21st Century African American Women

"It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president. This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries. But, after consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual."

"What we offer to the world will depend on Harvard’s courage—our courage—to ask two questions that propel our work—Why? and Why not? And it will depend on the courage to answer, with confidence, two others: Why here? and Why now?"

"By increasing access to our magnificent collections, verging now on half a billion items, we cast the myriad elements of civilization into the living world—in all their error, and wisdom, and beauty—to be reconsidered, remade, and remembered by the next generation."

"The challenges, of course, are not unique to Harvard. At the top of the list, I’d put declining trust in higher education and fewer people understanding the value of higher education for both individuals and society. That’s an existential challenge for us as an institution. The silver lining is that there are many potential partners as we make the case for why what we do matters and how it contributes to making the world a better place and enables all of us to thrive."

"The political polarization doesn’t help, but it is striking that the erosion in public trust is bipartisan. That should be telling us something, that there’s a broad-based questioning of the value of higher education. Yes, there are some elements that are being inflected by partisan politics, but this is pretty widespread."

"Betraying my bias as a political scientist, I’m really excited about what we can do around democracy. We’re at a moment where it’s important for those of us who are champions of democracy to help the world understand how to make democracies work: How democratic governance and democratic practices can actually — if well done — solve crises and solve people’s problems."

"Family, friends, colleagues, students and postdocs, alumni, distinguished guests. I stand before you today humbled by the prospect of leading Harvard, emboldened by the trust you have placed in me, and energized by your own commitment to this singular institution and to the common cause of higher education."

"The biggest takeaway from my own research is just how important it is for people to feel seen and heard. Even when they disagree, it is critically important for their values, interests, and preferences to be recognized by leadership and integrated into the thinking of leaders. That’s probably the biggest thing. That’s one of the reasons my starting point in any decision-making process involves trying to understand the perspectives of the various stakeholders around an issue. I do that not with the expectation that I can satisfy everyone, but with an understanding that those perspectives need to be part of the consideration I bring to any issue."

"There are three things that I always look for. I look for a commitment to excellence, because that’s what it means to be at Harvard. I look for commitment to collaboration, because I believe that no one has a monopoly on insight — even if it’s in your area and you are an expert. And I look for commitment to the mission, because that’s why we’re all here. I expect that from any member of a team that I lead and collaborate with. From there, we get to the unique requirements of a position and the unique contributions or assets that an individual might bring to the role."

"Both of my parents, each on their own, left everything they knew in Haiti to forge new lives in the United States. And because they understood that coming to America was not enough, they eagerly sought college education—to ensure the future they wanted for themselves and for their family."

"I talked about the opportunity for Harvard to be more connected to the world by centering the most pressing challenges that the world faces as University priorities. For me, those include democracy and all the ways in which democracy is faltering around the globe, the climate crisis, and inequality, to name a few. Harvard has a lot to bring to the table for society’s urgent priorities. There are also “frontier” opportunities that Harvard is uniquely positioned to exploit."

"I love this place. Harvard is where I found my intellectual home. It has nurtured and inspired me since I first set foot in the Yard. I am deeply invested, not only in what Harvard is today, but also in what Harvard’s leadership means for the future."

"Not four hundred yards from where I stand, some four centuries ago, four enslaved people—Titus, Venus, Bilhah, and Juba—lived and worked in Wadsworth House as the personal property of the president of Harvard University. My story is not their story. I am a daughter of Haitian immigrants to this country. But our stories—and the stories of the many trailblazers between us—are linked by this institution’s long history of exclusion and the long journey of resistance and resilience to overcome it."

"It is a singular honor to be a member of this university, which has been my home and my inspiration for most of my professional career. My deep sense of connection to Harvard and its people has made it all the more painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have riven our community in recent months, weakening the bonds of trust and reciprocity that should be our sources of strength and support in times of crisis."

"I'd served the military with honor and distinction and felt things had gone well as a resuly. And I missed that. The best analogy I can think of is to suddenly cross the finish line after running a three-decade marathon. A marathon where the competition and the camaraderie have you feeling pumped about participating every day. I loved the Army, and I loved my service in defense of my country. Consequently, the first four days after I retired was a little weepy, as well as exhausted as hell. After waking up at four that first morning, I lounged in bed until nine o'clock the next three days. That may sound funny to some people, but to me nine o'clock was downright decadent! I did stop sleeping late, but was a lost soul for a good month after retirement. The void retirement had carved into my existence was almost similar to the passing of a friend or relative. I grappled with sadness and fond remembrances and even a little self-pity."

"Looking back on my 34-year Army career, you could really sum it up in two words- caring and serving. I served in defense of the country that I love, and I served people. And I learned a lot by doing both. At the end of the day, I can look back and say that I was a good soldier, a very good troop. And I am fiercely proud of that. The Army provided me an opportunity to be all that I could be, and I think I took full advantage of that opportunity. A famous writer and poet once said that the purpose of life is to count, to have made a difference that you lived at all." I sincerely believe that I contributed and that I made a difference while in the Army. I also believe that I am still making a difference in the lives of others by caring and serving. At the end of the day, that's what life is really all about."

"I'd operated at full-throttle for thirty-four years to push the goals and objectives of the U.S. Army forward. So to wake up one morning and find my appointment calendar totally empty- no brushfires to extinguish or strategic plans to implement- was a truly jarring, discombobulating experience. Not to mention depressing."

"1. Whatever you do, do it with enthusiasm. 2. In all relationships with people, relate to them so that they will speak kindly of you, especially when you are not present. 3. There is only one thing in life over which you have total control, and that is your attitude. 4. Always encourage others, especially youngsters. 5. Taking action will cure most fears. 6. Keep your body tuned. 7. Only to the extent that you love yourself can you ever love another person. 8. Possess high expectations of yourself. After all, it is what you expect of you that really counts. 9. You have choices in all situations- whether you like them or not. 10. To not decide is also a decision. 11. Giving service makes you feel better about yourself that you made a difference in someone's life. 12. It is not what happens to you in life that is important- it's how you react to what happens to you. 13. A good sense of humor will help you over many rough spots. 14. Take your work seriously, but never take yourself too seriously. 15. Above all else, be kind."

"There were about 500 folks in the reviewing stands during my retirement parade at Ft. Belvoir. I thought I would experience a rush of powerful emotions and feelings during my last day in the Army, but that wasn't the case. The day was pretty much a blur, to be truthful. One minute I was in the Army, the next minute I wasn't. When my last day finally wound down, following a reception after my retirement parade, I went home and stood in front of a mirror as I took my uniform off one last time. A weary-looking, fifty-four-year-old black woman stared back. "You are retired," I told her. Instead of reacting visibly, she seemed almost indifferent. Hmmpphh! I took my uniform off and hung it up, as I had done thousands of times. Then I went to bed and immediately fell asleep."

"There is a racial hierarchy in the U.S., and people of color–particularly black people–are at the bottom of it."

"Police brutality against people of color is a spectacular form of the racial violence that our nation’s criminal-justice system inflicts every day. If we back up, we will see that the police encounter that led to Floyd’s death takes place within a larger context of mass incarceration. Presently, there are 2.3 million people housed in the country’s prisons, jails and other criminal-justice facilities. By most measures, this number is remarkable. It means that the U.S. has the largest prison population in the world. China comes in second, imprisoning 1.7 million people–over half a million fewer people than the U.S., in a country of 1.4 billion. The U.S. number translates to the imprisonment of 698 people for every 100,000. This rate dwarfs the incarceration rates of the countries that the U.S. usually thinks of as its peers. Indeed, the rate at which the U.S. incarcerates its population is roughly six times the highest rate of incarceration among Western European nations. While these numbers, in and of themselves, might be disconcerting, they become even more disturbing when we consider the racial geography of the U.S.’s prison population: people of color, particularly black people, are disproportionately represented among those who are incarcerated. While black people constitute 12% of the U.S. population, they constitute 33% of the prison population. Thus, black people are dramatically overrepresented in the country’s prisons and jails. Meanwhile, white people make up 64% of the U.S. population, but they make up just 30% of the prison population."

"Mass incarceration means that this country approaches its problems through the criminal-justice system. When faced with a social ill, our nation responds by building more prisons and jails. Because incarceration is the tool that we use to address societal problems, we have erected few limitations on the police’s ability to keep the social order. Police can stop whomever they want to stop whenever they want to stop them. They can investigate things that have no relation to the reason for the stop. They can use force. They can kill. [...] The criminal-justice system evidences the way a society that should care for and protect its people instead leaves black people susceptible to harm and with little control over their well-being. It does so through the tragically high numbers of black people who are in prisons and jails, in the disproportionate rates of incarceration of black people, in the violence of the tactics that governments have used to police communities of color, in the frequency with which black people’s encounters with the police end in death and in the infrequency with which police officers are indicted and convicted for killing black people. Proof of this country’s racial hierarchy is everywhere. May we dismantle it in all its cruel, life-ending forms."

"We rolled on, down Highway 25 and through the bluegrass hills of Kentucky. Soon we began to see signs. Signs that read: WHITE ONLY, COLORED NOT ALLOWED. Hours later, we left the Bluegrass State and crossed into Tennessee. Now we saw even more of the signs saying WHITE ONLY, COLORED NOT ALLOWED. We saw the signs above water fountains and in restaurant windows. We saw them in ice cream parlors and at hamburger stands. We saw them in front of hotels and motels, and on the restroom doors of filling stations. I didn't like the signs. I felt as if we were in a foreign land."

"Finally we reached Memphis. We got there at a bad time. Traffic was heavy and we got separated from the rest of the family. We tried to find them but it was no use. W had to go on alone. We reached the Mississippi state line and soon after we heard a police siren. A police car came up behind us. My father slowed the Cadillac, then stopped. Two white policemen got out of their car. They eyeballed the Cadillac and told my father to get out. "Whose car is this, boy?" they asked. I saw anger in my father's eyes. "It's mine," he said. "You're a liar," said one of the polciemen. "You stole this car.""

"Still though, I often thought of that Cadillac. We had had the Cadillac for only a little more than a month, but I wouldn't soon forget its splendor or how I'd felt riding around inside it. I wouldn't soon forget either the ride we had taken south in it. I would remember that ride and the gold Cadillac all my life."

"“Many women I met during my time in the academy were very good to me. But in the wake of everything I lost, I wanted to reclaim parts of me with some semblance of wholeness before everything was burned in the fire. To do that, I needed to reconnect with people who knew me before I began chasing whatever success I thought I'd find being an acclaimed Womanist scholar. I need the people who knew me when my dreams were big, and my spirit and heart were unbroken.”"

"So I am the daily help. Educational, what is my title? My boss is probably gonna listen to me. I am the daily lifestyle education and health writer at the grill, which is a black media news, space. And I so I do that my podcast actually will have a podcast with them. And that will drop soon. And other than that I am as a theologian, the work that I do is I work with churches and nonprofit organizations to really think about bit more critically about issues of gender, equity and faith. And what it means to think much more broadly and much more intentionally about our faith lives and how it intersects with the other work that we need to do in the world to bring about change."

"Jun 6, 2019 - “Folks be having issues with you they concocted in their own hearts and minds. Let them have that and go on with your magical .."

"It’s an open letter to toxic lovers and the baggage left over when unloving, unhealthy and uneven relationships end. For Black women, relationships often come at the expense of their own well-being. “We pay with our bodies,” Benbow writes. “Sometimes our lives. And even in that trauma, we still find ways to sow deeper into the love we have for you, hoping it will get better.”"

"1 Nov 2023 — Knowing I'd willingly accept responsibility if it meant starting over. But we're never supposed to say that out loud. It betrays all nouveau .."

"5 Jul 2017 — 1“I'm glad you've grown and are finding your way. But how am I supposed to celebrate growth that happened at my expense? What am I to make of a ..."

"There is no shame in asking for help; it takes strength to admit you need it."

"7 Feb 2022 — And God is not this petty man that is waiting for me to…that always knew I was gonna mess up this way and is withholding certain things for me, ..."

"For women of color, the expectation that we prioritize gender over race, that we treat the patriarchy as something that gives all men the same power, leaves many of us feeling isolated."

"Politeness as filtered through fragility and supremacy isn't about manners; it's about a methodology of controlling the conversation."

"America loves the myth of a meritocracy more than anything else, because it lets us ignore the reality of the impact of bigotry."

"Poverty is an apocalypse in slow motion, inexorable and generational."

"An intersectional approach to feminism requires understanding that too often mainstream feminism ignores that Black women and other women of color are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine of hate."

"The problem has never been the ways that victims don’t tell, so much as it has been that some victims aren’t seen as valuable enough to protect."

"There’s nothing feminist about having so many resources at your fingertips and choosing to be ignorant. Nothing empowering or enlightening in deciding that intent trumps impact. Especially when the consequences aren’t going to be experienced by you, but will instead be experienced by someone from a marginalized community."

"Sometimes being a good ally is about opening the door for someone instead of insisting that your voice is the only one that matters."

"One of the biggest issues with mainstream feminist writing has been the way the idea of what constitutes a feminist issue is framed. We rarely talk about basic needs as a feminist issue. Food insecurity and access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. Instead of a framework that focuses on helping women get basic needs met, all too often the focus is not on survival but on increasing privilege. For a movement that is meant to represent all women, it often centers on those who already have most of their needs met."

"We have to be willing to embrace the full autonomy of people who are less privileged and understand that equity means making access to opportunity easier, not deciding what opportunities they deserve."

"Too often white women decide that when they feel uncomfortable, upset, or threatened, they can turn to the patriarchy for protection. Because they don't want to lose that protection (dubious as it is), they stand by when it's convenient, and challenge it only when it directly threatens them. Yet, they know they benefit from it being challenged, and thus rely on others to do the heaviest lifting. They fail to recognize the conflicted relationship they have with the patriarchy includes a certain cowardice around challenging not only it, but other women who have embraced it."

"My grandmother remains—despite her futile efforts to make me more ladylike—one of the most feminist women I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, and yet she would never have carried that label. Because so much of what feminists had to say of her time was laden with racist and classist assumptions about women like her, she focused on what she could control and was openly disdainful of a lot of feminist rhetoric. But she lived her feminism, and her priorities were in line with womanist views on individual and community health."

"Learning to defend myself, to be willing to take the risk of being a bad girl, was a process with a steep learning curve. But like with so many other things, I learned how to stand up even when other people were certain I should be content to sit down. Being good at being bad has been scary, fun, rewarding, and ultimately probably the only path that I was ever meant to walk."

"No woman has to be respectable to be valuable."

"You are not in competition with anyone else in life. You get to run your own race."

"If you have medicine that could change someone’s life, you are honor-bound to share it."

"I am living proof that you may be shy, introverted or maybe even a bit anxious and can still put your voice in the world. Your voice matters."