“Black was bestlooking. ... Ebony was the best wood, the hardest wood; it was black. Virginia ham was the best ham. It was black on the outside. Tuxedos and tail coats were black and they were a man's finest, most expensive clothes. You had to use pepper to make most meats and vegetables fit to eat. The most flavorsome pepper was black. The best caviar was black. The rarest jewels were black: black opals, black pearls.” MenUseBlackFitClothesWoodsHardestMeatExpensiveVegetablesTailsFinestCoatsPearlsJewelsVirginiaHamPeppersCaviarTuxedosOpalExpensive ClothesBlack Pearl Author:Ann Petry
“Grief does not end and love does not die and nothing fills its graven place. With grace, pain is transmuted into the gold of wisdom and compassion and the lesser coin of muted sadness and resignation; but something leaden of it remains, to become the kernel arond which more pain accretes (a black pearl): one pain becomes every other pain ... unless one strips away, one by one, the layers of pain to get to the heart of the pain - and this causes more pain, pain so intense as to feel like evisceration.” FeelsHeartDoeEndsPainSufferingDiesCausesBlackGriefCompassionGraceSadnessGoldAnd LoveRemainsIntenseLayersPearlsCoinsResignationKernelBlack Pearl Author:Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
“The local-tone is the intrinsic value of a thing - excluding any effects of light. The local-tone of a common pearl is very nearly white; that of a lump of coal, nearly black.” LightValuesBlackWhiteCommonEffectsLocalsToneCoalPearlsLumpsIntrinsic Value Author:Nathan Goldstein
“Black is a pearl in a woman's eye.” EyeBlackPearlsJewels Book:The Works of George Chapman: Plays Source: The Works of George Chapman: Plays
“In the time just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when Perfidia opens, we were pre-psychologized. There were no concepts of identity, no politics of victimization. Reparation wasn't in the language. Nobody thought about giving the great grandchildren of black slaves so much as $1.98. And all of a sudden the bombs hit, interventionism versus isolationism became a dead issue, and it was us-versus-them in a heartbeat.” GivingLanguageBlackIssuesIdentityConceptsSlaveBombsPearlsGrandchildrenVersusHeartbeatHarborsBombingReparationsVictimizationGreat GrandchildrenIsolationismInterventionism Author:James Ellroy