Most activism is brought about by us ordinary people.

The role model approach to social change is no substitute for challenging unjust employment practices, educational policies and housing.

That which commands admiration in the white woman only hastens the degradation of the female slave.

Challenging power structures from the inside, working the cracks within the system, however, requires learning to speak multiple languages of power convincingly.

Work for black women has been an important and valued dimension of Afrocentric definitions of black motherhood.

To maintain their power, dominant groups create and maintain a popular system of 'commonsense' ideas that support their right to rule. In the United States, hegemonic ideologies concerning race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation are often so pervasive that it is difficult to conceptualize alternatives to them, let alone ways of resisting the social practices that they justify.

Black women's feelings of responsibility for nurturing the children in their own extended family networks have stimulated a more generalized ethic of care where black women feel accountable to all the black community's children.