Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Aminder Dhaliwal

Quote by Aminder Dhaliwal

“It is self-indulgent to give into Despair--it's easy. Hope, now that takes strength--it takes practice and determination to believe in a better outcome. Don't you dare give into dread. Don't you dare give up!”

Quote by Aminder Dhaliwal

Work

A Witch's Guide to Burning

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Aminder Dhaliwal

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Aminder Dhaliwal. more

You May Also Like

“Dear Black Man (Poem) ***** I love you because you make me feel things that I have never felt before. You erase my pain and you bring me so much gain. You embrace me and hide me in your well built African and manly body. You make me want to never look at other bodies. I love how you cut your hair. I love to feel your love in the air. The texture of your hair, so beautiful, so artistic. Your beautiful smile, so amazing; it reminds me of hiding places. You walk like you own the world; at least, I assure you that you own mine and the rest of my words. Black Man, you are beautiful. Your skin tone is so dark, it makes me want to bark. Please allow me to run my hands on the hills of that skin. You are handsome, my amazing king. The way you speak your language. The way you speak your Xhosa. Your Hausa. Your Zulu. Your Kituba. Your Tswana. Your Lingala. Your Venda. Your Gadomba. Your Tsonga. Your Shona. Your Bateke. Your Ga. Your Sotho. Your Igbo. Your eyes. Black Man, your eyes tell me a story never heard before. You teach me; from your wisdom, I learn. From your strength, I know 'I can'. Black Man, they enslaved you because they found you intimidating. But today, they look for you to be their mate in dating. You look at my stretchmarks with an eye of an artist. You appreciate my big behind with no judgement. You kiss my big lips with love. And in my big thighs, you hide. You love me when I have no hair. You love me when I have fake hair. Black Man, I thought of you and I wrote to you. All hail the Black king! From your Black Woman, (with African curves) .”

“Blackness doesn’t make you less, but it does frame your life. When you walk into a room, so does race. Frankly, it shows up before you do. It colors every conversation, shapes how you’re viewed, determines whether you’re even heard. From the day you get here, Blackness hangs over everything, from comments about your hair (‘Can I touch it?’) to mentions that certain Black people are ‘smart’ (’cause it’s assumed we’re idiots). The message comes through loud and clear: You’re not one of us, you’re less.”

“And the Creator said: With this Afro hair, I crown you as kings and queens. The natural heirs of the Earth. I crown you so that you never need to place a material crown upon your head as proof of your royalty, one wich loses value with time. Your Afro crown remains valuable through all lifetimes. I set you apart from the rest. I keep you covered in a natural shade. I give you hair that retains water, so you remain cool under the Sun. I crown you with natural antennas, connecting you to the skies above. I give you Afro Hair to set you as trees that never decay. Trees that stand tall, firm, and strong through all seasons. I give you this Afro hair as a mark that you're my chosen people.”

“Racist insults leave you feeling dirty because, even at five years old, we already know on some level that, in this society at least, we are indeed lesser citizens with all the baggage of racialised history following us ghost-like about our days. We are conquered people living in the conquerors’ land, and as such we are people without honour. At five years old we are already conscious of the offence caused by our black body turning up in the wrong space, and have begun to internalise the negative ideas about blackness so present in the culture.”

“african american women are easy. inferior. africans are dirty. jungle people. african americans are lazy. indolent. african people are too black. ugly. african americans think they are better than us. africans think they are better us. –– listen to the sound of us | we are breaking our mothers heart | the ancestors weep at how much we look like the hate that came to eat us”