Mahershala Ali Quotes

You can't have too many books featuring people of color, just like you can't have too many books featuring white people.

I grew up figure skating, and in figure skating there is only a handful of black people at the time figure skating with me.

There were no small brown kids as the centre of the children's fiction I grew up with.

I was seeing people of color growing up in my media. I was seeing them in positions of power.

'Black film,' that term allows studios to just marginalize a movie and say, 'We've made our black film. We've made our film with people of color in it,' as opposed to, 'I just feel like people of color should be in every genre.'

Simultaneously, the movie business now experiments with a colorblind approach to casting.

There are many people of color who are very talented.

I've never excluded myself because of color. It's never been part of the radar, when I look at anything I do. The majority of the roles that I've played have had very little to do with being black. It doesn't matter what color you are.

The challenge facing America in the next century will be the shaping, at long last, of a truly common public culture, one responsive to the long silenced cultures of color.

Colored people come in all colors.

For me, I actively look for projects that showcase people of color.

I want to see more Asian. I want to see more Latin. I want more Indian. There's more than Mindy Kaling out there, guys! There's more than Bai Ling.

I like representing different kinds of black people - showing they exist.

We need more diversity - we need more African-Americans on screen, Latinos, Asians, different religions. We have to be better about reflecting what our world looks like.

It's people who look like me, just seeing representation of everyone. I didn't get that when I was young. I only saw one black girl that was on a Disney show, that was known for being the sassy, coocoo, that type of girl.

I wish that all different types of people of all races and all upbringings were all equally represented in this industry that influences so many people.

Shows like 'Empire,' 'Black-ish,' 'Scandal,' and 'How to Get Away With Murder' are expanding viewers' perspectives on what people of color can be like. They're showing more range. They're showing more diversity within diversity.

I do my best to choose projects that I believe highlight different things or at least provide some sort of progression for people of color.

It's great we have a female Thor. It's great we have a black Captain America. But those are just optics; it's optics of change... Unless you have the structural diversity, the structural change behind the scenes - more women, more people of color actually calling the shots and editing these books - those optics won't last.

My parents and I always look at movies and just think, 'What's missing?' from the plot to the people of color or diversity in general.

There needs to be more film directors of colour. They bandy about the word 'diversity' a lot, but when I say 'of colour,' I mean Asian, black - I mean people of all colour. We need to have those voices given the opportunity, not told that their films will not be distributed or will not sell well abroad.

I feel there should be blacks in every Party.

We understand 'Roots,' and that experience was mind-boggling, and it changed the way society viewed race relations. It was incredibly important. With 'Roots,' I was just as proud as anybody else that people of color were getting their stories told.

My Uncle, of course, would have been pleased to see someone with brown skin holding the office of president.

If outsider perspectives made 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Dark Knight' into fantastic franchises, imagine what would happen if you brought in the perspectives of women and people of color.