Our search for understanding in matters of race automatically inclines us toward blackness. - Nell Irvin Painter

Just because you say that things in the 21 century are not the same as they were in the 20th century, doesnt mean that you're saying that we're in a post-racial society. We are not in a post-racial society, but things are not like they were in the age of segregation or slavery.

I think that’s the kind of relationship between recognition and black women. That you have to be an optimist to think something’s going to work out and just keep trying because if you concentrate on the really awful actual facts of life, then you’ll just crawl into bed and pull the covers over your head.

What has changed in the 21st century is that what we think of as class privilege can go a long way in blunting the color phobia