Forgiveness is the virtue of the brave.
As for feminism, I am a womanist more than I'm a feminist.
The Black woman is the most unprotected, unloved woman on earth. . . she is the only flower on earth. . . that grows unwatered.
I do feel it's crucial that women's opinions be taken equally with men's. But still'I have not been accepted by the American white feminist writers and activists, and frankly I don't care to be, so I am a womanist. I am feisty and I am given to womanish behavior.
While I love Mohammed and Jesus Christ'I reject all men's religions, not just Islam, but Christianity, Judaism and whatever else the men use for a whip.
I appear topless as a way of holding on to my Nilotic culture, and I also do it to taunt those Africans who are ashamed of our original cultural beliefs.
I have much more power and protection than Salman Rushdie, because I'm an American citizen, but yes, I live in terrible fear for my life and for the lives of my children. My whole family has been threatened, my adoptive parents had to sell their house and move out of Washington, D. C. because of death threats caused by my work and activism.
There are two things that have been happening over the last few decades in my opinion. First, there have been unbelievable, remarkable, pioneering advances in technology and, second, an equal amount of evolution in creativity. These two shifts are meeting at an intersection.
In high school, my first thing ever was I played Tony in West Side Story when I was about 17. I was a really shy kid and I just like forced myself to learn how to sing this one month because I loved West Side Story so much and I somehow managed to get the role. I had an afro and glasses, and the guy who cast me goes, "All right, the first thing to go is the afro and the next thing, I'm going to buy you contacts and we're going to get you. . . " So he kind of molded me into what it had to - that's still probably the hardest role I've every played in anything, the most taxing role.
If you set as your goal to roll back the size of government, you have an obligation to answer the tough questions and show real courage, not just appeal to ideology. Treat the voters like adults.
Either we're a team or we aren't. Either you trust me or you don't.