My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a strong sense of self-awareness and pride in one's identity as a black woman.
Lena Horne's statement reflects her journey towards embracing her identity as a black woman, highlighting the importance of self-acceptance and recognition in a broader societal context. It underscores the significance of acknowledging and celebrating oneβs heritage and the strength that comes from embracing one's true self.
In practice
In a speech about diversity and inclusion, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of embracing one's identity.
It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. Carry it by the comfortable handles of gratitude for what's positive and that it is not worse, rather than the uncomfortable edges of bitterness for the negatives and that it is not better.
I'm not alone, I'm free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody.
I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.
I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.
In my early days I was a sepia Hedy Lamarr. Now I'm black and a woman, singing my own way.
Blackness remains the coat you can't take off.
I understand if everyone looking at me is seeing a Jew and seeing me as a kind of 'other.' But I can't be expected to see myself that way. That is, to me, Jewish is the normal way to be; it's not a type of being.
I live on the margin of just about everything. I'm a marginal person, and I think that is where I've become comfortable. I'm marginally there in my native life. I can do as much as I can, but I'm always German, too, you know, and I'm always a mother. That's my first identity, but I'm always a writer, too.
My mixed-race background made me a broad person, able to relate to different cultures. But any woman of colour, even a mixed colour, is seen as black in America. So that's how I regard myself.
I'm a Black woman and I've always been told that I wasn't Black enough because of the way that I grew up, the experiences that I had.
I would rather be a member of this [Afrikan] race than a Greek in the time of Alexander, a Roman in the Augustan period, or Anglo-Saxon in the nineteenth century.
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