ESQ: You brought up
in an interview that you believe African-American culture doesn't communicate as much. And in the book you point that out through your upbringing in Flint. Are you trying to show in the book that you can be open about your feelings and still be a man?
TC: I'm African-American by my culture, not by my color. Race does not exist. Ethnicity and culture should be celebrated. I'm going to say this, and I mean it: If you cheered when O.J. got off, you're in the race. If you cheered when Zimmerman got off, you're in the race. As soon as you leave the race, you see a mom that got killed and a teenager with a bullet in their chest. It all shifts your frame of mind when you stop thinking of race. I wrote the book from a perspective of: In our culture, that's what we've done. Not talk about real stuff and not put ourselves out there. The reason I can host
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is because I got out of the race. Before my own feelings of what black people should do was holding me back, and now it's not.