James Knowles III Quotes

I grew up here, and it's always been a very diverse community. So for people to come out and say that there's some long-standing anger or there's a history of racial tension is absolutely ridiculous. There's not a black-white divide in Ferguson.

Why aren’t Black people this outraged over Black-on-Black killings?.

If we are to learn anything from the tragic death of Michael Brown, we must first acknowledge that we have a race issue we are not addressing.

I'm from South Carolina. I'm from a real cultured state, where there's still racism daily. Still, places are segregated.

Black Lives Matter is the culmination of racial divide. They're nothing more than the last socially acceptable hate group in America.

Race is the San Andreas Fault of our culture as well as our history. Its fissures are forever present and not that far beneath the surface of every day life. To deny that is to risk being labeled delusional.

We are sitting on many powder kegs. Whether it's Ferguson, or St Louis, or like the other night, or Baltimore. Or different parts of Chicago.

If acknowledging that racial misgivings and misunderstandings are still a part of politics and life in America, I plead guilty.

The current neglect of the problem can only irritate this deplorable state of affairs. The Black Muslims should constitute a warning to our society, a warning that must be heeded if we are to preserve the society.

Racism has been for everyone like a horrible, tragic car crash, and we've all been heavily sedated from it. If we don't come into consciousness of this tragedy, there's going to be a violent awakening we don't want. The question is, can we wake up?

This whole notion of a post racial America was nonsense from the very beginning. It was a bad idea, a bad notion, a bad formulation when it was first raised.

Race in this country is still the elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss.

The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.

You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society.

Most citizens viewing the tape of Rodney G. King being beaten by police officers were stunned and uncomprehending. Most citizens, that is, but the urban poor.

Unfortunately, in places like Ferguson, in New York City and in some communities across this nation, there is a disconnect between police agencies and the citizens they serve, predominately in communities of color.

We live in a world where racism hasn't changed at all. It's that old thing of, you know, the more things change, the more things remain the same.

There is some group of Americans who are really, really curious to understand how we ended up at this point, where every week it seems like you can turn on your TV and see some sort of abuse being heaped on black people.

Everyone is very aware that, not only do we have a race problem, but it's so pervasive that it affects national and global politics on a scale that I don't think a lot of people imagined.

We're not able to hide behind myths of this being a post-racial society because Donald Trump has outlined exactly how a large portion of America feels.

I remember my dad always complaining about getting pulled over. I remember the differences in school systems. I remember seeing police officers, not knowing their names, and knowing that they were there not to protect us, not to serve us, but to watch us.

America is decidedly not 'post-racial.'

What fixes your spirit when Ferguson happens? When Trayvon Martin and those kind of things happen, they hurt your spirit; it hurts your heart and your soul. You need something to fix it.

Usually, the news out of Florida makes me feel like being black in Florida can be a terminal condition.

Like I said, being an African-American man, you can tell there's two Americas we're living in. They don't want us to be equal.