I've found that once people are introduced to Madam Walker's story, they are inspired but also perplexed about why she was omitted from their history lessons.
There are literally hundreds of stories about women of color that haven't been told that are amazing, fantastic, better than anything else.
We didn't sit around the dining table talking about Madam Walker, but the silverware that we used every day had her monogram on it and our china for special occasions had been Madam Walker's china... and the baby grand piano on which I learned to read music had been in A'Lelia Walker's apartment in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance.
It is impossible to be taken seriously in shorts. No one has ever cared about anything said by a man in shorts.
Bald isn't like being ethnic or disabled. Everyone can and will make jokes about it and expect you to laugh good-naturedly, which you will.
Nature gave you your look and there's only a limited amount you can do about that, but what you wear is the skin you choose for yourself.
Cowboy boots you can't wear unless you actually are a cowboy or in a Status Quo tribute band, or over 60; there's something about a retiring gent in cowboy boots that looks sort of presidential.
So much of life is not about whether you're good or bad, or right or wrong, or can afford or not afford - it's just about timing.
Men and women understand different things about personal boundaries. What men call privacy, women know as secrecy.
It's not in the nature of stoic Cincinnatians to boast, which is fortunate, really, for they have meager pickings to boast about.
