Crisis' seems to be too mild a word to describe conditions in countless African-American communities. It is beyond crisis when in the richest nation in the world, African Americans in Harlem live shorter lives than the people of Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations of the world.

if we center our lives on BMWs, RVs, VCRs, PCs and the other acronyms of consumerism, we cannot expect our children to do otherwise.

Now, if you want to know my secret love, it is to be able to serve as an example.

The myth of black women profiting at the expense of black men is the oldest rap around.

What you give ought to be in direct relationship to what you've received. If you have been blessed with a great deal, then you have a lot of giving to do.

The more we pull together toward a new day, the less it matters what pushed us apart in the past.

The woman who bore me is no longer alive, but I seem to be her daughter in increasingly profound ways.