We're Going To Achieve Our

The Public School System Is Not About Educating Black Children. Never Has Been. Inner-city Schools Are About Social Control. Period. They’re Operated As Holding Pens—miniature Jails, Really. It’s Only When Black Children Start Breaking Out Of Their Pens And Bothering White People That Society Even Pays Any Attention To The Issue Of Whether These Children Are Being Educated.

My Conviction Is That Those Fights Need To Be Fought Right Now And Can Be Won. And If In Fact We Have Finite Political Capital, Energy, Resources, We Need To Win Those Fights.

The American People Are Going To Have A Good Choice.

During The Course Of My Presidency, It Feels As If A Couple Times A Year, I End Up Having To Speak To The Country And To Speak To A Particular Community About A Devastating Loss. The Grieving That The Country Feels Is Real, The Sympathy, The Prioritizing, The Comforting Of The Families, All That’s Important. But I Think Part Of The Point That I Wanted To Make Was That It’s Not Enough Just To Feel Bad.

Societies Held Together By Fear And Repression May Offer The Illusion Of Stability For A Time, But They Are Built Upon Fault Lines That Will Eventually Tear Asunder.