Issa Rae Quotes

Never have I once identified myself as white.

What I really hoped to do with my work was to at least be able to define my relationship to race.

On the one hand, there is no reason that a black person needs to live a portion of his or her life being concerned about the people of color around him. On the other hand, if you don't you're crazy.

My grandfather was coloured, my father was Negro, and I am Black.

I would say I'm black because my parents said I'm black. I'm black because my mother's black. I'm black because I grew up in a family of all black people. I knew I was black because I grew up in an all-white neighborhood. And my parents, as part of their protective mechanisms that they were going to give to us, made it very clear what we were.

No one ever talks about the moment you found that you were white. Or the moment you found out you were black. That's a profound revelation. The minute you find that out, something happens. You have to renegotiate everything.

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

I am black, and there's no getting around that, but being black doesn't define every aspect of my life.

Blackness better defines who I am philosophically and socially than whiteness does.

To never think about race means that it doesn't really shape your life, or more specifically, the race that you have is not a burden to you.

As a black person, I'm used to going to places in which I might be the only black person that shows up there. This experience has an effect on the way you see yourself in the world and what it means to be black in the world.

I'm black. I've been black all my life, and as far as I know, I'll die black.

I'm African American / I'm African / I'm black as the moon.

I'm a black American, I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am. I have a lot of pride and dignity.

I don't think being black has held me back at all. Being black makes you strong.

Everyone knows I'm black. I am who I am. This is the person that Lester Sr. and June Holt raised, and I make no apology for it. At the same time, I'm never going to pull a race card to get what I want. You can't have it both ways.

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

Blackness is a state of mind, and I identify with the black community. Mainly, because I realized, early on, when I walk into a room, people see a black woman, they don't see a white woman. So out of that reason alone, I identify more with the black community.

I talk about race a lot. It's been my work ever since I came out of acting school. But it's true that in a way talking about race is a taboo. Because so many of our debates about race have to do not with race but with what we are willing to see, what we will not see and what we don't want to see.

Most people don't think about race as much as I do. They don't have to.

We cannot continually barricade ourselves under some falsified idea of race, because our idea of blackness and race is simply reactionary. Africans didn't walk around Africa being black and proud, they walked around proud.

I am pleased that God made my skin black, but I only wish he had made it thicker.

White Americans can go a long time without ever thinking about the color of their skin. Black and brown Americans have no choice but to confront issues of race every day.