Best 654 quotes in «african american quotes» category

It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.

It is extremely rough to follow through with my goals, but I felt a responsibility to show the world what the African Americans are facing through this rough patch.

It is easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing, that's the Lord's test.

It is my hope that as we commemorate Black History Month in the future, we will continue to celebrate the many achievements and rich culture of African-Americans.

It is not possible to erase racism just because African-Americans have reached a level of financial success and crossover appeal.

It is so painful to suggest that we go back to think about these days where an African-American could not be a citizen of the United States.

It may be changing, but still it's the one place, that total control of an institution, that African Americans have. So sometimes, you know, you'll hear the statement of African Americans saying, "I have to work with whites.

It requires enormous energy for us to cut the African American uninsured rate by a third. A lot of scars.

I try to find the core values that are so fundamental that they transcend ethnic identity. That doesn't mean I run from it. I embrace African-American culture and I love it and embrace it, but it is a part of a human identity. So I'm always trying to make a larger human statement.

It's not what you achieve in life, but who you become as a person due to those achievements.

It's important for women to understand that it's bad enough that we don't make dollar-for-dollar what men do, but when you distill that down to women of color, our Latinas and our African American women, it's even less than that 78 cents.

It's easy to do anything in victory. It's in defeat that a man reveals himself.

It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans - the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans.

It's so weird to turn on a switch and be the role model for all women, for all African-Americans. That doesn't happen that easily. It does not. So I don't act up in public and don't do anything weird, because my sisters are watching me. Not because the world is watching me.

It's really important to have life strategies and part of that is sort of knowing where you want to go so you can have a map that helps you to get there. And the traditional way tells us oh we get into school and someone else advises us, helps us, but that often does not work for African Americans female and male. Because what works for the dominant culture often does not work for us.

It's unfortunate that [Louis] Brandeis was not able to translate or abstract his devotion to cultural pluralism and racial equality as he put it for Jews to enslave people and their descendants and to African Americans.

It's time for democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe.

It will be up to each of you to make sure that young people, African Americans, Latinos and women who powered our victory in 2008 stand together once again.

I've been very lucky to have a family who has welcomed me and not been hung up on anything racial, almost overlooking the fact that there was a racial difference. But I can honestly say I do feel like I missed out on some lessons of what the African-American experience is like growing up.

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.

I've always believed that I could do whatever I set my mind to do.

I've always gotten a positive reaction to doing African-American characters.

I've always thought of myself as an African-American comedian, African-American man, everything.

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.

I want to be promoted in the urban areas. A lot of African-American people should know more about me.

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 was born black and female.

I was filled with rage. These same people who accuse Planned Parenthood of ‘targeting’ African-American children, they care about you only while you’re in the womb. The minute you crown, you’re on your own.

I was well known to African Americans before Bill Clinton discovered me. He was like Christopher Columbus riding up on something he didn't understand.

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

I would argue that the objective evidence shows that big government is not a friend to African Americans.

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

I would flip this the other way and say over 90 percent of African-Americans voted against Donald Trump.

Journalists become candidates for cardiac arrest when they see or hear an African American disagreeing with an African American. We would become inauthentic if we did not have disagreements with this president.

Jesse Jackson's living depends on the maintenance of an African-American victim culture

Jim Jones started out as a civil rights crusader in Indianapolis. As a young preacher in the mid-50s, he used members of his congregation to integrate lunch counters and all-white churches in rich neighborhoods; they'd just march in and sit down at the pews and see what happened. Often they were received with racist insults, and once with a bomb threat. But the fact that you had this charismatic, white man, aggressively promoting racial equality, was a huge draw for African Americans, many of whom felt the Civil Rights Movement had stalled by the late 60s.

Jimmer Fredette is the best scorer in the world!!

Latinos, Asians, African-Americans, women - we're all trying to find our place in this world of cinema and television and theater. And the great thing with comedy is that most of the time, you could be orange. It doesn't matter, as long you're funny.

Let the good times roll is especially or risky message for African-Americans. The plain fact is that they tend to possess poor native judgment than members of better educated groups. Thus, they need stricter moral guidance from society.

Liberals love to say things like, "We're just asking everyone to pay their fair share." But government is not about asking. It is about telling. The difference is fundamental. It is the difference between making love and being raped, between working for a living and being a slave. The Internal Revenue service is not asking anybody to do anything. It confiscates your assets and puts you behind bars if you don't pay.

Like any group that has endured much, African Americans have created a strong and mutually reinforcing sense of group identity. That's not a bad thing in and of itself.

Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires.

Look at Hispanic women - they are being paid 42 cents on the dollar - or African-American women. I think it's an issue we have to look at across the board.

Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvelously intricate in thought and action, our problems are most complex and, too often, silently borne.

Living consciously involves being genuine; it involves listening and responding to others honestly and openly; it involves being in the moment.

My producers and I worked with these consultants and came up with seventy [stories] which we think are exemplary of the larger arc of African-American history between 1513 and 2013. We covered half a millennium, and it's amazing.

Louis Brandeis never had the opportunity - or he never sought the opportunity I should say - to work closely with African American lawyers. He was also a Southern Democrat, you know, at a time when both parties were supportive of segregation.

Michael Jackson fundamentally altered the terms of the debate about African American music.

Michigan is very racially separated and the city of Detroit itself is 84 percent African-American and the surrounding suburbs are 86 percent White.

More people are on food stamps today because of Obamas policies than ever in history. I would like to be the best paycheck president in American history. ... And so Im prepared if the NAACP invites me, Ill go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.