Some of these things I saw in foreign films - African films, Cuban films - long before I decided to really go on this course as an actor. I started to think about what values I saw in those films that I wanted to bring to my projects.

I'm a child of the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1967, the students at San Francisco State invited the poet Amiri Baraka to the campus for a semester. He attracted other influential black writers such as Sonia Sanchez, Ed Bullins, Eldridge Cleaver. What emerged was something we called the community communications program. That's how I got involved; I got involved in a little play.

Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.

When you've moved past a point where you're just scrambling for jobs, you think about the things that you want to do. And the things that you want to do are governed by what you've seen, what you choose to embrace.

It's also important for those who promote those issues within the white community - the somewhat privileged community - to talk about issues affecting people of color.

I've been a Goodwill Ambassador for the UNICEF and the UNICEF family for more than twelve years.

It’s also important for those who promote those issues within the white community – the somewhat privileged community – to talk about issues affecting people of color.

Some of these things I saw in foreign films – African films, Cuban films – long before I decided to really go on this course as an actor. I started to think about what values I saw in those films that I wanted to bring to my projects.

But I think it’s very key that there’s a plan for Haiti. And we have to begin to – as progressives and people who are concerned about Haiti and have been concerned about Haiti, we have to begin to build some sort of consensus, a movement around the Haiti that the Haitians envision.