Sam Yagan Quotes

In high school I dated a white woman. She would come to visit me on the rez. And her dad, who was very racist, didn't like that at all. And he told her one time, 'You shouldn't go on the rez if you're white because Indians have a lot of anger in their heart.'

I found there's a fairly blatant racism in America that's already there, and I don't think I noticed it when I lived here as a kid. But when I went back to South Africa, and then it's sort of thrust in your face, and then came back here - I just see it everywhere.

There's no such thing as reverse racism.

From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.

The hardest thing I had to overcome in life? I think racism. That's so difficult because I don't think anyone can ever understand it. It's not that people don't want to understand it, but they don't want to touch it.

There will always be that dreadful monster prejudice to do extra battle against because of their color.

I had no expectations of white people at all.

I'd rather have dinner with Don King than with Mark Furhman. But then, I'm American. I have no perspective.

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 reporters are as capable of racism as anyone else.

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it's like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can't really speak on it, because I wasn't there. I don't feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.

I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American.

I was conscious of the fact that it could be to my disadvantage to marry a white guy - that some folks would hold that against me.

Myself, I happen to be married to an African-American woman, and we're together 17 years. We took a few trips to the South 15 years ago, and we were sobered by some of the reactions people had - how subtle or not-so-subtle their reactions were.

Growing up in Michigan, I can't think of anything so explicitly communicated to me in my whole education experience as the vileness of in-your-face racism.

I'm Armenian, but I'm very fair and I look white... I would always get such hate about it.

Even though my mother had told me growing up that, 'If you win, nobody cares what color you are,' that wasn't necessarily true in the N.F.L.

If I were white, I'd get less criticism.

I went to an all white school where I dealt with racism.

Since anti-racist individuals did not control mass media, the media became the primary tool that would be used and is still used to convince black viewers, and everyone else, of black inferiority.

My personal opinion is that you can't be racist towards white people. You can be prejudiced about them, but being prejudiced isn't an illegal act, whereas being racist can be.

I find that the prejudice in this country to color is very great, and I sometimes fear that it is on the increase.

'I Spy' represents the absence of the tension of the black man or black woman or anyone of that color walking in, so that the white racist person can become entertaining to a viewer.

I'm always annoyed about why black people have to bear the brunt of everybody else's contempt. If we are not totally understanding and smiling, suddenly we're demons.

I was literally the black sheep of the family, and there were definitely moments of discomfort while my grandmother was working through her racism.