Racism is about reminding you that you are less than human, less valuable, less worthy, less beautiful, less intelligent. It's about prejudging you as violent, fearsome, a threat. Some people will take that prejudice and try to force their will on you to make sure you feel like a second-class citizen and to make certain you get back to the lower-class place they think you're trying to escape. The best way to counter them involves, not your fists, but your mind.

[when facing police intimidation] Now is not the time to fight the power. Make sure they can see your hands, follow all instructions, don't say anything, keep your cool. Your goal is to defuse things, no matter how insulted you are. We'll get revenge later. In the moment, play possum. Say sir.

Black maleness is a potentially fatal condition. Being black could turn an ordinary situation into a life or death moment even, if you're doing nothing wrong.

While some may think it complimentary to be considered magical, it is offensive because it suggests that black excellence is so shocking it can come only from a source that is supernatural. To accept a black leader who is extraordinary yet so human that he cannot be magical is an entirely different prospect than electing a black superhero. Anyone would vote for a superhero who lived up to my mom's standard of having to be twice as good. But to embrace a fallible black person who cannot promise anything but hope, intelligence, sweat and experience, now that comes closer to equality.

Obama had to be extraordinary, which reminds me of something my mother told me when I was a boy: that being black meant I had to be twice more than just good to get ahead. Obama seemed to be more than just good. In many ways he was the embodiment of the staple of film and literature - the magical Negro.