7 Quotes by Kwame Onwuachi

Nothing is a turnoff like a New York City housing authority kitchen. People want to hear about that once you're successful, not when you're living in it.

I haven't waited to be summoned for my big moment by a tap on the shoulder from a mysterious, benevolent stranger. It doesn't work that way where I'm from. You make your own opportunities where I'm from.

Like stolen labor, this stew became part of a Southern culture whose origins rest on the corrupt scaffolding of slavery.

Sometimes racism takes the form of ugly words and actions. Other times it remains unspoken, communicated by hostile looks and secret snickers. But the most corrosive form, and often the hardest to address, is not being seen at all.

But more infuriating is the question about to whom I should have been paying dues. It seems like the only ones keeping track are the white guys with tall hats. And how did those guys get into the club? By paying dues to older white guys with even taller hats. As for the thousands of black and brown chefs – dubbed cooks, domestics, servants, boys, and mammies who were kept out of restaurant kitchens or overlooked within them – they were beyond consideration. Their work, like them, was invisible.

Nothing is a turnoff like a New York City housing authority kitchen. People want to hear about that once you’re successful, not when you’re living in it.

I haven’t waited to be summoned for my big moment by a tap on the shoulder from a mysterious, benevolent stranger. It doesn’t work that way where I’m from. You make your own opportunities where I’m from.