Counter to the ineffectual anger of the street riot, the liberating forces of anger and self-reliance empower Tommy not "to wait for anybody's byyour-leave to be a 'Wine in the Wilderness' woman." Tommy fights for herself because no one else will, and her strong sense of values and self steer her clear of "take low" politics based on class and privilege. "There's something inside-a me that says I ain' suppose to let nobody play me cheap. Don't care how much they know!" she avows to Bill. Recognition of her own self-worth allows Tommy to discount the false ideology that blames the matriarchal black woman for a legion of cultural, familial, and social ills. Rejecting educated black culture's view of her, she contends that "the real thing is takin' place on the inside . . . that's.....
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