I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song. To this day, I don't understand how people think they can bring anybody together without a song.
Bernice Johnson ReagonRead
When the culture is strong, you've got this consistency where black people can grow up in these places with this voice just resonating about our special-ness in the universe. And I always say you're in trouble if you get too far away from that core that grounds you.
Interpretation
A strong cultural foundation is essential for fostering a sense of identity and belonging.
Bernice Johnson Reagon emphasizes the importance of a strong cultural identity for black individuals, suggesting that a supportive cultural environment allows them to thrive and recognize their unique contributions to the universe. She warns that drifting away from this core identity can lead to a disconnection from one's roots and values.
In practice
In a speech celebrating Black History Month, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of cultural heritage.
I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song. To this day, I don't understand how people think they can bring anybody together without a song.
Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.
The voice I have now, I got the first time I sang in a movement meeting, after I got out of jail... and I'd never heard it before in my life.
...Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk.
Hollywood likes to put actors in boxes, and it likes to put Asian actors in really small boxes.
People come here penniless but not cultureless. They bring us gifts. We can synthesize the best of our traditions with the best of theirs. We can teach and learn from each other to produce a better America.
Multi-culture is the real culture of the world - the pure race doesn’t exist.
There's a time when it was an event for a black person to be on television. Where black households would gather around, 'Oh, you know, Sammy Davis is going to be on 'All in the Family' tonight! Let's go check it out!' It was a big, big thing.
Culture is a matrix of infinite possibilities and choices. From within the same culture matrix we can extract arguments and strategies for the degradation and ennoblement of our species, for its enslavement or liberation, for the suppression of its productive potential or its enhancement.
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