Racial Resilience Quotes

The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.

My theory is that nine times out of ten, if there's a depression, more a social depression than anything, it brings out the best art in black people. The best example is, Reagan and Bush gave us the best years of hiphop.

The black man continues on his way. He plods wearily no longer-he is striding freedom road with the knowledge that if he hasn't got the world in a jug, at least he has the stopper in his hand.

I'm a strong black woman, and I cannot be intimidated. I cannot be undermined.

Blacks have had to learn to protect themselves by being cynical but not cynical enough to slam the door on potential opportunities. We go through life walking a tightrope to prevent too much disillusionment.

I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background........Beside the waters of the Hudson" I feel my race. Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself. When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again." How It Feels to Be Colored Me

I feel like, as a black guy, I can't not believe in God... I'd wake up in the morning, 'I'm black, and there's no God? I'm going back to sleep.'

Making space to deal with the psychological toll of racism is absolutely necessary.

I find, in being black, a thing of beauty: a joy; a strength; a secret cup of gladness.

But what of black women?... I most sincerely doubt if any other race of women could have brought its fineness up through so devilish a fire.

I felt hopeful for the future because Obama is here. But nothing has changed. It's time for young kids to get serious again and really think about what their four fathers were like. As African-Americans, we are resilient, we are some bad mf-ers, and we are survivors. So get those i-pods out of their ears and become heroes again like the Freedom Riders.

Our blackness and how to survive being black in America was something that our parents instilled in us extraordinarily well.