Bill Duke Quotes

When you're brown and Indian, you get offered a lot of doctor roles.

A Latino actor can't play this and a Latino actor can't play that because they're Latino.

My race and sex had a great deal more to do with what people believed I could do than with what I actually could do.

Show business always tries to stereotype you, so that is something you have to fight against no matter who you are. A lot of actors who are of a minority background complain that they only get stereotyped roles, and they are 100 percent correct. However, it's also true that, no matter who you are, you get typecast as well.

When you're a large black man in Hollywood, the obvious stereotype is one of force and menace.

I've not been discriminated against, but I can see it happen. And not just race but gender and sexuality, too. It's stereotyping, lazy casting, which is an issue: that people can't see outside the box.

Racism is, among other things, the unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.

When I started, it was all meter maids or the sassy nurse, or the sassy receptionist in the hospital. And I felt like: Are those the only jobs that large, black women have?

I'd be stupid not to take into consideration that there are certain things people will not consider me for because my name is Lopez. And I know I can do any kind of role. I don't want anybody to say, Oh, she can't pull this off. So those are barriers that you have to overcome.

There's no racism with the Internet.

If a casting breakdown said 'All-American Type' or 'Lead Role,' I knew they weren't thinking of me.

Injustice is either very blatant - you walk down the street and someone calls you a name; you don't get a job because of your gender or your skin color or your sexual preference - but injustice is also very subliminal.

People ask if I'm concerned about getting pigeonholed. No one asks, 'Ellen, you've done seven straight roles in a row. Shouldn't you shake it up, do something queer?' There's still that double standard.

I couldn't get roles as bad guys. They could see John Travolta as a gangster but not me, really. But, you know, that's just how things are.

I've heard about productions where it still happens: yellow face, taping up the eyes. It's hard to talk about it in a constructive way.

When I was a player the mentality was black people would make good players but weren't captain material or managerial material. That stereotyping existed.

When I started modeling, it was like, 'Oh, she's too dark,' and I kind of looked at them like, 'You're too daft.'

People are making a lot more noise about representation and diversity. But I think modeling is one of the professions where people can be kind of racist.

Growing up, usually when I saw a black female on television, she was either a broken character or sidekick.

I am an African-American woman of dark skin tone, and there are very specific roles that are usually given to African-American women of a darker hue. Let's start with 'Once on This Island': peasant girl. Let's go to 'The Color Purple': young girl, beaten. Let's go to 'Ragtime': Her baby's taken.

Even in reality shows, how they look at black women like they're the monsters - snatching wigs, and weaves and wigs, weaves and wigs, basically, and throwing water and stuff. That's how people see us often, as we are the enemies of things. I wanted to change that because that's not a good example.

There aren't a lot of roles for sleepy-eyed black dudes.

Making sweeping over-generalizations is classically un-American.

When I was up for the film 'Dreamcatcher,' to play the role of an overweight kid, I was told I'm too fat to play the fat guy. That's like telling a Mexican to get a tan.

Of all the ways people save time, I think racism is the worst.