“
When you are finished changing, you're finished.
”
”
Benjamin Franklin
“
One of the things that baffles me (and there are quite a few) is how there can be so much lingering stigma with regards to mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder. In my opinion, living with manic depression takes a tremendous amount of balls. Not unlike a tour of Afghanistan (though the bombs and bullets, in this case, come from the inside). At times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and even more courage, so if you're living with this illness and functioning at all, it's something to be proud of, not ashamed of.
They should issue medals along with the steady stream of medication.
”
”
Carrie Fisher (Wishful Drinking)
“
Books are keys that open many doors.
”
”
James Rollins
“
It ain't always rocket science, sometimes a door is just a door.
”
”
James Rollins (The Judas Strain (Sigma Force, #4))
“
Often-times it's madness, not genius that moves the world forward. Who else but the mad would reach so far, stretching for the impossible and, in so doing, prove the impossible possible!
”
”
James Rollins (Black Order (Sigma Force, #3))
“
Investors should be skeptical of history-based models. Constructed by a nerdy-sounding priesthood using esoteric terms such as beta, gamma, sigma and the like, these models tend to look impressive. Too often, though, investors forget to examine the assumptions behind the models. Beware of geeks bearing formulas.
”
”
Warren Buffett
“
Are you sure, Gray?'
He lifted his eyes. 'No . . . I'm not. I'm not sure of a damn thing.' He slipped his hands free of the monsignor's and peeled the battery off the phone, cutting the last ring in half. 'But that doesn't mean I won't act.
”
”
James Rollins (The Judas Strain (Sigma Force, #4))
“
The truth is often one's best shield.
”
”
James Rollins (The Devil Colony (Sigma Force, #7))
“
So we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.” She shrugged. “That pretty much sums up quantum physics.
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
Wringin' your hands only stops you from rollin' up your sleeves.
”
”
James Rollins (Black Order (Sigma Force, #3))
“
it sucks to get old...but there's always beer
”
”
James Rollins (Map of Bones (Sigma Force, #2))
“
Pack speaking about his new love, Sky: “Well, let’s see. She has the animal husbandry skills of a vet, the organizational skills of a Six Sigma guru, and the mechanical skills of a…trained mechanic. She doesn’t require handyman help. And she’s nice to look at. Other than that, she leaves a lot to be desired. And maybe I omitted the best part, which is that she’s a fine human being with strong values.
”
”
John M. Vermillion (Pack's Posse (Simon Pack, #8))
“
That’s the beauty of the universe. There’s always a new mystery.
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
Control your own Destiny or somebody else will
”
”
Jack Welch (Jack: Straight from the Gut)
“
Perfect is an illusion, one that was created to maintain the status quo. The Six Sigma charade is largely about hiding from change, because change is never perfect. Change means reinvention, and until something is reinvented, we have no idea what the spec is.
”
”
Seth Godin (Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us)
“
Gray imagined Kat scolding her husband in an operatic duet that has been going on between husbands and wives for ages, that eternal mix of exasperation and love." -- James Rollins
”
”
James Rollins
“
...when it came to explosives and radios, bad things sometimes happened to good engineers.
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
”
”
Karen Martin (The Outstanding Organization: Generate Business Results by Eliminating Chaos and Building the Foundation for Everyday Excellence)
“
Gurl, you got competition.” Jacob folded his arms on the table. “That’s Sally and Susan—beta, delta, boogie-sigma-chi-latte- VPs.
”
”
J. Lynn (Wait for You (Wait for You, #1))
“
Well, it just goes to show you,” the inventor said as he flipped through the pages of notes and ideas, “It is easy to think outside the box when you aren’t smart enough to know where the box is.
”
”
Joseph R. Lallo (Bypass Gemini (Big Sigma, #1))
“
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. —ALBERT EINSTEIN
”
”
James Rollins (The Bone Labyrinth (Sigma Force, #11))
“
When someone is always looking over their shoulder, they’re more likely to trip.
”
”
James Rollins (Sandstorm (Sigma Force, #1))
“
Throughout history, knowledge rises and falls, ebbs and flows. What once was known is forgotten again, lost in time, sometimes for centuries, only to be rediscovered ages later.
”
”
James Rollins (The 6th Extinction (Sigma Force, #10))
“
Shrapnel and a wave of sand struck the side like a bitch-slap from God Himself.
”
”
James Rollins (Sandstorm (Sigma Force, #1))
“
Chaos is NOT a condition of doing business.
”
”
Karen Martin (The Outstanding Organization: Generate Business Results by Eliminating Chaos and Building the Foundation for Everyday Excellence)
“
the hand has programmable fingerprints, a vibration motor, data interface capabilities-” “Wait. A vibration motor in your hand? Why?” “I’m a man, and I’m alone on the planet. Figure it out.
”
”
Joseph R. Lallo (Bypass Gemini (Big Sigma, #1))
“
Though it was undeclared, there was a new world war being waged, where fundamental decency and respect for human rights were under assault by forces of intolerance, despotism, and blind fervor. And while its battles were sometimes waged in plain sight-- in New York City, in Iraq-- its greater struggle was carried on invisibly, fought in secret, its heroes unknown, its villains hidden.
”
”
James Rollins (Sandstorm (Sigma Force, #1))
“
We need religion, government, and laws to force a level of control over our baser natures. I intend to strip away the disease that is intelligence, to rip away the deception that allows humanity to believe itself mightier and more deserving of this planet.
”
”
James Rollins (The 6th Extinction (Sigma Force, #10))
“
Choices have to be made…before we are left with none.
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”
James Rollins (Sandstorm (Sigma Force, #1))
“
Better to head off into the unknown than stay here, where death was most certain
”
”
James Rollins (The Bone Labyrinth (Sigma Force, #11))
“
Chaos is the enemy of any organization the strives to be outstanding.
”
”
Karen Martin (The Outstanding Organization: Generate Business Results by Eliminating Chaos and Building the Foundation for Everyday Excellence)
“
We are star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
Design is a funny word. Some people think Design means how it looks. But, of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. —Steve Jobs
”
”
John Morgan (Lean Six Sigma For Dummies)
“
Silence fueled anxieties, gave them their true power. Expressing them aloud was a way of releasing that tension, of letting go, if only for a brief time.
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
The only one disappointed by the ease of entry was the team’s explosives and demolitions expert. “Aw, man,” Kowalski groused. “I was all set to blow some crap up.
”
”
James Rollins (Bloodline (Sigma Force, #8))
“
Sniffing hair and children. I love sigmas and gyatt! Keep Beta Males away from your Delta Daughter.
”
”
The Rizzler
“
There are a thousand paths into the future, forks after forks in the road ahead. Who knows, if one road closes, maybe another opens in another universe . . . and your soul, your consciousness, leaps over to continue that journey ever forward, always finding the right path.
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
The accumulation of grief over one lifetime is more then one heart can bear."Robert explained."Only the heartless could withstand more.Or the very young,those too naive to truly understand loss.
”
”
James Rollins (Bloodline (Sigma Force, #8))
“
I took a course at Cal once called Statistical Analysis. And there was a guy in the course who used to make up all of his computations and he never used Sigma. He used his own initials. 'Cause he was the standard deviation.
”
”
Mort Sahl
“
Nondisclosure agreements and exclusivity agreements. Think like a corporation, lady. They've proven much better at enslaving the masses and pushing home their agenda than all of the terrorists in the history the human race put together.
”
”
Joseph R. Lallo (Unstable Prototypes (Big Sigma, #2))
“
Too early…too late. A last message to live in the present. To accept the past and not rush the future.
”
”
James Rollins (Map of Bones (Sigma Force, #2))
“
If you want engagement, you must engage.
”
”
Karen Martin (The Outstanding Organization: Generate Business Results by Eliminating Chaos and Building the Foundation for Everyday Excellence)
“
he took heed of a quote from Catch-22: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.
”
”
James Rollins (Kingdom of Bones (Sigma Force, #16))
“
It is high time Americans grew accustomed to our traditions.
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
She handed him her gun. “Down,” she ordered. “Shoot anybody that comes into view.” “What about you?” “No, don’t shoot me.” “I mean where are you going?
”
”
James Rollins (Map of Bones (Sigma Force, #2))
“
Festina lente. Make haste slowly.
”
”
James Rollins (Map of Bones (Sigma Force, #2))
“
In the face of inhumanity, a good man reacts, but a great one acts
”
”
James Rollins (Bloodline (Sigma Force, #8))
“
Kaizen should be done when times are good or when the company is profitable, since your efforts to streamline and make improvements when the company is poor are limited to reduction in staff. Even if you try to go lean and cut out the fat to improve business performance, when your business is in a very difficult position financially there is no fat to be cut. If you are cutting out muscle, which you need, then you cannot say that your efforts to become lean are succeeding.The most important thing about doing kaizen is to do kaizen when times are good, the economy is strong, and the company is profitable
”
”
Taiichi Ohno
“
As to the strangest claim in the novel: that only 10 percent of the cells in our body are human (and the rest are bacteria and parasites). This is true! There is a wonderful book exploring this topic that is as horrific as it is humorous, Human Wildlife by Dr. Robert Buckman.
”
”
James Rollins (The Judas Strain (Sigma Force, #4))
“
All right,” he said. “Since you asked, Webmind is an emergent quantum-computational system based on a stable null-sigma condensate that resists decoherence thanks to constructive feedback loops.” He turned to the blackboard, scooped up a piece of chalk, and began writing rapidly. “See,” he said, “using Dirac notation, if we let Webmind’s default conscious state be represented by a bra of phi and a ket of psi, then this would be the einselected basis.” His chalk flew across the board again. “Now, we can get the vector basis of the total combined Webmind alpha-state consciousness...
”
”
Robert J. Sawyer (WWW: Watch (WWW, #2))
“
Human memories were organized in the hippocampus region, but recent research suggested the information was only stored there on a short-term basis. Later, the hippocampus recoded these memories as electrical patterns across billions of synapses and distributed them for long-term storage over the entire cerebral cortex.
”
”
James Rollins (The Seventh Plague (Sigma Force, #12))
“
That sentiment had been the driving force behind humanity’s progress across the ages, a simple imperative fueled by our innate curiosity: to discover what was around the next bend, over the next horizon. It was that same inquisitiveness that impelled us to explore who we are, where we came from, and where we are headed next. Gray
”
”
James Rollins (The Bone Labyrinth (Sigma Force, #11))
“
WHAT IS REALITY? It’s both the simplest question to answer—and the hardest. Over the ages, it has baffled both philosophers and physicists. In The Republic, Plato described the true world as nothing more than a flickering shadow on a cave wall. Oddly enough, millennia later, scientists have come full circle to a similar conclusion.
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
Use every person's skill set to the fullest. Both optimists and pessimists contribute. An optimist invents the hot air balloon, and a pessimist invents the parachute." - Ramesh Lohia and Surbhi Lohia, consultants, Six Sigma, KaizeniSixSigmaKaizen. In Quality Quotes, Sep 1, 2016, Knowledge Center, ASQ [ AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR QUALITY]
”
”
Ramesh Lohia and Surbhi Lohia
“
So I had this date last night,” Dane goes on, ignoring my order. “Do you remember that girl from Sigma Kappa Whatever? She was at the gig last night, and everything was going great, both of us eye-fucking for like four frickin’ hours…” He pauses and turns to me, his voice turning urgent. “She takes me home, dude, and I’m sitting in the living room while she’s in the bathroom, and I’m so ready, because she’s so hot, right? And who walks in?”
“Dane.” I close my eyes, willing him to shut the fuck up.
“Her mom, dude!” he bursts out. “Her mom in her light pink nightie with legs for days. And let me tell you, man…Stacy’s mom has got it going on?”
I can’t help myself. I break out in a laugh at the song reference and pinch the bridge of my nose, tired but a fraction more relaxed, even if I’d never admit it to him.
Such an idiot.
”
”
Penelope Douglas (Punk 57)
“
The scientist’s behavior while facing the refutation of his ideas has been studied in depth as part of the so-called attribution bias. You attribute your successes to skills, but your failures to randomness. This explains why these scientists attributed their failures to the “ten sigma” rare event, indicative of the thought that they were right but that luck played against them. Why? It is a human heuristic that makes us actually believe so in order not to kill our self-esteem and keep us going against adversity.
”
”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto Book 1))
“
And what of our own universe? The newest conjecture is that all that we experience—from the tiniest vibrating string of energy to that massive galaxy spinning around a maelstrom of reality-ripping black holes—may be nothing more than a hologram, a three-dimensional illusion that, in fact, we may all be living in a created simulation. Could that be possible? Could Plato have been right all along: that we are blind to the true reality around us, that all we know is nothing more than the flickering shadow on a cave wall?
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
If God had wanted men to ride bikes, He wouldn't have put our balls where they are.
”
”
James Rollins (The Devil Colony (Sigma Force, #7))
“
Research today has become more about seeing if something can be done versus judging if it should. It's knowledge for the sake of knowledge, regardless of the impact on the world.
”
”
James Rollins (The Bone Labyrinth (Sigma Force, #11))
“
this sudden appearance of Homo sapiens is attributable to the rapid mutation of only seventeen brain-building genes. A scant few, really.
”
”
James Rollins (The Bone Labyrinth (Sigma Force, #11))
“
The past is the past. It's now up to us to sustain our own culture. We only lose what we fail to nurture.
”
”
James Rollins (The Devil Colony (Sigma Force, #7))
“
young men think old men fools, and old men know young men to be.
”
”
James Rollins (The Last Odyssey (Sigma Force #15))
“
The enclosed space trapped her anxiety, amplifying her fear.
”
”
James Rollins (The Demon Crown (Sigma Force #13))
“
The problem with engineers today is that they don’t think on paper.
”
”
Joseph R. Lallo (Bypass Gemini (Big Sigma, #1))
“
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
”
”
James Rollins (Black Order (Sigma Force, #3))
“
The richest harvest comes from best-tilled soil.
”
”
James Rollins (The Devil Colony (Sigma Force, #7))
“
Ars longa, vita brevis,” she whispered, a quote from Hippocrates. One of her favorites. Life is short, art eternal.
”
”
James Rollins (Map of Bones (Sigma Force, #2))
“
The greatest blessings granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift. —SOCRATES, ON THE ORACLE OF DELPHI
”
”
James Rollins (The Last Oracle)
“
Ideology is summary...in the world of collective nuance we are all easily overwhelmed by information
”
”
John Ricardo Mazarite
“
We range the day And mount the sun. We soar past the rim of the world, And know not caution nor fear. But too soon the night comes. –Sigma Hotel
”
”
Jack McDevitt (Cauldron (The Academy, #6))
“
There are a thousand paths into the future, forks after forks in the road ahead. Who knows, if one road closes, maybe another opens in another universe . . . and your soul, your consciousness, leaps over to continue that journey ever forward, always finding the right path.” Still,
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
Despite his image as a bloody tyrant, Genghis was also forward thinking. His empire had the first international postal system, invented the concept of diplomatic immunity, and even allowed women in its councils. But more importantly, the Mongols were also unprecedented in their religious tolerance.
”
”
James Rollins (The Eye of God (Sigma Force, #9))
“
Well what are you looking at me for? If this is a democratic process, I've been outvoted," he said in exasperation. "This is why democracy doesn't work. The crazy people always outnumber the sane people.
”
”
Joseph R. Lallo (Unstable Prototypes (Big Sigma, #2))
“
that and throughout the Civil War, this single building housed the entirety of the Smithsonian’s collections. But where did this shining testament to science get its true start? Oddly enough, it wasn’t an American who founded the institution,
”
”
James Rollins (The Demon Crown (Sigma Force #13))
“
Honestly, people always talk about ‘normal’ as though it is something to aspire to, but that’s a load of crap. Normal isn’t an achievement, it’s a baseline. Normal is something you end up as if you never get around to doing something interesting.
”
”
Joseph R. Lallo (Bypass Gemini (Big Sigma, #1))
“
There are two wolves inside of you, Glaucon. Anyone can have an alpha-beta pair; rarer are the alpha-alpha and beta-beta ones. Most precious of all are those who have stepped out of the Cave; the philosopher-kings who may rule society: the sigma-alpha pair.
”
”
Plato (The Republic)
“
all of my bases covered. You assume responsibility for violations of local, regional, global, intrasystem, interstellar, intergalactic and interdimensional law, civil, religious, or military. I’m also not responsible for loss of life and limb, property damage, domestic disputes, engineered biological human dieback, nuclear fallout, violations of causality, cascading sub-quantum misalignment, hastening of cosmic heat death, rampant AI, accelerated climate change, geomagnetic reversal, vacuum metastability events, total existence failure, gray goo scenario, red goo scenario--that’s a nasty one--tectonic inversion--
”
”
Joseph R. Lallo (Bypass Gemini (Big Sigma, #1))
“
In the discussion at Phi Beta Sigma, a social fraternity I joined for a while, I expressed my anger about society and white racism. The other told me that I sounded like a guy named Donald Warden who was preaching Blackness at the Berkley campus of the University of California. He was the head of an organization called the Afro-American Association.
I went to Berkley to find Warden and hear what he was saying. The first member I met, though, was Maurice Dawson, one of Warden’s tight partners. He turned me off with his arrogance. I had come searching for something, and he scorned me because I did not already know what I was seeking. I could not understand what he was saying about “Afro-Americans.” The term was new to me. Dawson really put me down. “You know what an Afro-Cucan is?” “Yes” “You know what an Afro-Brazilian is?” “Yes” “Then why don’t you know what an Afro-American is?” It may have been apparent to him, but not to me. But I was stilled interested.
Maurice taught me a lesson that I try to apply to the Black Panther Party today. I dissuade Party members from putting down people who do not understand. Even people who are unenlightened and seemingly bourgeois should be answered in a polite way. Things should be explained to them as fully as possible. I was turned off by a person who did not want to talk to me because I was not important enough. Maurice just wanted to preach to the converted, who already agreed with him. I try to be cordial, because that way you win people over. You cannot win them over by drawing a line of demarcation, saying you are on this side and I am on the other; that shows a lack of consciousness. After the Black Panther Party was formed, I nearly feel into this error. I could not understand why people were blind to what I saw so clearly. Then I realized that their understanding had to be developed.
”
”
Huey P. Newton
“
Look, cell phone geolocation data shows very few clustering anomalies for this hour and climate. And that’s holding up pretty much across all major metro areas. It’s gone down six percentage points since news of the Karachi workshop hit the Web, and it’s trending downward. If people are protesting, they aren’t doing it in the streets.” He circled his finger over a few clusters of dots. “Some potential protest knots in Portland and Austin, but defiance-related tag cloud groupings in social media put us within the three-sigma rule—meaning roughly sixty-eight percent of the values lie within one standard deviation of the mean.
”
”
Daniel Suarez
“
SIGMA 301 to 450 The third most respected rank of the pack is of teachers. Sigma wolves teach the wolf pups about hunting and other important survival tricks. They are the mind of the pack. You are intelligent and wise. You are certainly brainier than brawny. You always understand and guide your friends in a way best for
”
”
Marie Max House (What is Your Rank in a Wolf Pack ?: Let's find are you the Alpha, Omega or some other member of the Pack (Quiz Yourself Book 3))
“
Just go look.
That sentiment had been the driving force behind humanity's progress across the ages, a simple imperative fueled by our innate curiosity: to discover what was around the next bend, over the next horizon. It was that same inquisitiveness that impelled us to explore who we are, where we came from, and where we are headed next.
”
”
James Rollins (The Bone Labyrinth (Sigma Force, #11))
“
Remember, child, life is not a straight line. It cycles.
”
”
James Rollins (Sandstorm (Sigma Force, #1))
“
QUIT = Quickly Uphold Important Things
”
”
Richie Norton
James Rollins (Bloodline (Sigma Force, #8))
“
They all knew borders no longer divided the world so much as ideologies.
”
”
James Rollins (Sandstorm (Sigma Force, #1))
Joseph R. Lallo (Bypass Gemini (Big Sigma, #1))
“
Whiskey is for drinkin’, water is for fightin’.” She frowned. “Mark Twain,” he said.
”
”
James Rollins (Sandstorm (Sigma Force, #1))
“
Would their relocation be a lifelong prison sentence?
”
”
James Rollins (The Demon Crown (Sigma Force #13))
“
It is a tradition among our desert tribes. A man may borrow what he needs. Stealing is crime.
”
”
James Rollins (Sandstorm (Sigma Force, #1))
“
might not be the brightest bulb in the box, but
”
”
James Rollins (The Seventh Plague (Sigma Force, #12))
“
Tesla once stated, instinct is something which transcends knowledge. “Anton,
”
”
James Rollins (The Seventh Plague (Sigma Force, #12))
“
Às vezes, as ilusões são uma coisa boa, são necessárias.
”
”
James Rollins (The Devil Colony (Sigma Force, #7))
“
You attribute your successes to skills, but your failures to randomness. This explains why these scientists attributed their failures to the “ten sigma” rare event, indicative of the thought that they were right but that luck played against them. Why? It is a human heuristic that makes us actually believe so in order not to kill our self-esteem and keep us going against adversity.
”
”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto Book 1))
“
Bristol-Meyers Squibb has reported success with monatomic ruthenium to correct cancer cells. Same with platinum and iridium, according to Platinum Metals Review. These atoms actually make the DNA strand correct itself, rebuilding without drugs or radiation. Iridium has been shown to stimulate the pineal gland and appears to fire up ‘junk DNA,’ leading to the possibility of increased longevity and reopening aging pathways in the brain.
”
”
James Rollins (Map of Bones (Sigma Force, #2))
“
When the CERN teams reported a 'five-sigma' result for the Higgs boson, corresponding to a P-value of around 1 in 3.5 million, the BBC reported the conclusion correctly, saying this meant 'about a one-on-3.5 million chance that the signal they see would appear if there were no Higgs particle.' But nearly every other outlet got the meaning of this P-value wrong. For example, Forbes Magazine reported, 'The chances are less than 1 in a million that it is not the Higgs boson,' a clear example of the prosecutor's fallacy. The Independent was typical in claiming that 'there is less than a one in a million chance that their results are a statistical fluke.' This may not be blatantly mistaken as Forbes, but it is still assigning the small probability to 'their results are a statistical fluke', which is logically the same as saying this is the probability of the null hypothesis being tested.
”
”
David Spiegelhalter (The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data)
“
Most major Christian groups—Catholics, Byzantines, Nestorians, Jacobites—believe Mary’s father was a man named Joachim. But this is contested. The Koran claims she descended from a highly respected family, that of Imran. As does the Jewish faith.
”
”
James Rollins (Sandstorm (Sigma Force, #1))
“
I work the terraces, Miss Jones. I bring forth the champagne and the wine. I ensure that the chateau remains a perfect example of French architecture. I pay the wages of the workers. I give the orders and flourish the phantom whip, but I am only the caretaker of Satancourt and its cellar.
”
”
Violet Winspear (Devil in a Silver Room)
“
I am a collector of bread crumbs, all those bits of science and history that I mash and knead together to build my stories. And now that the bread is baked and served, my goal here is to try to separate those slices of the story that are based on substantial fact from those that are pure fabrication.
”
”
James Rollins (The Seventh Plague (Sigma Force, #12))
“
He was allowed a room here with Kane because of a special international military passport that declared the dog to be a working animal. Kane even had his own rank — major, one station higher than Tucker. All military war dogs were ranked higher than their handlers. It allowed any abuse of the dogs to be a court martial offense: for striking a superior officer.
”
”
James Rollins (Tracker (Sigma Force, #7.5))
“
for ordinary African Americans, coping with hegemonic gender ideology can be so demanding that generating alternatives can seem virtually impossible. But the importance of this task cannot be underestimated because African American survival may depend on it. One important task lies in rejecting dominant gender ideology, in particular, its use of the thesis of "weak men, strong women" as a source of Black social control. Because hegemonic masculinity equates strength with dominance, an antiracist politics must challenge this connection. Within this project, the fundamental premise of any progressive Black gender ideology is that it cannot be based on someone else's subordination. This means that definitions of Black masculinity that rely on the subordination of Black women, poor people, children, LGBT people, or anyone else become invalid. Definitions of Black femininity that do not challenge relations of sexism, economic exploitation, age, heterosexism, and other markers of social inequality also become suspect. Rather than trying to be strong within existing gender ideology, the task lies in rejecting a gender ideology that measures masculinity and femininity using gendered definitions of strength. In this endeavor to craft a more progressive Black gender ideology, African American men and women face similar yet distinctive challenges. The task for African American men lies in developing new definitions of masculinity that uncouple strength from its close ties to male dominance. Good Black men need not rule their families with an iron hand, assault one another, pursue endless booty calls, and always seem to be "in control" in order to avoid the sigma of weakness. The task for African American women lies in redefining strength in ways that simultaneously enable Black women to reclaim historical sources of female power, yet reject the exploitation that has often accompanied that power. Good Black women need not be stoic mules whose primary release from work and responsibility comes once a week on Sunday morning. New definitions of strength would enable Black men and women alike to be seen as needing and worthy of one another's help and support without being stigmatized as either overly weak or unnaturally strong.
”
”
Patricia Hill Collins (Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism)