‘Laolu

“Look at the children of the land leaving in droves, leaving their own land with bleeding wounds on their bodies and shock on their faces and blood in their hearts and hunger in their stomachs and grief in their footsteps. Leaving their mothers and fathers and children behind, leaving their umbilical cords underneath the soil, leaving the bones of their ancestors in the earth, leaving everything that makes them who and what they are, leaving because it is no longer possible to stay. They will never be the same again because you cannot be the same once you leave behind who and what you are, you just cannot be the same.”
― NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names

“No one asks to be born, to be black or white or any color in between and yet the identity a person is born into becomes the hardest to explain to the world”
― A. Igoni Barrett, Blackass

“The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us.”
― Phil Knight, Shoe Dog

“you
not wanting me
was
the beginning of me
wanting myself
thank you”
― Nayyirah Waheed