I entered at an interesting time, after the L.A. riots, when...

I entered at an interesting time, after the L.A. riots, when the field was in crisis. A lot of the movement was down with solidarity with other races, but the riots were a shock. The focus became interracial relations, and they wanted to know what I thought. It gave me a weird credibility in the field. A lot of us got published in academic journals right away.