Representation of African Americans Quotes

When my daughter was born, I was reading a lot of children's books, and there weren't any characters who looked like her. For all the content that's out there, there aren't many African-American protagonists. I looked at it like, if there isn't someone else creating it then I have to do it myself.

It's always baffled me why BET looks the way it does. This is Black Entertainment Television. Why are we up there, then, looking like idiots? It's because black people are marketing black people like that.

I can do an hour-long speech about Democrats taking African Americans for granted, and I'd have a line behind me of very prominent African-Americans who would say, 'Amen.'

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.

I can't negate the theory that the Huxtables on 'The Cosby Show' may have helped pave the way for the Obama family. People enjoyed watching that black family.

Scores of African-Americans have written both appreciatively and critically about what 'The Cosby Show' meant to them over the years.

Blacks on prime-time TV are only portrayed as comedians - and often in no better a light than 'Amos & Andy.'

Finally, the complexities of black relationships are being portrayed in television and film.

My goal is to broaden and deepen the range of African-American characters on television, so I always try to show human beings.

I grew up watching foreign programs - American, English, Mexican, and very little Kenyan. 'The Color Purple' was the first time I saw people who looked like me.