Kendrick Sampson Quotes

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

I'm seeing more and more people of color do what I do as showrunners, and that's so great. I would love to get to the point where we don't have to talk about it anymore.

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

I want things to be great for people of color and for women.

I want to see as many black professionals as possible.

I always crave to see more stories about and by people of color, particularly new work by young black writers.

'Hollywood maids' are so idiotic. They grin at everything. I told Norman Lear I didn't want to play a maid because of that 'hee-hee/grin-grin' attitude, and he said, 'Who said I wanted that?' He told me he wanted two strong women that are the black and white of the same coin. I said, 'Oh, well - in that case, I'll be right there!'

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

I think as more women are in positions of power, more people of color are in positions of power, the stories become more inclusive; the casts become more inclusive.

I think the lesson is that when you give black voices a platform and the opportunity to tell our story, we will tell good stories just like anybody else.

At one point, there wasn't a black quarterback in the NFL. When you start winning, then you start seeing more. Jumping up and down and screaming and calling people names is not going to change anything.

I learned about poise and dignity, and I learned about what it means to be an African-American in television and what that requires in terms of what kind of position you take for yourself and how you define your own reality in a world that is still finding its footing, to say the least.

I think diversity and having women and people of color in key positions is really important.

America is Tiger Woods country for a reason, and she elected Barack Obama to punctuate this new reality.

We're trying to give back to artists of colour and make the journey for them a little easier.

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.

If you have a march that's entirely white women or a march that maybe is entirely black women, it's going inspire those who look like them, which is fine. Our idea is that we want to inspire as diverse of a group of people as possible.

If we want little girls and young women and people of color to see they have a place in the tech world, it's up to us to make that place for them.

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.

Come on, we would be foolish to say that there's never been African-American leads in some capacity, people of color in some capacity, leading shows or what have you. But it hasn't happened enough and in a manner that is an accurate reflection of the world that we live in.

From what I see, people of color are being called on in a different way. We're being heard in a different way - louder. And I think it's such an exciting time. The power structure is being redefined, and we're redefining beauty with the stories that we're telling and the women we're showing on our covers.

I feel like we need to make new superheroes, African-American superheroes, that people would accept.

I always look at things half full and definitely see a change in how things are going as far as black actresses and their opportunities.

Latinos, Asians, African-Americans, women - we're all trying to find our place in this world of cinema and television and theater. And the great thing with comedy is that most of the time, you could be orange. It doesn't matter, as long you're funny.

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.