Top 76 Quotes & Sayings by Julianne Malveaux

Cutting HBCUs was unconscionable. Implementing new regulations on Parent Plus loans, which cost HBCUs 28,000 students, was hostile. At the same time, it is important to note that, except for his first two years, which were a missed opportunity, President [Barack] Obama faced rabid opposition from the Republicans.

If some of the recovery money had gone to cities instead of states, the urban population, read "Black" and "Brown," would be better off with recovery jobs.

I hope his wife feeds him [Clarence Thomas, Justice, U.S. Supreme Court] lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease. . . . He is an absolutely reprehensible person.

Bernie Sanders has the momentum, and I think that that's something that we can't ignore.

Of course, Mr. Hannity was outraged that any American would not cross her hand over her heart and repeat the hypocritical words, one nation. Whenever we come up on the Fourth of You Lie, I think of Frederick Douglas and his masterful oration, The meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro. Pledge the flag? I think not!

If people don't know about you, that's not on them, it's on you.

The economy is better than the one President [Barack] Obama inherited, and unemployment is lower, but the unemployment rate gap remains large.

George W. Bush is evil. He is a terrorist. He is evil. He is arrogant. And he is out of control.

I do know that, you know, Donald Trump has a global portfolio, and many global investors are in Russia.

We have a very large military community - veterans and others - who basically do believe in the militarism.

President [Barack] Obama's choice of Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff was questionable, and perhaps coverups around the police violence against black people in Chicago is reflective of Mr. Emmanuel's values.

When public policy is directed toward urban spaces, it is directed toward people who sit at the margins.

North Carolina is a fascinating state, because you've got these urban areas. You've got the Piedmont Triangle - Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point.

I don't regret my votes for President Obama by any stretch of the imagination.

It was quite a process to narrow more than 400 columns down to 80. I write weekly, though, and I don't always write about President [Barack] Obama, so that was the easy elimination.

While people are prepared to talk about Social Security, about marriage equality, about any number of other issues, people are not prepared - your layperson is not prepared to have a conversation about foreign policy.

I think that ranked-choice voting makes a lot of sense.

People will be talking about the [Barack] Obama legacy for decades, and I wanted to include my voice in the analysis of this presidency.

Bernie Sanders just seems to not have the personality to engage with people at the grassroots level.

I describe myself as a "spiritual sampler," raised Catholic, been Baptist, Methodist, and a Unity member.

Sometimes, I repeat myself, and that was a second elimination [of Barack Obama]. I worked with a team, including a great editor who, as the project came together, suggested other additions and eliminations. It was a process.

We didn't hold President Obama as accountable as we might have.

Frankly, I'd love to see a multiparty system, like we have in some of our European countries. But I'm not sure how to get there.

I like to think that life lessons are learned and re-learned every day and take on importance at different times in life.

Black child poverty is higher. As I write in the epilogue, "Yes we can. No he didn't. President [Barack] Obama didn't push black people backward, but he missed the opportunity to move us forward."

History belongs to she who holds the pen...If we don't tell our stories, they won't be told.

I especially appreciated hearing the President [Barack Obama] affirm that "black lives matter" and that it means that some citizens are feeling more pain, and experiencing more negative effects than others, and he offered up the stats. He also indicated that black lives matter does not negate the fact that blue lives matter. He ably walked the tightrope, here, between affirming both black life and police life.

As I write in the book, I do not regret either of my votes for President [Barack] Obama, nor my support of him when he ran for the Senate before that. I get excited as I ever did when I see that black man on Air Force One. But I won't settle for symbolism, and our President's record should be open for analysis.

Do you really think I'm going to go on record telling you the craziest thing I've ever done. There's a reel in my brain, and I think I'll keep it there. No regrets, though.

Don't believe the hype that black North Carolinians are not voting. We've heard this time and time again. It's just not the truth.

References to everybody just disturb me, and it also disturbs me that the people who make policy are not the same people who live policy. When we talk about everybody, we are leaving a whole lot of bodies out.

Indeed, as soon as he took office, Senator Mitch McConnell announced that his top priority was to deny President [Barack] Obama a second term.

I am not afraid of anything. I am voting for Hillary Clinton because I am excited and enthusiastic.

I am addicted to the printed word, and my idea of a good time is a good book.

If the Muslim community in Michigan comes out strongly, I think they will make a difference.

You have a lot of young people who still feel somewhat marginalized, even if they do vote for Hillary Clinton.

The president [Barack Obama] did introduce a jobs bill that could not clear Congress. The Republicans simply would not work with him.

Some of the federal programs to help homeowners were never fully implemented.

Lots of African-American people really so adore Barack Obama that they're unwilling to even be mildly critical of him.

While the banks got big bailouts, a sizeable chunk of African-American wealth evaporated because so many people lost homes.

Always firmly believing in a higher power, I have also always been in search of a spiritual peace.

Tavis Smiley lost lots of corporate support after he was critical of President [Barack] Obama.

The published record will show that many in Chicago have mixed feedback on the President's [Barack Obama] role as organizer.

Voting is not the most you can do; it's really the least you can do.

Interesting statistic: In every economic recovery until 1982, working people captured more than 80 percent of the value of the recovery. Since 1982, the top 10 percent has captured 90 percent of the value of the economic recovery.

There's no great, white bigot; there's just about 200 million little white bigots out there.

People have been unhappy for a long time about the two-party system.

I do know that there are down-ballot people who have run on the Green Party, and some have been successful.

Ronald Reagan's attack on people who receive public assistance was partially an attack on people of color.

The voter problems and voter suppression, in some ways they're the same thing, but in some ways they're not, because the suppression is evil.

Young African - millennials really love Barack Obama.

African-American people adore President Obama.

I always want to read something about our people's enslavement near the 4th. To keep it light, I also read Rolanda Watts' "Destiny Lingers" She is a sisterfriend and I ran into her at Essence. Then, I finished Paul Taylor's "The Next America." Taylor is the Executive VP at the Pew Research Center, and he uses their excellent data base to talk about the coming "generational showdown" which we are experiencing, at some level, in Black America.

If past behavior is any indication, Donald Trump's behavior would not be acceptable.

I don't know how many off the record conversations I've had with African-American leaders who would not be quoted and refused to make their sentiments public.

In trying times, I like to remember that you have to keep walking because you can't see what is around the corner.

One of the challenges, I think, is that Americans are not sufficiently vested in foreign policy.

[My childhood was ] spiritual than religious.

President [Barack] Obama's pick of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education was abysmal.

This is a column collection, or as one colleague called it, "history in real time," recounting my perspective on the highs and lows of this presidency from an African-American perspective. More than simply a column collection, the book has a substantial introduction that frames the [Barack] Obama presidency, explores the way Obama was treated by the political establishment and also how this first black president treated "his" people. In the epilogue, I use numbers to tell the story of African-American gains and losses during this presidency.