If a CEO takes an interest in you and he happens to be an Asian man, then that’s great, but as an African-American woman, you want to make sure that if the executive vice-president of the company is an African-American woman that you get to know her. A'Lelia Bundles Read Quote
For some people, success is a zero sum game. They think that if they push other people out of the way, fewer people can compete with them. That’s one way of seeing the world. It’s dog eat dog. It’s, sadly, always going to be there. A'Lelia Bundles Read Quote
Every ethnic group has a mythology… Until ‘Roots’… there was nothing in the popular culture to refute the paragraph in elementary school history class that said, ‘Slaves picked the cotton, were happy and life wasn’t so bad.’ A'Lelia Bundles Read Quote
DuBois – my intellectual hero – had written an obit of Madam, praising her… I began to see Madam Walker beyond the definitions others had given her. A'Lelia Bundles Read Quote
Many people have told me that once they learn of Madam Walker’s accomplishments they are surprised, even embarrassed, that they have never heard of her. But they shouldn’t be. Her extraordinary story was simply omitted from the history books. A'Lelia Bundles Read Quote
I began to discover that, in addition to her stunning achievements, there were flaws as there would be in any person’s life. I wanted to tell Madam’s story in an honest, frank way. A'Lelia Bundles Read Quote
Madam Walker was a woman who transformed herself in a very American, rags-to-riches way. A'Lelia Bundles Read Quote
To her credit, Madam Walker discerned that black women wanted to conform to white Victorian models of beauty. She was aware of the double- sidedness of her products – helping black women appear more European in look, with straight hair – but she always maintained that she was simply selling products that promoted hair growth. A'Lelia Bundles Read Quote
A lot of people think Oprah is channeling for Madam Walker, and there are lots of parallels. A'Lelia Bundles Read Quote
For all my life, I’ve been trying to tell Madam’s story and really it’s a labor of love just to make sure people know about her and the empowerment she gave to other women. A'Lelia Bundles Read Quote
