African Quotes

My intention is not to repudiate an African American identity but perhaps to resist how labels take hold, or to make it as slow a process as possible. That's more my sense of it.

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

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.

Hungry people cannot be good at learning or producing anything, except perhaps violence.

I'm never satisfied with what I do. I always think I can do it a lot better.

Every woman is not a runway model, nor should she be.

Be careful what you swallow. Chew!

Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

There is no way that we know what is going on between the African American and the Asian American. We don't understand what an Indigenous American is. We don't understand what a Latino American is

The treatment of African and African American culture in our education was no different from their treatment in Tarzan movies.

I was taught from a young age that many people would treat me as a second-class citizen because I was African-American and because I was female.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover these precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

African Americans watch the same news at night that ordinary Americans do.

I write about African women, that's really my topic. I have no shame or qualm in it because it's a very underrepresented topic, which is part of the reason I started to write.

I'm African-American by my culture, not by my color. Race does not exist.

I think, though, as African-American women, we are always trained to value our community even at the expense of ourselves, and so we attempt to protect the African-American community.

There is nothing in the world common to man, that man cannot do.

I was repeatedly told that there isn't an African American woman who can open a show on Broadway. I said, 'Well, how do we know? How do we know if we don't do it?' I said, 'I think you're wrong.'

I fully understand that the African-American community has suffered from discrimination and that there are many wrongs that must still be made right.

The curious beauty of African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad tale. You may be poor, you may have only a ramshackle house, you may have lost your job, but that song gives you hope.

That's not an accident that Donald Trump didn't begin with, say, trade or jobs or anything, that he actually began by otherizing the first African-American president of the United States.

We had two African American writers [Eric Monte and Michael Evans] on the show ['Good Times'] that knew Cabrini Green inside and out, and that's why we set it there.

We must serve consciously as caring role models, emphasizing the ethic of service, not consumption.

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 am so hip even my errors are correct

Obamanomics, his imposition of European-style socialism is not working for African-Americans. It is not working for Latinos and African-Americans.

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.

Slavery is a memory of something we cannot remember, and yet we cannot forget.

I want to be the voice for those people who are going through the same thing, like little African American boys and girls getting bullied at school.

I grew up in church. That's how most young African American musicians learn how to perform. You could be six years old and playing organ or drums in front of thousands or hundreds of people.

I stay connected in my head. I'm spiritually and psychologically connected to African-Americans. They are my people, and that will never change.

Take that bone out of your nose and call me back (to an African American female caller).

We must protect the civil rights of American citizens - African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, and all Americans - by ensuring that their jobs, wages, and well-being come first.

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.

I will go to the NAACP convention, and explain to the African-American community why they should demand paychecks instead of food stamps.

I think Muslims in particular are facing similar obstacles African Americans did, historically.

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

I'm an American; I'm not an African-American. I'm an American.

I did not get on the bus to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home.

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.

I don't think people have been able to deal with the fact that African American filmmakers can make movies about life and relationships.

No human being can be more human than another human being. I liberate you from my ignorance.

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

I always say African American history is the quintessential American story. It's about perseverance and resilience - something everyone can relate to.

African Americans have always known that a little bit of paranoia was healthy for us.

I'm African American, I'm a lot of other things, a musician and an artist. But that woman part holds the most pain for me. And therefore, obviously, the most lessons.

One of my dreams is to expand and make sure African music and Afro Beats music is really on the map. I would like to be a contribution to that success.

People ask me if I miss the States. I miss African Americans. But not the U.S. government or all the things they put me through. I miss African American culture, our speech, dance and cooking.

I feel like I come from a smaller off shoot of black people because I am mixed. People say I’m African American but that doesn’t include the other half of me.

It is not a problem. I had been nominated by my country Uganda and the African continent had endorsed me... No matter how much noise the frogs make, they cannot stop a cow from drinking water.