Best 654 quotes in «african american quotes» category

However, research in the years that followed found that in many of its important features, African American Vernacular English was becoming not less, but more different from other dialects.

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?

Human beings cannot be willed and molded into non-existence.

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

I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so.

I actually spoke in an African-American church yesterday.

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

I always thought books were just the canon, things I couldn't identify with. And then I was introduced to really amazing multicultural literature - it was all things I was trying to do unsuccessfully in my poetry. It really just changed everything. I was introduced to authors like Sandra Cisneros, Gabriel García Márquez, Junot Díaz, and a lot of African American literature, as well.

I am a colored woman or a Negro woman. Either one is OK. People dislike those words now. Today these use this term African American. It wouldn't occur to me to use that. I prefer to think of myself as an American, that's all!

I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don't have to be defined by that.

I am an American. Black. Conservative. I don't use African-American, because I'm American, I'm black and I'm conservative. I don't like people trying to label me. African- American is socially acceptable for some people, but I am not some people.

I am committed to ensure that our 2008 Republican presidential candidates forthrightly address issues of importance to the African-American community.

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

I am convinced that the Black man will only reach his full potential when he learns to draw upon the strengths and insights of the Black woman.

I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother's side was not an Indian chief.

I am more of a conservationist, myself. And people have come to me and said, "Wow, you're an African-American conservationist!" And my response is, "No, I'm a conservationist who happens to be black.

I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed.

I am the first African-American chairman of any major conservation organization in history. That's a big step.

I am proud to live in a country with an African-American president. But President Obama cannot be proud of the fact that the prevalence of black poverty has actually increased under his leadership. The specific policies advanced by the president and his allies on the left amount to little more than throwing money at the problem and walking away.

I am so hip even my errors are correct

I am tired with hyphenated Americans! We are not Indian-Americans, or African-Americans.

I believe in individuality, that everybody is special, and it's up to them to find that quality and let it live.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

I can't deny that it will be a historic event for an African-American to become president. And should that happen, all Americans should be proud - not just African-Americans, but all Americans - that we have reached this point in our national history where such a thing could happen. It will also not only electrify our country, I think it'll electrify the world.

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.

I'd been listening to African-American music since the first record I ever bought, which was by Sam Cooke. And it sounds more like my private thoughts that I never thought I would be able to articulate - I never thought I would be able to express publicly.

I'd been taught from an early age that I was in the other category on the standardized tests. You know, I had to go down the checklist - Caucasian, African-American, Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, and then, you know, at the bottom is other. So, you know, very early on I was taught, in a way, that I was somehow this anomaly.

I decided blacks should not have to experience the difficulties I had faced, so I decided to open a flying school and teach other black women to fly.

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

Identity is very personal...identity is political. My identity is what is and it is what it's gonna be. And I don't think that any information will change that profoundly...I [already] know that I am a Black woman, and a Black woman who has mixed some heritage, like most African Americans.

I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.

I don't know how many off the record conversations I've had with African-American leaders who would not be quoted and refused to make their sentiments public.

I did want to mark the fact that it was the first African-American to win the Lead Actress category.I thought it was so progressive.

I'd like to state that Spike Lee is not saying that African American culture is just for black people alone to enjoy and cherish. Culture is for everybody.

I do not weep at the world I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.

I don't see how any African-American, with any inkling of history, can say that you don't have the right to live your life how you want to live your life. No one should be telling you who you should love, no one should be telling you who you should be spending the rest of your life with. When we start talking about equality, and everybody being treated equally, I don't want to know an African-American who will say everybody doesn't deserve equality.

I don't know what the future may hold, but I know who holds the future.

I don't see black people as victims even though we are exploited. Victims are flat, one- dimensional characters, someone rolled over by a steamroller so you have a cardboard person. We are far more resilient and more rounded than that. I will go on showing there's more to us than our being victimized. Victims are dead.

I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to relieve the sufferings of others.

I don't think there's enough breadth to the stories told about African-Americans.

I don't think every African-American or Latino have the same body type, but, yes, that's been one of the excuses ... saying that African-Americans are too muscular or just aren't lean enough. Usually they say, "Oh, they have flat feet so they just don't have the flexibility that it takes to create the line in a point shoe.

I don't think we're getting the empathy, and identifying with the situations that many African Americans experience. That's the problem with how the story is being reported.

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.

If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.

If a guy's got it, let him give it. I'm selling music, not prejudice.

I feel like we need to make new superheroes, African-American superheroes, that people would accept.

If [Hillary] Clinton can't boost African-American turnout, even with all that help, the question becomes whether she can make up for it with historic levels of support from Hispanics and suburban women.

I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or rat in a trap. I had already determined to sell my life as dearly as possible if attacked. I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit.

I find that people today tend to use them interchangeably. I use African-American, because I teach African Studies as well as African-American Studies, so it's easy, neat and convenient. But sometimes, when you're in a barber shop, somebody'll say, "Did you see what that Negro did?" A lot of people slip in and out of different terms effortlessly, and I don't think the thought police should be on patrol.