Patriarchy is a disease and we are in perennial recovery and relapse. So you have to get up every morning and struggle against it.

Those who came to the United States didn't realize they were white until they got here. They were told they were white. They had to learn they were white. An Irish peasant coming from British imperial abuse in Ireland during the potato famine in the 1840s, arrives in the United States. You ask him or her what they are. They say, "I am Irish." No, you're white. "What do you mean, I am white?" And they point me out. "Oh, I see what you mean. This is a strange land."

He who learns death unlearns slavery.

To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word.

You must let suffering speak, if you want to hear the truth

Does he have a double standard for black critics as opposed to white critics?

I do believe that not just the churches but strong communities, strong trade unions, strong families can make a difference in terms of producing persons much more virtuous than what one usually finds in a gangster culture.