“I grew up in a very bohemian environment in southern Sweden, so I was always, always, always in black jeans.” BlackEnvironmentGrewGrew UpSouthernJeansSwedenBohemian Author:Johan Lindeberg
“The idea of 'talking white,' a lot of people grew up around that, just the idea that if you speak with proper diction and come off as educated that it's not black and that it's actually anti-black and should be considered only something that white people would do.” PeopleIfsShouldIdeasSpeakBlackWhiteTalkingGrewGrew UpEducatedDiction Author:Chance the Rapper
“Quite frankly, I've always listened to the black side of the radio dial. Where I grew up, there was a lot of it and there was a lot of live music around.” SidesBlackGrewGrew UpRadioLive Music Author:Boz Scaggs
“I never go black tie. I never grew up wearing ties or bow ties or anything.” BlackGrewGrew UpTiesBowsBow TieBlack Tie Author:Theophilus London
“My mom was always a fan of just really elegant, sophisticated pieces. I mean we grew up in Maine, so we didn't have a lot of call for black tie or anything, but I think I definitely got that sensibility from her.” ThinkingMeanBlackPiecesFansGrewMomGrew UpMy MomTiesSophisticatedSensibilityElegantMaineBlack Tie Author:Anna Kendrick
“The street is as diverse as any other sector, but in peoples' mind it gets appropriated as a black man who's tough. Trying to make it through by staying hard and phallocentric. To me, that is just an impoverished conception of what it is to be a black male. It doesn't do justice to my grandfather, my father, my brother - or just the black men I grew up with.” MenTryingMindHardFatherBlackJusticeStreetsBrotherGrewGrew UpToughMalesMy BrotherStayingConceptionDiverseGrandfatherMy GrandfatherBlack Males Author:Cornel West
“I was born black, I attended all Negro schools including college, I grew up in the segregated South during Jim Crow. If anybody knows a racist, I do. Pat Buchanan ain't no racist.” IfsKnowsSchoolBlackBornCollegeGrewGrew UpSouthIncludingScaryRacistCrowJim Crow Author:Ezola B. Foster
“I grew up in predominantly black neighborhoods and went to predominantly black schools. And hip-hop is what I grew up listening to in my teenage years. Basically I'm just being myself.” YearsSchoolBlackListeningGrewGrew UpHip HopHipsHopsNeighborhoodJust BeingTeenageBeing MyselfTeenage Years Author:Mark Wahlberg
“When I grew up, you wanted to look like Marlene Dietrich, Betty Grable. Fortunately, I didn't know that I really wanted to look like Lena Horne. When I grew up... black stars were stigmatized. Nobody wanted to look like Lena Horne.” KnowsLooksWantedStarsBlackGrewGrew Up Author:Dorian Corey
“Socially, hip-hop has done more for racial camaraderie in this country than any one thing. 'Cause guys like me, my kids - everyone under 45 either grew up loving hip-hop or hating hip-hop, but everyone under 45 grew up very aware of hip-hop. So when you're a white kid and you're listening to this music and you're being exposed to it every day on MTV, black people become less frightening. This is just a reality. What hip-hop has done bringing people together is enormous.” PeopleCountryDoneRealityKidsTogetherGuyHateCausesBlackWhiteOne ThingListeningGrewGrew UpHip HopEnormousLike MeHipsHopsBlack PeopleExposedFrighteningMtvCamaraderie Author:Michael Rapaport
“Michael Jackson was a poor black boy who grew up to be a rich white woman” BlackWhitePoorBoysRichGrewGrew UpBlack Boy Author:Molly Ivins
“When Michael Jackson, a poor black boy who grew up to be a rich, white woman, married Elvis Presley's daughter the Scientologist. Makes you proud to be an American, dudn't it?” BlackWhitePoorBoysRichGrewProudMarriedGrew UpDaughterBlack BoyProud To Be An American Author:Molly Ivins
“I grew up in Bulgaria in a small city on the Black Sea Coast, so I was very interested in the sea, marine life, and everything related to it. But it was also a very dark place at night, so I could see the stars. And I just got very interested in it.” NightStarsBlackDarkCitiesSeaGrewGrew UpRelatedCoastMarineDark PlacesMarine LifeBulgaria Author:Dimitar Sasselov
“My whole family was - we grew up in New York, but all my relatives and all my father and stepfather's family, they were all from the South. So I like that old Black voice, and I love the sort of old Black man with a corncob pipe, sitting there telling a whopper.” MenWholeFatherBlackVoiceNew YorkGrewGrew UpSittingSouthPipeWhole FamilyStepfathers Author:James McBride
“One of the facets of growing up the way I did, I never had the experience of being solely in the black community. Even my family, my mother is what they call Creole, so she's part French, part black, and grew up in Louisiana. It's a very specific kind of blackness that is different than what is traditionally thought of as the black community and black culture. So, I never felt a part of whatever that was.” WayKindDifferentMotherCultureFeltBlackCommunityGrowing UpGrowingGrewGrew UpMy FamilyBlacknessFacetsLouisianaBlack CommunityBlack CultureCreole Author:Justin Simien