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I went to a segregated school; I was born a Negro, not a black man.

I am black, and there's no getting around that, but being black doesn't define every aspect of my life.

There are so many stereotypes of how you have to be as a black man, growing up in the community as a man.

It's very lonely being a prominent black intellectual at an institution where you're the only prominent black intellectual. That was the model that was followed in the late 60s when black studies started. You'd get one here and one there and one here, like Johnny Appleseed.

When I got into Stanford in high school, I had some friends from school who told me that I just got in because I was black and whatnot.

The less I talk about being black, the better.

College was where I got to actually experience the difference between black and white.

There are so many people who have this idea of who I am because I'm black.

I have a father who was the first black student at his junior high and high school and had to do a lot to get to that point.

And I used to say, 'I'm black, too.' In other words, I - my whole life I've been called a half-breed, a convict, king of the trailer trash, this and that. I take that and stand.