I have no bones to pick and no fight with society. And I'm willing to be and interested in being in the mainstream of society.
Las Vegas: It was not cafe society, it was Nescafe society
The idea of going to school and getting a job is the most destructive one in your brain.
I've spent my entire adult life encouraging minority communities to get involved in mainstream society, civic society.
I've never wanted to live in a ghetto or write in a ghetto. I want to write about a world that reflects the one most people live in. Gay people are just one aspect of that.
I actually feel pretty inspired and hopeful by the fact that protests are becoming the norm now. They're less part of fringe society and more a part of mainstream society. That's exciting. There is no fringe anymore. We should all be included.
Muslim communities themselves, as they expect mainstream society to stand down racists, must do more to also stand down the Islamist extremists.
I am sure it must be true that people opt out of the mainstream society because they feel that there are going to be no rewards for them, if they stay.
Sex and gender are such befuddling mysteries even for those of us who are in the mainstream that you'd think we'd be wary of being judgmental. Yet much of society clings to a view that gender is completely binary, when, in fact, there's overwhelming evidence of a continuum.
In the mainstream, I'm suspect because I'm black. I have dreadlocks, I have a goatee. I mean, I'm just suspect. In my classroom and at Columbia, I'm not as suspect because it's clear I know what I'm doing, but I am still suspect.
I want to ideate with people and come up with something through which I can rehabilitate people who are handicapped in some way and integrate them with people into mainstream. That's the bigger plan!
The Muslim community should not be treated as a problematic community, but treated as a community that is willing to play its role in the mainstream.
