Some of My Best Friends Are Black Quotes

“You are the sum total of the people you meet and interact with in the world. Whether it’s your family, peers, or co-workers, the opportunities you have and the things that you learn all come through doors that other people open for you.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“Many people in Nixon’s camp had genuine faith in affirmative action. It wasn’t designed to fail, but it wasn’t designed to succeed, either; the intent behind it was not rooted in a desire to help black people attain equal standing in society. It was riot insurance. It was a financial incentive for blacks to stay in their own communities and out of the suburbs.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“Trying to corral the suburban stampede with a bunch of school buses was like herding cats. Actually, it was worse than herding cats. It was herding white people, earth's only species with a greater sense of entitlement than a cat.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“Vann also came to realize something else. As offensive as the lack of cultural awareness in the office was, part of that deficit was his own. They didn’t understand him, but he didn’t understand them, either.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“There’s only one way America’s neighborhoods will begin to integrate: people have to want it more than vested public and corporate interests are opposed to it. And more people should want it. Mixed-race, mixed-income housing is a product we need to market. It’s the only real solution to segregated schools, for one.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“In the twenty-first century, the visions of J.C. Nichols and Walt Disney have come full circle and joined. “Neighborhoods” are increasingly “developments,” corporate theme parks. But corporations aren’t interested in the messy ebb and flow of humanity. They want stability and predictable rates of return. And although racial discrimination is no longer a stated policy for real estate brokers and developers, racial and social homogeneity are still firmly embedded in America’s collective idea of stability; that’s what our new landlords are thinking even if they are not saying it.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“On top of which: everyone in southern Louisiana is Catholic. It’s like a humid Ireland with better food.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“But God’s Holy Bible is a funny thing. For a supposedly sacred, infallible text, it reads a lot like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“For a supposedly sacred, infallible text, it reads a lot like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“In the twentieth century, Kansas City produced two uniquely American geniuses who would both forever alter the physical and cultural landscape of the country. One of these men built a magic kingdom, a fantasy world that offered nonstop, wholesome family fun and a complete escape from reality. The other one moved to Hollywood and opened a theme park.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“The gold standard for any brand is to achieve a global status that transcends those barriers, that needs no translation. Nike. Apple. BMW. They’re not black. They’re not white. They’re just cool. That’s the brand that makes money. And the only way to be that brand is by connecting with each individual personally while still having a message that resonates universally. Which is why good advertising is really hard to do, and why most of it sucks.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“The things we buy and the brands we use are just another way for us to project our preconceptions onto one another.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America

“If children conform to the standards set by their peers, in the seventies and eighties the peer pressure for black children to keep with their own was intense. Before desegregation, “acting white” was a phrase no one had ever heard with regard to school involvement or academics. Yet in the wake of busing, it rose to become one of the most hurtful insults one black student could level at another. Talking white, dressing white, being enthusiastic about anything “white” was forsaking one’s own. For the thirty-eight black students at Vestavia, there was the black cafeteria table and there were the other cafeteria tables, and it was one or the other. There was no going back and forth.”
― Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America