Matriarch: Oprah's Book Club: A Memoir

by Tina Knowles

Once I was wearing a T-shirt that read “100% Black” while I was out buying groceries. “You better take that off,” a Black man I was walking by said, peppering the insult with a certain familiarity to soften the blow. “You’re no hundred percent.” I knew this was about my skin being light. Stopping in my tracks, I turned to him. “Brother,” I said, “I’m the Blackest woman you’ll ever meet.” From my first breath, I was told, shown, and embraced into knowing that it is an honor to be a Black person. My mother saw to that, making sure I carry all these mothers with me.