to Black people and other people of color. Racism is running rampant and xenophobia is on the rise
Assata Shakur
#12. People of color, particularly African Americans, feel the stigma more keenly. In a race-conscious society, some don't want to be perceived as having yet another deficit.
Bebe Moore Campbell
#13. All voices are important, and yet it seems that people of color have a lot to say, particularly if you look through the poetry of young people - a lot of questions and a lot of concerns about immigration and security issues, you name it - big questions.
Juan Felipe Herrera
#14. Statistics show that diversity in the media is pretty dismal. Critical voices from women and people of color are missing from many important conversations.
Cameron Russell
#15. Poor people, people of color - especially are much more likely to be found in prison than in institutions of higher education.
Angela Davis
#16. As more people of color raise our consciousness and refuse to be pitted against one another, the forces of neo-colonial white supremacist domination must work harder to divide and conquer.
Bell Hooks
#17. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that minority set-aside programs in municipal contracts were unconstitutional. The court wondered if there were proof that people of color even want to receive municipal contracts.
Karen DeCrow
#18. This nation has always struggled with how it was going to deal with poor people and people of color. Every few years you will see some great change in the way that they approach this. We've had the war on poverty that never really got into waging a real war on poverty.
Maxine Waters
#19. I think the legacy of the civil rights movement is that now whites are more open to being represented by people of color or people who are women or, again, non-traditional candidates.
Carol Moseley Braun
#20. People of color are allowed, even required to perform, and, especially these days on issues of race, to edify as well.
'Here you are, now entertain us'.
But are we allowed to lead?
Jeff Chang
#21. Because people of color will definitely, definitely become the power base in the Western Hemisphere.
Edward James Olmos
#22. I think drugs affect poor people and people of color more than anyone.
Al Sharpton
#23. Given the historical power differential between blacks and whites, blacks are required to be attentive to the way their white counterparts see themselves in relation to people of color if they want to survive and even thrive.
James A. Forbes
#24. I always crave to see more stories about and by people of color, particularly new work by young black writers.
Katori Hall
#25. Nothing has contributed more to the systematic mass incarceration of people of color in the United States than the War on Drugs
Michelle Alexander
#26. Calling out the supposed 'abuse' of welfare by blacks and other people of color is a time-honored tactic for distracting the general public from actual national issue. It also taps into latent, subconscious racism, which is what right-wing politicians would call a 'win-win.
Justin Simien
#27. Not only our political system is broken, but how we do business and have public discourse with one another. The system in Hollywood, specifically, is not depicting people of color; we're not even talking about Asian Americans or Latino Americans; we're not even getting into that question.
Isaiah Washington
#28. 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
#29. The Bureau of Justice reports that one in three black male babies born this century will go to jail or prison - that is an absolutely astonishing statistic. And it ought to be terrorizing to not just to people of color, but to all of us.
Bryan Stevenson
#30. Women and people of color and young people especially are about to have this amazing opportunity to shift the political conversation in this country for the good of all of us, toward more progressive policies, and it's a really amazing and important time to be part of that.
Sandra Fluke
#31. As far as the media's concerned, Mrs. Obama deserves this. Look at the sordid past. Look at our slave past, look at the discriminatory past. It's only fair that people of color get their taste of the wealth of America too.
Rush Limbaugh
#32. It's important for people of color to link up with issues around globalization, food security, health, the environment.
Danny Glover
#33. Groups like The Mountain Brothers just have to keep on doing what they're doing - just make it dope and just make it different. And not try to compete with other people of color.
Chad Hugo
#34. Republicans can be a funny bunch. They're against affirmative action, but they always seem to be able to find people of color to fill a slot just when they're most needed.
John Ridley
#35. In my work as an actress and an activist, I've spent many years working with low income communities and people of color who don't always have a voice in our political process.
Gloria Reuben
#36. I accept the proposition that ... to judge is an exercise of power and because ... there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives
no neutrality, no escape from choice in judging, I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions.
Sonia Sotomayor
#37. So many people of color who made major contributions to American history have been trapped in the purgatory of history.
Henry Louis Gates
#38. I was relatively isolated from people of color. My parents are too old to be Baby Boomers; they had me later in life. So we didn't listen to any black music at all in the house, not even Ben E. King.
Jess Row
#39. I write to breath life back into memory to remind African-Americans of our rich and textured history. I also see myself as a "root," and for me the "fierce winds" include the marginalization-the downright segregation-of literature written by people of color.
Bernice L. McFadden
#40. A major problem for Black women, and all people of color, when we are challenged to oppose anti-Semitism, is our profound scepticism that white people can actually be oppressed.
Barbara Smith
#41. Shows in the '70s and '80s were a lot more provocative. Shows that are coming out now - like 'Black-Ish,' 'The Carmichael Show' - are showcasing people of color in a new way. It's not stereotypical.
Bresha Webb
#42. [I] can't actually imagine a time in which the need for more diversity would ever cease. Affirmative action has been an issue since segregation practices. The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin [..] When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?
Eric Holder
#43. Precisely because white denial has long trumped claims of racism, people of color tend to underreport their experiences with racial bias rather than exaggerate them.
Tim Wise
#44. That's true but I think the contemporary problem that we are facing increasing numbers of black people and other people of color being thrown into a status that involves work in alternative economies and increasing numbers of people who are incarcerated.
Angela Davis
#45. People of color have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented, and these images go around the world.
Spike Lee
#46. When I started out in the '90s, there were not many people of color writing, directing and producing - hence, the roles for people of color were few and far between. There's still few roles in England [where she's from].
Archie Panjabi
#47. I would like to see more films being made with people of color behind the camera and in front of the camera, because the more times at bat we have, the better we get.
Stephanie Allain
#48. You can't have too many books featuring people of color, just like you can't have too many books featuring white people.
Jacqueline Woodson
#49. As people of color, it took a whole generation in many ways to get us out of the kitchen, and it's gonna take us the same whole generation to get us back into the kitchen and have ownership of restaurants, hotels and stuff like that.
Marcus Samuelsson
#50. In fact, I think new media is going to make a big difference with injecting more people of color into Hollywood and non-Hollywood.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
#51. People of color and women are increasingly being shown on-screen. For things to be whitewashed just doesn't make sense.
John Boyega
#52. Recognizing sexism is harder than it once was. Like the micro-aggressions that people of color endure daily - racism masked as subtle insults or dismissals - today's sexism is insidious, casual, politically correct, even friendly. It
Jessica Bennett
#53. The lessons of the past suggest that racism and resentment against people of color will continue to flourish in America as long as the history that is taught transposes the heroes and the villains. That is the unspoken truth at the heart of the nation's racial divide.
Susan L. Taylor
#54. I encourage more blacks and people of color to get a passport. That's one way to help put people on an equal platform.
Chuck D
#55. People of color grow up steeped in 'white' culture. The reverse is not true. And, no, listening to hip-hop on the way to work does not count as immersion.
John Ridley
#56. Find a balance between one's responsibility as a white person to confront acts of racism and one's subconscious sense of power and privilege over people of color when reacting to the [racist] event.
Eileen O'Brien
#57. We understand 'Roots,' and that experience was mind-boggling, and it changed the way society viewed race relations. It was incredibly important. With 'Roots,' I was just as proud as anybody else that people of color were getting their stories told.
Esai Morales
#58. People of color have to do this work as a mater of everyday survival. And so long as they have to, who am I to act as if I have a choice in the matter? Especially when my future and that of my children in large part depends on the eradication of racism? There is no choice.
Tim Wise
#59. As somebody who has been an executive producer on a television series, I can tell you that increasing director diversity is as simple as hiring more women and more people of color.
Lesli Linka Glatter
#60. When people think of diversity, they think people of color, but it also means women, who are severely underrepresented as directors, writers and producers.
Eva Longoria
#61. The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied.
Jeremiah Wright
#62. Everyone always says to me, 'Why aren't there more people of color on television?' I'm like, 'Why don't you ask a bunch of people who aren't putting people of color on television why there aren't more people of color on television?'
Shonda Rhimes
#63. There is civil disobedience against the military machine, protest against police brutality directed especially at people of color.
Howard Zinn
#64. 1780, as Thomas-Alexandre turned eighteen, the king issued a new law prohibiting people of color from using the titles Sieur or Dame ("Sir" or "Madame"). Saint-Georges remained a chevalier - and Thomas-Alexandre was a count - but neither could use "Sir" before his name without risking arrest.
Tom Reiss
#65. In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01. White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just 'disappeared' as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.
Jeremiah Wright
#66. Maybe that was why it was almost always the underclasses, the women, the people of color, the gay people, the ones who were already stigmatized as being vulnerable, availble, trapped by the body, who took the risk of the wire.
Melissa Scott
#67. If outsider perspectives made 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Dark Knight' into fantastic franchises, imagine what would happen if you brought in the perspectives of women and people of color.
Annalee Newitz
#68. After reading The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander's stunning work of scholarship, one gains the terrible realization that, for people of color, the American criminal justice system resembles the Soviet Union's gulag - the latter punished ideas, the former punishes a condition.
David Levering Lewis
#69. The cool thing for me is, I go to a lot of conventions - a lot of science fiction conventions like Comic-Con - and there are always a lot of attendants of color. And I think some people believe that black people or people of color are not into science fiction or hero shows or genre shows.
J. August Richards
#70. My wearing my hair in locs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough.
Zendaya
#71. You know, I love all kinds of activism. I certainly think blacks deserve to have something whether it is affirmative action or an opportunity that should be opened up to them. But at the same time I believe that people of color are not the only poor people in America and all over the world.
Russell Simmons
#72. If you have an economic system in which there must be a lower class, there must be unemployed. There must be a large pool of people working at the worst jobs and the lowest paid jobs. Once you have a system like that, then the most likely people to be victims of that are people of color.
Howard Zinn
#73. Oh, happy day when the enemies of ascendancy have got to confess that people of color rock.
John Ridley
#74. People are tired of mainstream media's limited and confined portrayal of people of color.
Issa Rae
#75. I see a lot of people of color in my fanbase and at all my shows, and it's really awesome.
Chaz Bundick
#76. It is not easy to get parts in mainstream films for most people of color. Hollywood and British writers are not writing parts for us, or the directors are not interested in casting us in parts that are color-blind.
Naveen Andrews
#77. We said that we believed that the truth would set us free, and the truth was that the Sunday-school staff was burned out, that there were almost no people of color, and that if we didn't get more help, we'd have to close down.
Anne Lamott
#78. It's also important for those who promote those issues within the white community - the somewhat privileged community - to talk about issues affecting people of color.
Danny Glover
#80. Too many people hate the people that AIDS most affects: gay people and people of color. I do not mean dislike, or feel uncomfortable with. I mean hate. Downright hate. Down and dirty hate.
Larry Kramer
#81. Feminism has neglected the needs of woman of color and people of color in general. But I don't think it means that we should overlook feminism as having nothing valuable to contribute.
Roxane Gay
#82. Because of the success of 'Hamilton' and 'On Your Feet!' you can't hide behind the old argument of, 'It needs to be bankable, so we can't put all these people of color in the show.' We are bankable.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
#83. I have a lot of fans who are people of color. I think, if nothing else, I kind of understand that sense of being on the outside looking in, culturally.
Wes Craven
#84. I think the world is ready for people of color to take on more heroic and leading roles, and not always be the sidekick, the nemesis or any sort of stereotype of what a person of color can play typically in a Hollywood picture.
Jessica Alba
#85. The poor and people of color are yoked to the abject; white people use its exploration as a path toward self-liberation. It's a valid critique - and one that Broad City has increasingly interrogated, suggesting, especially in later seasons, the extent of Abbi and Ilana's privilege.
Anne Helen Petersen
#86. This is a critical juncture in our history. Many young people of color in economically underdeveloped communities are becoming deeply rooted in personal and academic dormancy that interrupts their ability to invest in our fast-moving, ever-changing, increasingly demanding world.
Alfred W. Tatum
#87. The "we" evoked here is all of us, black people/people of color, who are daily bombarded by a powerful colonizing whiteness that seduces us away from ourselves that negates that there is beauty to be found in any form of blackness that is not imitation whiteness.
Bell Hooks
#89. I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the U.S. government's policy towards people of color.
Assata Shakur
#90. What I love about the stories of the Great Migration is that this is not ancient history; this is living history. Most people of color can find someone in their own family who had experienced a migration of some kind, knowing the sense of dislocation, longing and fortitude.
Isabel Wilkerson
#91. Attack those concepts such as 'third world.' Think about it. If we look at it in terms of numbers, then people of color are the majority in this world. We should be the 'first world.'
H. Rap Brown
#92. I have a pretty good sense of when to express misgivings. And white critics are just as capable of pointing those things out and noticing them as people of color.
Wesley Morris
#93. I have a dream. I have a dream that one day, people will be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.
Martin Luther King Jr.
#94. There's one thing which I hate about color films ... people who use up a lot of their despairing producer's money by working in the laboratory to bring out the dominant hues, or to make color films where there isn't any color.
Claude Chabrol
#95. There are people who were gay and lived the gay lifestyle and aren't anymore. I don't know if that's the similar situation or that's the case for anyone that's black. It's a behavioral issue as opposed to a color of the skin issue, and that's the diff for serving in the military.
Rick Santorum
#97. Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.
Jules Feiffer
#98. Despite the hour, customers already flooded the market, men, women, and children of every color and race looking for the magic cure to their problems. They were what allowed the poachers to exist. They'd stop poaching if people stopped buying.
Ilona Andrews
#99. We are a gentle angry people
We are a land of many colors
We are gay and straight together
We are a peaceful loving people
And we are singing, singing for our lives.
Holly Near
#100. I think I ended up on 'People's '50 Most Beautiful People' list just because of eyeliner, which is kind of a bummer. But if you do find the right color, it will make your eyes pop.
Pete Wentz
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