Joy Bryant Quotes

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

I'm not for having to support everything that's black, because I definitely don't. But I do feel like it is imperative for us to see that we are not a monolithic people.

I need to point out that African-Americans are not a monolith and do not operate in groupthink.

There's not one black narrative. There's not one way to be black.

Blackness is not a monolith. We are not homogenous people; we are not all the same.

I am instinctively wary of identity politics. Ultimately, no two black men are the same, any more than two white men are the same.

Just call me black, if you want to call me anything.

My son don't have to say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud. He don't have to be called those crazy names.

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

I'm black, I don't feel burdened by it and I don't think it's a huge responsibility. It's part of who I am. It does not define me.

Our leader will not be a white man with a Black heart, nor a Black man with a white heart, but a Black man with a Black heart.

I'm black, and it's a very important part of what I am. I'm not embarrassed about it.

Being 'ethnically ambiguous', as I was pegged in the industry, meant I could audition for virtually any role. Morphing from Latina when I was dressed in red, to African American when in mustard yellow, my closet filled with fashionable frocks to make me look as racially varied as an Eighties Benetton poster.

I'm tired of cookie-cutter monolithic representation of black folks.

I always said I'm not disappointed with Obama because I voted for him because he was black, and as long as he kept being black, I was a happy man.

I'm not going to be one of those people who says, 'I'm a showrunner; I'm not a black showrunner.' I'm black when I go to sleep. I'm black when I wake up, period. It doesn't affect my perspective on everything, but at the same time, it's who I am, and I'm proud of it.

I always think about race as a part of one's identity, not the whole of one's identity. You don't want it to be the defining characteristic of a character. There has to be more.

When you say that you are a race man, it means that you embrace the entire black community regardless of the hue, whether somebody is very light and could pass for possibly white or someone is very dark.

When you're in a black group, you have to keep in mind you're not black. You just have to be sensitive. We have to be appreciative that the black nationalist struggle is a nationalist struggle.

Well who's black and what is a black person?

I don't even want to touch on the topic of black quarterback, because I think this game is bigger than black, white or even green.

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.

I don't mind being black. I'm black out loud. It's more than the people that they are, it's the condition that they represent.

Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.

I never had that thing about being black. If the whole world was like that, maybe there would be more harmony and love.