Black Presence Quotes

The most dreadful of all the evils that threaten the future of the United States arises from the presence of blacks on its soil.

If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil.

My challenge was to weave into the fabric of American history enough of the presence of blacks so that the story of the United States could be told adequately and fairly.

Claudia Rankine's book-length poem 'Citizen' was nominated for National Book Critics Circle awards in the categories of poetry and criticism. It is one of the most devastating takes on American culture I have read in a long time, laying bare the stakes of being black in a country long ambivalent about our presence here.

When I was in high school, I looked for the black presence in a British historical tradition - before too much slavery and empire - that would not cost me my self-respect.

Being a black artist, the first thing people want to talk about is your blackness, the importance of your blackness, and your black presence.

Do you have blacks, too?

I think until Britain acknowledges just how much of a presence black people had here before the Sixties, then there are certain stories that are not going to be inclusive of what I have to offer.