"I tell you this story because sometimes the story of your life is the story of a lot of lives."

"We need to let go of respectability politics and understand that whiteness as a construct will never approve of us, and that the approval of white supremacy is not something that we or any community should be seeking. We have to be willing to embrace the full autonomy of people who are less privileged and understand that equity means making access to opportunity easier, not deciding which opportunities they deserve."

"I believe in rage, believe in aiming it when I unleash it because I know it can be so powerful. My targets tend to be up, not down or sideways, from where I sit."

"Respectability requires a form of restrained, emotionally neutral politeness that is completely at odds with any concept of normal human emotions."

"You can argue that conservative values are at odds with feminist ideology, but ultimately the question has to be not only what women are we empowering, but also what are we empowering them to do. White women aren't just passive beneficiaries of racist oppression; they are active participants."

"America loves the myth of a meritocracy more than anything else, because it lets us ignore the reality of the impact of bigotry."

"The tone policing of respectability ensures that the fight for equality becomes the responsibility of the oppressed."

"Politeness as filtered through fragility and supremacy isn't about manners; it's about a methodology of controlling the conversation."