Because of all the cosmetic services like skin whitening and hair bleaching, there is a lot that people can do to change their appearance without having actual surgery. It's quite common in Thailand and Korea and Japan.

Black culture is very difficult to explain to people who don't have any direct contact with it.

Only when you leave do you appreciate what binds American people and our cultural experience together.

I was relatively isolated from people of color. My parents are too old to be Baby Boomers; they had me later in life. So we didn't listen to any black music at all in the house, not even Ben E. King.

My parents didn't really restrict my movement, so I got involved in the underground music scene and the activism scene; I was doing some volunteering in food relief. I spent a lot of time throughout the city in poor areas, even though my family lived in a wealthy area.

There's been a lot of talk about black men and the presence and absence of black men in positions of power in American culture.

Hip-hop is mostly what I listen to, other than jazz. I've given up on pop music and indie rock.