My mom used to tell me, I can't use this phrase on the radio - but basically don't be one of those dudes hanging on the corner.

I think there's a sort of, you know, very thin way of reading this that says, well, Barack Obama is biracial thus that gives him some understanding of both white America and black America, but that's not really it.

[E]mpathy - not squishy self-serving conflict avoidance - is the hand-maiden, not the enemy, of reason and intellectual inquiry.

Any time you have, you know, upwards of 90 percent of a demographic voting against somebody, that's a statement.

I think, as a writer, I'm in my own head.

The essence of American racism is disrespect.

An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future.