Angela Rye

Professions :

Whether it's freedom to express, freedom to live, freedom to earn, freedom to thrive, freedom to learn, whatever it is, I want to make sure that I'm a part of these spaces and opening doors.

live opening freedom doors

Read things to not just know what's going on, but see it from different varying viewpoints.

things see know different

I never had a moment of realization about my blackness - I just was. Blackness was a central thread of my experience as a child and as an adolescent, as it is now that I'm an adult.

never child moment experience

I am not interested in trying to convince and change the mind of a bigot.

i-am change mind trying

This country is not going to progress if we can't have decent civil conversations and be respectful to one another.

going decent progress country

I grew up always thinking that fighting for justice was our obligation, whether that's giving your voice to something, serving as a verbal advocate for someone, or physically being in spaces or occupying space to make and create change.

space change justice thinking

I am tired of people telling me that black people are beneath a standard when we have to be twice as good all the time.

i-am good me time

Ben Carson said black people worked for less. I have breaking news: we built this joint for free. We didn't build it for less.

free news black people

If our culture is so often readily and easily appropriated, imagine what happens when we embrace our full blackness and know that our contributions are just as important to the shaping of the country and, more broadly, the world.

important country culture world

There's nothing new under the sun. We talk about the same things all the time on air.

nothing new sun time

If I can, in any way, give people the courage to say, 'Actually, no, the nonsense stops right here,' then I want to be a part of doing that. Especially if that means that our folks will be more free.

i-can courage people way

Not only did I always know I was black, I always knew we were and are beautiful, culturally rich, and creators of everything from the sciences to the arts.

know rich black beautiful

My father constantly reminded me that he named me after Angela Yvonne Davis, a scholar and activist who was well known for her work in tandem with the Black Panther Party. That felt like a purposeful, beckoning call to engage in strategic resistance and to fight for the oppressed.

me black work father

I am so proud to be black. I am, nevertheless, tired of the oppression. We need to develop and support a cohesive black agenda. We need to do what leaders have suggested since slavery. We need to recognize that while we are not monolithic, there is power in embracing a common agenda.

i-am tired black power

Do you think it's a good idea to be sarcastic about slavery?

good think you slavery

Whether you want to do a letter-writing campaign or a march or start a social media hashtag - whatever it is - know that there are people out there that are thinking exactly like you're thinking and are also afraid to take that next and very important step.

you social-media people thinking

Working with BET always provides a reminder of why I began to do this work. It is essential that we have platforms where we can discuss our politics, our challenges, and our culture through our respective lenses.

politics challenges work culture

I don't know how you soothe people, how you meet people where they are, how you tell people: 'I feel your pain,' without saying where their pain comes from.

You want to give Donald Trump kudos for throwing Cheez-It bits at you and then criticize the people who have spent their careers doing things for the betterment of black people and black society, and I would just say at that point, if you still go over to Donald Trump after that : Shame on you.

Brooke Axtell

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Assata Shakur

Arun Manilal Gandhi

Arthur Hertzberg

Arlene Holt Baker