Quotes About Being African American

#1. I love "Phenomenal Woman." The experiences she had of being African American in the U.S. - that itself is a task. I appreciate the hardships Maya Angelou went through for our generation. I'm super influenced by the black people that paved the way for us.

Serena Williams

#2. I paved the way for a lot of white artists now that don't have to deal with the stigma of being a white artist. I don't think that people would be as open for non-African American artists like that if it I didn't take a lot of the slack for them.

Jon B.

#3. Being the only African American at this level in American Ballet Theater, I feel like people are looking at me, and it's my responsibility for me to do whatever I can to provide these opportunities in communities to be able to educate them.

Misty Copeland

#4. Being one of the few African American women to make it to this level in a classical ballet company, the level of American Ballet Theatre, takes a lot of perseverance.

Misty Copeland

#5. Depression is like being under house arrest, only there is no house.

Lisa Eley

#6. You never hear about a pit bull doing anything good in the media. And they have a stigma to them ... and, in many ways, pit bulls are like young African-American males. Whenever you see us in the news, it's for getting shot and killed or shooting and killing somebody - for being a stereotype.

Ryan Coogler

#7. Are things getting better with each generation? Yes. It's quite interesting to be living in these times, for me to witness an African-American being elected president. It's quite extraordinary.

Lenny Kravitz

#8. The perception of linked fate and that feeling of being always on the spot as a representative of the race, at least in mixed company, are features of African American life that predate affirmative action and arise outside of its presence.

Randall Kennedy

#9. No one would stand for it [being the fool in the media] in a minute if you took any other group -Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, women - but somehow it's okay to do that with hillbillies.

John Shelton Reed

#10. Because I'm attracted to you. Because you're the poster child for contradictions and I enjoy each one of them. You're funny when you're being so damn serious. You have a kind heart and protective nature that reminds me so much of my father.

N.D. Jones

#11. While we dance in the streets and pat ourselves on the back for being a nation great enough to reach beyond racial divides to elect our first African-American president, let us not forget that we remain a nation still proudly practicing prejudice.

Harvey Fierstein

#12. I think the most critical needs of the African-American communities aren't being addressed primarily because of decisions being made by Republican Congressional leaders.

Melissa Harris-Perry

#13. I knew that I lived in a country in which the aspirations of black people were limited, marked-off. Yet I felt that I had to go somewhere and do something to redeem my being alive.

Richard Wright

#14. Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.

Carol Moseley Braun

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

Cassandra Wilson

#16. As the African American theologian James Cone notes, "Far from being songs of passive resignation, the spirituals are black freedom songs which emphasize black liberation as consistent with divine revelation.

James Martin

#17. 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.

Johnny Otis

#18. I don't have a problem with these Arizona laws. I have a problem with Chicano, Gay and Lesbian, Asian-American and African-American histories not being taught in American History courses.

M.G. Hardie

#19. Obama's a great speaker. Because of his speaking ability and his appearance, a lot of guys got on board. Being the first African American, a lot guys got on board.

Pete Rose

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

Willi Smith

#21. When I was a child, to call someone 'black' was an insult, a curse word, something that made you fight.
But to me it contains all of the history of oppression and resistance, of being close to the soil and the sky, of plain speaking. Of The Journey.

Bonnie Greer

#22. She said I was a monster, and for a long time I believed her. But you made me feel like a man, someone worthy of being loved. Then you went away, and I had nothing, nothing but a
hopeless demon inside.

N.D. Jones

#23. I think a lot of African-American kids don't have fathers to teach them how to dress, so you end up being taught by pictures in magazine and movies. You see cowboys, Indians, old Hollywood films, Cary Grant. It has an effect on you.

Andre Benjamin

#24. 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

#25. She said "sweet boy" again, as if making a diagnosis like tooth decay or flat feet. I was embarrassed. I didn't know if I was being insulted or complimented.

Shawn Stewart Ruff

#26. I am half Puerto Rican, a quarter German and a quarter black. That was always a big issue for me - being mixed race - because casting directors tended to be very like, 'OK, are you Hispanic for this role?' 'Or is she going to be African American?'

Naya Rivera

#27. I hope that at this moment you are thinking of yourself as a human being rather than as an American, Asian, European, African, or member of any particular country. These loyalties are secondary.

Dalai Lama

#28. Republicans have called for a National African-American Museum. The plan is being held up by finding a location that isn't in their neighborhood.

Conan O'Brien

#29. My plays aren't stylistically the same. Just being an African-American woman playwright on Broadway is experimental.

Suzan-Lori Parks

#30. We don't all have to take the same coordinates to get to the same destination. Being a young African American female artist, I want to open doors for young black girls.

Janelle Monae

#31. Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been the last person to have wanted his iconization and his heroism. He was an enormously guilt-laden man. He was drenched in a sense of shame about his being featured as the preeminent leader of African-American culture and the civil rights movement.

Michael Eric Dyson

#32. I would love to get a role that changes the landscape of being an African American woman in television and film.

Candice Patton

#33. Entering the foyer, Royale already decided that he would thank Shake once more for being by his side at Keena's recital. But she stunned him by eagerly waiting for him just like old times - on her knees wearing only a collar and a leash.

S.B. Redd

#34. I guess probably in my time in politics, it continued to be affirmed to me that the African-American community, despite being subscription television's most valuable customers, they are very underserved by cable and satellite television programming options.

J. C. Watts

#35. And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery

Trent Franks

#36. They think America is like a major league in entertainment. For me personally being here for the past year-and-a-half, I know some of the arguments and discrepancies African American actors have with the opportunities here.

Aml Ameen

#37. Samba rhythm is a great one to sing on, but it's also got some other suggestions in it, an undercurrent of being primitive - because it is a primitive African, South American, Afro-whatever-you-call-that rhythm. So to white people, it has a very sinister thing about it.

Mick Jagger

#38. If you're colored, you get the short end of the stick. If you're a woman, you get the short end of the stick. So what do we get for being colored and women?

Sherri L. Smith

#39. One of the great things about African-Americans is that we've always had this attitude: We make do with what we got. It comes from our ancestors being slaves.

Spike Lee

#40. Trayvon Martin, at the most, seems only to have been guilty of being himself.

Aberjhani

#41. 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