As African-Americans, that's what's being played fast and loose with, our citizenship. When you have the Trayvon Martins and the Michael Browns being shot and killed, it's because, on a certain level, there is a kind of mutability in the understanding of citizenship around the black body.

There's a certain level of pageantry with 'Idol,' and in order to work the show, you kind of have to feed into it.

At a certain point, you can't tax people beyond a certain level.

If you're going to establish a certain level of unreality than you have to deal with it.

There are two worlds out there - two Americas out there. If you're a white person, there's one way of being a citizen in our country, and if you're a brown or a black body, there's another way of being a citizen, and that way is very close to death. It's very close to the loss of your life.

I voluntarily inflicted a certain level of insanity on myself.