African American Women Quotes

There still aren't enough[ roles for women of color]. And I'd say that's the case, not only for African-American women, but for all women in the Hollywood game. It's just slim pickings, and a very challenging time for us. I think that's why more of us need to work our way behind the camera in order to create roles that really illuminate who women are. We still have room for growth in that area, without a doubt.

Senator Sessions has opposed protections for LGBT individuals. He's spoken out against Freedom Corps' marriage equality decision. He opposed the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He opposed the nomination of Loretta Lynch, the nation's first African-American woman to serve as attorney general. These things worry me.

Look at Hispanic women - they are being paid 42 cents on the dollar - or African-American women. I think it's an issue we have to look at across the board.

It's important for women to understand that it's bad enough that we don't make dollar-for-dollar what men do, but when you distill that down to women of color, our Latinas and our African American women, it's even less than that 78 cents.

All of my history as an African-American woman, as a Jewish woman, as a Muslim woman. I'm bringing everything I ever knew, and all the stories I've read - everything good, strong, kind and powerful. I bring it all with me into every situation, and I will not allow my life to be minimized by anybody's racism or sexism or ageism.

To reaffirm the statement on the choosing of my identity, I come from two beautiful cultures which I have embraced, bridged, balanced, and identify with. I am proud to be who I am as a Dine' (Navajo) and Nahilii (African American) woman. Hozho', , & blessings

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

People identify with me - everyone does - African American women, Caucasian women, they all identify with me because I'm ethnic.

I think the bottom of the totem pole is African-American women, or women of colour. I think they get the least opportunities in Hollywood.

Design the life you want to live.

Since Bush has been in office, African-American women have fallen behind in terms of income and wages.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.

Give light, and people will find the way...

I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.

In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

I had this idea that I wanted to do this mixture of visions of African American women and visions of African American men. And call it 'The Men' and call it 'The Women' and show different faces of these two people.

Don't let anyone rob you of hope.

Each person must live their life as a model for others.

I think, though, as African-American women, we are always trained to value our community even at the expense of ourselves, and so we attempt to protect the African-American community.

Let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.

Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.

I had very supportive parents that made the way for me, even at a time when there were very few women - no women, really; maybe two or three women - and very few, fewer than that, African-American women heading in this direction, so there were very few people to look up to. You just had to have faith.

I know why the caged bird sings.

I used to want the words 'She tried' on my tombstone. Now I want 'She did it.'

I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try.

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.

You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.

I do not weep at the world I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.

I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.

Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.

I am the dream and the hope of the slave

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.

I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person.

Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in 'We, the people.'

Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.

What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.

The potential for greatness lives within us all.

I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life.

Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations.

... not all black women have silently acquiesced in sexism and misogyny within the African-American community. Indeed, many writers, activists, and other women have voiced their opposition and paid the price: they have been ostracized and branded as either man- haters or pawns of white feminists, two of the more predictable modes of disciplining and discrediting black feminists.

Hate is too great a burden to bear.

African-American women account for 67 percent of all newly diagnosed female AIDS cases.

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.