If you don’t define yourself for yourself then you will be crushed into other's fantasies of you and eaten alive

Next time, ask: What's the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare.

In discussions around the hiring and firing of Black faculty at universities, the charge is frequently heard that Black women are more easily hired than are Black men.

As we come to know, accept, and explore our feelings, they will become sanctuaries and fortresses and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring of ideas-the house of difference so necessary to change and the conceptualization of any meaningful action.

...and that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.

It is never easy to demand the most from ourselves, from our lives, from our work. To encourage excellence is to go beyond the encouraged mediocrity of our society is to encourage excellence. But giving in to the fear of feeling and working to capacity is a luxury only the unintentional can afford, and the unintentional are those who do not wish to guide their own destinies.

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