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" People of color grow up steeped in 'white' culture. The reverse is not true. And, no, listening to hip-hop on the way to work does not count as immersion. "
John Ridley
Work
People
Listening
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" I understand politicos gotta make bank. But cloistering with the Hollywood elite is not how you prove you're a man of the people. "
John Ridley
Understand
You
Prove
" With writing, timing is everything. Being in the right place at the right time. "
John Ridley
Writing
Timing
Time
" Not only does Hollywood make money - it seems to make better movies during recessions. I'm sure a lot of studio executives wish we could have one every year. "
John Ridley
Hollywood
Wish
Movies
" I still have my first 'Black Lightning' that I got way back in the day, and my first 'Steel.' And I proudly display those comics, by the way. I have a lot of comics, but those are among the ones that mean the most to me. "
John Ridley
Me
Way
Black
" If faux liberal white guys want to support and defend Obama, by all means please do so. But I would suggest they try to limit that support to matters of policy and not perspectives on race. "
John Ridley
Race
Limit
Support
" As far as superhero stories, what's appealing is of course that aspect of wish fulfillment. I mean, you start out reading them as a kid, and a couple things jump out at you - there are heroes out there, and you wish you could run into a phone booth and change your life, or be like Peter Parker and put on a mask and become a hero. "
John Ridley
Change
Hero
Life
" I can tell you from personal experience it gets a little tiring having to make the rounds on cable shows to explain 'what's up with black folks.' "
John Ridley
I Can
Personal
Experience
" Let's be very clear: Living 'unforgiven' is not the sole domain of blacks. It can be found in any successful person. "
John Ridley
Living
Found
Clear
" Fact is, awards shows were never really about recognizing achievement. They were a publicity ploy cooked up in the late 1920s by MGM topper Louie Mayer and his newly formed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which was itself, back in the day, nothing but a front organization to discourage unionizing. "
John Ridley
Achievement
Organization
Day
" As a coping mechanism, or as a way to make a little hard count by shilling demons in the shadows, I try not to belittle the thought process of the conspiracy theorists. As a cocktail waitress in Vegas once schooled me: never get down on anybody else's hustle. "
John Ridley
Me
Thought
Process
" There is not a country on earth whose people don't deserve to be free and safe. "
John Ridley
Deserve
Earth
Country
" It does no good to believe in what does not exist to the point one cannot focus on what is real. That would be the greatest tragedy of any 'conspiracy.' "
John Ridley
Focus
Real
Believe
" Just mention the idea of warrantless wiretaps and expect to get hit up with a congressional investigation. But give somebody an avatar and a URL, and he can't tweet, post or hyperlink enough personal information about himself to as many people as possible. "
John Ridley
Enough
Personal
Information
" For every horrific event, something beautiful happens. "
John Ridley
Something
Beautiful
Happens
" If the Olympic Games ever served a true altruistic purpose, they have long since outlived it. Yeah, the pursuit of athletic excellence, sportsmanship and international goodwill is plenty noble. But the modern Olympics are at best a vehicle for agitprop; at worst, a scandal magnet. "
John Ridley
Best
True
Purpose
" Every president to hold office has espoused some version of Americanism - the truths that we hold self-evident, even when those truths are not always in evidence. But for all their grand rhetoric and mostly good deeds, none was able to seal the deal on the trifecta of equality, plurality and socioeconomic ascendancy. Obama has. "
John Ridley
Hold
Equality
Good
" It is time to celebrate the New Black Americans - those who have sealed the Deal, who aren't beholden to liberal indulgence any more than they are to the disdain of the hard Right. It is time to praise blacks who are merely undeniable in their individuality and exemplary in their levels of achievement. "
John Ridley
Black
New
Achievement
" Seriously, you know - I love to write. I enjoy the process; I enjoy the different processes, because writing for film and television and graphic novels is all very different. So I've never had the feeling of, 'Oh, you have to do this one thing.' "
John Ridley
Know
Enjoy
You
" Slavery was not a bad day on the job. It was not your boss yelling at you. It was not hard work for little pay. This was a full system of human subjugation. "
John Ridley
Work
Slavery
Job
" I'm John the Fourth, so I think there's a lot of things in life that have been truly handed to me by the hard work and the pain of others. "
John Ridley
Pain
Think
Work
" If there are two kinds of people in the world - DC Comics people and Marvel Comics people - what kind am I? Well, to be honest... I'm a Wildstorm kinda guy. In the interest of full and fair disclosure, I write for Wildstorm. But even if I didn't, I'd love what they do. No, seriously, I'd love their stuff. "
John Ridley
World
Kind
Seriously
" Conservative talkers love to throw numbers around: their ratings and their audience size. And to be sure, they have a sizable audience which numbers in the tens of millions. But having people tune in and being able to dictate their actions are two different things. "
John Ridley
Conservative
Two
Love
" I love graphic novels - I love reading them, I enjoyed writing them, I would love to go back and do them again. I hope I'm savvy enough to do them in the right way. "
John Ridley
Hope
Go
Enough
" When I go to business meetings, I'm still told way too often by some receptionist, 'The mail room is downstairs,' to believe that racial perceptions don't still exist. But I figure there are always going to be knuckleheads no matter how many of their herd get stuck in the tar pits of progress. "
John Ridley
Meetings
Believe
Business
" In the Everybody-Give-Me-A-Hug victim culture in which we live, the obese want a spot at the table along with those who face discrimination based on the way that God or Nature or our Intelligent Designer created us. "
John Ridley
God
Culture
Nature
" Awards shows have devolved into self-parodies - liberals in limos, corny insider jokes delivered by the hosts among bad teleprompter reading from the some of the best thespians on the planet. "
John Ridley
Best
Corny
Jokes
" I remember 'Roots' growing up and the cultural impact it had on the country. Watching 'Roots' was not the cool remove of reading about slavery in a book or hearing about it in class. It became something that swept people along. "
John Ridley
Cool
Roots
Reading
" Why is it that the very people who have fought so hard and so long for the simple entitlement to love whom they choose to love are the very ones denied that right by those who routinely take their vows for granted? "
John Ridley
Simple
People
Love
" I've written films that are violent. I'm not big on sitting and watching violence. "
John Ridley
Films
Watching
Violence
" Certainly as a kid, I grew up with Batman, Superman, whoever - they didn't need to be black for me to relate to them. But when a character like Cyborg came along, I got excited, because he looked a little bit more like me; his experiences were a little bit more like mine. "
John Ridley
Need
Black
Character