"It's been said—accurately, I think—that "the ghetto" is not longer WHERE we live, but HOW we live. And it's true. It doesn't matter how poor or affluent the neighborhood—whether it's Brownsville or the South Bronx or Harlem or Jamaica, Queens, or Long Island, or where I live in Westchester—it almost doesn't matter. Wherever you go you'll find African Americans who are living "ghetto"—in the thrall of a culture that trashes the values of self respect and self discipline that enabled us to overcome centuries of racist oppression...and instead celebrates and promotes criminality, ignorance, and indecency."

"...how can our young people excel if they are mired in a corrupt mindset that demands the worst of them...a culture that glorifies the criminal yet shows contempt for the scholar...a culture in which the most egregious slurs have replaced terms of love and respect...a culture that will entrap our young people in the depths of society's margins just as surely as any segregationist law ever devised?"

"So yes, we have to take back our race. Now is the time, ladies and gentlemen, to write a new, triumphant chapter in our history reasserting the TRUE values we've lost...in our homes, in our schools, in our media, and in our institutions."

"Courage...leadership...accountability: I believe that these principles form a solid foundation for a renewed sense of possibility and achievement among black people everywhere. They are the principles each one of you demonstrates on the job and in your homes."

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