If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

In other words, I would be giving in to a myth of sameness which I think can destroy us.

Black women are programmed to define ourselves within this male attention and to compete with each other for it rather than to recognize and move upon our common interests.

Attend me, hold me in your muscular flowering arms, protect me from throwing any part of myself away.

I can't really define it in sexual terms alone although our sexuality is so energizing why not enjoy it too?

The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.