My being a black woman is not a deficit. It is a strength. Because I could not be where I am had I not overcome so many other barriers. Which means you know I'm relentless, you know I'm persistent, and you know I'm smart.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that one's identity, particularly as a black woman, is a source of strength, shaped through overcoming challenges.
Stacey Abrams highlights the idea that her identity as a black woman is not a limitation but rather a source of strength and empowerment. She acknowledges the barriers she has faced and how overcoming them has cultivated her resilience, intelligence, and persistence. This statement reflects a deeper understanding of how personal struggles can contribute to one's character and capabilities, suggesting that strength is often built through adversity.
In practice
Use this quote in a women's empowerment speech to inspire resilience.
I grew up one of six children with working-class parents in the Deep South. My mother was a college librarian, and my father worked in a shipyard. I never saw them balance a checkbook, but they kept a roof over our heads and got all six of us into college.
I do not Google myself, I do not read comments, and I barely look myself in the eye when I look in the mirror.
The basis for sustainable progress is legal protections grounded in an awareness of how identity has been used to deny opportunity.
I like to solve problems. I know it is a skill set, but it's also an obligation. I grew up with parents who believe that you don't simply complain: you try to find solutions and fix what's in front of you.
Here in Georgia, we continue to grapple with our own vestiges of hate. The image carved into Stone Mountain, like Confederate monuments across this state, stand as constant reminders of racism, intolerance, and division.
To achieve our goals of educating bold and ambitious children, we must invest in enriching, quality early child care and learning.
I had to experience how someone beside me suddenly falls over and is dead and the bullet has hit him squarely. I had to experience that quite directly. I wanted it. I'm therefore not a pacifist at all - or am I?
I have never felt as violated in myself as I had since the DoD team started to torture me to get me admit to things I haven't done.
I could not help reflecting that the bullet which had struck the chestnut [horse] had certainly passed within a foot of my head. So at any rate I had been 'under fire.' That was something.
True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
A war undertaken and brazenly carried on for the perpetual enslavement of colored men, calls logically and loudly for colored men to help suppress it.
Dumbledore was on his feet again, pale as any of the surrounding Inferi, but taller than any too, the fire dancing in his eyes; his wand was raised like a torch and from its tip emanated the flames, like a vast lasso, encircling them all with warmth.
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