The transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation .

What I leave behind has a life of its own.

The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.

I learned so much from listening to people. And all I knew was, the only thing I had was honesty and openness.

Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference - those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are black, who are older - know that survival is not an academic skill...For the master's tools will not dismantle the master's house. They will never allow us to bring about genuine change.

So it is better to speak, remembering we were never meant to survive.

There is no Hierarchy of Oppressions