“Tyler Perry is a jackass and a chitlin-circuit courting one at that. He got rich off portraying blacks as one-sided buffoons and tied it up in a nice Christian bow, as if that elevated his ‘message’.…I refuse to buy into it. I refuse to give him my pennies when he continues to portray black men and women viewed through a lens of inappropriate clichés and scenarios. Furthermore, the more we provide him an outlet, the further back we progress; wherein we fulfill for uneducated and hateful communities, the prophecies they wish for us. It’s one thing to continue to live up to their lowest common denominator, it’s another to allow someone within that community to set that low bar and dare us to try to rise above it.”
The misfortune of being a Black girl.
“The resolution of this case only confirms something I’ve long been taught by my foremothers: black girls are least likely to survive the adolescent experimentation with which every teen finds herself confronted. The wrong car ride, the wrong walk to the corner, the wrong party invitation, the wrong sleepover at the wrong house can get us killed.
In addition to hoping for justice, I also want this case to ingrain the following message: vigilantly guard your own safety, even among friends, even among family. There is no guarantee that they’ll do it for you.”
Footsteps On Concrete 