"If internalized racism enters the souls of Black folks through years of socialization then we are not going to be rid of it by simply giving shallow expressions to the notion that Black is beautiful. We must live in our bodies in such a way that we daily indicate that Black is beautiful. We must talk about Blackness differently. And we cannot do any of this constructive action without first loving blackness. To love ourselves, our blackness, we must be constantly vigilant, working to resist white-supremacist thinking and internalized racism. For some of us, this means cutting down the number of hours we watch television so that we are not subjected to forms of subliminal socialization shaping how we see the world. It means searching for decolonized black individuals who by the way they live and work demonstrate their love of blackness, their care of the self. Our love of blackness is strengthened by their presence."

- bell hooks, Sisters of the Yam, p. 97 (via daughterofzami)

(via kbas)

"I found that every single successful person I’ve ever spoken to had a turning point and the turning point was where they made a clear, specific, unequivocal decision that they were not going to live like this anymore. Some people make that decision at 15 and some people make it at 50 and most never make it at all."

- Brian Tracy (via theselittlewondersstillremain)