I merged those two words, black and feminist, because I was surrounded by black women who were very tough and and who always assumed they had to work and rear children and manage homes.

Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are.

Black people have always been used as a buffer in this country between powers to prevent class war.

I'm always annoyed about why black people have to bear the brunt of everybody else's contempt. If we are not totally understanding and smiling, suddenly we're demons.

Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form.

She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it's there, because it can't hurt, and because what difference does it make?