Identity Complexity Quotes

My mom is Jamaican and Chinese, and my dad is Polish and African American, so I'm pretty mixed. My nickname in high school was United Nations. I was fine with it, even though I identify as a black woman. People don't realize it hurts my feelings when someone looks at my hair or my eyes, and says, "But you're not actually black. You're black, but you're not black black, because your eyes are green." I'm like, "What? No, no, I'm definitely black." Even some of my closest friends have said that. It's been a bit touchy for me.

The way I would choose to identify myself wouldn't be gay. I've been attracted mostly to 'she's' but I've been with many people and I'm open to love wherever it can be found.

To my friends, I’m kind of sexually gay but ethnically straight.

I'm such an odd mix of things. My grandfather was Indian: I've got more family living in India than I do in the U.K. My old man was East London. I was brought up in Yorkshire. My great-grandfather was Irish.

I'm a basketball player. That's what I do and what I love but that's just not all who I am. I'm talented in a lot of different areas.

When people think what is the most simple sort of human, it's a white man, and anything else that is added to that complicates it for people. It comes with all kinds of meanings and connotations. If they have a different skin color, that comes with a connotation. If they're a woman, 'Oh well, what do I feel about that?'

I consider myself a Jewish writer - even if my characters frequently are not Jewish - in the same way, I guess, that I consider myself a Jewish man, even though I don't often attend shul.

I have many friends who are both Mexican and Mexican-American and others who, I guess you would say, are somewhere in between. The ironic thing is that all three of those categories often exist inside of the same family.

You can't just put gay in a little gay box anymore.

My blood's not red or blue - it's brown.

I don't see a white woman. I see a black woman, even though my mother is white. Knowing that has made my life easier, I think.

My mom was Jewish, so some would call me Jewish.

Whenever someone refers to me as someone "who happens to be black," I wonder if they realize that both my parents are black. If I had turned out to be Scandinavian or Chinese, people would have wondered what was going on.

There are a plethora of ways of being black, just like there's many ways to being white.

One is never satisfied with the portrait of a person that one knows.

I'm a great example of somebody who is gay but exists on a very complicated gender spectrum. I'm okay with that uncertainty, and I'm okay with existing in a gray area and not always being sure.

I'm a black, gay man, and I should be able to live in a world where I'm able to live in the complexity of my identity in a way that is safe and secure, like everyone else.

By background I'm both a Quaker and a Yorkshireman, which I like to call double jeopardy.

Expressing and loving myself is often so much more complex than 'out' affords me.

I am a feminist. I don't especially care for the term, but there it is.

I am pleased now that I have lived in a gay as well as a religious ghetto, though it hasn't been very comfortable. Taken together, their limitations cancel each other out and I have seen the world more kindly and more honestly.

I happen to consider myself a Highlander even before a Scot; I am proud to be British yet feel comfortable as a European citizen.

I'm a quarter Chinese and three-quarter Filipino. I don't look Filipino; I look more Chinese or Korean. It actually works in my favor: in terms of roles, it gives me a broader canvas.

I talk about being a 'what' to people. Like, being gay in mainstream society is a different kind of 'what' than being black. They don't always jive. It's confusing and leads to these really awkward personal stories that have just been in me for awhile.

It’s almost just a difference of mood as to whether I would describe myself one way or the other. I think I share that experience with most people.