John David Washington Quotes

Australia has a thing where apparently it's fine for me to dress up as an Asian woman. No one has questioned that.

Blacks don't square dance. If you see a black person square dancing, it is definitely the seventh sign.

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 have not seen 'The Lion King.' I don't do black folklore. And I'm black.

Racism always exists cheek by jowl with, inside, and alongside culture and class. As a rule, it is inseparable from them. That is why, for example, food, language and names assume such importance in racial prejudice.

When I was growing up, I never heard the word 'racism.' It was only in Paris I encountered that.

To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.

Long before the idea of multiculturalism, in public people could say almost anything to you and get away with it.

When I'm in the Switzerland backcountry and nobody around looks like me, people were like, 'Can I touch your hair?'

One lady told me that before she saw 'Sounder' she didn't believe black people could love each other, have deep relationships in the same way as white people.

It's barely OK for me to be dressed up as a black guy. But part of me kind of enjoys provoking people.

I am viewed as the Negro who has gone outside of the categories assigned to me.

You face racism in small and large ways.

Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.

Simply put, 'Redskins' is offensive to Indian people. Whether it is considered offensive by non-Indians is not the issue. It is offensive to us.

Your not black enough. If you are black, all you have to do is wear a dashiki and pump your fist, and you’ll get all the money you want.

Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your own kind?

I never thought black people would say I wasn't black enough. It didn't turn me into a bully - it just put me on the defensive. I had to watch my back. It made me stronger because I learned how to deal with ignorance.

I grew up watching people and companies commercialize Black History Month. I watched old McDonald's commercials, and they'd blacken up the commercials for 28 days then go back to normal in March. It got annoying to me.

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.

Many of us actively working to interrupt racism continually hear complaints about the 'gotcha' culture of white anti-racism. There is a stereotype that we are looking for every incident we can find so we can spring out, point our fingers, and shout, 'You're a racist!'

If there was an Oppression Olympics, I would win the gold medal. I'm Palestinian, Muslim, I'm female, I'm disabled, and I live in New Jersey.

I had a casting director tell me to be blacker.

There were very few British black women on TV or in music when I was a teenager; when you're growing up, you need someone you can identify with. I remember at Christmas being bought a doll that didn't look anything like me, so I threw it away.

We live in an age of micro aggressions where people are deemed racist or sexist of phobic for making one wrong tweet.