Quote

I do want to be a representative of the African community, and I want to hold myself and dress myself in a way that reflects that. I want black kids to see me and think, 'Okay, he's carrying himself as a black man, and that's how a black man should carry himself.'

I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.

I realize that I'm black, but I like to be viewed as a person, and this is everybody's wish.

I want to influence the younger generation to know that we have the ability to make a change and bring us all together. Black Lives Matter.

I remember as a young man seeing these bigger-than-life, strong images of black manhood in the form of Jim Brown and Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, Billy Dee Williams. All these guys were these alpha males who were smart, attractive. I said, 'Wow, I want to be like that.'

To my mind, it is the duty of the younger Negro artist, if he accepts any duties at all from outsiders, to change through the force of his art that old whispering 'I want to be white,' hidden in the aspirations of his people, to 'Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro - and beautiful!'

The biggest compliment that I receive is when other black folks come up to me and say, 'You changed the way that I thought about Chris Darden.'

You are young, gifted, and Black. We must begin to tell our young, There's a world waiting for you, Yours is the quest that's just begun.

When I was younger, I actually wanted to be in the spotlight. To have people want me, want to have a piece of me.

There are so many people who have this idea of who I am because I'm black.