Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm just a kid from El Paso, Texas.
'Malcolm X' is my favorite Spike Lee movie.
I would be very honored to meet President Obama.
My mother never liked that I worked undercover. She always worried.
People in Hollywood will say things one minute and change it the next.
Personally, I never had any negative encounters with the law growing up.
Cross-burning is a domestic act of terrorism. It's been classified as such.
Donald Trump is the physical embodiment of what David Duke wanted to achieve and failed.
You cannot sit quiet while the KKK and other white supremacist groups rear their ugly heads.
The Klan was one of the most violent terrorist groups that has ever existed in the United States.
I went to school with a lot of kids whose fathers and mothers were part of the El Paso black history.
John David captured the 25-year-old essence of me very well. I'm proud to call him a Stallworth brother.
When I became a cadet, I immediately decided I wanted to be an undercover cop because I don't like uniforms.
A lot of people said I tried to speak white on the phone. That is farthest thing from the truth and offensive.
This celebrity thing has been interesting. It's hard to get used to, because I don't see myself as a celebrity.
Racism is a part of human nature, and you're not going to eradicate it; all you can do is try to keep it in check.
When people come up to me and ask for my autograph and everything... I find it funny that people want my autograph.
In my opinion, Spike Lee is a national cultural treasure - to the black community in particular but to America in general.
I had to learn to navigate the political and religious currents in a state where Mormonism dominates despite not being Mormon.
How I conned the Grand Wizard, David Duke, and his coterie of followers... It has defined me in ways I never could have imagined.
Skinheads and Neo-Nazis are commonly known to openly attack people who get in their way or don't agree with them and their agenda.
I think Black Lives Matter is a necessary, modern group of activism and should be applauded. I encourage them to continue in their efforts.
I felt that if the public found out that a black man made a fool of David Duke, his attempts at a political career would have fallen by wayside.
It's kind of like an out of body experience, watching my words being spoken by the actors, watching the portrayal of me by John David Washington.
The military is a microcosm of American society, so it really is not unusual that they would have Klan people and white supremacy people connected to them.
That was part of David Duke's agenda, is to turn the Klan from a racist organization in the eyes of the public into something that is respectable and acceptable.
When you hear Donald Trump say 'America First,' that was a Klan slogan from the early 1900s. Trump simply resurrected it. It's a clear example of his racist attitude.
It was extremely dangerous to be a black man in the KKK. If I'd been exposed, it could have all gone horribly wrong. The Klansmen were armed, and there was always a peril.
Two Klansmen were working for NORAD monitoring U.S. air space for missile attacks. I contacted the Pentagon, and the next day, they were reassigned to a posting near the North Pole.
I didn't take a lot of crap from people, and I didn't follow the conventional rules of behavior that we're supposed to follow - because if I had, I never would have accomplished what I did.
I laugh all the time about our investigation, especially about making a fool of David Duke, who likes to think I don't have the intelligence of an ape because he thinks I'm genetically inferior.
My experience working the KKK assignment influenced the rest of my career in law enforcement in that it taught me to think and act on my own initiative when my superiors in the department stood in my way.
To me, race is the single most divisive factor affecting American society. It's an issue that we are afraid of, that we shy away from, and quite frankly, it amuses me that we are so sensitive to the issue.
In many respects, David Duke was the playbook. He established the playbook by which Donald Trump ran and ultimately became - I won't even use the term - let's just say he became the occupant of the White House.
The black community has always complained about abuse from cops. It's nothing new. But now, more people are seeing visual examples of what they've been complaining about. That's one thing that has changed over time.
I know that in spite of my varied career accomplishments, the one that will always excite and intrigue is the KKK investigation. It has defined me in ways unimaginable and has always fascinated those who hear its tale.
What David Duke was preaching to me in 1978 about the Klan and what the Klan wanted to do regarding immigration is the same rhetoric, the same position that Donald J. Trump advocates and ran on and is trying to implement.
When he was not talking about race, David Duke was a very pleasant guy to talk to. He was a very nice conversationalist. He seemed like a regular guy on the phone when the subject wasn't on race and on Jews and ethnicity.
I've never concerned myself with what anyone thought about my activity, be they people within my profession or people outside of it, and I definitely wouldn't concern myself with anything coming from a racist bigot like a Klan member.
I learned at an early age how to traverse the white world, the white-dominant world. I learned, and I was successful at it. I learned the nuances - I learned how to act, how to be - but I always was conscious and aware of my blackness.
That's one reason I retired as a sergeant and not at a higher rank... I refused to 'play the game' the way the bosses wanted the game played. It is a decision that has cost me money in retirement pay but one that I have never regretted.
I was playing a role and acting. But it was different than Spike Lee's movie. Spike can say 'cut' and move to the next scene. But I was pretending to be a white supremacist, one of them. I had to act like them to make the ruse a success.
The white nationalist position, David Duke has always espoused that. The belief that immigrants are a threat to America and that we need border control, David Duke espoused that, and he talked about it during the time I was dealing with him.
The KKK members that I was dealing with never saw me because my interaction with them occurred over the phone. They were convinced that I was 1) white, and 2) a racial supremacist like them based strictly on my telephone conversation with them.
At various times in my undercover career I had either a full beard, a short-cropped beard, Fu Manchu, a plain simple moustache or just a goatee. We did that - generally we would have a look that we would maintain for anywhere from 3 to 6 months.
Too many people are afraid to talk about the issue of race. We should be willing to address it, and more importantly, when it rears its ugly head, we should be willing to take a stand and try to stomp it out, whatever the action may be at a particular time.
Let's face it. Nobody predicted Trump. He's a fairytale nightmare that none of us could possibly have imagined. Shame on those 63 million who - especially those Obama voters who crossed over and voted, shame on them for putting this idiot in the White House.
It's the whole white-supremacist movement, no matter what they call themselves - be it Klan, Nazis, alt-right, skinheads - the basic ideology is the same. They consider themselves superior to others because of their white skin, and we should not sleep on that.
I wanted to be an undercover cop, blending in with the public, looking like a black militant or a long-haired hippie yet having a gun on my hip, a badge in my wallet, and able to enforce the law. To me, that was the neatest thing in the world. It was also challenging.
I joined the police force with one motivation in mind: to become a high school PE teacher. After a year of working, I realized that a) I was making twice as much money as I would in the teaching profession, and b) I was having too much fun. I stuck it out for 32 years and no regrets.