As you know, in this country Anglo-Americans are about 75 to 76 percent home ownership in this country, where Hispanics, African Americans are less than 50 percent.

And what most people don't understand is the bulk of business in this country is small business.

And I'm the kind of manager that doesn't believe that you micro-manage professionals. They should understand their responsibility and carry out those responsibility.

But we look back now, and we realize the Great Society was not a success.

After leaving law school, I intentionally said that I never wanted to hold a job more than six years.

Progress for black Americans depends on good schools because education is the last great equalizer.

But I do know this: that the two and a half years that I've been at HUD, I am absolutely convinced that some of the best workers in the world are in Federal Government.

One of the problems that we are confronted with is, when we decide to buy or build a home, we don't get a clear picture of what closing costs will be of that home.

As you know, in this country Anglo-Americans are about 75 to 76 percent home ownership in this country, where Hispanics, African Americans are less than 50 percent.

I think that there will always be a need for Housing and Urban Development.

We believe that, by the time that we leave office, it will be institutionalized, and these programs will be addressing the needs and curing the problem that we set out to do.

So, we're saying, if we can give developers and builders incentives to cut down on the regulatory barriers that are faced in this country, then we might be able to address the needs of affordable housing.

In the final analysis, it is your decision to make, but it doesn't move as fast as I'd like it to move.

America is a place where you can be born into a low-income household but still lift yourself up, and it doesn't matter what color you are.

HUD's mission is to provide decency and sanitary housing for low and moderate income people in this country.

They take pride in their schools. They begin to participate, where, when they are renters, they don't do that. So what we're doing by this program is strengthening America.

I believe that if you are elderly, physically or mentally handicapped we have an obligation too you, but if you are able-bodied, you should be working.

The other part of outsourcing is this: it simply says where the work can be done outside better than it can be done inside, we should do it.

The Bush administration is the most diverse in history because the president fills jobs on the basis of a person's capabilities and qualifications, not on the color of his or her skin.

You can't rise as a class. You have to rise individually. It's what many of the civil rights-era people don't understand.

And I always like to stress, it's not a quota, not a set-aside, it's not about race, it's about giving opportunities to demonstrate their abilities to do work with the Federal Government.

For the first half of my adult life, I was a Democrat.

In 1965, I marched for equality.

So, I have the responsibility of making sure that HUD functions and runs well.

I think serving your government is the greatest thing in the world.

The largest challenge that we face, from my perspective, is the ability to continue moving forward so the agency will have a single mission: that is, to provide decent, safe, and affordable housing.

The dream doesn't lie in victimization or blame; it lies in hard work, determination and a good education.

And for far too long, the Democrats have had a monopoly on black votes in this country.

To be a slaveholder meant one had to regard the African American as inferior in every way.

There is no way that we know what is going on between the African American and the Asian American. We don't understand what an Indigenous American is. We don't understand what a Latino American is.

Without Social Security, poverty rates for African American seniors would more than double.

It's a pity one can't imagine what one can't compare to anything. Genius is an African who dreams up snow.

It is up to African leaders to show their will and political courage in order to assure that this new pan-African institution becomes an efficient instrument and not a place for endless discussions.

Because I don't play guitar any more, African harmonies and rhythms have been an inspiration to me. I love the raw origin of the sound. It complements my voice and words naturally.

I say that I represent this movement because my intellectual allegiances are clearly European, not African.

I have a very personal interest. I am a Miami-Dade voter. One of the issues is that my vote and so many other votes of women and African Americans in Florida are being discounted or discarded. I want my vote to count.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, have played an important role in enriching the lives of not just African Americans, but our entire country.

When I became a director, I wanted to convince a very reluctant Sidney into allowing me to go on the journey of his life. Sidney had gone ahead of every other African American actor.

I think one of the political problems we have in this country is the perspective that all soccer moms think alike, all African-Americans think alike.

The adoring crowds and overwhelming Democratic support in the 2008 election was based largely on joy at jettisoning Bush and the appeal of electing a superbly qualified charismatic African American leader.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.

Eight generations of African-Americans are still waiting to achieve their rights - compensation and restitution for the hundreds of years during which they were bought and sold on the market.

An important aspect of the current situation is the strong social reaction against suggestions that the home language of African American children be used in the first steps of learning to read and write.

A genocide in Africa has not received the same attention that genocide in Europe or genocide in Turkey or genocide in other part of the world. There is still this kind of basic discrimination against the African people and the African problems.

Whether or not all this came to pass in an East African ditch, I wouldn't like to say. Perhaps it happened in North Africa or further west, but Africa was definitely the place.

I don't think people have been able to deal with the fact that African American filmmakers can make movies about life and relationships.

In the final analysis, the whole cause of world revolution hinges on the revolutionary struggles of the Asian, African and Latin American people who make up the overwhelming majority of the world's population.

What we call soul has been around a long time. It comes out of a particular culture that is African in origin, but influenced by 250 years of slavery, as well as other forms of racial oppression.