No other group in America has used black people as metaphors as extensively as white women involved in the women’s movement. - bell hooks

Whether we learn how to love ourselves and others will depend on the presence of a loving environment. Self-love cannot flourish in isolation.

It is necessary to remember, as we think critically about domination, that we all have the capacity to act in ways that oppress, dominate, wound (whether or not that power is institutionalized). It is necessary to remember that it is first the potential oppressor within that we must resist – the potential victim within that we must rescue – otherwise we cannot hope for an end to domination, for liberation.

It’s in the act of having to do things that you don’t want to that you learn something about moving past the self. Past the ego.