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Quote by Ishmael Reed

“I guess when it comes to this privileged White racist feminist movement they respect someone who treats them rough: John Wayne. Frank Sinatra. Phillip Roth.”

Quote by Ishmael Reed

Author

Ishmael Reed is an American poet, novelist, and playwright. Known for his unique literary style and profound exploration of racial, class, and gender issues, Reed was born on February 22, 1938. more

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“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].”

Men Two Hard Dream Past Father Black White Leader Fantasy Standards Feminist Erotic Great Leader Wayne Double Standard Deserted Fellas Nocturnal

Author:Ishmael Reed

“What I can't understand why Blacks can't achieve royal status when it comes to forms that they have largely created? I mean there's a White King of Rock n' Roll, there's a White King of Jazz, how come we can never achieve titles of royalty in these fields we are supposed to prevail in? They held a so called Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the other night, where White judges credit people who resemble them with the invention of Rock and Roll. I didn't even see Blacks in the audience.”

“There would be no Rock and Roll without Ike Turner, James Brown, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, etc. Fake ghetto books and fake ghetto music. Elvis Presley, whom they idol, is merely a karaoke makeover of James Brown and Chuck Berry.”

Book Would Be Rocks Fats Fake Brown Etc Idols Rock And Roll Ghetto Chuck Berries Turner Karaoke Makeovers Fats Domino

Author:Ishmael Reed

“David Simon goes to the Jewish Weekly and said he's made all this money, but he can't enjoy it because of criticism by people like Ishmael Reed.”

People Made Said Enjoy Criticism Reeds Ishmael

Author:Ishmael Reed

“The areas in which I teach are working-class history and African-American Studies and at its best the critical study of whiteness often grows out of those areas. The critical examination of whiteness, academic and not, simply involves the effort to break through the illusion that whiteness is natural, biological, normal, and not crying out for explanation.”

Grows Natural Effort Class Teach Break Study Cry Normal Illusion Areas Critical African American Explanation Academic Working Class Examination Break Through Whiteness

Author:David Roediger

“Instead of accepting what James Baldwin called the "lie of whiteness," many people in lots of different fields and movement activities have tried to productively make it into a problem. When did (some) people come to define themselves as white? In what conditions? How does the lie of whiteness get reproduced? What are its costs politically, morally and culturally?”

People Doe Different Problem Lying White Accepting Conditions Movement Fields Cost Activity Whiteness

Author:David Roediger

“Not surprisingly, thinkers from groups for whom whiteness was and is a problem have taken the lead in studying whiteness in this way. Such study began with slave folktales and American Indian stories of contact with whites.”

Way Stories Problem Study Taken Groups Slave Contact Indian Thinker American Indian Whiteness Lead In Folktales

Author:David Roediger

“For radical white writers wishing to forge interracial movements of poor and working people, whiteness has also long been a problem, with Alexander Saxton and Ted Allen making especially full efforts to understand whiteness in order to disillusion whites unable to see past the value of their own skins.”

People Long Problem Past Values Order Wish White Poor Effort Movement Skins Radical Whiteness Disillusion

Author:David Roediger

“As I wrote Working toward Whiteness, I came to see one historic task on the New Deal - and one in which it succeeded - as the fostering of fuller U.S. citizenship among immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and their kids. But this very achievement separated poorer and often despised immigrant workers from Europe and workers of color in unprecedented ways.”

“The New Deal never rethought the draconian racist immigration restriction policies of the 20s, of course, but its electoral base rested significantly on "ethnic" voters, whose activism was both hemmed in and rewarded by the Democrats. Southern and Eastern Europeans were included as secondary leaders of the new industrial unions, and as entitled citizens qualified for social security, unemployment compensation, and fair labor standards protections, even as workers of color were largely left out of key areas of the welfare state.”