“I reveled in the smallness, the coziness of an upstairs bedroom in a traditional American Cape Cod house the half-floor that forces you to duck, to feel small and naive again, ready for anything, dying for love, your body a chimney filled with odd, black smoke. These square, squat, awkward rooms are like a fifty-square-foot paean to teenage-hood, to ripeness, to the first and last taste of youth.” FeelsFirstsBodyLastsHouseForceBlackRoomsHalfFeetDyingLove YouYouthReadyTasteFilledYour BodyTraditionalSmokeOddFiftySquaresDucksAwkwardBedroomTeenageNaiveHoodUpstairsCapesChimneysSmallnessSquatFirsts And LastsCape CodRipeness Author:Gary Shteyngart
“Love yourself. Just love yourself. In fact, the love of the self cures every kind of problem you have with yourself. For instance, if someone calls you nappy-headed, it rolls right off your body, if you love nappy hair. Or if someone calls you buck-toothed or too black, that won't be a problem if you love being buck-toothed or black. If you love it, then so what. The development of self-love cures many of the ills that people suffer from.” PeopleIfsKindSelfFactsProblemBodySufferingBlackLove IsLove YouHairDevelopmentSelf LoveYour BodyCuresInstanceLove YourselfBucksJust Love YourselfNappies Author:Alice Walker
“Ah, Christ, I love you rings to the wild sky And I must think a little of the past: When I was ten I told a stinking lie That got a black boy whipped.” ThinkingLittlesPastLyingBlackChristBoysSkyLove YouTenGuiltRingsChristmasBlack Boy Book:Collected Poems, 1919-1976 Source: Collected Poems, 1919-1976
“Growing up as a black kid with a white father who loves you, who affirms you, who was part of your life is fundamentally different than what black people in my family were subjected to in the 19th century or the 18th century. But unfortunately, it doesn't change the old racial order. I think we need to let the old racial order just stay where it is and not seek to improve upon it. Not try to create more racial categories, because all that does is it makes a race stick around longer.” PeopleThinkingNeedsTryingDoeDifferentKidsLife IsOrderFatherBlackWhiteRaceGrowing UpGrowingCenturyLove YouMy FamilySticksCategoriesBlack People19th Century18th Century Author:Benjamin Jealous
“I think this is what people misunderstand about Martin Luther King saying to love your enemies. They think he was just using this silly little phrase, but what he meant was that as Black Americans we need to let our anger go, because holding on to it we hold ourselves down. We oppress ourselves by holding on to anger.” PeopleThinkingNeedsLittlesBlackEnemyLove YouKingsSillyPhrasesLutherHolding OnLove Your EnemiesSilly Little Author:Bell Hooks