Madonna Ciccone Quotes

I actually spoke to one of the heads of a studio, and he said I confuse middle America. Basically, when they see a black person, they see athlete, they see rapper, or they see criminal or something like that. And then when they hear a British accent, they hear posh, so they hear lawyer or doctor.

I was nearly a teen-ager before I stopped assuming that everyone I met was Jewish.

All Latins are volatile people.

Protest is when I say this does not please me. Resistance is when I ensure what does not please me occurs no more.

In South Africa, they think we're pygmies!

I have had strangers come up to me and attempt to mimic the Chinese language in a derogatory manner. I have been told countless times that I speak 'good' English. I have been asked why someone like me would be interested in watching NFL football. On any given day, if I walk around with a camera, I will be mistaken for a tourist from Asia.

Since I worked with Prince, people assumed that I was black.

I never used to be taken seriously as a Swiss person.

Perhaps the little Negro girl was holding a concealed razor blade. Maybe she was one of the troublemakers out for a fresh white scalp.

Civil disobedience is the only nonviolent escape from the soul-destroying heat of violence.

Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.

I don't accept armed struggle. Maybe it was the way in the '50s and '60s, but we want a democratic revolution.

In a world built on violence, one must be a revolutionary before one can be a pacifist.

The lyrics stand today (1980). They're still my feeling about politics. I want to see the plan. I want to know what you're going to do after you've knocked it all down. I mean, can't we use some of it? What's the point of bombing Wall Street? If you want to change the system, change the system. It's no good shooting people.

There comes an hour when protest no longer suffices; after philosophy there must be action; the strong hand finishes what the idea has sketched.

You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.

When you say black lives matter, that's inherently racist.

I know I am judged unfairly by my physical characteristics and ostracized because of that so I say, "Yes, I'm a black man."

I think, you're not blagging me on this ridiculous journey, with this bit of paper. I think if you want to change things, it's not with an X on a piece of paper, it's with an X on someone's forehead.

Rioting is not revolutionary.

"Race." I really can't understand it as anything other than something people say. The people who have said that you and I are both "black" and therefore deserve a certain kind of interaction with the world, they make race. I can't take them seriously.

The essence of American racism is disrespect.

Stop saying you're not racist because you have a friend that's black. That's like saying you're not a pedophile because you have a friend that's a kid.

Personally, especially as a young black woman, I didn't think that Los Angeles was a place for me to start. There's a certain type that they go for or don't.

I had kids make fun of me because not only was I blonde but also Polish.