Social Navigation Quotes

Here lies one who knew how to get around him men who were cleverer than himself

If men were able to be convinced that art is a precise advance knowledge of how to cope with the psychic and social consequences of the next technology, would they all become artist? Or would they begin a careful translation of new art forms into social navigation charts? I am curious to know what would happem if art were suddenly seen for what it is, namely, exact information of how to rearrange one's psyche in order to anticipate the next blow from our own extended faculties.

Always come to a conversation armed with two drinks. Then if it's dire you can pretend you were on the way to find someone else. And if it's interesting, you can stay and down both glasses without moving.

Adolescents are not monsters. They are just people trying to learn how to make it among the adults in the world, who are probably not so sure themselves.

Every black American is bilingual. All of them. We speak street vernacular and we speak 'job interview.'

I know what it feels like to carry a lot of weight in a society that's very image-conscious. It's a thin person's world, and we try to navigate within it without being made fun of.

We live amid surfaces, and the true art of life is to skate well on them

I've been to so many parties in England and in America that's exactly like that, where you're kind of, like, seen as Other. When you're just living your life, and you have to adopt the Other in order to understand and navigate the society.

Why should young people look for guides who hang out gided placards to advertise themselves? They would do better to look for friends, unite with them, and advance together towards some quarter where it seems possible to survive.

I try my best to avoid the sharks of life, but I have had my share of experiences with them, and in those cases I just have to handle them accordingly. But I do not swim with sharks ... sharks swim with sharks.

Especially going to Oakland public schools where as a white kid you have to figure out if you're going to sink or swim socially, one of the main ways to stay buoyant was to stay funny.

They're definitely having their moment now because they know how to work the system, and I know I have to be that way, too, in order to succeed. But it's never been more frustrating for me.

In beginning the world, if you don't wish to get chafed at every turn, fold up your pride carefully, put it under lock and key, and only let it out to air upon grand occasions. Pride is a garment all stiff brocade outside, all grating sackcloth on the side next to the skin.

You can put me on a plane now and I can go anywhere and just by talking having one or two conversations I can have an idea where I am in the U.S. or whatever.

I learned to slip back and forth between my black and white worlds. One of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves. They were more than satisfied; they were relieved -- such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn't seem angry all the time.

Every black man in Chicago walks through the world differently, and I think what young black boys do is observe, and that's what gives them their road map.

Lots of times you have to pretend to join a parade in which you're not really interested in order to get where you're going.

I learned how to pass when I was real young. That's one thing I always knew how to do was find the open man.

You can get along very well in this world by simply coming up with a quantity of reasonably valid statements.

I have no idea why, and this is others' observations of me - I tend to be in the realm of these very complicated personalities. I guess I enjoy corralling that.

I don't know what he means by that, but I nod and smile at him. You'd be surprised at how far that response can get you in a conversation where you are completely confused.

I can dine at the White House, but I can still hang at the 'hood.

Every different social group that I encountered had its different set of rules, so you learn very quickly how to pick up the nuances and change yourself accordingly. When you are not from anywhere, you have to try to find what's universal. You are always trying to fit in.

You don't realize how much you use your credit card not even to buy things. It's a card you get so you can navigate society.

In sociology, they call it 'code switching.' I can feel just as comfortable in a room full of people who don't look like me because I understand the social cues of class and race.