This was in 2004, and it told me that President [Barack] Obama intended to be very careful and noncontroversial in addressing race matters. I

I serve on the Institute of the Black World's National Commission on African-American Reparations, and we have asked the President [Barack Obama] to, by executive order, establish a commission to study reparations. He can do this without Congressional approval. While I am not optimistic, I do hope that President Obama considers this in these waning months of his Presidency.

Do you really think I'm going to go on record telling you the craziest thing I've ever done. There's a reel in my brain, and I think I'll keep it there. No regrets, though.

Ronald Reagan's attack on people who receive public assistance was partially an attack on people of color.

I hope his wife feeds him [Clarence Thomas, Justice, U.S. Supreme Court] lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease. . . . He is an absolutely reprehensible person.

While the banks got big bailouts, a sizeable chunk of African-American wealth evaporated because so many people lost homes.

I am addicted to the printed word, and my idea of a good time is a good book.