I still say black. I say it because… African American… doesn't make your life any easier. You don't see black people… saying, "Oh yeah, African American. Man, I'll tell ya, this beats the hell outta being black."… You don't see any of us going into Bank of America [saying], "Excuse me, I'm here to pick up my loan."… You were rejected for that loan last week."… "I was black then. See, I'm African American now. I'll just go in the vault and take what I need.

About Wanda Sykes

Wanda Yvette Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She was first recognized for her work as a writer on The Chris Rock Show, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the...

More quotations from Wanda Sykes

I walk past a little gangbanger, I don't even flinch. But I see a white dude with a Wall Street Journal, I haul ass.… Cutting through the projects, you might just lose what you have on you that day, but I ain't never been mugged of my future. No thug ever ran up on me: "Give me your 401(k).… I want your college fund, your ira. I want it all.

—Wanda Sykes

White criminals commit the biggest crimes. A brother might rob a bank. A white man will rob a pension fund. The brother is going to get ten to fifteen years because he had a gun. The white guy will get a Congressional hearing because he had a job and a nice suit.

—Wanda Sykes

If you see a white man running, you think, He must be late for a meeting. When you see a black man running, you think, I'm calling the cops. Hey, somebody stop his black ass!

—Wanda Sykes

More quotations tagged with “blackness”

If a white man falls off a chair drunk, it's just a drunk. If a Negro does, it's the whole damn Negro race.

—Bill Cosby

perception race blackness whiteness

When we're unemployed, we're called lazy; when the whites are unemployed, it's called a depression.

—Jesse Jackson

USA race blackness unemployment

Jews and blacks come from the same history.… We've just expressed our suffering differently as people. Blacks developed the blues. Jews complain; we just never thought of putting it to music.

—Jon Stewart

history suffering complaining jewishness blackness

History

24 Oct 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

I still say black. I say it because . . . African American . . . doesn't make your life any easier. You don't see black people . . . saying, "Oh yeah, African American. Man, I'll tell ya, this beats the hell outta being black." . . . You don't see any of us going into Bank of America [saying], "Excuse me, I'm here to pick up my loan." . . . You were rejected for that loan last week." . . . "I was black then. See, I'm African American now. I'll just go in the vault and take what I need.