Body piercing and baggy clothes express identity among black youth, and not just beginning with hip-hop culture. Moreover, young black entrepreneurs like Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs and Russell Simmons have made millions from their clothing lines.

Light-skinned black people are seen to be closer to white people. The allegiance to lighter-skinned people has operated in a very destructive way that we have internalized ourselves inside black communities. You look at many of the prominent black people in this society who have been able to do well. Many have been lighter-skinned.

All Americans deserve an equal crack at what it means to be a - having - having resources in your own home and in your state and in your country.

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.

Even when you don't know, you're supposed to know.

[ Mrs. James, my fifth-grade teacher] introduced us to these authors early on and taught us that their literature is important. Langston Hughes - we read his poetry. We studied who W.E.B DuBois was. And so she whetted our appetites.

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