"Patriotism is best exemplified through auto-critique. When you're willing to stand up within the group and say, 'It is wrong for Black people to be anti-Semitic,' or 'It is wrong for America to discriminate against persons of African descent and made them slaves and based its wealth upon free labor,' it's crucial to say that."

"The story of the African-American people is the story of the settlement and growth of America itself, a universal tale that all people should experience,"

"In America one drop of black ancestry makes you black."

"I would like to do a series about sequencing the human genome, and also analyze more human diversity among other ethnic groups - a 'Faces of America 2.'"

"My goal is to get everybody in America to do their family tree."

"One must learn how to be black in America."

"Wherever you go in the history of America, there have been Black people making contributions, but their contributions have been obscured, lost, buried."