If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
Maya AngelouRead
As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the societal perceptions of white women and their experiences with loneliness compared to women of color.
Maya Angelou highlights the disparity in how white women are perceived in society, suggesting that while they may seem to lack loneliness in reality, their loneliness is often only acknowledged in literature. The quote also points out the dynamics of admiration and desire that exist within racial relationships, and it emphasizes the contributions of Black women in serving white women, revealing layers of social complexity and intersectionality.
Themes
LonelinessRacial DynamicsWhite WomenSocietyBlack Women
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on race and gender in literature, this quote can illustrate societal stereotypes.
More from Maya Angelou
All quotes βI find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed.
Maya AngelouRead
The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn't need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder-in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.
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I dreamt we walked together along the shore. We made satisfying small talk and laughed. This morning I found sand in my shoe and a seashell in my pocket. Was I only dreaming?
Maya AngelouRead
I know that I'm not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don't know how not to.
Maya AngelouRead
I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people - one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion's den. You can't just play around with all those big cats - you've got to take somebody on.
Maya AngelouRead
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