Instill Respect For Teachers.

My Mom, God Rest Her Soul - She Liked Nicknames. In The Womb She Named Me Skip. There Was Another Black Guy In Piedmont, W.va., And His Name Was Skip. They Called Him Big Skip, And I Was Little Skip.

In America One Drop Of Black Ancestry Makes You Black.

I Got A Letter From This Lady Of Russian And Jewish Descent. She Asked Me If I Was A Racist Because I Didn't Do Any White People. I Was Shocked, Because My Mandate Is To Do Black Studies. It Would Have Never Occurred To Me If This Lady Hadn't Written This Letter. We Decided We Were Going Expand The Brand And Do Everybody.

The Bottom Line Is That Wanda Sykes Has The Longest Continuously Documented Family Tree Of Any African-american We Have Ever Researched.

One Principle I've Been Fighting For That Doesn't Endear Me To A Lot Of People Is That Black People Can Be Just As Complicated And Screwed Up As White People. Our Motives Can Be Just As Base And Violent. Suffering Does Not Necessarily Ennoble You.