I think that it is too common for white feminists to say, 'We want some diversity. Come join our movement about gender, but we want you to check the class and race at the door.' And you can't undo that braid of race, class, and gender: all three intersect with each other, so it's important for more education to be done about that.

I certainly don't stay out of the sun, and I also don't, as some of my critics have said, put on blackface as a performance.

The system of racial classification is fiction, and we need to thoughtfully evaluate whether perpetuating it rigidly or allowing fluidity across the spectrum best supports human rights and social justice.

I want to provide for my kids.

I am a teacher. It's how I define myself. A good teacher isn't someone who gives the answers out to their kids but is understanding of needs and challenges and gives tools to help other people succeed. That's the way I see myself, so whatever it is that I will do eventually after politics, it'll have to do a lot with teaching.

We have to make it easier to afford to go into education in the first place, so you don't leave with crippling debt that you never have a chance to pay back because you're not making enough money.

As a kid, I know that most of my parents' friends were because my mom made friends with them, and my dad went along. I know a lot of dads who do that. I think it just starts to happen with guys. In the case of my father, he was probably just too busy reading books about Titanic.

In the depth of the near depression, that he faced when he came in, Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress provided 'recovery funds' that literally kept our classrooms open. Two years ago, these funds saved nearly 20,000 teacher and education jobs - just here in North Carolina.