The census keeps counting us by race for purposes of undoing racial harm in the past. - Nell Irvin Painter

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

Visual art is very freeing, because it answers only to the eye.

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.