The second thing that happened is, DNA analysis is much more sophisticated. All you have to do now is spit in a test tube and you find out all kind of things in six weeks - where they are from in Africa or Europe. You can prove or disprove the fundamental African-American myth that you descended from a Cherokee great, great grandmother.

Everything my mother and father did was designed to put me where I am.

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

Keeping the Union together, freeing slaves and being assassinated all added up to creating 'Lincoln the myth.' He overcame a lot of his own prejudices and became what many would consider the first black man's president.

Each individual has a responsibility to get out of bed, learn their ABCs, learn your math tables, not use race and racism as an excuse.

My father lived to be 97 and played bridge every day up to the end, so I've got a 50 percent chance of living a long life like him.

In America one drop of black ancestry makes you black. In Brazil, it's almost as if one drop of white ancestry makes you white.