Karamo Brown Quotes

"There's so much toxic masculinity out there. I grew up with the notion that the more masculine you are and the less you show emotion, the more of a man you are."

"Homophobia, racism, and sexism are all rooted in the same oppression that causes a group of people to internalize the oppression they've experienced and then continue the cycle of abuse. Simply put, hurt people hurt people."

"What defines someone as a 'man' should not be the clothes they wear or how deep their voice is. It should be the content of his character, his strength in the face of overwhelming adversity, and his ability to still love and help others when the world has turned its back on him."

"My main thing is obviously mental health and well-being, and then my second passion would be politics; the third would be fashion."

"My family is Jamaican and Cuban, but we would go to see our Jamaican side every summer for three months and every Christmas. One of the things I used to love was climbing trees and picking ackee fruit for breakfast."

"My background is in social work and psychotherapy."

"For many gay and bisexual men of color, economic inequalities add to the pernicious effects of oppression and homophobia."

"The funny thing is, we teach - as a culture, we teach people that it's OK to talk about your fitness goals... Like, I want to be more physically fit, I want to drop 10 pounds, but no one's talking about how I can spend 10 days to get happier."

"I want a big wedding."

"I don't like the term 'coming out' because it gives the power to the other person."

"In our country, being from immigrant parents, growing up black in the South, coming out at 16 years old, being a teen parent... you would assume that my life would amount to nothing. And here I stand today. So, if I can do it... you can, too!"

"Any parent who says parenting came easily to them is not being honest with themselves. Parenting is hard."

"I think dating apps are keeping us apart."

"We're so divided as a world that we don't often have the opportunity to sit down and talk to people who are different to us. We're so ready to always be right that we sometimes forget it's OK to listen."

"The worst thing about our political system is that people debate; I wish our politicians were able to talk to each other rather than scream while trying to gain sound bites."

"I have been a proud, openly gay man since I was 18."

"It's been more than a decade since 'The Real World: Philadelphia' aired. I've grown up. My views have evolved, as has the media landscape."

"While the Internet has allowed for some extraordinary progress in creating conversations about diversity, it also allows uninformed comments that one has made in the past to live forever."

"It is important to remember that if we treat people who could be allies as enemies, we can only alienate them from our cause."

"In 2007, I discovered I was a father to a little boy who I did not know about. After being on MTV's 'The Real World' and traveling the world, I was greeted by a stack of papers on my doorstep informing me that I had a child."

"We must be vigilant in sharing our stories and our truths as queer parents of color at every chance we get if we hope to see art imitate real life."

"We must do our part to make ourselves visible to the world. Let everyone see that being a queer parent of color is normal and happening right next door to them."

"Encourage your friend and family member who are queer parents of color to post their stories and share it with the world. It's time for us to be seen."

"The black community can be competitive and cautious when it comes to those we want put on display for the world to see and judge. We are a prideful people who believe that anything that will make us seem 'less than' should be hidden."

"The perpetuation of family and cultural pressures to conform to prescribed masculine behaviors is what creates social isolation and distress in many young gay and trans people of color."

"Southern black gay and bi men are suffering from a self-esteem issue."

"Life experiences with oppression and homophobia often become internalized and can have detrimental effects on the development of positive sexual identity for Southern black gay men."

"By no means am I excusing homophobic rap lyrics, but as a product of the same environments that birthed hip-hop, I fully understand why those lyrics existed."

"Historically, hip-hop is about a generation of artists rapping about the realities they see in their neighborhoods or the 'truths' they hear growing up in their homes."

"The marginalization of African-Americans within their own community based on sexuality is a construct that is more complex than the idea that 'blacks just hate gays.'"