I grew up in a world where the majority of people were black, so that wasn't the defining quality of anyone. When you're describing someone, you don't start out with 'he's black, he's white.'
By limiting access to surrogacy based on flimsy and exclusionary criteria, the government may just give rise to a mushrooming black market.
Quite frankly, I think political correctness is the worst form of censorship. You're not allowed to speak your mind unless you're black, or unless you're a terrorist, or unless you're an Arab or a minority people. Then you can say what you like. But if you are like a lot of us you are not supposed to say certain things.
The black comedians meeting? Oh yeah, we hold one every year at Eddie Murphy's house.
I don't stand for the black man's side, I don' t stand for the white man's side. I stand for God's side.
As a black actress you've got to work doubly hard. But it doesn't ever get me to the point where I give up on myself. It just motivates me to be more prepared, focus and disciplined. That's why I care so much about doing black films and making sure that we represent and are represented correctly.
I believe that the American audience is not so dumb that they wouldn't be interested in a black story.
In the black sororities, they celebrate achievement academically, and they really do work toward community service. As much as the white sororities claim that's the case in their groups, it's not really so. White sororities focus on relationships.
People just can't wrap their heads around two young black women in a major production.
You didn't think of angels as white or black. They were angels.
It was the Cosby family on the cover, but overlaid on that, it appeared to be a shattered glass. So it really wasn't just about the shattering of the Huxtables: it was really a shattering of the black family. And it was a question about that and where do we stand on that.
My interest as an artist is to illuminate the lives of black folks. I definitely am focused on films that illustrate all that we are and all our nuance and all our complicated beauty and mess, and when you're telling those stories, you gotta have black actors.
It's an unfortunate fact that in the male black population, a very significant percentage of them, more so than whites or other minority candidates, because of convictions, prison records, are never going to be hired by a police department. That's a reality. That's not a byproduct of stop-and-frisk.
I like having black hair. When I was really young, I wanted to be Asian - Asian hair is beautiful. I also wanted to look like the girl in George Michael's 'Father Figure' video.
I'm obsessed with broccoli, carrots, celery, string beans, snap peas, black kale, brussels sprouts, cabbage - I could go on! They used to call me 'rabbit' when I was a kid. I hate mushrooms, though. I apologize to fungi lovers, but this way, there's more for you!
I am an earnest advocate of manual training and trade teaching for black boys, and for white boys, too.
There haven't been enough profound things written about what being black means and what a black character is. Nobody knows.
Much of America rooted for Mr. Obama simply because he is black.
I found many treasures in the woods over the years: shotgun shells, empty Colt 45 bottles, old railroad spikes, orange and black beetles eating a dead mouse, pebbles that looked just like teeth, old stone walls and cellar holes, a rusted out frying pan, the skull of a cat.
My comrades would call me a 'black capitalist.'
There are so many people who have this idea of who I am because I'm black.
I never wear a black belt with a black shoe. It's always the opposite: a brown shoe with a black belt.
Television is blue-collar work. You clock in in the morning; you work 12, 13 hours - sometimes 18 hours if you're doing 'Orphan Black.'
I am a bit sickie happy. I am prone to black clouds too, but... I am embarrassed about them. It's like: 'My diamond shoes are too tight. My money clip doesn't fit all my fifties.' I mean - really. Shut up.
The vast majority of murdered whites are murdered by other whites. That's why there's no national outrage when a white person is killed by a black person: it's not evidence of some underlying black violence problem directed against white people.
Since pre-Emancipation, black 'females' have had to fight for the whites-only privilege of being deemed 'ladies': cultured, educated, sexually desirable in a socially respected way. Michelle Obama has managed to get all this without yielding her right to be smart and strong-willed.
Red-hot songs were born on the black streets of Baltimore, where I delivered five-gallon cans of kerosene and ten-pound bags of coal.
Is the 'black designer' label there to warn everyone not to have the same level of expectations for me, or is it some type of prize? I just want to work in an even playing field where I can get press for my work and not just my race and my personal views on it.
One of the Robinson brothers from the Black Crowes turned me on to Nick Drake.
I used to get letters saying, 'I didn't know black children and white children were the same.'
I'm a suspicious mulatto, which means I'm too black to be white and too white to be doing it right.
I've named a couple things after Edgar Allan Poe: the cat, and my garden upstate, where I only planted black flowers and purple flowers - and there's a raven statue.
'Hollywood maids' are so idiotic. They grin at everything. I told Norman Lear I didn't want to play a maid because of that 'hee-hee/grin-grin' attitude, and he said, 'Who said I wanted that?' He told me he wanted two strong women that are the black and white of the same coin. I said, 'Oh, well - in that case, I'll be right there!'
I like to dress in edgy black leather and denim, but I like a wide range of things.
I'm going to be a fashion icon in a minute. I'm not going to do it in a corny manner. I have a voice that speaks for a whole other market - not just black people, but high fashion urban people. I mix street wear with high fashion. It's never been seen before.
When I was nine, my father said 'You can take piano lessons or do karate' - I had a black belt and was competing before I was 19.
