The Klan is wrapped up in their mythology and I think they know they’re the boogeyman, and I think that they like that side of it. … There’s also a side of it where they’re also aware if they’re on a bright road wearing those outfits, they’re going to attract a lot of unwanted attention. They know those robes are as unpopular as I know those robes are unpopular. … All the Klan members I met who were dressed like that were on their own property or at night by the side of the road. Nobody was like, “Meet me at a coffee shop in downtown Arkansas and let’s get together at the Denny’s and talk about this.” Nobody wanted that.
On the demise of his former show, Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell
I was stranded in New York in an apartment that was way too expensive for a guy who didn’t have a job. I had one daughter; she was 3 years old. … We [had] moved into an apartment that was the budget of a guy with a TV show and then I didn’t have a TV show … and [it] really felt like that was a referendum on me, because I put all of myself into that show.
But at the same time, [I] was happy that it was canceled. We all worked really hard on that show, and when we went to four days a week, we weren’t ready for that. Also, I had a lot of friends on that show, and by the end, relationships had changed. People who had been my friends were now not my friends because now I was their boss. … By the end, I compared it to every Vietnam War movie, where everyone goes in their separate directions. … There was a real sense of I’m sad this is over, and thank God it’s over.
On how he dealt with depression after the end of Totally Biased
I can’t slip off the planet. I can’t just give into it, so I have to slowly put one foot in front of the other. But there was a real sense if I had been not married with a kid, I would have booked that Dave Chappelle ticket to South Africa. … I would have disappeared for a while. I don’t mean in any sort of dangerous way, but I would have been like, “I think I’m done with whatever this is.”
But I couldn’t do it. And I slowly realized that the canceling of the show was probably better for my career anyway, because the show was sort of going by in drips and drabs at that point. We weren’t getting good ratings, we weren’t getting a lot of attention, the wear and tear was seen on my face. My friends who watched the show could see that it was hard for me, and when the show got canceled, it became like Woodstock — more people claimed they were there than who were clearly there.
On having biracial daughters
It’s important to me that my daughter learn what I learned, that no matter how you feel you’re being treated by black people at any given time, those are your people. My wife knows that those are my daughter’s people. … We had a lot of conversations; she understood that she was having a black daughter. … It was her parents that had to realize this. …
My wife told me that at one point her mom came to her — I think while my wife was still pregnant — and said, “So wait, Sammy is going to be black.” And my wife was like, “Yes that’s true,” and her mom was like, “OK.”
In that tiny thing, was years of race discussions with my wife and her getting her family into the idea of, “My boyfriend is this black guy; my husband is this black guy.” There was a whole “Circle Of Life” that happened in that moment that I wasn’t there for, but I was like, “Yaaay.”
On the advantages of being tall
There is nothing bad about being tall. … When you’re tall you sort of get more points, like people think you’re better looking. Tall people get paid more money generally; presidents are taller than the average man.