Time & Perspective Quote by Lauryn Hill

That first “Who do you think you are?” is a small sentence with a big policing function. Hill frames repression not as some distant political force but as an early, intimate lesson delivered in a tone most people recognize: the mix of disbelief and accusation that shows up when a kid speaks too boldly, a teen dresses too loudly, an artist refuses to stay “grateful.” The question pretends to be about identity, but it’s really about permission. It draws a boundary around ambition and self-definition, then dares you to cross it.

The line works because it’s observational and unsentimental. Hill doesn’t romanticize childhood; she marks the exact moment the world teaches you to shrink. “From the first time” implies repetition and inevitability: repression becomes a muscle you build, not a cage you’re locked in. And the unfinished ending - “we learn how to repress” - lands like a diagnosis. Repress what? The obvious answer is the self: desire, anger, confidence, joy, spiritual conviction. The fact that she leaves it open suggests the list is personal and endless.

In Hill’s cultural context, that policing carries extra weight. Black women in public life are routinely told their self-possession is arrogance, their boundaries are attitude, their complexity is inconvenience. Coming from an artist whose career has been both celebrated and scrutinized, the quote reads as both memoir and warning: society’s first move is often to question your right to exist at full volume.