I don't know how you bridge that contradiction, but I felt that Barack Obama was sincere. It didn't feel like a line to me. You know, it felt like him reverting back to what was in his bones and that's, you know, optimism and a deep belief in, you know, American institutions and the American people.

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.

I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.

What sets black people apart is not some deficit in personal responsibility. It's the weight on our shoulders. That is what's actually different. We have the weight and burden of history.

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

[Barack Obama] grew up in Hawaii, far, far removed from the most, you know, sort of violent, you know, tendencies of Jim Crow and segregation. He wasn't directly exposed to that. He was untraumatized.

Addressing the moral failings of black people while ignoring the centuries-old failings of their governments amounts to a bait and switch.