Lacking

For lack of an honest voice in their communities, they weren't told the truth about themselves; for lack of the truth about themselves they lacked a legitimate culture; for lack of a legitimate culture, their race disappeared.

She had three different emotions going at the same time.  The first emotion had been with her from the time her mother called her hair "nappy" or "bad hair" and started straightening it, and gave her a doll with blond hair.  Every day she combed, brushed, and caressed the doll's blond hair, and at night she slept with the doll in her arms.

The second emotion had come when she began feeling insecure about herself for not having blond hair, and she began looking with envy and anger at women with blond hair.  The third emotion came when a white man was smart enough to exploit that inferiority complex she had by introducing her to some chemicals to dye her hair blond.

"Lawdy, Jesus -- thank you, Jesus!  I been praying for this day all my life -- thank you, Jesus . . !"
"Just be calm," the man told her, "you'll get used to it."  And he thought:  Although with that blond hair, you don't look like a white woman.  You look more like a clown.
"The Bible say that a woman's hair is her glory -- and I done finally got me some glory -- thank you, Lawd Jesus!"