We're supposed to be becoming more evolved as a society, and we're actually becoming less evolved.
— Kenya Barris
As much as we want to say racism is dead, it's still rearing its ugly head constantly.
I hear a creak in my house, and I'm calling the police immediately, but at the same time, I do know that when I call them, I'm going to make sure to say, 'I'm a black guy, and this is my house.'
We should be aware and constantly having conversations about the world because that's how you change it from the bigger standpoint rather than acutely trying to change things.
I have five kids, and people can say 'nature versus nurture,' but it is nature! Nurture has so little to do with it. I have five kids, and there are five totally different people in my house.
I don't necessarily believe that 'The Cosby Show' should disappear as a cultural reference, but it is. That's sad to me. I understand why. He was a man who possibly did some really bad things, and he should be punished beyond a doubt. But that show, and the impact it had not just on black culture, but culture, was amazing.
I've been on predominantly 'white' shows before, and I had also been on predominantly 'black' shows. I would complain that when I was on a white show, they would only hire me because there was a black character or they needed a black voice. But then I would be mad if they went and hired a white dude in my position.
'A Different World,' for me, was in a lot of ways responsible for me going to college. I wanted to go to a black college, and I wanted to get out of Los Angeles. It's just a natural part of all of our journeys, that idea of leaving home.
I would say any creative person has that: you can't just force a topic. Whether you're a painter, you want to do a cartoon. Anything. Something may come up that's not your style or suited to what you are working on at the moment. So you file it away and hopefully find a place for it.
There has never been a prosecuted case of slavery. There's no criminality to it. So, it was just like, 'It's over,' and thus, because it was over, and it was never considered 'wrong' in the prosecutable, criminal sense of the word, the country doesn't take it as wrong.
And I feel like, as a black man within black culture, I know very well firsthand - as do my parents and my grandparents and great-grandparents - we're used to things not going our way.
I think that's the key to any artistic endeavor: You want it to feel fresh and not have people look at it like it's re-creation of something else unless it's done in a really strong way.
If Adam Sandler does a bad movie, he doesn't bring down the whole white race. But if Tyler Perry does, it's like, 'See what you guys do?' and that type of thing.
No one's pro-police brutality.
I've found that the more honest and true you are and can talk about a character and people's experiences, it's less ostracizing. It actually has the opposite effect than one would think. It makes the characters and the story more inclusive.
I feel like money is an interesting thing when you don't come from it.
I love Donald Glover.
Comedy used to be a vehicle for change. Now, comedy has gotten to this quirky, nonsensical place, which I enjoy. But I do think there is room for discussion-based humor. We can tell those stories in a way that feels edifying.
The PC way of handling culture has been to not talk about it. But we should be talking about it.
I will be so happy when 'diversity' is not a word.
Jill Soloway is a friend of mine. She does 'Transparent,' and she's amazingly funny and brilliant and bright. And I love her show.
I don't know Channing Dungey well, but we have talked several times, and she seems like an amazing executive.
I believe comedy is a really good lens to filter serious issues through. If people are laughing, they don't necessarily realize until they stop laughing that they just took something in that's going to start a conversation.
I hear people say, 'I'm not a role model' all the time, and it's like, 'Well, of course you're not!' It doesn't mean that people aren't going to look at you as one, though.
Of all the 'Black-ish' characters, Zoey is most like my daughter, who goes to U.S.C.
I dug deep, and I found that there were people who voted for Obama and then voted for Trump - because they saw what they believed was going to be hope and change, and under Obama, their particular lives did not change.
I really want to do what 'Veep' did. 'Veep,' in a very comical way, gave us a look inside the political machine, but I want to do it for the average American family.
I love Meryl Streep.
To me, the Peabody was as big if not bigger than any award, but I do understand an Emmy Award-winning show has a different buzz when it comes to start talking about renewals and things like that. There's a professional something to it that matters.
You get a little older, and you start understanding the world in a different way and what you don't have control over and what you do have control over.
As wild and raunchy as Richard Pryor was, people related to his honesty because they found something in their life that they understood.
For me, it was important to keep my name in 'mainstream Hollywood.'
At 24, I was probably making more than 95 percent of my friends. I was burning through money.
Everybody - every single person - has a story. Find yours and tell it in your voice.
I consider myself a disciple of Norman Lear. And one of the things he did was topic-driven humor.
There's never really been a true apology for slavery.
When I was growing up, I never saw couples fight on the family sitcoms I loved to watch. Subsequently, when tough times arose in my own relationship, I wasn't prepared and felt so isolated and alone. Marital issues weren't a part of the narrative that television told me was a 'working relationship.'
Whenever you put a family together, they may share some points of views and morals, but there are going to be differences.
ABC has a general policy that you can't show images of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
As a creative, you have to be your truest form. You can't worry about fitting into whatever boxes people want to put you in.
My wife is a doctor, and we had a decent life financially. My kids were going to nice schools and had nannies. We weren't rich, but we were better off than I was growing up. And I looked around, and I was like, 'Who are these people?' It was the opposite of what I remembered growing up.
I want to start really developing more on the film side.
Laurence Fishburne - he's a great actor, but he dances and sings, too? He can just do everything.
It's hard to take a stand. You're not going to make everybody happy.
The small moments I've had to talk with President Obama, I've told him, 'I get it.' His presidency was in some ways almost overshadowed by the fact that he was the first black president.
Actors are magical people. They can take words you wrote and say them in a way that, although you thought the line was good when you wrote it, it's fantastic when it comes out of their mouth.
For me, one of the big things I really worried about a lot was nuclear war growing up.
I think that, for so much of our matriculation through American society, black people sort of feel like outsiders.
Most importantly, I want my kids to be happy. You're only as happy as your saddest kid.
I wanted to be a doctor, because I grew up on 'Cosby.'
