On the book’s title …
“So many of us have been conditioned to believe that if we have a great job, we’ve got a great spouse, we’ve got a great car, that we made it. The truth is that we are denying ourselves so many other pieces of who we are. This book title [asks] how do I break down those boxes, those chains, those identity prisms that are who I’m not. I’m not who my parents say I am. I’m not who the community tells me I should be. I’m not who my school tells me I am.”
On Kanye West’s outburst …
“The book came out two days after the VMA debacle,” he said on the “Frank & Wanda Morning Show” on V-103 FM in Atlanta. “This shows that you can be at the top of your game and still have a bottle of Hennessy on the red carpet because you ain’t dealt with your stuff. So first of all, as opposed to demonizing the brother, pray for him, and secondly, understand that most of us go through the same things but our stuff isn’t put on television and people [aren’t] talking about it on blogs.”
On President Obama’s critics …
“Because it’s been so long, people forget how insane the right [wing] was against Clinton. And so, a lot of times we’re trying to make this a race issue when it’s just a right [wing] issue. The right was gangsta against Clinton [and] they are gangsta against Obama. Does that mean that they aren’t using this race card, negatively and positively, to impact the president and his progress? Sure, there are those. But I think gotta keep this in perspective, so that when they are race issues, we can call them what they, but we aren’t calling everything a race issue. The president very early [on said] black folks need to be out of celebratory mode and get into work mode. Even the president said he’s looking for people to work with him, not celebrate him.”
