Brian Tyree Henry Quotes

I'd like it if people thought I was Jewish looking.

Here I am, this smart, bookish girl, and I have this biker-chick name.

Telly never has any smart, amusing intellectuals living on a council estate.

Somehow, someway, for some people there's an automatic assumption that a mayor who is African-American or some other elected official has to support another African-American.

I have to expend an awful lot of energy actively undoing the impact of my name. Understandably, people assume that I have at least some connection to Iran. The truth is that I don't. I have very little knowledge about the culture, the language, the history. I've never been to Iran. I've never even been inside a mosque.

Part of the problem is the connotation that some attach to the homeless: the assumption that if you're homeless, you're going to misbehave. But not all homeless people do misbehave.

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.

There was a lot of struggle. People have different perceptions about you and sometimes looks also can limit you as an actor.

I think comedy is incredibly discriminated against. It is one of the most enjoyed yet most condescended art forms in the world. It's the same thing with hip-hop.

There's stigmas attached to anything that makes you, in the public's eye, seem weak. So of course, you know, you're in a business where your image, and the way people perceive you, you are taught, is important.

You cannot act a color. Do not tell me I'm acting black, because I'm not. I'm acting whatever you want to call it - urban. I don't even have a name for it. I just call it 'me.'

I think that there's still a lot of prejudice going on. I don't really think it's only an issue of football. I think football is a mirror of society.

I don't think being Latin queen is a disadvantage.

I really don't want to be a stereotype.

My question is why does every African American fighter have to be the villain?

Some people write me off as a bit of a hick from an Essex council estate. I realize that. But I can read.

Our entire lives, we're inundated with media and messaging that tells us that to be incarcerated is to be criminal and to be criminal is to be a bad person.

For me, I'm an American and I'm a Mexican. I live here. And it hurts me the way a lot of people talk about Mexicans when I know we're all about hard work and dedication.

I don't see myself as exotic.

When I lived in England my perception of what people thought of me was largely formed by the media.

There were guys from different parts of the country, and absolutely I heard, 'Why are you playing football?' You just didn't see a Gonzalez out there or any kind of Latin name.

I am living in this world, and if this world already has a certain prejudice of me and an idea of me, then it's really hard for me to go through it.

I talk about being a 'what' to people. Like, being gay in mainstream society is a different kind of 'what' than being black. They don't always jive. It's confusing and leads to these really awkward personal stories that have just been in me for awhile.

One thing that drives me crazy is when people tell me that I sound good for an athlete. They be like, 'You don't sound like you from Harlem.'

From my situation as an African American person in the U.S., people may look at me and think a certain thing without getting to know me. I'm of Nigerian and Caribbean heritage. I went to Yale. What you see is not what you think you're getting.