efil.

“Haiti has suffered. The first free Black republic was punished for its valor. The debt imposed upon it in exchange for a too-meager and inconsistent political recognition has kept it beholden to France, and along with that, it has born the weight of the US empire’s strategic investments and habitual efforts at military control. Internally, color and caste continued to matter long after the French were gone. Raimond changed, but the legacy of that plantation hierarchy is felt even today.”
― Imani Perry, Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People

“Whenever people say “everything,” “always,” “never,” “every,” they’re really only talking about themselves—in the real world such generalities don’t exist.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, House of Day, House of Night

“As far back as I can remember, I was aware of belonging to a group for whom the word “color” was potent. “The color of your skin,” “colored people,” “colorful people,” and “people of color” are all phrases that are associated with us Black Americans. And while “black” is our nominal color, even though our bodies range from alabaster to jet, the blues are our sensibility, hence the designation made famous by the writer Amiri Baraka: “blues people.”
― Imani Perry, Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People

“blue took on particular meanings in specific contexts. On the revolutionary side, it was a color of Black self-adornment in the face of disregard. It reflected tastes retained across the oceans. And blue had an array of symbolic spiritual meanings.”
― Imani Perry, Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People