I have the capacity to express what I feel needs to be expressed. And I try to do what I believe in.

In The Black Power Mixtape , you hear the voice of Angela Davis - not someone playing Angela Davis.

Kids made fun of me because I was dark skinned, had a wide nose, and was dyslexic. Even as an actor, it took me a long time to realize why words and letters got jumbled in my mind and came out differently.

What's more important is that we talk about movements; change happens through movements. The movement to end slavery, the movement to bring justice for those who have been left out of the system, movements to include women, movements around sexual preference - all these movements brought about change.

I didn't elect [Barack] Obama because he's a black; I voted for Obama because he was the right person at the time.

We live in a climate of fear, and because of this whole ideology of consumption almost to the point of religion.

Remember, we're talking [in The Black Power Mixtape] about 1967, the year before [Martin Luther] King's assassination. We're talking about the emergence of black power, which is a discussion King mentioned in his last book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? We're talking about the meaning of black power and the possibility that it alienated our supporters, both white and black.