The thing about TV is you kind of have an endless canvas. You can always keep going. Justin Simien Read Quote
In the press, there’s this desire for the black audience to be this monolithic thing that always responds to the same stars. That’s a really reductive way of looking at the black audience. Justin Simien Read Quote
You watch ‘Malcolm X,’ and then Netflix recommends ‘B.A.P.S.,’ and you’re like, ‘What? Those movies have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but OK.’ They don’t recommend other historical biopics – it’s ‘B.A.P.S.’ and ‘Ghost Dad.’ Justin Simien Read Quote
Everyone at a performing arts schools is weird. The weirder you were, the better. If you weren’t weird in some way, they’d look at you and be like, ‘Who’s that square?’ Justin Simien Read Quote
Everybody else was quoting 2Pac, and I was running around with Green Day in my Walkman. Racially speaking, I wasn’t cool or appropriate for any group. Justin Simien Read Quote
The mark of a really great satire is its ability to seem prophetic, and I think that the television culture that film predicted really came true in the age of reality television and is a testament to how great it really is. Justin Simien Read Quote
Color-blind’ comes up – people say ‘Oh, I’m color-blind and therefore can’t be accused of racism,’ but I think that if we are going to have an honest dialogue about racism, we have to admit that people of color are having a different experience. Justin Simien Read Quote
I have different privileges because I am a man, and I have to acknowledge that and realize that another person of color who is also a woman is having a different experience than I am. Justin Simien Read Quote
Basically, the system works to my disadvantage for no other reason than that I am a person of color, and I am telling stories about people of color. Justin Simien Read Quote
I am more than a black guy. I am a person, I’m storyteller, I’m a son, I’m a friend, so I am all those things, so it is frustrating, to a degree, to be limited by other people’s perceptions of me, but at the same time, it is true that I am a black guy, and, you know, it’s like I’m rooted in but not bound by. Justin Simien Read Quote
