Anger is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change.

I am a post-mastectomy woman who believes our feelings need voice in order to be recognized, respected, and of use.

I remember how being young and black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell.

Black women sharing close ties with each other, politically or emotionally, are not the enemies of Black men.

But, on the other hand, I get bored with racism too and recognize that there are still many things to be said about a Black person and a White person loving each other in a racist society.

Out of my flesh that hungers and my mouth that knows comes the shape I am seeking for reason.

Pain is important: how we evade it, how we succumb to it, how we deal with it, how we transcend it. ... pain will always either change or stop. Always. ... The confidence that it will change is what makes bearing it possible. So pain is fluid. It is only when you conceive of it as something static that it is unbearable.