"My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession, where class and race were very important"
About this Quote
The pivot is “in a British colonial possession,” a phrase that strips the romance from “the Caribbean” or “the islands” and replaces it with ownership. He doesn’t even name the place; he names the power structure. “Possession” makes people and land part of the same inventory. That choice matters coming from a performer whose stardom often required him to embody dignity inside American storylines built to reassure white audiences. Off-screen, he’s reminding you that dignity wasn’t an aesthetic; it was survival training.
Then the sentence tightens into the real point: “where class and race were very important.” “Important” is understated, almost dry, like a bureaucratic memo - which is exactly the indictment. In colonial societies, class and race aren’t attitudes; they’re infrastructure, enforced through schools, accents, jobs, skin tone, and who gets presumed innocent. Poitier’s intent is to locate his origin not in exceptionalism but in stratification, explaining how his later poise reads less like innate elegance and more like a studied negotiation with hierarchy. It’s a backstory that refuses the Hollywood myth of individual triumph and replaces it with a map of the cage.
Quote Details
| Topic | Father |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Poitier, Sidney. (2026, February 20). My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession, where class and race were very important. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-father-was-a-poor-man-very-poor-in-a-british-11329/
Chicago Style
Poitier, Sidney. "My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession, where class and race were very important." FixQuotes. February 20, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-father-was-a-poor-man-very-poor-in-a-british-11329/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession, where class and race were very important." FixQuotes, 20 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-father-was-a-poor-man-very-poor-in-a-british-11329/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
