Quotation Canapés: No. 5 – Black History Month

Quote #1

Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

―  James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

Quote #2

There must exist a paradigm, a practical model for social change that includes an understanding of ways to transform consciousness that are linked to efforts to transform structures.

― bell hooks, Killing Rage: Ending Racism

Quote #3

If we are truly a great nation, the truth cannot destroy us.

― Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project: A New American Origin Story

Quote #4

The world may be mean, but people don’t have to be, not if they refuse.

― Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad: A Novel

Quote #5

We cannot love ‘our people’ unless we love each of us ourselves, unless I love each piece of myself, those I wish to keep and those I wish to change—for survival is the ability to encompass difference, to encompass change without destruction.

― Audre Lorde, The Selected Works of Audre Lorde

See Also

• Article: Book Club Titles for Black History Month
• Book club sets by Black authors from around the world (catalog list).
• See all Quotation Canapés | About this series.
• All the titles listed are in the Colorado Book Club Resource collection (each set is 8+ copies) and made available to book clubs statewide, thanks to participation from libraries. Find out more!