Thelonious Monk Quotes

Race is everything.

"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.

I think we are aware that post-racialism isn't real, right? I mean, I hope so. I kind of joke that we're post-post-racial.

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

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

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

I write about race in America in hopes of undermining the notion of race in America.

There was nothing postracial about my experience, and there still isn't.

The only reason race matters is because of racism.

I get offended when people say, 'So, being a white rapper...and growing up white...after being born white...' It's all I ever hear!

All is race - there is no other truth.

I think sports is one of the places where race plays itself out publicly. Although we pretend it doesn't.

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.

Every single thing in my life is built around race.

I don't believe in blanket statements on race.

Of course, it's fun to play with Blacks.

In spite of what some people claim, we are not in a post-racial era. I think it's still an important issue to bring up.

The whites are the same everywhere. I see them every day.

It's hard to say when or if we will actually arrive at that place called 'post-racial', or, better yet, post-racism.

If white America is ready to extend complete democratic rights to colored people, there will be no race, no racial tension and no racial prejudice on either side, but we can be sure that any movement 'back to normalcy' in race relations will be bitterly resisted by colored people. It is now up to white America to make its choice...

I am astonished at the strong feeling of dislike and contempt—I might almost say hatred—which the bulk of the whites have for their black neighbours.

We're not so much anti-black as we are pro-white.

Racial discourses and theories are socially constructed ... but repudiating race theory does not make it disappear in politics. Race matters ... because it functions as a marker and an anchor to establish and repudiate identity, status and position ... Races exist because racism exists.

The Southern institution of racial segregation or racial separation was the correct, self-evident truth which arose from the chaos and confusion of the Reconstruction period. Separation promotes racial harmony. It permits each race to follow its own pursuits, and its own civilization. Segregation is not discrimination

It may be doubted whether any character can be named which is distinctive of a race and is constant.