The colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The author asserts that Black people understand white people better than vice‑versa.
- In plain terms
- Black people know white people more than they know Black people.
- What can you take from it?
- Recognize asymmetrical cultural insight.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What causes this imbalance of understanding?
- How can mutual insight be fostered?
Another view
It may generalize experiences within groups.
More from James Weldon Johnson
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.
Permalink to quote #2 Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.
Permalink to quote #4 Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies; Let it resound lo…
Permalink to quote #1
Related quotes
A colored is a very frightened-to-death Afro-American. A Negro is one that makes it in the system, and he wants to be white. A nigger, he's loud and boisterous…
James BrownJames Brown quote #1 The behavior of an individual is determined not by his racial affiliation, but by the character of his ancestry and his cultural environment.
Franz BoasFranz Boas quote #2 For a Westerner to trash Western culture is like criticizing our nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere on the grounds that it sometimes gets windy, and besides, Jupiter's…
Neal StephensonNeal Stephenson quote #2