High blood pressure is a major health crisis in the black community.
The reason people think it’s important to be white is that they think it’s important not to be black.
I do want to be a representative of the African community, and I want to hold myself and dress myself in a way that reflects that. I want black kids to see me and think, ‘Okay, he’s carrying himself as a black man, and that’s how a black man should carry himself.’
I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there.
The greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of our game is the black race.
For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!
It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.
When a black person kills a black person, the media ignores it completely.
I love black and white and very simple and classic clothes.
As a kid we moved around a fair bit as a family. It was difficult to make friends but sport helped. Once people saw you kick a football it broke down barriers. Instead of being the new skinny black kid you were the kid everyone wanted on their team.
Since I was 16, I’ve felt a black cloud hangs over me.
Black and white means photography to me. It’s much easier to take a good color photograph, but you can get more drama into a black and white one.
I’m very black and white about what I like or don’t like, and I’ve always been that way.
After two years at UCLA, I decided to leave. I was convinced that no amount of education would help a black man get a job.
I can’t be in an environment that is not conducive to me as a black woman.
If you’re white and you’re wrong, then you’re wrong; if you’re black and you’re wrong, you’re wrong. People are people. Black, blue, pink, green – God make no rules about color; only society make rules where my people suffer, and that why we must have redemption and redemption now.
Every man’s closet should be dark pair of blue jeans, a black jean, and a mid wash jean.
I like the way black looks. I think I look better in darker clothes. And maybe the fact that I wear black so much makes me more aware of putting people at ease. The black is sort of the bad-guy guise, so I work overtime to make people comfortable.
Some people believe tarot cards are a form of black magic or senseless new age mysticism but for me they are a practical way of talking directly to the universe.
Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.
I wore black until I was twenty-five, like many young people. Everybody did. It was crazy! But now, getting older, I think color does me good.
We all want to be identified as someone cool, and I have struggled with repping where I’m from and my heritage before. It’s part of growing pains. But when people see me being proud of what I am – and they are what I am too – it makes them proud. That’s why I try to represent my Asian and my black side.
I like bold colors but usually wear black.
Violence is black children going to school for 12 years and receiving 6 years’ worth of education.
As a black man, sometimes you can’t tell if what you’re seeing has underlying bigotry, or it’s a normal conversation and you’re being paranoid. That dynamic in itself is unsettling. I admit sometimes I see race and racism when its not there.
My style is definitely schizophrenic; it does change from day to day a lot. It depends on my mood: sometimes I’ll be going through a girly, childlike stage and wear a pretty lace dress with a bow in my hair. Then sometimes I’ll be moody and just wear black.
When I was in my 20s, I was out of control in terms of what I would do to defend my vision. There are black film-makers and storytellers who take a back seat to just get it done. It’s good, but it’s not right there. It’s been compromised.
An election in which people have to wait 10 hours to vote, or in which black voters wait in the rain for hours, while white voters zip through polling places, is unworthy of the world’s leading democracy.
I used to joke for years that I was a black man. I adopted the black culture, the black race. I married a black woman, and I had black kids. I always considered myself a ‘brother.’
When I was saying, ‘White people go to hell,’ I never had trouble finding a publisher. But when I say, ‘Black and white unite and fight, destroy capitalism,’ then you suddenly become unreasonable.
I’m an athlete and I’m black, and a lot of black athletes go broke. I do not want to become a statistic, so maybe I overcompensate. But I’m paranoid. Oprah told me a long time ago, ‘You sign every check. Never let anyone sign any checks.’
In the beginning it was all black and white.
I can get a black eye, a bloody nose. I can have a bad day in the gym. At the end of the day, I don’t have a bad payday, and I don’t have a bad night under the lights… I get bumps, bruises… but I don’t have a bad night.
I wear black because I’m comfortable in it. But then in the summertime when it’s hot I’m comfortable in light blue.
Being black is not a matter of pigmentation – being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.
Life isn’t black or white, it’s all sorts of shades of grey.
A Black man should be more independent and depend on himself for his freedom and not to take it for granted that someone would lead him to it. The blacks are tired of standing at the touchlines to witness a game that they should be playing. They want to do things for themselves and all by themselves.
We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity. We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism.
Weapons of mass destruction aren’t pulled out of a black hat like a white rabbit at a magic show. They’re produced in factories. There’s science and technology involved. They’re not produced in a hole in the ground or in a basement.
‘A Different World,’ for me, was in a lot of ways responsible for me going to college. I wanted to go to a black college, and I wanted to get out of Los Angeles. It’s just a natural part of all of our journeys, that idea of leaving home.
When I was running the Troubadour, there was this transition from the classic singer/songwriter Jackson Browne types to bands like Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys, and Fear. Those are just some that come to mind. Oh, and Adam Ant! The Fear fans wanted to ‘crush’ the Ants. These guys hated each other.
Black men don’t like to be called ‘boys,’ but women accept being called ‘girls.’
Being born gay, black, and female is not a revolutionary act. Being proud to be a gay black female is.
The art of publicity is a black art; but it has come to stay, and every year adds to its potency.
During my childhood, Washington was a segregated city, and I lived in the midst of a poor black neighborhood. Life on the streets was often perilous. Indoor reading was my refuge, and twice a week, I made the hazardous bicycle trek to the central library at Seventh and K streets to stock up on supplies.
Being part of social movements like Black Lives Matter or organizations like NAACP, or any group representing a cause, gives you more resources, knowledge, and power. They can help you use your voice.
Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.
I have a deadly disease called Sickle Cell Anemia that I was born with that affects millions of others – primarily in the Black and Latino cultures. I feel I can inspire others with this Sickle Cell disease to be strong and believe in themselves.
I sit my three sons down and say, ‘Listen to me. When the police stop you, immediately comply. Don’t walk away, don’t smart-mouth; get your hands up and get down on the ground.’ If you’re not black, you might not have to have that conversation, but I go over and over it with them because I don’t want that phone call.
I like technology, but ‘Black Mirror’ is more what the consequences are, and it doesn’t tend to be about technology itself: it tends to be how we use or misuse it. We’ve not really thought through the consequences of it.
Above all, avoid the Indiana Jones fedora. It’s very yesterday, and if you wear a black one, you might be mistaken for an Orthodox Jew.
I want to be an inspiration, but I would like there to be a day when it is not ‘Simone the black swimmer.’
It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.
I never had a black teacher or lecturer, I never once met a black British person who held any sort of professional or managerial role.
We rarely know what motivates somebody in their work, and it’s usually a particular moment in their life. For me, that moment is my brother’s incarceration and the ways in which this country has decided to neglect, abuse, and sometimes torture people with severe mental illness, especially if they’re black.
