“[Donald Trump] went on to, you know, otherize Muslims, otherize Latinos, otherize women, that he built out from that. And it can be true that a unique, you know, individual like Barack Obama can succeed in spite of that and still be the case that that force is quite, quite strong.”

Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.

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.

When you have a policy of making sure that African Americans cannot build wealth, of plundering African American communities of wealth.

Just because you came here in 1880, 1950, whenever, you became an American. You get to celebrate July 4th like every other American.

More specifically, Barack Obama is the president of a congenitally racist country, erected upon the plunder of life, liberty, labor, and land. This plunder has not been exclusive to black people.

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.

Giving opportunities to other people, it’s only right that you might want to, you know, pay that back.

Talk about class and hope no one notices.

What I am telling you is that you do not need to know to love, and it is right that you feel it all in any moment. And it is right that you see it through–that you are amazed, then curious, then belligerent, then heartbroken, then numb. You have the right to all of it.

What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.

That’s not an accident that Donald Trump didn’t begin with, say, trade or jobs or anything, that he actually began by otherizing the first African-American president of the United States.

And they necessitate that of the bodies destroyed every year, some wild and disproportionate number of them will be black.

To prevent enabling oppression, we demand that black people be twice as good.

The greatest reward of this constant interrogation, confrontation with the brutality of my country, is that it has freed me from hosts and myths.

The standard progressive approach of the moment is to mix color-conscious moral invective with color-blind public policy.

Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.

Man is made of ordinary things, and habit is his nurse.

I’m not a genetically superior person. I built my body.

But I learned that there’s a certain character that can be built from embarrassing yourself endlessly. If you can sit happy with embarrassment, there’s not much else that can really get to ya.

Why go to a church to worship God? A church is man made. God never said, “And let there be aluminum siding.” Climbing a tree to talk to God sounds like a better idea since only God can make a tree. And if that tree’s on a golf course, all the better.

Character, courage, industry and perseverance are the four pillars on which the whole edifice of human life can be built and failure is a word unknown to me.

She built walls to protect herself from intruders who made her feel unworthy.

I have never seen it but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific.

Dreams are built, and hearts are broken, by things that are said, but not meant.