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" If I have any talent, I think I have an ability to listen to people and also just meet them on their level. "
W. Kamau Bell
Talent
Listen
Meet
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" America loses so much of what defines it if you subtract the Chinese influence. I know this because I spent 12 years living in one of America's most popular tourist destinations: San Francisco. And it would not be one of America's top tourist destinations without Chinatown. "
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" The jokes I was always attracted to, and that I would tell for the longest, were jokes where I cared about the subject. Whenever I wrote a joke where I didn't care, even if it was really funny, the third time I told it, it would lose steam. "
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" If we go the direction that many of the leaders of this country want and close the borders and discourage new immigrants, then we are ruining the possibility of new ideas and new experiences. "
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" In communities of color, such as Ferguson, it often feels like the police are protecting the white community from us instead of protecting our communities from the criminal element. "
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" I was born in the Bay Area because my dad was a semi-professional photographer and poet who was really into John Coltrane. He's had many lives. My dad's a capitalist to his bone, but he's also a human to his bone. "
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" As much as some people like to put down 'political correctness,' if it wasn't for political correctness, I wouldn't be free right now. "
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" People in Hollywood can condescend to the way a lot of other people are living. "
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" I feel like, as a black guy, I can't not believe in God... I'd wake up in the morning, 'I'm black, and there's no God? I'm going back to sleep.' "
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Black
Sleep
Morning
" Women don't get the benefits of America the way men do. "
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" There were definitely a few ways I could have gone after 'Totally Biased' ended. One of those was getting a job at Starbucks. "
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Job
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Starbucks
" People live in their part of the Union, and if they don't travel a lot, then there is a tendency to believe that the other parts of America couldn't possibly be as American as their part. You can see it in the way people in the South scrunch up their faces when they hear words like 'New York,' 'Chicago,' and 'challah.' "
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" I like living in Berkeley, but I know Berkeley's not the world. "
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" When I stand up in front of groups of people who agree with me, I know I have to really step my game up because I can't just sort of meet them where they're at; I have to take them somewhere else. They want you to challenge them and have good ideas. "
W. Kamau Bell
Step
Me
Ideas
" Growing up in the Midwest, Boston, and Alabama, I didn't know any Puerto Ricans... at least, I didn't know if I knew any Puerto Ricans. The only Puerto Rican that I had ever even heard of was Juan Epstein, one of the students from the classic 1970s sitcom 'Welcome Back, Kotter.' "
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Know
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" Most people have the ability to turn their empathy engine back on, but there's such a seductive burn to not being empathetic. "
W. Kamau Bell
Burn
People
Turn
" To be off the grid is to be disconnected from most of America's infrastructure without having to cross any border. "
W. Kamau Bell
Infrastructure
America
Off
" You don't get smarter by not learning stuff. "
W. Kamau Bell
You
Get
Learning
" We all need to make sure that we fully understand our country. "
W. Kamau Bell
Understand
Country
Need
" When I was starting out, I was just bringing a garbage bag of jokes onstage, pulling them out like, 'What about this? No? Alright.' I was just trying to be funny about anything. "
W. Kamau Bell
Trying
Bag
Funny
" As a black person in this country, I am always frustrated by the lack of attention my people's issues get. But at least the news and politicians are talking about not talking about our issues. Native issues are basically ignored. "
W. Kamau Bell
I Am
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" Cops should not be separate from the black community or any community. Their salaries are paid for by the communities they police. They should be working for the communities they police. But as we saw in Ferguson, Missouri, they are not always doing that. "
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" No comedian grows up thinking, 'I hope one day to have a show on CNN.' "
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Up
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One Day
" If you're on TV regularly, doing a thing regularly, whether you're Anthony Anderson on 'Black-ish' or Don Lemon, an hour a night, you have to turn into, 'What's the delivery system through which I can deliver information?' I don't mean they are being fake or that they are doing something that's disingenuous. "
W. Kamau Bell
Fake
Night
You
" My dad and stepmom live in Mobile, Ala., and spend their vacation time an hour's drive away in Orange Beach, Ala. This means that, throughout my life, I have regularly vacationed there as well. "
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Live
Life
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" Usually, the news out of Florida makes me feel like being black in Florida can be a terminal condition. "
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Feel
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" I can't imagine what it must be like to be one of the indigenous people of the United States of America. I can't imagine watching the news every day - as people debate whose country this is and who should be in charge of it and how to make it great again - and hardly ever see your people brought into the discussion. "
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Great
People
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" The size of the city and the nature of how independent the neighborhoods are means that not only do people who live outside Chicago not know what is going on there, Chicagoans often don't know what is going on there. "
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Know
Live
Size
" We should always be having a conversation about if we could make this country more inclusive and what we can do to do that. "
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Always
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" One thing that people outside Chicago need to understand is that the city is not just one thing. It is one city, but it is huge and sprawling. And historically, it has been one of America's most segregated cities. "
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" Comedy can be very deep sometimes. "
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Very
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