Tony Cardenas Quotes

I'm not into the Oscar and Emmys as much as I used to be because I'm tired of looking at people who don't look like me.

In not having an appointment at Harvard, I'm in the company of a great many people whose work I admire tremendously, in particular women of color.

There are no black film composers doing the likes of Star Wars, doing the likes of E.T., doing the likes of Jurassic Park. There are none, nor will there ever be one. That ain't about to happen!

I know some black actresses who have to wait every 19 films for a role. I can be cast in practically every one as a young white male.

The thing that disturbs me the most, being in England, is that on the screen we don't see very many of us - there aren't very many black girls. They don't make the roles for us, or they don't see us in those roles.

My experience as a black woman in the industry is simply that often I was the only one in the room. Often I would be the only woman and the only person of color. Sometimes I would be one of several women but the only person of color. Sometimes I would be one of several people of color, but the only woman.

A lot of the shows I have done, I'm often the only black guy and I have often had to play second or third fiddle. It isn't necessarily a bad thing if it is a strong ensemble cast. But I feel people have overlooked my abilities.

Diversity in the industry is very lacking, and equal opportunity comes very far and few between for people of color.

There were no Latin people on 'Star Trek,' that this was proof that they weren't planning to have us around for the future.

It's not a matter of whether the reviews of your books are good or bad, it's about being taken seriously, both as a woman writer and as a writer of color. Also, it worries me when people point to a couple of women writers or writers of color who get some attention - and I am sometimes pulled into that category - to prove that others are getting a fair shot. It's like those people who keep saying that racism no longer exists in this country because Barack Obama was a President of the United States.

You always make a film with the hope that all types of people will want to see your work and that it doesn't matter about your color, but unfortunately it still does.

I go to castings and see several black and Asian girls, then I get to the show and look around there's just me and maybe one other coloured face.

It's really maddening out there for dark-skinned actresses in terms of the opportunities we get. There's just so much talent that is being overlooked.

The melting pot failed to function in one crucial area. Religions and nationalities, however different, generally learned to live together, even to grow together, in America. But color was something else. Reds were murdered like wild animals. Yellows were characterized as a peril and incarcerated en masse during World War II for no really good reason by our most liberal President. Browns have been abused as the new slave labor on farms. The blacks, who did not come here willingly, are now, more than a century after emancipation by Lincoln, still suffering a host of slavelike inequalities.

That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black, and a woman proves, I would think, that our society is not yet either just or free.

If you're looking at the people who head the institutions, there are very few African Americans or people of colour. I'm talking about the major theatres that position themselves as serving all audiences. What you find is, by and large, people who are shaping what we see, and the people who are the tastemakers are white.

When I was a little girl, there was no Variety Latino. When I was a little girl, there was no nothing. There were very few roles for people like myself.

Maybe I'm outdated in thinking this, but because I'm a young black woman and don't see very many being the lead in a film, I have this fear: 'Will I be working?'

You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.

I was maybe one of two black kids in the drama department. It was, 'Well, you can't play this role because that guy has a white girlfriend or a white cousin or whatever.'

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.

We're all complaining about diversity in Hollywood, but we've got to address the colorism within the black community of Hollywood first.

Obviously there aren't many opportunities for someone who looks like me to walk in fashion shows. It's incredibly frustrating.

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.

I grew up in musicals, and if you looked like me and sounded like me, you were the character; you were never at the center of the story.