Do you think President Obama is a socialist? No.

What is your elevator pitch for socialism? My elevator pitch is that the United States has a grotesque level of income and wealth inequality where the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, where almost 20 percent of our children are living in poverty, 40 percent of African-American children are living in poverty. We are moving rapidly toward an oligarchic form of society where a small number of families control not only the economy but our political system as well. It is imperative that we develop a strong political movement that says to the billionaire class they cannot have it all.

A recent poll showed that Americans are more willing to vote for a Muslim or an atheist for president than a socialist. Do you think you could take back the word ‘‘socialism’’ and keep it from being what it is right now, which is almost a nasty word? Actually, what surprised me about that poll was, given the negative publicity that the word ‘‘socialism’’ has, that — what was the number of the people who were prepared to vote for a socialist?

It was in the high 40s. Yeah. Well, that’s pretty good, and it’ll get higher.

One of the few clear ideas that Americans have about socialism is that it involves high taxes. Can you sell that, the idea that you might have to raise taxes? I think we can sell the idea that when the rich are getting much richer and corporations are enjoying record-breaking profits that yes, they should start paying their fair share of taxes.

Are you familiar with the hashtag #Bernie­SoBlack? I’ve heard of it.

A lot of black activists felt as if, when they criticized you, the response they got back was ‘‘but he marched on Washington,’’ as though that were an absolution. And so it became this joke on Twitter: ‘‘Bernie’s so black, he’s the first one killed in horror movies.’’ ‘‘Bernie’s so black, he’s dropping a mix tape.’’ Well look, Black Lives Matter is a very, very serious issue. And clearly, as a nation, we have to move away from a situation where black women are dragged out of their cars, thrown to the ground, assaulted and then die in jail three days later for the crime of not signaling a lane change. Or more recently, a fellow named Samuel DuBose got shot in the head for the crime of not having a license plate on the front of his car.