21st Century African American Women

"The USPS situation is very serious because we need a national postal service. That’s also just an extension of the whole conservative movement’s attack on public services, period. It’s tied to the elections, but it’s also just about this whole effort to try and privatize everything. That’s why having a systemic analysis is really important—because then you understand the throughline with all of those things and how all of those things are connected."

"A major disconnect between the people and the politics is one of the things that the housing crisis has made even clearer. There are millions of people facing eviction right now, and from the way that these politicians are acting around this issue, you would not think they saw the same thing. I think it just shows how this is something that doesn't touch them—they have health care, they have housing, you know what I mean? They’re so disconnected from the reality of how many other people are living, I don’t think that they really recognize just how wide that wealth inequality is. The politicians are generally not able to respond because they’re so disconnected from that experience."

"The conversation around the need to defund and abolish police is still a new concept for a lot of folks. They still don’t quite understand that concept, like how we could have a society without police forces, but everybody understands that the rent is too high. But of course that intersects with policing all these other issues—that’s what you can bring everybody to the table around."

"Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work. If you’re focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don’t have, focusing on the limitations, then you will be limited."

"So I came to realize that those dreams I'd been dreaming, what was the problem, what was so off, what was the error. It's cuz the dreams are too small. If your dream only includes you, it's too small. If that dream is just about the thing you want to accomplish, and you don't even know why you want it, I mean it's too small. It may take your attention, but you're not really winning. You may achieve it, but you're not growing from it. You're just going from thing to thing. It may look like success from the outside but if you don't even truly know how you're doing it, then your cause and effect will be off and you're not gonna be fully truly living your dreams."

"I definitely had the team in my best interest, and that’s why I decided to pull out. I didn’t want to potentially lose a medal spot for them, because the girls were more than prepared to go in and to do their job, which they did. My body and my mind just said no. Even I didn’t know what I was going through it, until it just happened.... Train five years and it doesn’t go the way you wanted. But I know that I helped a lot of people and athletes speak out about mental health and saying no."

"Over the years, obviously since I’ve been so dominant, everybody supported the gymnastics and praised me for what I’ve done in the gym — and not really outside (of the gym)."

"I feel like I realized that power after I came out, after the #MeToo movement, and that was kind of scary. But it’s like, wow, my presence is very big in gymnastics but also online, just in the world in general. So I have to be a bit careful about what I say."

"I’m going to go out there and represent the U.S.A., represent World Champions Centre, and represent Black and brown girls over the world. At the end of the day, I’m not representing U.S.A. Gymnastics."

"It's so crazy. I'm happy I was able to get back out there and do one more routine, especially since I had the girls there rooting me on as well as the guys. It just felt really amazing. I'm proud of myself for the way I pushed through and even learned that dismount that I haven't done in years. And just put up a good set, that's all I really wanted. I wasn't expecting to walk away with a medal or anything, I just wanted to go out there and do it for myself. And I did."

"I am going back home in one piece, which I was a little bit nervous about. It's not how I wanted it to go, but I think we've opened bigger doors and bigger conversations."

"We're not just athletes or entertainment -- we're human, too, and we have real emotions. Sometimes they don't realize that we have things going on behind the scenes that affects us whenever we go out and compete."

"Life just happens so quickly and now I have a greater appreciation for life after everything that's happened in the last five years."

"I decided to pull myself out so if anything, I think by having me not in competition they won the medal because if I would have been in, I would have gotten more lost in the air and had a fall and potentially injured myself and you can't replace an athlete. It could have gone a lot of different ways, but people don't know the rules. They think 'Well, she just quit,' and I'm like, 'No, I don't think so.'"

"She’s the saving grace for U.S.A. Gymnastics, whether they have admitted it or not. Boy, they are a mess. If it wasn’t for her, I really don’t know how they would still be around."

"Simone is so good that the rest of us can only hope to finish second to her in the all-around. What else can you do? She does all sorts of crazy things no one else can do."

"But at the end of the day it’s like, we want to walk out of here, not be dragged out here on a stretcher. I just don’t trust myself as much as I used to. And I don’t know if it’s age—I’m a little bit more nervous when I do gymnastics. I feel like I’m also not having as much fun, and I know that."

"When we are combating a deadly virus & vaccine hesitancy, this kind of rhetoric is dangerous. Showing proof of vaccination is not slavery or birtherism. We are too close to give ground to COVID. Science is science. It's pretty simple - Vax up and mask up."

"Anyone in a position of leadership should be using that position to build trust in vaccines"

"There's a long history in this country of people needing to show their papers During slavery, post-slavery, as recent as you know what immigrant population has to go through here we want to make sure that we are not doing anything that would further create a barrier for residents of Boston or disproportionally impact [Black, Indigenous or people of color] communities hurdles facing communities of color with lower vaccination rates must consider our shared history as we work to ensure an equitable public health and economic recovery"

"Payne Stewart had W.W.J.D. [What Would Jesus Do?]. I have W.W.M.D."

"What can I say? When I think of her, I think of grace. She’s the most unique individual. I love Mellody Hobson."

"She said she wanted to be unapologetically black and unapologetically a woman. My life was altered by meeting her, and that’s not something I say lightly. She is such a big part of my path taken. I think she does that for everyone."

"She has a grace and graciousness about her that is singular. She is remarkably unique. She’s a stunning person. I get a little nervous talking about her because the words are so flowery. But it’s truly how I feel about her."

"…When I read comics, I’m helping people to appreciate the power of pictures with words, and of words with pictures. Reading a comic, or a graphic novel, is different from reading a novel or describing a picture book. I care about pace, setting, tension, and the lives of my characters. I need to let my drawings speak for themselves while also narrating a story that benefits from this interplay of picture and verse…"

"…I consider these fantasy and futuristic visions as absurd as me acquiescing to someone else’s ideas about what counts as acceptable, attractive and beautiful. These parody ads are my attempt to envision a different future, in which black women inquire and inspire while loving their hair."

"…I’m curious about how my memories — and other people’s memories, too — are tied to the senses, particularly touch. Memories triggered by engagement with one or more of the five senses can conjure up transformative moments in a person’s life. Unexpected sounds, scents, tastes, sights, and tactile experiences can move people outside the present moment and into a more playful space where past, present, and future come together…"

"My process for making comics for research is very different from fiction and creative nonfiction comics. I studied how groups of young children and graduate students drew together, used drawing to play and pretend together, and drew as a means of creating new knowledge…"

"Write about whatever random-ass black thing you want to write about. Or not. The only way that our literature will continue to grow is if we accept and acknowledge that nothing we write will change the hearts and minds of people who don’t want their hearts and minds changed…"

"I don’t think I need to succeed so that the race can succeed. We’ve seen that. We’ve been succeeding since we were sneaking to learn how to read. We’ve been showing ourselves to be exceptional, and it doesn’t change anything. I understand that burden; I do not feel that burden. I feel the burden on the page when writing a story to do justice to the black people I am rendering, but I don’t necessarily believe that my successes or failure will have some greater impact on the way that people view black people…"

"Any realistic depiction of Detroit should include the blight and frustration that come with living there, but it should also show regular people experiencing joy."

"No outside pressure could live up to the pressure I’ve always put on myself as a writer…"

"There were safety issues, the City let the lights remain off in certain areas, and there were no services. I wondered, how did this happen? I was exploring what it feels like to know things are changing and shifting."

"It’s important for African Americans to find sources of pride as society turns away from valuing us."

"There is a reason for African Americans to feel a lot of pride. Detroiters faced a lot of obstacles related to home ownership, which was a cornerstone of the American dream, but they achieved it nonetheless."

"You've got to navigate what might feel just completely opaque by yourself in a lot of ways. There are the sort of fellow travelers, but you have to decide what is it going to feel like? What is going to feel satisfactory to you? And that is what I think about when I think about the title, is these women are navigating the wilderness."

"These women, they don't just have deep emotional lives, but they are, you know, thinking about the world. They're thinking about art. They're thinking about things that are bigger than just reactions to circumstances."

"There's something universal about the experience of navigating middle life or into middle life, which is that there are just a lot fewer guideposts."

"I wanted to think about the beginnings and what it feels like to have a kind of rupture with someone you love, or you grew up loving, and for it to kind of just bloom into this insurmountable distance between the two of you."

"Whether it's 'cause you move away or because your lives are just sort of diverging, you have to keep choosing to be a part of this friendship."

"There’s a disconnect between how people imagine their families and how families are in real life."

"He needed someone to trustworthy to deal with Faten, and he knew Raouf would not let him down."

"Lucky Aziz. He curses his own luck."

"We're so blinded by our love of the West that we're willing to give them our brightest instead of keeping them here where we need them."

"Better than the Moroccans themselves."

"A bit salty dear," she said. Faten smiled, grateful for the truth."

"She did not notice the fading afternoon light that lengthened the shadows behind her, framing her body like the arches of a shrine."

"He couldn't understand these foreigners. They could go to a nice hotel, have a clean bed, go to the beach or the pool, and here they were in the worst part of town, looking around for something exotic."

"She had to do something for her future—today."

"Nothing new has ever happened to a son of Adam, she said. Everything has already been lived and everything has already been told. If only we listened to the stories. (p52)"