We have to nurture our young women and understand the beauty and the strength of being a woman. It's kind of a catch-22: Strength in women isn't appreciated, and vulnerability in women isn't appreciated. It's like, 'What the hell do you do?' What you do is you don't allow anyone to dictate who you are.
Interpretation
Empowering women requires recognizing both their strength and vulnerability without societal judgment.
This quote highlights the challenges faced by women in society where their strength is often undervalued, and their vulnerability is also criticized. Jada Pinkett Smith calls for nurturing young women to embrace their identities confidently, regardless of societal expectations or restrictions. It emphasizes the importance of self-definition and authentic self-expression in the face of external pressures.
In practice
This quote can be shared during women's empowerment events to inspire confidence.
I just think, as women, we have to give ourselves room to be individuals. So when a woman makes a decision for herself, we as women shouldn't set those hardcore boundaries for another woman. Just like we don't want men setting hardcore boundaries for us.
Lack of confidence is what makes you want to change somebody else's mind. When you're OK, you don't need to convince anyone else in order to empower yourself.
Most of the time, when I make a big move, people say I am out of my mind. But I don't think about how I can add to what I have today.
I believed that, in a situation where the community that I came from were being treated like second- and third-class citizens, that I had a responsibility to fight back against it. And I don't apologise to anybody for having done that. I think it was the right thing to do.
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time. Its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression - the blackness of their skin - and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude.
I refuse to accept that the shackles of slavery can ever be stronger than the quest for freedom.
Excessive caution destroys the soul and the heart, because living is an act of courage, and an act of courage is always an act of love.
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