As far as those kinds of things I also played at the concert to call for the release of Nelson Mandela when he was a political prisoner in South Africa. We were celebrating his 70th birthday and calling for his release.

Patriotism is best exemplified through auto-critique. When you're willing to stand up within the group and say 'It is wrong for Black people to be anti-Semitic ' or 'It is wrong for America to discriminate against persons of African descent and made them slaves and based its wealth upon free labor ' it's crucial to say that.

Hollywood needs to recognise all shades of African American beauty.

We can revolutionize the attitude of inner city brown and black kids to learning. We need a civil rights movement within the African-American community.

It's important to debunk the myths of Africa being this benighted continent civilized only when white people arrived. In fact Africans had been creators of culture for thousands of years before. These were very intelligent subtle and sophisticated people with organized societies and great art.

Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that's it. No America no jazz. I've seen people try to connect it to other countries for instance to Africa but it doesn't have a damn thing to do with Africa.

Being told about the effects of climate change is an appeal to our reason and to our desire to bring about change. But to see that Africans are the hardest hit by climate change even though they generate almost no greenhouse gas is a glaring injustice which also triggers anger and outrage over those who seek to ignore it.

I think there is a big difference between expressing the pain and anger that many African Americans and other people of color may feel versus language that I think now crosses the line and goes into hate.

I was able to do To Sleep with Anger a very powerful film about African Americans their spirituality and the things that happened within a small community and a family.

One of the most amazing locations I've ever been is the top of the volcano in Tanzania Africa. It's an actual volcano where you really have this lava every day.