Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching

His own story is worth a read, but he really takes it somewhere when he goes into arguments for feminism, LGBT rights, and treating mental illness in the black community. Truthful, thoughtful, and easy to read without being easy reading.

Pg 132: “Unless we recognize that liberation for black men based in patriarchy and male dominance is liberation for no one, least of all black women, but not for black men either. It turns us into the very oppressors we claim to be fighting against. It makes us deny parts of ourselves in service of an idea of masculinity that does more to destroy than build.”

And pg 145: “One of the privileges of not being a part of a marginalized group is believing you can set your own benchmarks for bigotry.”

And pg 209: “We make a grave mistake every time we invoke the history of oppression to diminish the reality of racisms' present. Progress is real, but the narrative of progress seduces us into inaction. If we believe, simply, that it gets better, there is no incentive to do the work to ensure that it does.”

These ideas (and so many more here) should really be chewed upon and digested by so many, particularly in the current political climate and as we try to move forward collectively past Jan 20th. Let's listen, hear, and act on them.