“My wife says I spend my life trying to teach white folks. I'm not so s...” — Derrick Bell Quote

“My wife says I spend my life trying to teach white folks. I'm not so sure I'm proud of it, but she's right.”

“However self-sufficient we may fancy ourselves, we exist only in relation -- to our friend, family, and life partners; to those we teach and mentor; to our co-workers, neighbors, strangers; and even to forces we cannot fully conceive of, let alone define. In many ways, we are our relationships.”

“I go to readings by fiction writers like Alice Walker, and I'm envious of the level of attention they generate.”

“We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained.”

“Resistance is a powerful motivator precisely because it enables us to fulfill our longing to achieve our goals while letting us boldly recognize and name the obstacles to those achievements.”

“Slavery is, as an example of what white America has done, a constant reminder of what white America might do.”

“Church gives people a sense of community, a sense of how to behave... social support when times get tough. In a world where white working class folks are going to church less and less, they're losing that when they might really need it.”

“The magic's back, folks.”

“My advice for folks on networking is give, give, give. You will later receive. But you are really planting these seeds. Some of them will die, and they won't become anything. Many of them will take many, many years before they pay off for you if at all.”

“Other kids' parents wouldn't let them read magazines like 'Weird Tales,' but my folks were big readers themselves, so they didn't mind.”

“We all prosper when folks are more appraised of how great those matches were and how great those talents were from all of the guys who populated the NWA in the '80s.”

“I'll be damned if I want most folks out there to do unto me what they do unto themselves.”