"I see people as they really are from a pure point of view"
About this Quote
The line works because it’s slippery. “People as they really are” sounds like realism, even blunt honesty, but Ra’s realism is cosmic. He’s not promising courtroom evidence; he’s offering liberation from the usual lenses. That’s the subtext: if your world has been trained to misread you, you survive by inventing a perspective that can’t be policed. “Pure” becomes a shield against the contaminations of stereotype and a stage light that reveals the performances everyone is forced to do.
Context matters. Mid-century America demanded legibility from Black artists: be authentic, be palatable, be explainable. Sun Ra answered by becoming willfully illegible - robes, chants, big band chaos, joy as insurgency. This quote is his quiet manifesto: the authority to define reality belongs to whoever can imagine it wider.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Ra, Sun. (2026, January 15). I see people as they really are from a pure point of view. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-see-people-as-they-really-are-from-a-pure-point-170308/
Chicago Style
Ra, Sun. "I see people as they really are from a pure point of view." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-see-people-as-they-really-are-from-a-pure-point-170308/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I see people as they really are from a pure point of view." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-see-people-as-they-really-are-from-a-pure-point-170308/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.








