Prodigy Quotes

I don't think there is enough understanding of how diverse black America actually is.

When I see the black experience - there's not one, but it is specific, and you can't ignore it.

Blackness is not a monolith. We are not homogenous people; we are not all the same.

The truth of the matter is, I am a black woman, and I am an actor. I don't try to get caught up in being a black actor; I'm just an actor who is a black woman. It's not about forgetting that you're black, but you don't need to be hammered over the head, either; it just is what it is.

I am definitely a person of color.

My whole life is an interracial relationship! It's inescapable. I am who I am.

We're not monolithic. What is blackness? To me, how do you define that?

There's not one black narrative. There's not one way to be black.

At screenings for 'Black in America,' I've heard people say, 'Well you know, I never thought you were black until you did Katrina, and then I thought you were black.'

It's also important for those who promote those issues within the white community - the somewhat privileged community - to talk about issues affecting people of color.

We come from a very mixed family. We're a bunch of different races, my family. So it's very normal for us. I don't know why we're accepted. Are all of us accepted or just me?

I am the attorney general of the United States, but I am also a black man.

It's not enough even to have one black Barbie... because black women are not a monolith.

There is no one American beauty or just one beautiful color in the pantheon, especially in regards to black people - there is no better color.

I know I'm a black actor, but really, I'm an actor who happens to be black.

There is a multitude of experiences that make up the black experience.

A lot of the time, black people, we don't introduce ourselves as black.

What I remember about race relations in the 1990s is that you showed your awareness by saying you didn't see race, that you were colour-blind.

People feel really uncomfortable talking about race and identity, largely because the subject is so taboo.

I always think about race as a part of one's identity, not the whole of one's identity. You don't want it to be the defining characteristic of a character. There has to be more.

I maintain that I have been a Negro three times--a Negro baby, a Negro girl and a Negro woman. Still, if you have received no clear cut impression of what the Negro in America is like, then you are in the same place with me. There is no The Negro here. Our lives are so diversified, internal attitudes so varied, appearances and capabilities so different, that there is no possible classification so catholic that it will cover us all, except My people! My people!

The racial conversation in the States is so multifaceted and multilayered. Obviously it's not always a positive conversation, but it's just so much more detailed than it was when I was growing up in South Africa.

I liked the fact that there were so many different representations of black women and black men in the movie. It wasn't like we all had the same agenda.

I didn't really understand racism because I grew up in an all-black society, so I didn't see how it was possible not to like me!

Black people, we are not this monolithic group, you know?