I think now I get to create and inspire more young black girls to continue doing what they love and reach for the stars.
When my best friends doubt their little black dresses, they call me on the telephone seeking reassurance.
When my kids were young, we used to go to a place called The Shrine of the Black Madonna in Houston. It was an African-American bookstore where they sold paintings, but they also had a room that was an all-purpose center. If you wanted to have a dance recital or anything that was related to the community activities, you could have it there.
Reckless capitalism kills black people.
There's a thriving field of self-published stuff in, particularly, black fiction. I don't know that other groups of people of color have that same recourse.
But when you talk about the education and you talk about the lack of recreation for kids to do, I mean, it's second to none in New Orleans when you talk about the lack of opportunities for young people. And it's not just black kids, it's white kids. It's Asian kids. I had Vietnamese kids in my class that had lack of opportunities.
Red-hot songs were born on the black streets of Baltimore, where I delivered five-gallon cans of kerosene and ten-pound bags of coal.
I was black and blue for about two years, but it's paid off tremendously. You know, if you get enough whacks, your reflexes pick up, and I've become quite good - if somebody throws keys or something, I can catch them.
I get to say I was alive when the first Palestinian woman went to Congress. I was alive when the first Somali woman, in a hijab, who's black and Muslim - she's literally an immigrant, a refugee, black and Muslim and a woman and progressive.
Like everyone else, I have my quirks. For one, I have to own only black cars and the registration has to have eights. It's not something I can explain, it's just there. Another obsession I have is smell. I have to smell good all the time.
Black people are more likely to be incarcerated than white people. That's just a fact and it's regrettable and it's got to change.
I wanted to be a poet. I fell in love with poetry around eight years old, but not through literature. Instead, it came through hip-hop lyrics and my obsession with reading liner notes. Queen Latifah's 'Black Reign' is the album that stands out the most.
I'm in a generation where MAC is the reigning brand for a lot of women - black, white, and other.
I think one of the most threatening places to be in politics is a black conservative because there are so many liberals who want to continue to reinforce a stereotype that doesn't exist about America.
I just see religious freedom, as a category, as just being a black hole.
It's a stereotype that black players are just really fast, but at the end of day I want to be skilled, I want to be technical, I want to have vision and that's what I've always tried to promote in my game: not relying on one thing but just being able to outwork players in so many different ways.
I surf. I would love to do a remake of 'Gidget.' It could be, like, black 'Gidget.'
Obama reminds me of the black kid at a white school that don't nobody want to play with.
When you look at the big issues post-9/11 in the United States, whether it's water boarding, warantless wire tapping, surveillance, Gitmo, black sites rendition, all of those have been legal. Nobody has gone to jail for those programs.
I had a meeting a while back with a big group of women - actors and producers and writers - who are all ethnic minorities and we just aired what we thought was happening and why, and someone said that, as a black or mixed race actress, you feel like you're renting space instead of carving out a career. But I'm just going to get on with it.
