All The Black Girls Are Bestsellers

“We can’t dismantle the masters house using the masters tools.”

“And this is a good way to stage our discussion of feminism and abolition, which I consider to be essential theories and practices for the twenty-first century. Assata Shakur, exemplifies, within feminist struggles and theories, the way Black women’s representations and their involvement in revolutionary struggle militated against prevailing ideological assumptions about women. In fact, during the latter twentieth century, there were numerous debates about how to define the category “woman.” There were numerous struggles over who got included and who was excluded from that category. And these struggles, I think, are key to understanding why there was some measure of resistance from women of color, and also poor and working-class white women, to identify with the emergent feminist movement.”

“Human sacrifice rather than innocence is the central problem that organizes the carceral geographies of the prison-industrial complex. Indeed, for abolition, to insist on innocence is to surrender politically because innocence evades a problem abolition is compelled to confront; how to diminish and remedy harm as against finding better forms of punishment.”

“We challenge the popularization of ‘self-care " and “healing” and the consequences of the mainstreaming of our spiritual and political work for liberation.”

Alice Walker coined and defined the term womanist/womanism.

“A Fourth Wave Womanist would identify rest, ease, play, pleasure, and dreaming, where black women are concerned, as the central tools we are using for our justice work since Black women’s intentional participation in our wholeness through the pursuit of freedom is the work of liberation and justice…”

“This was the beginning of trap feminism for me: the moment I realized I was evolving, not away from trap but in a full circle back to it. I wouldn’t accept the idea that no good could come out of trap music. I wanted to reconcile the fact that some of my favorite trap songs made me, a queer black women, feel good, proud, and even inspired... In the past, trap seemed to be at odds with the rest of my identity as a feminist.”

“I am an African American woman, a survivor of the transatlantic slave trade, living in the South during the resurgence of White Christian nationalism, when the names of Black people killed by the police become hashtags on a daily basis, and when right-wing-controlled Supreme court is eroding civil rights and environmental justice. Awareness of the possibility of unjust death is with me daily. I need a (self care) practice that ushers me into resurrection.”

“Witnessing is sacred work, too. Seeing ourselves whole and healthy is an act of pure rebellion in a world so titillated by our constant subjugation.”

“(A Womanist)

Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself. Regardless.”

“An affirmation of the importance of Black women's self-definition and self-valuation is the first key theme that pervades historical and contemporary statements of Black feminist thought. Self-definition involves challenging the political knowledge-validation process that has resulted in externally defined, stereotypical images of Afro-American womanhood. In contrast, self- valuation stresses the content of Black women's self-definitions—-namely, replacing externally derived images with authentic Black female images.”

“Womanism blesses us with a foundation upon which to rebuild a holistic framework for (re)integrating our full selves. As black women, we cannot separate our blackness or our womanhood from our “showing upness” in the world. We are, in fact, intersectional beings” (11)

“The coalescing between the collective, jezebel “the African,” the Black Church, black women and girls, and the masss mediation of porotropia requires the critical gaze of womanist cultural readers. Womanist scholarship in religion occupies a decidedly rare space between academe, the Black Church, black women, culture, and community. If the Black Church needs shaking up in terms of its epistemic, ideological, cultural, and theological gaze towards black women and girls, womanist cultural criticism provides a necessary starting point.”

“Liberation is the opportunity for every human, no matter their body, to have unobstructed access to their highest self; for every human to live in radical self love.”

“This overarching Race Rule, Choose to Disrupt Racism Every Day will help you make better decision in your life, understand people of color, and improve relationships across race. This universal Race Rule can be applied to a broad range of daily cross-racial encounters and lead to less harmful decision impacting people of color.”

“What does it look like to see your beauty in times of profound loss—specifically, the kind of loss that can never be genuinely replaced? Like a limb or one of our senses? How do we continue to love and see the value in ourselves when we lose what we believe is most valuable?”

“The oppressive (white) Christology was used to keep Blacks (and women) in their place. The liberating Christology emerged in that Black women (and people) did not always accept the oppressive interpretations handed down to them; instead, they articulated their own liberate Christologies.

“It was really cute when they put Laverne Cox on the cover of Time Magazine back in 2014, but I can’t help but think, what has that done for the average gurl on the street? Mainstream visibility hasn’t helped our community at large. It’s actually more to our detriment. The images that cis people have of our community, they’re images that aren’t real to the gurls who are barely making a living. It’s not real life. It’s not keeping us alive. It hasn’t slowed the murders, or the abuses.”

“In a few meetings... I asked why the organization wasn’t doing more to end the murders of Black trans women... The response was insufficient. It seemed if (they) could go toe to toe with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and call for its abolition, it could fight for the lives of Black and Latina trans women facing patriarchal violence beyond the State. But, in my newness I didn’t feel comfortable saying this. Still, I wondered how we could chip away at this anti-black mentality”.

“One of the greatest opportunities for getting free that we have is to be intentional in seeking out Black queer and trans folx to lead the way as we work to dismantle oppressive structures and systems and envision and create equitable ones to replace them.”

“I am worthy of a Higher Power who loves all my body sizes. I am worthy of a Higher Power who rejoices in my imperfections.. I am worthy of a Higher Power who knows the pain I face on a daily basis as a Black woman. I am worthy of a Higher Power who stands beside me at the fatal intersection of white supremacy and patriarchy. I am worthy of a Higher Power who exists in a body that is scorned by society. I am worthy of a Higher Power who is a Black Woman.”