maya anglou knows who i am and she's rooting for me. i can do this. that's really true for us all. because in so many ways, maya angelou knew us. she knew our hope, our pain, our ambition, our fear, our pain, our shame. she assured us that despite it all, in fact, because of it all, we were good. and in doing so, she paved the way for me and oprah and so many others just to be our good old black woman selves. she showed us. she showed us that eventually, if we stayed true to who we are, then the world would embrace us.