Reader > Reader's Quotes

“The cities change. The bus line is different. The train runs on another track, but the scene is the same. Everyday in America, South Africa and other places in the world like them. Black people. My people. Travelin. To be cooks, janitors, housekeepers, porters, days workers, servants, Black boys, Beige girls, Brown daddies, Ebony mothers.”
― Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap by Verta Mae

“A friend of mine who is a Black Christian Nationalist remembers that, "My grandmother was the first Black Revolutionary I ever knew. During the War, when everyone was prickin' those little red buttons on the plastic bag that changed the color of that lard-like stuff to make margarine—well, we didn't have that, cause my grandmother stole butter from the crackers. She did a number of other things like half doing the cleaning, scorching the clothes, half cleanin the vegetables, breakin the gall of the liver of the chicken." This kind of domestic action is not new. Been going on since slavery.”
― Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap by Verta Mae

“The southern belle was something to write home about...One Yankee stationed in Mississippi wrote home: "[They are] sharp-nosed, tobacco-chewing, snuff-rubbing, flax-headed, hatchet-faced, yellow-eyed, sallow-skinned, cotton-dressed, flat-breasted, bare-headed, long-waisted, hump-shouldered, stoop-necked, big-footed, straddle-toed, sharp-shinned, thin-lipped, pale-faced, lantern-jawed, silly-looking damsels.”
― Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap by Verta Mae

“When Queen Elizabeth heard of Hawkins' slaving venture, she said "It was detestable and would call down vengeance from heaven upon the undertakers." Hawkins went to the see the queen and showed Her Majesty his profit sheet. Not only did she forgive him but she became a shareholder in his second slaving voyage.”
― Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap by Verta Mae

“This particular queen (Margaret of Scotland) had her Moorish maid baptized Elen Moore (a lot of people with the names Moore, Moorer, Morris etc., probably got their names from their Moorish ancestors—for instance, Morrison means son of a Moor.)”
― Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap by Verta Mae

“Calling people out their names is a bad habit the people of European descent seem to have. The one that takes the rag off the bush is how they went all the way to Africa and called nature out of its name...Victoria Falls, Leopoldville, Johannesburg, Lake Victoria, Lake Rudolf, Lake Albert, etc. The W.F.'s that came here did the same thing with the indigenous people living here...called them Indians; and years later missionaries, government officials, census takers, etc., "tidied up their records and account books by arbitrarily shortening or changing the names of their charges." "He Who Causes Fear" and "Brave Chief" suddenly became Indian Joe and Bob.”
― Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap by Verta Mae

“Quiet as it's kept, there is a certain type of "upper class" white folks who don't use "colored help" at all. In fact, household labor is a segregated occupation. A Lancashire-born (English) butler, asked if he had encountered many black men and women in his 20 years of service, said reflectively, "I can't think of one I worked with. On one job we had Italian cook, an Irish kitchen man, a French lady's maid, an English butler, and an English parlormaid." The upper echelon's household staff is 99-99/100% white.”
― Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap by Verta Mae

“Lena immediately thought of Sister Gemma in fourth grade who had instructed all the students at Blessed Martin de Porres Elementary to leave a little room on the edge of their seats for their guardian angels to sit.”
― Tina McElroy Ansa, The Hand I Fan With

“It's not the man in your life. It's the life in your man.”
― Tina McElroy Ansa, The Hand I Fan With

“Funny thang 'bout freedom, baby. It seem to have a lot a' extra arms and limbs to grab hold a' thangs. It ain't always the thangs you want to grab holt of either.”
― Tina McElroy Ansa, The Hand I Fan With

“You can't put a thing in a clinched fist.”
― Tina McElroy Ansa, The Hand I Fan With

“The trick, Lena, baby, is to cherish yo' own little piece of earth, but not to get tied to it. 'Cause it ain't nothin' but a piece a' dust, like us, our bodies, that's gon' come and go.”
― Tina McElroy Ansa, The Hand I Fan With

“Here, Lena, tie this cotton kerchief 'round yo' mouth when we out walkin' in the woods...so yo' breath don't draw those 'squitas and bitin' flies.”
― Tina McElroy Ansa, The Hand I Fan With

“Well, if you don't 'ppreciate som'um, you lose it.”
― Tina McElroy Ansa, The Hand I Fan With

“Right is right, Lena. And right don't wrong nobody. When it happen the way it's s'posed to, eve'body come out on top, baby.”
― Tina McElroy Ansa, The Hand I Fan With

“If you don't let yourself be crazy sometimes, baby...then you go mad.”
― Tina McElroy Ansa, The Hand I Fan With

“Ya gotta do the work you called to, Lena. But you ain't gotta be miserable. In fact, that's just what you ain't s'posed to be.”
― Tina McElroy Ansa, The Hand I Fan With