It's self-effacing it's hard-luck the shtetl stories. All those Coasters things are an amalgam of Yiddish and black humor.

Colombian humor is very black very sarcastic.

There are so many things to talk about between black people Hispanic people white people gay people men women it's all based on fear. We all have fears this thing that stops us from embracing as we are one. We are never going to be one. People are messed up but humor lets us see how ignorant we can be.

As a black man my hope is that I can touch more and more people all over the world of different races and different colours.

My fondest hope is that 'Roots' may start black white brown red yellow people digging back for their own roots. Man that would make me feel 90 feet tall.

What we hope to achieve is a society that doesn't value a white man because he's a white man but also doesn't value a woman because she's a woman or a black because he's a black.

Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected.

The only people who live in a post-black world are four people who live in a little white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. The idea that America is post-racial or post-black because a man I admire Barack Obama is president of the United States is a joke. And I hope no one will even wonder about this crazy fiction again.

I'm hoping someday that some kid black or white will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is I'd be pulling for him.

I remember when I came home from the hospital after having my son I wore a Narciso Rodriguez black coat. Then I was using this fragrance that I had created. I walk by that coat and it still smells like that fragrance. It takes you right there.

The silver and black may have another home but the Raiders will always belong to the people of Los Angeles.

I'm an afternoon tea type of girl. I come from a Russian background where we love our teas. So between lunch and dinner after training I come home and I love a nice cup of tea with jam in it as we drink it there. Black English Breakfast with raspberry jam is my favorite.

Why shouldn't rap be esoteric able to take in current events history and criticism? I guess it's this old idea of containment - that rappers because they're black can't and shouldn't aspire to look outside the ghetto for influence.

From a reality perspective I'm sure part of that is true but this is the largest blackout in U.S. history. If that is not a signal that we have got a problem that needs to be fixed I don't know what is.

Let me tell you never before in the history of this planet has anybody made the progress that African-Americans have made in a 30-year period in spite of many black folks and white folks lying to one another.

The long-established and noble rule of Law one of the greatest products of the character and tradition of British history has suffered a deadly blow. Blackmail has become respectable.

I do consider myself part of black history.

Wherever you go in the history of America there have been Black people making contributions but their contributions have been obscured lost buried.

What people forget is that the most radical thing about Obama is that he was the first black man in history to imagine that he could become president who was able to make other Americans believe it as well. Other than that he is a centrist just like I try to be. He's been bridging divisions his whole life.

America is the greatest nation ever founded. The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history and we just need the country to live up to them. But what I worry about are the 1 million black men in the prison system.

I did a book in 1996 an overview of black history. In that process I became more aware of a lot of the black inventors of the 19th century.

Black people don't have an accurate idea of their history which has been either suppressed or distorted.

In a typical history book black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There's so much more to the story.

Black History Month must be more than just a month of remembrance it should be a tribute to our history and reminder of the work that lies in the months and years ahead.