Anna Deavere Smith Quotes

Like other important immigrant communities, the Jewish experience in the United States represents the ideal of freedom and the promise and opportunity of America.

I don't know if it's because my father's from Argentina, that I'm the son of an immigrant, I don't know if its because I'm Jewish, but I have always been mindful that the best insights occur when you have some kind of an outsider perspective.

If I grew up, you know, in the ghetto, like, and I wasn't taught any other way to talk or a way to act or other food to eat or just like anything like that, like, when I'm I supposed to do? You know, like, is there a class I'm supposed to take to learn how to be white, you know?

Jews have had to carry around their own sense of self in a carpet bag and I think perhaps too much emphasis might be being put on nationality and on the other hand patriotism, that sort of thing.

The question of boundaries is a major question of the Jewish people because the Jews are the great experts of crossing boundaries. They have a sense of identity inside themselves that doesn't permit them to cross boundaries with other people.

I'm Russian Jewish. And I had to grow up really quickly.

We can make the United States a 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity.

As soon as you say that there is a community called, let's say, black Americans, you've immediately created a boundary line - who's in that group, who's outside that group.

Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting.

There is no such thing as National character or National Sentiment. The Inhabitants are from all quarters of the globe; and as various in their opinions, projects and schemes, as their manners and habits are from their early education.

Assimilation was never the goal of the diverse ethnic groups in America. Inclusion without discomfort is now, and ever will be, the goal.

American Jews are no longer a homogenous minority; we come in all colors and from all corners of the world.

I don't like identity. We accept identities in Israel. We make them holy. But what does identity really mean?

I've always seen myself as an all-American kid, you know. You're not just white or black or Asian or Latino. We're in the melting pot of America.

I used to think the whole world was Jewish.

I'm very happy to have the heritage that I do, but I'm not wanting to be 'the Latino actor.' I just want to be 'an actor.'

Mainstream American society finds it easiest to be tolerant when the outsider chooses to minimize the differences that separate him from the majority. The country club opens its doors to Jews. The university welcomes African-Americans. Heterosexuals extend the privilege of marriage to the gay community.

Wherever I go, people ask: 'What is she? What is she?' There has always been an agenda - they're excluding me or including me in something with that question. It is the first thing agents in Los Angeles ask me. And then I'd hear: 'You're not black enough, you're too black, you're Italian - no, you're Spanish.'

Every race is totally different.

America is not a melting pot. It is a sizzling cauldron.

Being a foreigner is not a disease.

Well, I think it's real important that people understand, first and foremost, those of us that have lived in Arizona or in southern California, we have a very diverse population. The Hispanic population has been part of all of our lives since we've been born here or since we've grown up here.

I'm a little bit of everything. Sometimes people think I'm not Puerto Rican, because my name doesn't sound Spanish.

I am Chinese - it doesn't matter what other people say.

Integration is a man's ability to want to move in there by himself. If someone wants to live in a white neighborhood and he is black, that is his choice. It should be his rights. It is not because white people will not allow him.