I got a letter from this lady of Russian and Jewish descent. She asked me if I was a racist because I didn't do any White people. I was shocked, because my mandate is to do Black studies. It would have never occurred to me if this lady hadn't written this letter. We decided we were going expand the brand and do everybody.

I don't think the riots derailed the civil rights movement.

It turns out one of my ancestors fought in the Continental Army, so I was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution.

We have to stop making excuses. One of the things that I'm careful to show is the horrendous effects of institutional and structural racism, but in the end, you can't wait for white man or a Black man to come riding in on a white horse to save you. We have to save ourselves, and that's the lesson of "The African Americans."

People are afraid, and when people are afraid, when their pie is shrinking, they look for somebody to hate. They look for somebody to blame. And a real leader speaks to anxiety and to fear and allays those fears, assuages anxiety.

The first step toward tolerance is respect and the first step toward respect is knowledge.

I'm a tech geek. Whenever I read about something new, I think to myself, How can I take this and make it black?