Toyin Odutola Quotes

In Atlanta, with a large African-American population, Sosa is often considered a black man. In Miami and Los Angeles, with larger Hispanic populations, he is a Latino man, and the black label is rejected as robbing Hispanics of a hero.

Growing up in London, with a hippie mom, I don't know that I'm most people's definition of what a black person is. I'm mixed, yes, but in the world I'm defined as black before I'm defined white. I've never been called white.

I never learned how to be adequately black. I never learned how to be black at all.

I am not a black artist, I am an artist.

The very definition of 'blackness' is as broad as that of 'whiteness,' yet we're seemingly always trying to find a specific, limited definition.

What is blackness? Is it the way you talk? Do you got to say, 'Dey this, dey dat.' Or the way you dress? Or is it the forgiving of certain things? What is black enough?

I've always called myself a different shade of Brown.

The only thing that said 'Lando Calrissian' was ethnic was his looks.

We're not monolithic. What is blackness? To me, how do you define that?

When I started, I was aware of using the black as a rhetorical device. It's understanding that black people come in a wide range of colors, but you find instances in a lot of black literature in which the blackness is used as a metaphor. In some places, you can find an extreme blackness used as a descriptive.

Anyone reading contemporary poetry - especially contemporary African-American poetry - will quickly see that race is an enduring subject. What some don't realize is just how diverse the handling of that subject is. It's as diverse as blackness.

Don't fault me for wearing a 20-inch blond wig - it doesn't mean I want to be a white person.

There are a plethora of ways of being black, just like there's many ways to being white.

People ask me why my figures have to be so black. There are a lot of reasons. First, the blackness is a rhetorical device. When we talk about ourselves as a people and as a culture, we talk about black history, black culture, black music. That's the rhetorical position we occupy.

I'm not the standard Asian girl.

There is this really old school stereotypical notion in Australia that to be Aboriginal you have to be black: anything but white or pale skinned. What 'The Sapphires' does is open up the conversation that I've been having my whole life, the fact that being indigenous isn't about the color of your skin; it's about your connection to your culture.

Sometimes I read that I'm not 100 per cent Chinese, because I don't look all that Chinese. That's a strange one - I am Chinese.

Most of all, I dislike this idea nowadays that if you're a black person in America, then you must be called African-American. Listen, I've visited Africa, and I've got news for everyone: I'm not an African.

There haven't been enough profound things written about what being black means and what a black character is. Nobody knows.

It would seem that some black people want to say that when you, as a black, become successful, you cease to be black. That's ridiculous.

Since I got to this country when I was 12, I've been obsessed with this idea of whiteness and blackness because I realized I was neither. For me, it was so important to me to make a film that focused on whiteness because you wouldn't have blackness if you didn't have whiteness.

I'm a quarter Chinese and three-quarter Filipino. I don't look Filipino; I look more Chinese or Korean. It actually works in my favor: in terms of roles, it gives me a broader canvas.

I've never been one to carry race on my sleeve, and I've never been one to really use my race.

Hip-hop has globalized a conception of blackness that has had a political impact, whether or not it had a political intent.

It's a significant question: should black people only adopt black children, and white people white children?