“Say What?”


In November 2005, I had the unfortunate pleasure of watching the American Film Institute’s “Top 100 Movie Quotes” on AMC. The list was whack and lacked color, to say the least.

To date, nine people of a darker hue have earned Academy awards in the Actor category (Denzel has won twice: Supporting and Lead). There is no denying Black folk can act. With this much progress, you would think the AFI could have put in more effort than one stinking line from, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? And I think that was just "honorable mention." Pathetic.

Moreover, it is disheartening to see a list from an organization that brags of being american, but does not list any black americans as having made any contributions to film. Brings to mind a quote from The Tuskeegee Airmen: I know how I feel about my country. But how does my country feel about me? (Andre Braugher as Col. Benjamin O. Davis).

So, here is my list of 50. Regardless of what the AFI thinks, we have, in fact, said some profound shit.


PS This list only actually has a little more than 40 quotes. I could use some help from the movie aficionados. I am looking for quotes (as accurate as possible, please) from The Five Heartbeats, Shaft (the original), Stormy Weather, The Wiz and older classics.

	Movie	Line	Character
1	Armistad	Give us us free!	Joesph Cinque
2	Boyz ‘n the Hood	Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood.	Doughboy
3	Mahogany	Success is nothing without someone to share it with!	Brian
4	Lady Sings The Blues	You want my arm to fall off?	Louis McKay
5	A Raisin in the Sun	Willie! Willie!	Walter Lee Younger
6	The Color Purple	All my life, I had to fight…a girl-child ain’t safe in a house full of men.	Sophia
7	The Great White Hope	Here I am…here I am!	Jack Johnson
8	Jungle Fever	I smoked the t.v.	Gator Purify
9	Do The Right Thing	Always do the right thing.	Da Mayor
10	School Daze	Once again, we as a people are late!	Vaughn “Dap”Dunlap
11	Boyz ‘n the Hood	Riiiiccccky!	Tre Styles
12	Boomerang	Love should have brought your ass home last night!	Angela
13	Coming to America	Girl you look so good, somebody oughta put you on a plate and sop you up with a biscuit.	Rev. Brown
14	Cooley High	I want to live forever.	Preacher
15	The Color Purple	It’s gone rain on your head.
16	Boyz ‘n the Hood	Why? They want us to kill ourselves.	Furious Styles
17	She’s Gotta Have It	Please baby, please, baby, baby, baby, please!	Mars Blackmon
18	Menace II Society	…asked if I cared whether I live or die. Yeah I do. Not it’s too late.	Caine
19	Claudine	…(regarding marrying Claudine) it would take welfare off the hook and put me on!	Roopert
20	The Color Purple	See Daddy, even sinners got soul, too!	Shug Avery
21	Malcolm X	We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us!	Malcolm X
22	Soul Food	One finger pointing the blame can’t make no impact. But five fingers balled up can deliver a mighty blow!	Mama Joe
23	Love & Basketball	I’ll play you…for your heart.	Monica Wright
24	A Raisin in the Sun	In my Mother’s house, there is still God.	Benenthea Younger
25	The Color Purple	I’m poor, black, I might even be ugly, but dear God, I am here!	Celie
26	Bingo Long All-Stars	Don’t cost nothing to dance.	Leon Carter
27	Friday	It’s Friday, you ain’t got no job and you ain’t got shit to do.	Smokey
28	Cooley High	For the brothers who ain’t here.	Coolcheese/Preacher
29	The Color Purple	Hell, no (!)	Sophia
30	Malcolm X	The only thing I like integrated is my coffee.	Malcolm X
31	Cotton Comes to Harlem	Was that black enough for you?	Barry
32	Love & Basketball	All is fair in love and basketball.	Quincy McCall
33	Superfly	Freddy’s dead.
34	Ray	I gone make it do what it do.	Ray Charles
35	Love Jones	I am the blues in your left thigh, trying to become the funk in your right.	Darius Lovehall
36	The Color Purple	Until you do right by me, everything you even think of is going to fail.	Celie
37	Claudine	It’s doesn’t matter Mama. It’s gone wind up chicken (!)	Charlene
38	Boyz ‘n the Hood	(repeating his father’s words of advice)…Any fool with a dick can make a baby, but only a real man can raise his children.	(Young) Trey Styles
39	The Color Purple	You sitting at the head of your own dinner table and acting like the waiter!	Old Mr.
40	School Daze	Wake up!	Vaughn “Dap” Dunlap
41	New Jack City	Am I my brother’s keeper?	Nino Brown
42	Claudine	…before you go to bed tonight, take a good look at Charlene, grandma.	Charles
43	The Color Purple	You just a big ol’ heifer!	Squeak/MaryAlice
44	School Daze	You either work, or you starve. And I want to eat sirloin.	Grady
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In Other Words:
Oscar History: Is the Oscar...by Emanuel Levy


Blacks had long wait...by Robert Booker

Hattie or Halle by Mark A. Rawls.

And the Oscar goes Black by Rasheeda Bhagat

Shiny or Tarnished, Oscar still golden by Tony Norman