What does it really mean to be a leftist in the early part of the 21st century? What are we really talking about? And I can just be very candid with you. It means to have a certain kind of temperament, to make certain kinds of political and ethical choices, and to exercise certain analytical focuses in targeting on the catastrophic and the monstrous, the scandalous, the traumatic, that are often hidden and concealed in the deodorized and manicured discourses of the mainstream. That's what it means to be a leftist. So let's just be clear about it.

Addiction is the dominant form of a culture that suffers from a superficial spectacle and celebrity-connectivity at its center. It's a form of spiritual emptiness.

Racism is a moral catastrophe, most graphically seen in the prison industrial complex and targeted police surveillance in black and brown ghettos rendered invisible in public discourse.

I think we must never, ever demonize one another. That's true not just black people to black people; that's human being to human being.

Try to just be true to ourselves, whoever we are, but willing to grow, even as we're true to ourselves.

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

The wonderful thing about the black church for me is that it forces you to come to terms with the centrality of love in the world.