Stanley Crouch Quotes

You’d never know that listening to people in the UN but tribalism is the father of racism.

The discussion of ideas as opposed to the American narcissistic obsession with what’s going on with the self, that’s the general thing people are talking about.

Our society has gotten to the point where we might soon become less and less shocked by any kind of violence.

Louis Armstrong, who learned to be in exquisite dress, came from the bottom, and he’s not a trash can.

You can meet a young person who goes to school and is really enthusiastic, but if a sufficiently strong personality convinces them that this is a waste of time, that person might flunk out.

People don’t really think other people are the same.

Your ethnic or sexual identity, what region of the country you’re from, what your class is – those aspects of your identity are not the same as your aesthetic identity.

Rap actually comes out of punk rock, not black music.

As you know from reading many of these Negro writers, we don’t deal too much with the discussion of democracy and what it means and how improvisation fits in all that.

Our democratic richness arrives when we’re able to comprehend our collective humanity accurately.

Above all else, [Benny Goodman] was a great player, one of the greatest American music has produced. He brought his absolute talent and his invincible love of music to the fore every time he played. There are many other things connected to society and ethnicity that are often mentioned in a discussion of Benny Goodman but all of them are connected to his overwhelming affection for the art of the music and the fairness it should be allowed to express.

You must be willing to accept the fact that pain is a part of the process of revelation.