"In all of their lives in America … black women have felt torn between the loyalties that bind them to race on one hand, and sex on the other. Choosing one or the other, of course, means taking sides against the self, yet they have almost always chosen race over the other: a sacrifice of their self-hood as women and of full humanity, in favour of the race (McKay 1992, 277-78). (Collins, 124)"

"Racism and the will to survive it creates a sense of intra-racial loyalty that makes it impossible for black women to turn our backs on black men – even in their ugliest and most sexist of moments. I needed a feminism that would allow us to continue loving ourselves and the brothers who hurt us without letting race loyalty buy us early tombstones."

"And when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed, but when we are silent, we are still afraid, so it is better to speak remembering, we were never meant to survive - Audre Lorde"