The queer body is an incredibly despised and vulnerable thing in our culture, and to write about it in that way feels, to me, like a way to affirm its value, to try to care for it.
Bearden's paintings made simple what Wilson's writing had so far only groped to formulate: "Black life presented on its own terms, on a grand and epic scale, with all its richness and fullness, in a language that was vibrant and which, made attendant to everyday life, ennobled it, affirmed its value, and exalted its presence".
But I nevertheless continue to be thankful to all of you who have made it possible for this to continue, by coming out every week to read it, by affirming its value, and making the case for it to continue.
Psychologists are drawing a picture of the emotional support offered by friends and family that affirms its value but points up the resentment and harm that well-meaning gestures can foster.
Here they do not endorse the activity in the strong sense of positively affirming its value.
The goal is to re-affirm its value to users, potential partners, and advertisers as part of its overall marketing message.
Democracy for the faithful has become a means for society to affirm its most cherished Islamic values.
Even the United States with the manifest audacity to throw its military strength around in the most improbable ventures in the most improbable of places, shrinks from affirming its advertised values.
Regardless, the timing is good for baseball, affirming its financial value in the face of the N.F.L. juggernaut, and putting an end to one of two ownership sagas that overshadowed everything else in baseball's offseason.
Finally, there remains an inherent conflict of interest in shaping a museum around a private collection: Doing so validates the work and also affirms its cultural value, and thereby increases its worth, influencing the art market in ways that favor the works' owners.
