Rap was started by black people and, thus, is at the foundation of black culture. So people cannot always wrap their minds around someone like me being inspired by it. But if you listen to the things we’re saying, they’re authentically us.
I just have more Yves Saint Laurent in my closet, but it is pretty much the same – I just wear black almost 365 days of the year. I am married to it.
Deadwood lies at the northern tip of the Black Hills, where the land is ancient and rubbed smooth by time. The Black Hills are more rugged at their southern extremity, where bare granite forms pinnacles and spires.
I used to drive up and down Pacific Coast Highway in this black Porsche, and I had seen a couple of accidents on the highway involving Porsches. I realized if you’re in any kind of head on accident in one of those cars, they’re going to get you out of it with a can opener, one of those Jaws of Life.
As much as I’m a black person from America, I’m a black person from Africa, too.
Madame Walker selected Indianapolis as the headquarters for her growing business more than a century ago in 1910 because of its central location and thriving black business community.
I do feel in 2018 that pro wrestling has gone in such a different direction. Before, things were so black and white; now, it’s shades of grey. It’s not so much good guys and bad guys: there are people who are put in situations who do the right or wrong things, but people react to them like they are stars.
Magic is a state of mind. It is often portrayed as very black and gothic, and that is because certain practitioners played that up for a sense of power and prestige. That is a disservice. Magic is very colorful. Of this, I am sure.
Black or white good parts are hard to come by. A good actor with a good opportunity has a shot; without the opportunity it doesn’t matter how good you are.
Art is a form of experience of the person, the place, the history of the people, and as black people, we are different. We hail from Africa to America, so the culture is mixed, from the African to the American. We can’t drop that. It’s reflected in the music, the dance, the poetry, and the art.
And I ask why am I black, they say I was born in sin, and shamed inequity. One of the main songs we used to sing in church makes me sick, ‘love wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
There is no country in the world with the diversity, confidence and talent and black pride like Nigeria.
As for facial hair, I think I decided it was a good look after graduate school. I always shave it myself and trim my own beard. I change the look depending on the role. For ‘Million Dollar Baby,’ I had no facial hair. For ‘Men in Black 3,’ I had no facial hair but did wear a wig.
The Holocaust, taken by itself, is a black hole. To look at it directly is to be swallowed up by it.
I was bullied at school. The black girl in Central Falls, Rhode Island, in 1973. There’d be 8 or 10 boys; I would count them as I was running.
I love Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and Guns N’ Roses and AC/DC.
Black Lives Matter is really an affirmation for our people. It’s a love note for our people, but it’s also a demand. We know that the system was not designed for justice for us.
My mother is black, from Grenada, so my blackness was always there, but It wasn’t until I started hanging with the upperclassmen black actors at my high school that I really got my roots in being a black American, which is a distinctly different identity and experience.
Blacks have traditionally had to operate in a situation where whites have set themselves up as the custodians of the black experience.
If the KKK was smart enough, they would’ve created gangsta rap because it’s such a caricature of black culture and black masculinity.
I’m a big fan of ‘Orphan Black,’ and to be one of the original cast members is something that will always be dear to me.
I lived and grew up in the black and white period of photojournalism.
In my real life, I’m a Black Lives Matter social justice activist, and so it was incredibly interesting to me to play somebody coming from the totally opposite side, whose beliefs are as deeply entrenched – as deeply felt, and given as much gravity, as I give my beliefs.
The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.
Once a star dies, it’s gone forever. There are no new stars to take its place. Eventually, there will be no stars, and the universe will turn black. That really will be the end.
When people meet me in person, they’re usually surprised at how petite I am because there’s this idea that because I’m black, I just look a certain way.
Living in a state of terror was new to many white people in America, but black people have been living in a state of terror in this country for more than 400 years.
My being a black woman is not a deficit. It is a strength. Because I could not be where I am had I not overcome so many other barriers. Which means you know I’m relentless, you know I’m persistent, and you know I’m smart.
Black culture is a fight. We want to hold on to what we are, but sometimes the things that we are can be totally negative. You have to think: can’t we try something new and not be seen as suspect?
It’s challenging to find self-love when there’s confusion and you’re living in a world that’s seemingly very binary and black and white.
Rap actually comes out of punk rock, not black music.
‘Top Boy,’ for some people, was very controversial because it seemed to be portraying black people in a certain light that they thought to be stereotypical. However, what I would say is that the writer went and lived in Hackney in East London for a long time and did his research really well.
Black men struggle with masculinity so much. The idea that we must always be strong really presses us all down – it keeps us from growing.
The Muslim world just doesn’t believe that skin color is all that important. Obama may be half-black, but he’s still all-Western, according to them. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black, white or green – if you’re not a devotee of Muhammad, you don’t matter.
I make and wear black and white for myself because it centers me.
My goal was to tell a dialogue between high fashion and streetwear. So, the name Off-White, in my mind, is between black and white. So, that middle ground is a mixture between both genres of fashion.
Don’t let anyone call you a minority if you’re black or Hispanic or belong to some other ethnic group. You’re not less than anybody else.
I think race has been a burden for black Americans. Being Muslim has also been a challenge because so many people do not understand Islam.
Only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children.
As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.
I’ve said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.
I’m comfortably asocial – a hermit in the middle of a large city, a pessimist if I’m not careful, a feminist, a black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty and drive.
I don’t think there is enough understanding of how diverse black America actually is.
To rally every black sheep is my goal.
I dug the idea that I was being perceived as the black sheep of my family, but for me, it was like, I was a rebel, and that to me was most important.
I’ve said numerous times the hardest job in America isn’t being a professional athlete. It’s not being a matador or having some job that puts your life at risk. The hardest job in America is being black, because it’s the one thing you can’t outrun.
I disagree with the prevailing point of view of some black leaders that special treatment for blacks is acceptable.
I got my black belt First Dan at the age of 12 and I was the youngest in my training centre. I practised karate till a few years ago and it has helped enhance my flexibility, stamina and mental toughness.
Bob Marley performed the ‘One Love Peace’ concert in Jamaica with the two different warring political sides. There’s always been that in black music and culture in general. It’s no surprise because black music is such a reflection of what’s going on in black life. It’s not unusual for hip-hop.
A racially integrated community is a chronological term timed from the entrance of the first black family to the exit of the last white family.
We must never forget that Black History is American History. The achievements of African Americans have contributed to our nation’s greatness.
People have black skin, people have brown skin. I have both.
I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.
I know of at least two black women who are billionaires: Sheila Johnson, who co-founded BET, and Oprah Winfrey. And I know of hundreds of black women whose net worth is over $1 million.
A black hole really is an object with very rich structure, just like Earth has a rich structure of mountains, valleys, oceans, and so forth. Its warped space whirls around the central singularity like air in a tornado.
