History is not the past. It is the stories we tell about the past. How we tell these stories - triumphantly or self-critically, metaphysically or dialectally - has a lot to do with whether we cut short or advance our evolution as human beings.

I think Detroit shows that we've come to the end of the industrial epoch and have to find a new mode of production.

I think that deep in our hearts we know that our comforts, our conveniences are at the expense of other people.

I think that rebellions arise out of anger, and they're very short-lived.

Some people are afraid of gentrification, but what I see is young people want to live in a different world. And they see possibilities here. They see that rents are relatively cheap compared to places like New York and California.

A rebellion is something that is developing as an explosion coming out of the righteous grievances of a community of people.

People in Detroit aren't just urban gardening. They're starting a new mode of education. They're trying to give children the education to be "solutionaries" rather than people who are going to get jobs in the system. And that is a huge change, a cultural revolution. The things that are happening in Detroit would amaze you if you're used to only looking at statistics, and only thinking of blacks as sufferers and not as activists.