Passion without purpose is like a shot without a target.

On occasion we stumble upon what seems to be a truth. Compared to the surrounding blackness, it sparkles and dazzles our eyes. But are these actually truths? Are our eyes really feasting upon light? Or...

Caucasian”, most of them little realizing that the term and its history are as constructed as anything sold in the fantasy section of a bookstore.These are proven strategies, but I have no interest in them....

The next time you get scared, get sacred!

John will never forsake the weak and the helpless, nor fail to bring hope to the hopeless. That is what they believe, and so they do not worry. They go on and laugh and sing....

Whose little boy are you?

A tightrope walker uncertain if he could make it to the other side probably would not. A race car driver wondering if he was taking a turn too fast was likely to lose control. If...

I am an American, proud to be an American, proud to be a black American. I’m not African-American. I’ve never been to Africa. I’m an American that is black and my　– and I’m proud to...

…to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching. It kills one’s aspirations and...

Entering the foyer, Royale already decided that he would thank Shake once more for being by his side at Keena’s recital. But she stunned him by eagerly waiting for him just like old times—on her...

Literature is indispensable to the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way a person looks at reality, then you can change...

It was just a word. It took nothing from him. It made him feel only as low as he allowed himself to feel. His own brother used it in conversation habitually. But not in the...

and everybody was happy that uncle lee was able to get that scholarship even though you wondered when you could do quadratic equations in your head why you had a basketball scholarship but you always...

Slavery is a memory of something we cannot remember, and yet we cannot forget.

Pastor McFucking Bride this . . . Pastor McFucking Bride that. Fuck him!

Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.

The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans. I say, the trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans.

Pregressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensity social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it...

Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form.

The men her girlfriends dated were too often angry and muttering about oppression. One of the reasons she took to Skeet later in life was that he never went to that place; he believed with...

I’ll go further and say she was one of the best cooks in the world! The compimentary expression, “This food will make you slap yo’ Aint Emma” was apt in her case.

Whenever a word ”nigga” is spoken, It’s always followed by the same question, Can white people say nigger ?and the correct answer is Not really.

When he spoke of love, it was in the manner of someone who can recite a phrase in a foreign language but has no idea what it means. He only knows that it sounds pretty.

Say a white boy takes a wrong turn and comes to my hood,” he once said. “Now he’s in the minority––nobody wants him there, unless it’s to rob his ass––and more than anything he has...

The white folks like for us to be religious, then they can do what they want to with us.

It doesn’t happen to me anymore, because a fresh generation of Africans and Asians has arisen to take over the business, but in my early years in Washington, D.C., I would often find myself in...

Was love ever easy for anyone? If less complicated, would this make it less appreciated? Perhaps love was difficult for good reason. Perhaps everything on God’s green earth was the result of a flawless plan,...

The disobedience if Eve in the Genesis story has been used to justify women’s inequality and suffering in many Christian traditions. Thus, what is understood as women’s complicity in evil leads much traditional theological reflection...

I was just trying to demonstrate to the students of Rowland University that Rowland University was not infinite. It had taken me a long time to figure out what the problem was, but one day...

I don’t like the way people cherish the ghetto, as if it’s some royal palace, or kingdom. I also don’t like the way people treat each other in the ghetto. It is really hard to...

He now realized that right and wrong were intertwined notions. His arms could not differentiate between just and unjust causes. They only knew that they were empty.

Why is it deemed justifiable and appropriate for cops/policeofficers to kill other cops (friendly–fire) and citizens?Why do cops kill?Are they not taught to maim or slow down someone runningor reaching for a weapon?If not, why...

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, — this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes...

When I was a child, to call someone ‘black’ was an insult, a curse word, something that made you fight.But to me it contains all of the history of oppression and resistance, of being close...

It was his experience that life worked under the same guidelines as a capitalistic society. In order to get what you wanted, it was usually necessary to give up something in return. Sometimes gaining what...

The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth.

It is not enough for the Negroes to declare that color-prejudice is the sole cause of their social condition, nor for the white South to reply that their social condition is the main cause of...

I always root for the black man, like penance for something I had not part in creating.

Time had taught him that whether his sins were pardoned or left unforgiven, they would remain committed. Tomorrow he would hopefully choose wiser, with a stronger measure of compassion.

We all have scars. Just because mine are hidden doesn’t make them any less painful.

If it supports the liberation struggle of Black people then it is good. If it is in opposition to the liberation struggle of Black people then it is bad. If it supports the liberation struggle...

If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.- Toni Morrison

DNA has memory!

There were many tomorrows to be lived through his children. He could only hope that they would face them more courageously than he had, that his mistakes would serve as warning signs rather than crutches...

If I weren’t so screwed up, I would’ve sold my soul a long time ago for a handsome man who made me feel pretty or who could at least treat me to a Millionaire’s Martini....

America is a young dumb country and it needs all kinds of help. America is a dumb puppy with big teeth that bite and hurt. And we take care of America. We hold America to...

Words are power. The more words you know and can recognize, use, define, understand, the more power you will have as a human being… The more language you know, the more likely it is that...