They wanted black women to conform to the gender norms set by white society. They wanted to be recognized as 'men,' as patriarchs, by other men, including white men. Yet they could not assume this position if black women were not willing to conform to prevailing sexist gender norms. Many black women who has endured white-supremacist patriarchal domination during slavery did not want to be dominated by black men after manumission.

Imagine how much easier it would be for us to learn how to love if we began with a shared definition.

The political core of any movement for freedom in the society has to have the political imperative to protect free speech.

The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is-it’s to imagine what is possible.

Once you do away with the idea of people as fixed, static entities, then you see that people can change, and there is hope.

Secrets find a way out in sleep . . . It is the place where there is no pretense.

I want there to be a place in the world where people can engage in one another’s differences in a way that is redemptive, full of hope and possibility. Not this “In order to love you, I must make you something else”. That’s what domination is all about, that in order to be close to you, I must possess you, remake and recast you.