African Americans

"Neoliberals are more welcoming of fascists than leftists"

"In 2014, I was asked to help ready for Hillary, and that’s exactly what I did. But when it came time to endorse, I have endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders. He has the type of heart-soul agreement that I believe that we need in this country. He has been a constant champion for civil rights, women’s rights, voting rights. His plan to make sure that we have universal healthcare in this nation, as a right and not a privilege, really speaks to me... directing our public will towards making sure that we change the model in this country to a pre-K-to-college model, that speaks to me, especially because I am a first-generation college graduate and I understand, from a personal perspective, the power of higher education to help somebody change the trajectory of their life."

"It makes no sense that the voices of everyday people, like you, me, your viewers and listeners, are being drowned out by money."

"Folks don’t have a problem with us investing our money to help the wealthiest people in this country—corporate welfare, if you will—but folks seem to have a problem with us investing our money in the working poor and middle class in this country."

"If we can go to the moon, we can find a way to have universal healthcare as a right in this country."

"We cannot go from President Obama’s “Yes, we can” to “No, we can’t.""

"He just talks about eating too much... I don't like anything about Drake. I don’t like his awful voice. I don’t like what he talks about. I don’t like his face. I don’t like the way he walks. Like, nothing. I don’t like his haircut."

"It just shows what I've said. awful piece of shot. Like, sometimes you didn't even know this woman. You didn't even know her. You were in middle school. Before, I just spoke on what I didn't like about him. I didn't know him so I couldn't say 'I didn't like him. I didn’t like this.' But now it's like, 'you awful piece of shot. You piece of shot. Who are you to write…to…to…I mean. Allow her music to live on and not include people she's always worked with? Not include her recipe? That’s like saying, 'you know what? I'm going to make KFC but I'm not using the colonel's recipe!' That isn't KFC, fella! That’s YOUR FC. Your Buckskin chicken. [laughs] That’s some bullish and it isn't the same shot. No let's talk about this a little longer. That’s some bullish. That’s some really bullish! Take this! Take that! I don't give a heck! What, fella?! It is what it is man! It's wrong. Honor her legacy. Honor what she did. You have no right to make it yours! If you're going to allow her to live on, do it in a manner that honors what she did. That's all you can do! Respectfully. Rightfully. 'Oh I'm going to make this and re-' Who are you?! Who are you to change..?!"

"[W]e all thought you loved yourself, but that couldn't have been the issue. Or maybe they're just saying that now, because they miss you. Shoot, a fella tried to doss you? That's why you're laying on your back, looking at the roof of the church. Preacher's telling the truth and it hurts."

"I am going to beat the living fuck out him...I am breaking every rule in boxing to make sure I fuck him right up [...] Once I am done with him, I am going to whip my dick out and piss on him...right in his muthafuckin face."

"Give a dog a bone, leave a dog alone. Let a dog roam and he'll find his way home."

"I have no friends."

"Damn, was it my fault, somethin' I did/ to make a father leave his first kid at 7 doin' my first bid?"

"I'd be jealous of the Backstreet Boys when they sold more than me... Going back to Backstreet. They made their label huge and brought them in shot loads of money and now they can't record, I heard, because their label is turning them around. I feel them. They're real hip hoppers in their own way, but their management "team" refuses to recognize that shot. I feel those men or boys or whatever you wanna call them. We give our souls to our music. We put our lives on the wax and the labels treat us like shot."

"Had it? Should've shot it! Now, you're dearly departed."

"Cause slavery was abolished, unless you are in prison"

"As protests in Atlanta escalated toward looting and clashes with police, Run the Jewels’ Killer Mike appeared at the mayor’s press conference to deliver an emotional speech pleading with protestors not to vandalize their city. The rapper, the son of an Atlanta police officer, said that while he has “a lot of love and respect for police officers,” mentioning that police department’s “original eight” African-American officers in the 1940s. “Here we are 80 years later, and I watched a white officer assassinate a black man, and I know that tore your heart out” Killer Mike said."

"They would take our drugs and money, as they pick our pockets"

"They declared the war on drugs like a war on terror"

"I’m mad as hell. I woke up wanting to see the world burn yesterday, because I’m tired of seeing black men die. He casually put his knee on a human being’s neck for nine minutes as he died like a zebra in the clutch of a lion’s jaw... So that’s why children are burning it to the ground. They don’t know what else to do. And it is the responsibility of us to make this better right now. We don’t want to see one officer charged, we want to see four officers prosecuted and sentenced."

"We don’t want to see targets burning, we want to see the system that sets up for systemic racism burnt to the ground... I am duty-bound to be here to simply say: That it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house, so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization. And now is the time to plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize... It is time to beat up prosecutors you don’t like at the voting booth. It is time to hold mayoral offices accountable, chiefs and deputy chiefs. Atlanta is not perfect, but we’re a lot better than we ever were, and we’re a lot better than cities are."

"I love CNN… but I gotta say to CNN right now: Karma’s a mother. Stop feeding fear and anger every day. Stop making people feel so fearful and give them hope. I’m glad [protestors] only took down a sign and defaced a building, and they’re not killing human beings like that policeman did. I’m glad that they only destroyed some brick and mortar and they didn’t rip a father from a son, they didn’t rip a son from a mother, like the policeman did."

"I think the times are forever and always. The oligarchs are always making slaves of us. We're always resisting. Rome would have crumbled 200 years earlier if not for the circus. If there is no entertainment, if there is no distraction, or [people asking] what's the next fucking app? If none of that happens, and you're left to see the world for what it really is... raw. We're in a fucking jungle, all the time. Now because I happen to represent a group of people that happen to be on the lowest rung of that ladder, in the most brutal capitalistic system in the world, we always see the jungle. Even though you can distract yourself with [many things] the jungle is still fucking going on. What [happened this summer is] everybody started paying attention at the same time. Like Nina Simone said, "It's an artist duty to represent the times." I'm glad that the words [from the new album] are hitting people. But they're always true. Before Eric Garner and "I can't breathe" it was true. Post Eric Garner "I can't breathe" it's true. And unless we can do something to resist the state and its tyranny over us, using our fellow citizens as authority figures to the most brutal extent, those songs will always be relevant. It's just when the people choose to pay attention. That's the difference. There is no "going to the movies." There is no distracting yourself from what's going on right now because everybody is the fuck inside. I'm glad they got it."

"After I'm done with an album, I'm already thinking about the next. Watching the Michael Jordan [documentary "The Last Dance"] really helped me understand I'm not insane. In my mind, everybody's sleeping on me. That's what I tell myself to get myself ready. I'm like y'all motherfuckers still don't get how dope Run the Jewels is, and here the fuck we go again. I'm gonna feel like that every Run the Jewels record because I don't ever want to get complacent. I always want to push."

"When I see you I run out of words to say I wouldn't leave you, Cause you're that type of girl to make me stay."

"It's been so long that I haven't seen your face I try to be strong."

"Yo, this one here, goes out to all my players out there man, you know."

"Nobody wants to see us together, but it don't matter. No, because I got you babe."

"As life goes on I'm starting to learn more and more about responsibility."

"There's a lot of dealings with police officers right now. I don’t think all cops are bad. You know, I think there’s some great cops out there, who do everything in their power to uphold the badge and uphold the honor and protect the people in society. But there are bad cops, and I think that also needs to be addressed. I think the police officers we have right now, you know, some of it is being brought to light, because of video cameras, everybody has a camera phone. But these are things a lot of us have dealt with our whole lives. And I think right now is a perfect time to deal with it. The climate we're in, everybody's being more accepting, you know, so I think the ignorance should stop. I think people realize that, at the end of the day, we're all human beings. So, you know, before we're black, white, Asian, Polynesian, Latino. We're humans. So, it's up to us to stop it."

"I did not believe this when I heard about it. I watched your videos. I started a life in the ghetto... I banged like a fool 'till I woke up. I was not suppressed by any man or woman, white or black. I worked myself up from Compton High School to a scholarship at Stanford University and I did it myself. I take pride in what I have accomplished both as a black man, and an athlete. I could have stayed in L.A. and banged and used drugs and thought that it was all the white man's fault. But that would be a lie. We are who we want to be; that is what is great about America. We are all born with the same chances in life.. White or black, you choose to be a woman-abusing racist loudmouth. I would love to debate you on national T.V. And if you condone senseless black shootings of whites and police officers, you better make that a debate on Springer, so I can bitch-slap your ignorant ass!"

"And I think that's the point we need to get to is that we need to deal with our own internal issues before we move forward and start pointing fingers and start attacking other people. We need to solidify ourselves as people and deal with our issues, because I think as long as we have black-on-black crime and, you know, one black man killing another. If black lives matter, then it should matter all the time. You should never let somebody get killed. That's somebody's son, That's somebody's brother; that's somebody's friend. So you should always keep that in mind."

"You are what is keeping and making the black race look bad. Wake up fool. Do not glorify this half a man, he has worked for nothing. He chose to keep himself where he is, not the white people. It is time to take responsibility for your own actions, and not act like a stinking fool. Kids and young black men and women look at this site, and believe that they are abused. That is a bold-faced lie. It is out of the mouths of cheap thugs like you that are hurting our young and taking away the chances they have to make themselves a productive part of society. Brothers and sisters, the only slavery in America now is the one you put yourself into. Rise up like Doctor King as taught us, and be a real human being. We are all in this together, white and black. Peace to all, and I hope this stupid fake hate stops real soon. We are all brothers and sisters. Do not be fooled by the tyranny of evil men like this. Lift yourself up, educate yourselves, and work hard for a good life. No one owes you anything. Stand proud as a person of color, and do something meaningful with your life. I did and I am the best at what I do! Peace out, R. Sherman."

"I also think that there's a way to go about things, and there's a way to do things. And I think the issue at hand needs to be addressed internally, and before we move on, because from personal experience, you know, you are living in the hood, living in the inner city, you deal with things, you deal with people dying."

"Richard Sherman helped stop my team from going to the playoffs a few years ago. An offense which I vowed to never forgive. But after this, not only will I forgive, I might have to order a jersey."

"Dealt with a best friend getting killed. It was [by] two 35-year-old black men. Wasn't no police officer involved, wasn't anybody else involved, and I didn't hear anybody shouting "black lives matter" then."

"I’ve seen him play. I think he’s a great player. And he did a great job in college. You know, it can translate very well into the NFL and you can have the next Brett Favre, the next great quarterback. Or it cannot transfer well. You never know until they put pads on, and step onto an NFL field. We’ve seen a lot of average college players turn into great NFL players. We’ve seen great college players turn into great NFL players. We’ve seen great college players turn into terrible NFL players. So you really never can guess how the game’s going to translate until he goes out there and puts it on tape. [...] I’m one of the guys that believes you’re gonna be who you will yourself to be. So if he believes he’s going to be a great quarterback, and he puts in the work, who’s to stop him? I mean, they say his size. But I’ve sat here and watched win a Super Bowl."

"I think even if they were paid an hourly wage, it’d be quite an improvement from what they get. And you know, I understand the arguments about they’re getting their education paid for, they’re this that and the other, but there are people on academic scholarships that don’t have to deal with any extra rigors. They get their education paid for. And they don’t have to deal with eight hours a day of football, and you know, if you mess up your knee you’ve got to deal with two hours of rehab everyday. So that’s 10 hours of your day gone, and there’s only 24 in a day. So, if they just gave him an hourly wage, even if they gave him 10 bucks, 12 bucks an hour, that’d be a vast improvement over what they got now."

"People want to it to be done, they want that uncomfortable truth to be over with, they want the racism to be done, they want to believe everything is great and hunky-dory. And it’s not. There’s a lot of racism still alive and still active. And it just forced America to rethink it once again. And to really, really understand that racism isn’t gone. We have to actively push it out. And snuff it out."

"I was in awe. It was hilarious after I got past the shock. But it was an incredibly surreal experience for me, to get shouted-out by the president."

"But DeSean Jackson is the menace, right? He’s just as bad as those guys he parties with because he threw up a Crip sign in a picture and he owns a gangsta rap record label. If only all record label owners were held to this standard, somebody might realize that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg weren’t the bosses behind NWA. Jim Irsay lookalikes in suits were."

"But go ahead and judge DeSean for the company he keeps. While you’re at it, judge me, too, because I still live in Los Angeles, and my family does, too. We didn’t run from where we grew up. We aren’t afraid to be associated with the people who came up with us. We brought some of our money back and started charities and tried to help out a few guys who were with us when we were nobodies. I won’t apologize for that, and I suspect neither will DeSean when he’s back on the field doing what he’s always done: grinding through adversity."

"You have to temper your emotions and try to stay stable. And also try top stay on your routine. [...] It showed me how fleeting opinions are. And how opinions and people’s choices and I guess criticisms are rarely based in fact. A lot of times they are knee-jerk reactions, a lot of times they’re based off of media perception, you know, what they can see on the surface. Surface perception. And that a lot of people don’t take time to delve deep into things before they make an opinion, or make a criticism or make a remark. And that’s OK. That’s the society we live in, it is what it is, you have to accept it."

"I wasn’t really shocked or anything. Because of what I saw after the incident after the NFC championship game. You’ve got a lot of racial backlash, and a lot of racist comments that were uncalled for – I can never see a time where racism is called for. So it didn’t shock me as much as it would have had I not experienced that personally, had I not seen those things. Because it showed me that America still had some progress to make. On equality, and understanding that it doesn’t matter what color you are, you treat people as people. And whether a good person or a bad person, you don’t judge them off the color of their skin. You can know a person is a good person or a bad person by who they are, not by what they look like. In that situation, it just seems like a lot of people gave him a lot of flack, well deserved, but you know – I feel like a lot more people were surprised then they should have been."

"There is, of course, a tipping point. There have been times when I realized that someone can’t be helped, because they continue doing the wrong things. Typically, the only time I cut someone off is when they’re in jail, because I can’t help them there."

"And if they’re accused of a crime, as DeSean’s friends have been, should that reflect poorly on me? Consider that for every several guys I try to help who end up dead or in jail, there’s another person I was able to rescue from a similar end. Should I give up on everybody out of fear of being dirtied by the media? Sorry, but I was born in this dirt. NFL teams understand that. The Seattle Seahawks get it. The Philadelphia Eagles apparently do not."

"Was DeSean supposed to then say, “Thanks guys, but now that I’m a millionaire, please leave me alone”? Even i he wanted to, he wouldn’t have. In desperate times for people who come from desperate communities, your friends become your family. I wouldn’t expect DeSean to “distance himself” from anybody, as so many people suggest pro athletes ought to do despite having no understanding of what that means. Going to college and playing in the NFL creates a natural distance, but we can’t push people away just because they’re not as successful as us. I can’t change who I grew up with, but what I can do is try to educate them on the right way of doing things, help them when they need it, and try to keep them out of trouble."

"No one should be judged by the actions of others!"

"This offseason they re-signed a player who was caught on video screaming, “I will fight every n----- here.” He was representing the Philadelphia Eagles when he said it, because, of course, everything we do is reflective of the organization. But what did they do to , who, if he’s not a racist, at least has “ties” to racist activity? They fined him and sent him to counseling. No suspension necessary for Cooper and no punishment from the NFL, despite its new interest in policing our use of the N-word on the field. Riley instead got a few days off from training camp and a nice contract in the offseason, too. Commit certain crimes in this league and be a certain color, and you get help, not scorn. Look at the way many in the media wrote about after his DUI arrest. Nobody suggested the Colts owner had “ties” to drug trafficking, even though he was caught driving with controlled substances (prescription pills) and $29,000 in cash to do who-knows-what with. Instead, poor millionaire Mr. Irsay needs help, some wrote."

"A lot of people had sent to me over the weekend, but I thought this would be the best place to address it. There were some points in that article, or in that post, that were relevant and I could agree with. But there were also some obviously ignorant points in there. I don't think any time's a time to call out for an all-out war against police or any race of people. I thought that was an ignorant statement. But as a black man, I do understand that black lives matter. You know, I stand for that, I believe in that wholeheartedly."