The Bottom Line Is That Wanda Sykes

For As Long As I Can Remember, I Have Been Passionately Intrigued By 'africa,' By The Word Itself, By Its Flora And Fauna, Its Topographical Diversity And Grandeur; But Above All Else, By The Sheer Variety Of The Colors Of Its People, From Tan And Sepia To Jet And Ebony.

Since The Day Martin Luther King Was Killed, The Black Middle Classes Have Almost Quadrupled, But The Percentage Of Black Children Living On Or Below The Poverty Line Is Almost The Same.

The Historical Basis For The Gap Between The Black Middle Class And Underclass Shows That Ending Discrimination, By Itself, Would Not Eradicate Black Poverty And Dysfunction. We Also Need Intervention To Promulgate A Middle-class Ethic Of Success Among The Poor, While Expanding Opportunities For Economic Betterment.

In A One-hour Documentary, You Can Tell Maybe Ten Stories. That's How The Documentary Is Structured. I Wrote To Forty Of The Greatest Historians Of Both African And African-american History, And Hired Them As Consultants. I Had Them Submit What They Thought Were The Indispensable Stories, The Ones They Felt This Series Absolutely Had To Include.

If You Don't Tell Your Stories, Other People Will Tell Their Story About You. It's Important That We Nurture And Protect These Memories. Things Change. Existence Means Change.