I'm so disturbed when my women students behave as though they can only read women, or black students behave as though they can only read blacks, or white students behave as though they can only identify with a white writer.
Once you do away with the idea of people as fixed, static entities, then you see that people can change, and there is hope.
When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people, we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us.
Spotlight
An often-repeated assertion in the body of film criticism I have written is the assertion that movies do not just mirror the culture of any given time; they also create it.
I've written 18 books, mostly dealing with issues of social justice, ending racism, feminism, and cultural criticism.
Yesterday I was thinking about the whole idea of genius and creative people, and the notion that if you create some magical art, somehow that exempts you from having to pay attention to the small things.
If we give our children sound self-love, they will be able to deal with whatever life puts before them.
In general, the mass media tell us that black people are not loving, that our lives are so fraught with violence and aggression that we have no time to love.