The Black Notebooks Quotes

“It is not just the language that we are sharing, it is what we don’t say. We are calling each other out of loneliness, across space, out of recognition of our beauty and power, and we are willing to go past the destruction and hurt we have done to reach each other.”
― Toi Derricotte, The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey

“Light skin gives me such privileges that my complaints are not worthy. I'm not "positive" enough. Not "black" enough. I'm not a "real" black person. Worst of all are the terrible choices - the possibility of losing connections to those I love, betraying them, those who have done terrible things but at the same time have had to survive within the context of racism. Whose side am I on?”
― Toi Derricotte, The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey

“Sometimes memory is like a dream. The worst nightmares are forgotten. Sometimes living is a nightmare. Just getting up, meeting your neighbors, and walking down the street.”
― Toi Derricotte, The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey

“To be published as a "woman of color" makes me squiggle on a pin: I want to be read by white people, and not just white people who are interested in "black" writing. I want even my speaking about color to speak in some universal way.”
― Toi Derricotte, The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey

“This is an act of destruction of the self, an undoing of the self's protection. Over and over I face the wall, the way in which I must confront my own complicity. Even the smallest fragment is a great victory.”
― Toi Derricotte, The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey

“We are all wounded by racism, but for some of us those wounds are anesthetized. None of us, black or white, wants to feel the pain that racism has caused. But when you feel it, you're awake.”
― Toi Derricotte, The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey

“The effects of the great social forces trickle down to the most vulnerable. Racism is a form of child abuse.”
― Toi Derricotte, The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey