I think, and a lot of that has to do with where I grew up in California; [status] isn't something I think about that much.

In The Sellout I tried to capture how we can talk and see race, how we see urbanity, and how we see our history.

If New York is the City That Never Sleeps, then Los Angeles is the City That's Always Passed Out on the Couch.

I try to be accommodating, but I'm pretty much a loner.

There are many similarities between Germans and blacks. The nouns themselves are loaded with so much historical baggage it's impossible for anyone to be indifferent to the simple mention of either group. We're two insightful people looking for reasons to love ourselves; and let's not forget we both love pork and wear sandals with socks.

It's weird because there is progress somehow. But there's so much that just feels the same. How important is that rank? How important is it that I am allowed to make these decisions? What does that really mean? What is progress? Is it progress that a black guy gets to push a button for the nuclear bomb? Is that progress? Maybe, I don't know.

The anger and fear are so global. And of course, we live where we live and there's a hierarchy to who is worth what. It's been going on for a long, long time.