“A lot of great art comes from the Afro-American male experience. Black men are geniuses, and many times their desperation, their position as being pariahs, leads them to great originality.” MenArtBlackPositionGeniusMalesOriginalityDesperationGreat ArtAfrosPariahs Author:Ishmael Reed
“I was challenged to a fistfight by Margo Jefferson, the Pulitzer Prize winner, New York Times writer, who is part of a feminist clique at the Times, which believes that Black men are the principal threat to the women of the world.” MenWorldBelieveBlackNew YorkThreatFeministWinnerPrizePrincipalNew York TimesClique Author:Ishmael Reed
“I don't know why people always compare me [ with Amiri Baraka] I was never part of the Black Arts Repertory Theater or the Black Arts Movement; people who claim that I was are wrong. I was downtown. I was living in Chelsea when they were operating in Harlem.” PeopleKnowsArtBlackMovementClaimsTheaterCompareDowntownHarlemChelseaBlack Art Author:Ishmael Reed
“I was roommates with 2 of the guys who were influential in forming the Black Arts philosophy. I called them "goons," and [Amiri] Baraka took offense at that. But if you read his autobiography, the night we went up there for a fundraiser, he talks about how he wished that some violence would happen to us. How do you like Baraka as a gracious host?” IfsArtPhilosophyHappensNightGuyBlackViolenceHostOffenseAutobiographyInfluentialGraciousRoommateFundraiserGoonsBlack Art Author:Ishmael Reed
“The cultural wars of the sixties are over. I've reconciled with those who were my critics and opponents years ago. I was at odds with some those who were Black nationalists. Yet when feminists attempted to end my career and leave me as literary road kill, it was the Black nationalists who came to my rescue.” YearsWarEndsBlackCareersYears AgoCriticsFeministOpponentsRescueOddsSixtyLeaving Me Author:Ishmael Reed
“Do you think that Gwendolyn Brooks would give an award to someone who hated Black women, the lie that was circulated throughout New York and reached all the way down to Martinique where I was a guest Professor? The lie was circulated by people who don't read my books.” PeopleThinkingWayGivingBookLyingBlackNew YorkHatedAwardsProfessorsGuestsBlack WomenBrooks Author:Ishmael Reed
“David Simon [the creator of The Wire] and I have a running controversy for years. It all stems from a telephone call I made to KPFA [Pacifica radio] when he was a guest there in the 90's on Chris Welche's show. He was going around the country with a Black kid from the Ghetto to promote something called The Corner - it was all about Blacks as degenerates selling drugs, etc.” YearsMadeCountryShowsRunningKidsBlackDrugRadioCreatorCornersSellingEtcGuestsStemTelephonesControversyWireGhettoDegeneratesSelling Drugs Author:Ishmael Reed
“[David] Mamet is another hypocrite. His idea of Black man is a pimp who abuses women, [Edmond], yet his play Oleanna [1994] ends with a White professor slapping an uppity feminist, at least the version I saw at San Francisco's ACT.” MenIdeasEndsPlayBlackWhiteSawsAbuseFeministVersionsProfessorsSan FranciscoHypocritePimpSlapping Author:Ishmael Reed
“Richard Price, who has made a fortune writing fake ghetto books, says he takes a cab into the ghetto, transcribes Black speech for a brief time and returns home. His fake ghetto books have bought him a townhouse in Gramercy Park and home on Staten Island.” WritingMadeBookHomeBlackReturnSpeechFortuneFakeIslandsParksGhettoCab Author:Ishmael Reed
“Richard Price got a million dollar advance on one fake film book based on a paragraph outline and is able to seduce gullible White reviewers who know less about ghetto life than he. The New York Times has devoted more space to Price's tourist, ghetto writing than to any Black writer in history.” KnowsWritingBookAbleFilmBlackSpaceWhiteMillionsNew YorkDollarsFakeDevotedMillion DollarsTouristsNew York TimesOutlinesGhettoParagraphSeducingReviewersGullible Author:Ishmael Reed
“Constance L. Rice, co-director of the Los Angeles of the Advancement Project, told the Times that Seltzer might have been influenced by David Simon's fake ghetto series, "The Wire." It figures. Isn't this sexism? Isn't this a double standard? They're hard on this young woman for her fake ghetto book, yet praise these White guys for theirs. So there's a big market in downing Black men.” MenHas BeensBookHardBigsMightYoungGuyBlackWhiteFiguresDirectorsProjectsStandardsPraiseSeriesFakeLos AngelesSexismYoung WomenMight Have BeenWireAdvancementRiceGhettoDouble StandardWhite GuysDowning Author:Ishmael Reed
“Phillip Roth uses his Black women characters to make anti intellectual remarks about Black history month, begun by a man who reached intellectual heights that Roth will never attain. Roth is a petty bigot and his ignorant remarks about black culture expose him as a buffoon to scholars the world over.” MenWorldCharacterUseCultureBlackMonthsIntellectualIgnorantHeightScholarBlack WomenPettyRemarksBlack HistoryBigotsBlack History MonthBuffoonsBlack Culture Author:Ishmael Reed
“Two of the great leaders of the past - Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass - had White fathers - who deserted them. Now Margo Jefferson, who is hard on me and the fellas, wrote in the Times that she has nocturnal, erotic fantasies about John Wayne. What's up with these feminists? Do you see these double standards these feminists have? They dream about John Wayne, but they're hard on us [Black men].” MenTwoHardDreamPastFatherBlackWhiteLeaderFantasyStandardsFeministEroticGreat LeaderWayneDouble StandardDesertedFellasNocturnal Author:Ishmael Reed
“Another California study counted 30,000 substance abusers who are pregnant are White woman. So, The Wire paints the picture of drug addiction, drug dealing, and drug abuse as being a specifically a Black issue.” BlackWhiteStudyIssuesDrugAbusePaintAddictionSubstanceCaliforniaPregnantWireDrug AddictionDrug AddictAbusersDrug AbuseSubstance Abuse Author:Ishmael Reed
“Hateful material travels the globe. A few years ago, CNN, America's Der Sturmer, ran a story about Black parents being so low down that they abandoned their children and the children had to eat rats. I was at a University in Wisconsin at the time and the mother of a student from South Africa called to see whether the story was true. She had seen it all the way over there. The story was untrue. The children lied. CNN never corrected the story.” WayYearsChildrenStoriesAmericaMotherParentBlackStudentsMaterialsLowsYears AgoSouthUniversityRanAbandonedSouth AfricaGlobesRatsLiedHatefulUntrueCnnWisconsin Author:Ishmael Reed
“I walked out on American Gangster: this evil piece of dreck. Defenders of this junk say that these movies give Black actors jobs. So did "Birth of a Nation."” GivingJobsEvilActorsNationsBlackPiecesBirthJunkGangstersDefenders Author:Ishmael Reed
“I think Black intellectuals see too deeply. That's the problem. It's a cause of anxiety, because we see things differently.” ThinkingProblemCausesBlackAnxiety Author:Ishmael Reed
“My generation of writers has been prone to premature illness and death, especially the women. When Black male writers meet it's like a session of the American Diabetic Association.” Has BeensBlackGenerationsMalesIllnessAssociationSessionMy GenerationPrematureBlack MalesIllness And Death Author:Ishmael Reed
“I reached the age of 70, because I have cultivated an association of multicultural intellectuals who are informed and alert to whatever "tricknology" that's laid on us by the powers that be. These include White ethnic intellectuals- people who know their roots- as well as Native American, Asian American, Hispanic and Black intellectuals. These are thirty, forty-year associations with some of the best minds around. Minds that are ignored by the media.” PeopleKnowsYearsMindWellsAgeBlackWhiteMediaRootsThirtyNativeFortyAssociationNative AmericanIgnoredAsianHispanicMulticulturalAsian American Author:Ishmael Reed
“In Crash, you've got a pathological cop who at the end justifies police brutality. He tells the naïve, young cop that you're going to end up the same as him. He's the most sympathetic character in the movie. So, the naïve cop ends up murdering this Black kid and tries to cover up the evidence. It sort of justifies police brutality and the planting of evidence which is what happened in the O.J. Simpson case.” TryingEndsCharacterKidsYoungBlackCasesHappenedEvidencePoliceJustifyCopCrashPolice BrutalitySympatheticBrutalityCover Ups Author:Ishmael Reed
“I have Black guys who tell me they put my books on their bed stands to read at night like something for guidance or information. That really pleases me a lot. I think my work has changed some things. It's changed me.” ThinkingBookNightGuyBlackInformationChangedPleaseBedGuidanceLike SomethingPlease MeBlack Guys Author:Ishmael Reed
“Native Americans were driven off their land. Lincoln even took part in the Black Hawk campaign against the Native Americans in Illinois. While they were being exterminated and driven off their land, Whites were collecting assets.” BlackLandDrivenCampaignsNativeAssetsNative AmericanCollectingHawksIllinois Author:Ishmael Reed
“I'm sure that you could go back and make a graph showing that all the killings of black males increased in times of economic difficulty. As a matter of fact, a black man was lynched last year.” MenYearsMatterFactsLastsBlackEconomicDifficultyMalesKillingLast YearMatter Of FactBlack MalesGraphs Author:Ishmael Reed
“That kind of thing happens to black people every day in this country, and they don't receive that kind of sentence he did, which was to go to prison on the weekends; I think he lectured there-an outside lecturer.” PeopleThinkingKindCountryHappensBlackPrisonSentencesThings HappenBlack PeopleWeekendLecturerLecturing Author:Ishmael Reed
“During the last decades, films about the black experience have been produced, directed, and even scripted by white men. Some of them are excellent. But most reflect George Bernard Shaw’s warning that 'if you do not tell your stories others will tell them for you and they will vulgarize and degrade you.'” IfsMenHas BeensStoriesLastsFilmBlackWhiteDecadesExcellentWarningWhite ManDegradeBernard Shaw Author:Ishmael Reed
“The liberal wing of the feminist movement may have improved the lives of its middle- and upper-class constituency--indeed, 1992 was the Year of the White Middle Class Woman--but since the leadership of this faction of the feminist movement has singled out black men as the meta-enemy of women, these women represent one of the most serious threats to black male well-being since the Klan.” MenYearsWellsMayBlackWhiteEnemyClassMiddleMovementSeriousWingsThreatMalesFeministWell BeingMiddle ClassFactionsUpper ClassFeminist MovementBlack Males Book:Airing Dirty Laundry Source: Airing Dirty Laundry
“The Afrocentric exploration of the black past only scratches the surface. A full examination of the ancestry of those who are referred to in the newspapers as blacks and African Americans must include Europe and Native America.” AmericaPastBlackEuropeSurfaceNewspapersAfrican AmericanNativeExplorationScratchesExaminationAncestryNative America Book:Airing Dirty Laundry Source: Airing Dirty Laundry
“A black boxer's career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.” StatesFacesBlackPerfectUnitedCareersUnited StatesObjectsMalesMetaphorOpponentsGymHostilityFascinationBoxersRudenessBlack MalesSparring Book:Writin' is fightin': thirty-seven years of boxing on paper Source: Writin' is fightin': thirty-seven years of boxing on paper
