Not knowing it was hard; knowing it was harder

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

I have the wonderful pleasure of finishing the book and closing it. And I don't read them later.

I lived in a little working-class town that had no black neighborhoods at all - one high school. We all played together. Everybody was either somebody from the South or an immigrant from East Europe or from Mexico. And there was one church, and there were four elementary schools. And we were all, pretty much until the end of the war, very, very poor.

I like marriage. The idea.

Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are.

Freedom is choosing your responsibility. It's not having no responsibilitie s; it's choosing the ones you want.