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We all have these challenges and stereotypes that exist, but you can't let that hold you down... If that's the first thing you think about as a black woman - the challenge that lies ahead - you are thinking in the wrong direction, in my opinion.

We put stereotypes on ourselves. Everybody does that. But I think it's just a little harder for black kids to just be who they are.

No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have black women... When black people are talked about the focus tends to be on black men; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women.

I feel like a lot of black men 'put on' because of what they see and because of what people tell them they have to be.

I used to walk around saying that I'm just another black man without a college degree.

I am black, and there's no getting around that, but being black doesn't define every aspect of my life.

All black women aren't sassy, loud, difficult, or subservient. We are, in fact, very complex and very diverse, living very complex and diverse lives. That point cannot be made enough.

We're raised to believe that black men have to be one specific way.

I don't know that I constantly think about being a black woman.

We as men, in particular black men, are constantly supported, nurtured, forgiven, apologized for, led, followed and coddled by black women, and they get very little in return.