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Jennifer Lee

Jennifer Lee Books

Film director

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“I think of the added pressures that black men have when making love because they feel that they are expected to perform in some legendary way—Mandingo sex. What was that expression? Once go black, you can't go back.”

“I see us as a black and white version of John and Yoko, a duet of magic and productivity. It feels as though it will last forever. Richard Pryor has finally found his panacea, me. People look at me as Richard's deliverance: he is the tragic, self- destructive freak no longer.”

“As I listen to their jive, I try to find my way around the street mind, the black man's mind. Feeling left out, like an ostracized kid at a playground, I try to join in on the "get down" flavor of the dialogue by calling Richard Pryor a nigger.”

“Although I know I'm one of Warren Beatty's many lovers, I also know I'm the main one of many—the last stop before the ball-and-chain main squeeze, which is what Julie Christie is.”

“I buy what I think is a beautiful gift for Richard Pryor. It’s a pre-Civil War cigarette and match holder, with a small black child sitting on top of two yellow haystacks smoking a corncob pipe. Right before dinner, I give it to Richard. He takes one look at it and screams, “I fucking hate it!” Shocked, I ask, “Hate it? How can you hate it?” “It’s fucking racist.” "It’s fucking black art; it may have been racist but it’s not now. This is an artistic documentation of those times." Now I’m on a roll. “Open your eyes.” “I’ll open your eyes, bitch.””

“There's a lot of responsibility involved in sharing a very personal story with a lot of people, and it's easier for others not to know about things - and I know that. But in terms of the general climate, socially, these are things people have to deal with on a daily basis. We hear so many negative stories but rarely do we get positivity. We have memes of cute cats and puppies and things like that, but if they didn't exist, people would be a lot more unhappy. We need more things like that.”

“I'm aware of what I am, but I focus so much on myself as a musician and as an artist that I don't even notice that I'm the only female on a festival bill. I'm just like "oh I'm playing this festival."I haven't been very deeply involved in this greater outreach because my approach to equality is integration. I'm not into separatism, or an all-female festival. It's good and empowering but it doesn't allow for the bigger picture to get accomplished. We all need to be at the same festival - that's always been my approach.”

“The main joy I have in owning or being a part of my own label is the platform I've created to really push other artists and this other kind of musical muscle I get to exercise, it's not just me as a creator of music but me as a curator. That's been really exciting and I do get to have the autonomy and control and all those things with my releases, but now I get to go and find artists that I really love and like and share them with the world too.”

“If I learned one thing, it is that self-doubt is one of the most destructive forces. It makes you defensive instead of open, reactive instead of active. Self-doubt is consuming and cruel. And my hope today is that we can all collectively agree to ban it. . . . Think to the moments of your life when you forgot to doubt yourself. When you were so inspired that you were just living and creating and working. Pay attention to those moments because they're trying to reach you through those lenses of doubt and trying to show you your potential.”

“Within the model minority rhetoric, Asian Americans are represented as “good” minorities and African Americans are represented as “bad” minorities. Here, the achievements of Asian Americans are used to discipline African Americans. As model minorities, Asian Americans achieved the status of “honorary Whites”. Again it is important to point out that the honorary whiteness of Asian Americans was granted at the expense of Blacks. It is also significant that as “honorary Whites,” Asian Americans do not have the actual privileges associated with “real” whiteness.”