People only look at you and say, 'You are black and you are from the banlieue,' and all the doors are closed. I had the desire to be something else. If I see a door that is a little open, I will find a way to get through.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I also know that while I am black I am a human being, and therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people didn't know that. Every time I tried to go into a place they stopped me.
When they kept you out it was because you were black; when they let you in, it is because you are black. That's progress?
I realize that I'm black, but I like to be viewed as a person, and this is everybody's wish.
There are so many people who have this idea of who I am because I'm black.
I find that when you open the door toward openness and transparency, a lot of people will follow you through.
Things got so bad that when I went shopping for a house, some people would refuse to open the door if they saw it was me standing there. And drunks would always want to challenge me.
You never know what doors are going to open up and why they are going to open up. You've got to be ready to walk through them.
Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.
I'm black because that's the way the world sees me.
I am in the habit, like most British people, of holding the door open for people. But in the U.S., people don't understand it. You get odd looks or doors slammed in your face.
No opposing quotes found.