Daily Inspiration Quote by Colin Powell

Progressive silence can be its own kind of insult, and Powell skewers it with a soldier’s blunt timing. The line pivots on a sharp trap: interviewers think they’re showing enlightenment by treating his race as irrelevant, as if omission equals equality. Powell answers with a darker truth about American storytelling. Race is “invisible” only when it’s convenient, only when naming it might force a newsroom to confront how power, access, and exception-making actually work.

The subtext is less about identity than about control of the narrative. Powell isn’t asking to be reduced to “a Black general” as a novelty; he’s pointing out that the media’s selective description is a moral performance. When the subject is achievement, the label gets dropped to signal progress. When the subject is crime, the label returns because it serves an explanatory function the culture still craves: race as shortcut, race as motive, race as warning label. The mordant punch line - “If I shot somebody you’d mention it” - exposes how quickly supposedly neutral reporting can revert to old reflexes.

Context matters: Powell rose through institutions where race was never absent, just differently spoken. As a high-ranking Black figure in U.S. government and the military, he was constantly framed as symbol, exception, or proof of progress. His intent is to deny the press an easy absolution. Don’t congratulate yourself for not seeing color, he’s saying; notice when you only “see” it to assign suspicion.