Quote of the Day

While we're defining things, let's take a moment for feminism: "the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes."  Not domination.  Not oppression.  Equality. 

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 132

Quote of the Day

Ultimately, I'm pro-choice, pro-family, and pro-faith because I believe that our ability to decide whether and when to become mothers is intrinsic to our liberty.  When government gets involved in this intimate realm -- whether in places like China, which forced women to have abortions, or in Communist Romania, which forced women to bear children -- it is horrific.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 131-132

Quote of the Day

Women's advancement has set into motion vast changes that inspire feelings of all kinds.  Some of us are exhilarated.  Others feel a whole lot of rage.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 128

Quote of the Day

I can't count the number of times that good-hearted men who should know better dismiss the notion that sexism and outright misogyny are still potent forces in our national life.  "But things have changed," they say, as Donald Trump brags about groping women and a few weeks later wins the presidency, as his rally-goers chant "Trump that bitch," as the White House proudly releases photos of old white men gleefully deciding which health services to take away from women.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 127

Quote of the Day

(Sheryl Sandberg) told me that if there was one thing she wanted everyone to know from her book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, it's this: the data show that for men, likability and professional success are correlated.  The more successful a man is, the more people like him.  With women, it's the exact opposite.  The more professionally successful we are, the less people like us.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 125

Quote of the Day

It's not your job to be likable.  It's your job to be yourself.

-- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Quote of the Day

Even some fair-minded people who want to like me feel that there's something too controlled about how I speak.  Often, it's just about finding the right words.  And impulsive doesn't mean the same thing as truthful.  Just look at Donald Trump.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 122

Quote of the Day

People say I'm guarded, and they have a point.  I think before I speak.  I don't just blurt out whatever comes to mind.  It's a combination of my natural inclination, plus my training as a lawyer, plus decades in the public eye where every word I say is scrutinized.  But why is this a bad thing?  Don't we want our Senators and Secretaries of State -- and especially our Presidents -- to speak thoughtfully, to respect the impact of our words?  President Obama is just as controlled as I am, maybe even more so.  He speaks with a great deal of care; takes his time, weighs his words.  This is generally correctly taken as evidence of his intellectual heft and rigor.  He's a serious person talking about serious things.  So am I.  And yet, for me, it's often experienced as a negative.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 122

Quote of the Day

I wonder what it is about me that mystifies people, when there are so many men in politics who are far less known, scrutinized, interviewed, photographed, and tested.  Yet they're asked so much less frequently to open up, reveal themselves, prove that they're real.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 122

Quote of the Day

In my experience, the balancing act women in politics have to master is challenging at every level, but it gets worse the higher you rise.  If we're too tough, we're unlikable.  If we're too soft, we're not cut out for the big leagues.  If we work too hard, we're neglecting our families.  If we put family first, we're not serious about the work.  If we have a career but no children, there's something wrong with us, and vice versa.  If we want to compete for a higher office, we're too ambitious.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 119

Quote of the Day

We shall be among the strongest and most gentle people on this earth.

-- Cleve Jones, When We Rise, p. 208

Quote of the Day

It's not easy to be a woman in politics.  That's an understatement.  It can be excruciating, humiliating.  The moment a woman steps forward and says, "I'm running for office," it begins: the analysis of her face, her body, her voice, her demeanor; the diminishment of her stature, her ideas, her accomplishments, her integrity.  It can be unbelievably cruel.  I hesitate to write this, because I know that women who should run for office might read it and say "no thanks," and I passionately believe that the only way we're going to get sexism out of politics is by getting more women into politics.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 116

Quote of the Day

The most obvious realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.

-- David Foster Wallace, Kenyon College 2005 Commencement

Quote of the Day

Misogyny is something darker [than sexism].  It's rage.  Disgust.  Hatred.  It's what happens when a woman turns down a guy at a bar and he switches from charming to scary.  Or when a woman gets a job that a man wanted and instead of shaking her hand and wishing her well, he calls her a bitch and vows to do everything he can to make sure she fails.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 115

Quote of the Day

... if we are to understand America we must understand blackness.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 227

Quote of the Day

Sexism is all the big and little ways that society draws a box around women and says, "You stay in there."  Don't complain because nice girls don't do that.  Don't try to be something women shouldn't be.  Don't wear that, don't go there, don't think that, don't earn too much.  It's not right somehow, we can't explain why, stop asking.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 115

Quote of the Day

Donald Trump harms our nation's positive racial future.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 222

Quote of the Day

When a husband tells his wife, "I can't quite explain why and I don't even like admitting this, but I don't want you to make more money than me, so please don't take that amazing job offer," that's sexism.  He could still love her deeply and be a great partner in countless ways.  But he holds tight to an idea that even he knows isn't fair about how successful a woman is allowed to be. 

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 114-115

Quote of the Day

The greatly stepped-up harassment of people of color, and Muslims, and immigrants in the wake of Trump's election points to the sea change in our naked tolerance for such assaults, in the permission granted to diabolical forces that rob us even more of comity and support of the commonweal.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 222

Quote of the Day

This has to be said: sexism and misogyny played a role in the 2016 presidential election.  Exhibit A is that the flagrantly sexist candidate won.  A whole lot of people listened to the tape of him bragging about sexually assaulting women, shrugged, and said, "He still gets my vote."

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 114

Quote of the Day

Whether he wishes to be or not, Donald Trump is the epitome, not only of white innocence and white privilege, but of white power, white rage, and, yes, even of white supremacy.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 222

Quote of the Day

It is hard to be a woman.
You must think like a man,
Act like a lady,
Look like a young girl,
And work like a horse.

-- A sign that hangs in Hillary Rodham Clinton's house

Quote of the Day

Beloved, there is a truth to Trump's election that many of you refuse to see: too many white folk are willing to imperil the ship of state because they lust for revenge.  It is, in truth, wevenge, the unrepentant mutiny of a rogue white crew.  They seem willing to cast aside a seasoned leader because of her gender, and her connection to the previous captain.  Instead, they have embraced a fatally inexperienced skipper who threatens to wreck the vaunted vessel of government in the rocky waters of political ignorance.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 222

Quote of the Day

The pressure you feel when you're about to walk onstage is almost unbearable -- almost, but not quite.  You bear it by working hard to get ready.  You bear it by having good people by your side.  You bear it by not just hoping but knowing you can handle a lot, because you already have.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened, p. 107

Quote of the Day

It is hard to overstate just how poisonous Obama was believed to be in the precincts of a spurning, rebutting whiteness, a whiteness that measured the seconds until he would no longer be in that white house, in our, or rather, their, White House.  Millions of whites couldn't wait to return power to the white hands from which it had been cruelly snatched for eight years, couldn't wait to celebrate the victory of the most brazenly white man to claim the presidency since Andrew Johnson.

-- Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop, p. 221-222

Bookin' It in 2017

I read the following 15 books in 2017. The titles in bold were particularly influential, inspiring or intriguing.

1. Joan Jett by Todd Oldham
2. The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists: Coping with the One-Way Relationship in Work, Love, and Family by Eleanor D. Payson 
3. Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena 
4. I Am Not Your Negro: A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed by Raoul Peck by James Baldwin 
5. Felicity by Mary Oliver 
6. One Today by Richard Blanco 
7. The Amazing Adventures of the Afterbirth of Jesus by Peterson Toscano 
8. There Is No Good Card for This: What to Say and Do When Life Is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love by Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell 
9. Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson 
10. Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws by Kate Bornstein 
11. Girl in a Band: A Memoir by Kim Gordon 
12. She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World by Chelsea Clinton 
13. This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare by Gabourey Sidibe 
14. Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander, Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth
15. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast