00:00black is beautiful is an empowering statement and I can remember when it first came about and to
00:18hear young black people in particular who have been told that their lips were too big the nose
00:24was too wide that they didn't fit the profile of beauty all of a sudden saying hey black is beautiful
00:33and seeing the gleam in the eyes of black people when they undertook this passage of going from not
00:42thinking they're so wonderful to being able to say black is beautiful I can remember Angela Davis had
00:51the biggest baddest afro of any african-american woman and everybody wanted to be like her as a
00:58matter of fact those who come from other communities who seem not to know the difference between us they
01:04were calling everybody Angela Davis and so I think it is wonderful to see young people now adopting
01:11that hairstyle growing their hair and combing it out and absolutely going back to where we were just
01:19you know back in the 60s you come to the point in life where you're comfortable with yourself you
01:26understand that you have power you have influence if you decide to use it and to exercise that influence
01:34and so I don't have to question myself about whether or not I'm doing the right thing or whether or not
01:41I'm going to be criticized this is who I am this is what I do and I'm grounded in that it has not
01:48always been that way I did come from a strong background with a mother who was extremely strong
01:55she was not an educated woman but she was a woman of wisdom and so she helped to teach us what strength
02:04is all about standing up for yourself you know being willing to fight for what you think is right
02:10and that has lasted with me up until this point if you think you want to run for office I would
02:18encourage women and particularly young african-american women understand the responsibility that you're
02:25taking on it can be very rewarding there'll be days when it'll be very disappointing but most of all
02:32be sure that you're running for the right reasons that you have a passion for changing things and for
02:41making sure that the democracy works in the way that it should work and that there's justice and
02:47equality for everybody and you're willing to fight for it if you've got the passion it will serve you well
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