I'm nervous about the prospects of an America that refuses to abide by its best conscience and its best lights and its best angels.

It is extremely interesting to me that black males, and other black folk, are viewed as self-pitying, by either other blacks who have failed to accurately calculate their own diminished status as a result of racial animosity - both individual and systemic - or by whites who fail to comprehend how, after forcing black folk into subservience for hundreds of years, they now whine about small privileges that pale - so to speak - in comparison to the untold advantage of centuries of benefit.

I think that the over-incarceration of black and brown folk is one of the great crimes of American society.

My church is the world! I want to bring the gospel to as broad and as interesting an audience as possible.

I had an exciting, interesting childhood, to be sure, with all of the challenges that ghetto life provides - but had loving parents.

I do believe that it is quite necessary for us as a people to reach back, over and down to help the less fortunate of our number.

Obviously, Jay-Z is one of the greatest entertainers of the world today. Not only is he a remarkable rhetorical genius, he's also a man of deep sympathy and empathy for those who are lost and vulnerable, but especially under-educated youth of all cultures and stripes.