“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.”
“IsoldA: The only way to be alone is to behave as though we are alone already.”
“We can't behave like people in novels, though, can we?”
“We shall be free only together, black and white. We shall survive only together, black and white. We can be human only together, black and white.”
“I always tell my students that Malcolm X came both to his spirituality and to his consciousness as a thinker when he had solitude to read. Unfortunately, tragically, like so many young black males, that solitude only came in prison.”
“Education occurs when students set out to educate themselves… the student will only learn, can only learn, what he chooses to learn…(An) advantage of not pushing is an innate sense (his) education is (his) responsibility and reward.”