Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
If you only think of me during Black History Month, I must be failing as an educator and as an astrophysicist.
Getting involved with 'Black 47' was like getting involved with 'Dunkirk' for me. I learned a lot. But 'Black 47' was my own history from my own country.
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.
I grew up watching people and companies commercialize Black History Month. I watched old McDonald's commercials, and they'd blacken up the commercials for 28 days then go back to normal in March. It got annoying to me.
I never really had to put much thought into my race, and neither did anybody else. I knew I was black. I knew there was a history that accompanied my skin color, and my parents taught me to be proud of it. End of story.
I'm black, yeah, but I'm just an actor, so everything I do doesn't have to be color-specific or specific to history. But I got to a point where a lot of people wanted to offer me period pieces, like that's the only thing I could do.
I was in a group called Pablo, while Will.i.am and apl.de.ap were a part of the Atban Klann. They signed to Ruthless Records with Easy-E. When Easy-E passed away in 1995 they changed their name to the Black Eyed Peas and asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. The rest is history.