American Gods (TV Series)

The Greatest Story Ever Told (2019)

Orlando Jones: Mr. Nancy

Quotes 

• Mr. Nancy : [to Bilquis]  My queen, the world assumes white people are naturally good. So when something bad happens, it's a good person doing a bad thing. They assume black people are naturally bad, so when something good happens, it's only a matter of time before that animal's true nature rears its ugly head. How much longer can we afford to wait?

  Mr. Nancy : [to Ibis]  You keep track of days, numbering the years for scribes that record human history. Do you see progress?

  Mr. Nancy : I count one, two, three African gods in this room! And two of them want to exercise restraint? And let the donkey-work continue, while you live your best life? War is upon us!

• Mr. Nancy : You old as dirt, bird-beak. Why the fuck you didn't ride the carousel?

  Mr. Ibis : I choose peace.

  Mr. Nancy : [scoffs]  Egyptians told tales of the sacred Book of Thoth, which contains the secrets of the gods and brings misery, pain, and suffering to anyone who reads it.

  Mr. Ibis : And grants a bird's-eye view to he who writes it. I am old as dirt, and I have seen things as you have.

• Mr. Nancy : You ever notice how traveling makes your mind roll thunder, like a train moving down the track? Except you don't know where the fuck that mind train is headed. And then all of a sudden, plop! An idea shits in your head, and you think that shit smells good. Peace is a beautiful but shitty idea.

• Mr. Nancy : I am not a god, in the sense that I can tolerate exploitation, oppression, and repression. My worshippers know freedom ain't free. They know the most potent weapon of control for the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. They know slavery is not a condition. Slavery is a cult! Human trafficking is a cult! Slavery got a rebrand, like mother fuckin' the alt-right! And snatched - another one gone. Every thirty seconds, another chocolate-brown/caramel/yellow/high-yellow/redbone refugee girl with melanin in her skin gets snatched. Every 30 seconds. And to make matters worse, these dazzling new plantation owners built a pipeline to take our children from school to prison quicker than a cut can bleed. And the lucky ones go from school to the NFL, where they don't even let them niggers take a knee. They've been programmed from birth with shitty food options, contaminated drinking water, gun violence, police brutality, and trauma after trauma after trauma. PTSD? No therapy. Missing? No amber alert. Alone? Vulnerable. Snatched - another one gone.

  Mr. Ibis : I hear you, brother. And I hear them. I hear each voice, and I write each name.

  Bilquis : We have lived long enough to know these troubles are timeless. Suffering is not sacred, and moral law is final.

  Mr. Ibis : And sooner or later, they all lay before me. War need not be the answer.