You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you. - Kamala Harris

There's an adage a historian once called A Law of History, true of every society across the ages. The adage is "Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars." I know many feel like we are entering a dark time. But for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here's the thing: America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars. The light of optimism, of faith, of truth, and service. And may that work guide us, even in the face of setbacks, toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America.

I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything.

Black men use drugs at the same rate as white men, but they are arrested twice as often for it. And then they pay more than a third more than their counterparts, on average, in bail. Black men are six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated. And when they are convicted, black men get sentences nearly 20 percent longer than those given to their white counterparts. Latino men don’t fare much better. It is truly appalling.