The following is an edited and condensed version of the conversation.

Q: I grew up not far from you. What high school did you go to?

A: Brother Rice.

Shut up! So did I. What class were you in? (Long pause.) Hello?

Maybe I took that too literally. I graduated 1999.

I graduated in 1998.

How random is this?

(After reminiscing about English teachers, siblings that might know each other and drama class, the conversation moved on to politics.)

Donald Trump came to Michigan in 2016 and asked black voters to support him, saying “What the hell do you have to lose?” His reasoning was that decades of Democratic power in cities like Detroit left them with failing schools, high poverty and rampant crime. Is that the right pitch for Republicans to be making?

I actually went to the NAACP dinner this past spring, and I was pulled aside on two occasions that stick out to me. One lady said that she’d been a resident of Detroit for 45 years and feels neglected by the Democratic Party. Another lady pulled me aside and said that’s she’s never split a ticket in her entire life, and she’s finally looking forward to having a conservative to vote for. And I took that to kind of instruct me.

I was raised by people who, like my father, came out of the Jim Crow South because Michigan was the place that people immigrated to from all over the world to have economic opportunity. And now after marching from Selma to Detroit and rebelling from Watts to Baltimore, people don’t feel like anything has gotten better after 50 years. There’s still trees growing through houses and wild dogs running through the streets in black neighborhoods. And Debbie Stabenow keeps getting re-elected.

[Michigan voters are also electing a replacement for the House seat long held by John Conyers Jr., who resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct.]