If there's a responsibility, it's just to be honest in what I've experienced and to put it in my work.
It's a wonderful thing to see 'Wonder Woman' directed by a woman. That did have an affect on the character, the , and the nuances of that film. That's the same thing my wife, Mara Brock Akil, and I are doing taking on 'Black Lightning.'
It's one thing to be a comic book fan, but when you have to create a character and put him in a suit and keep the story grounded in reality, the challenge sometimes is making sure he actually uses his powers.
I think that people in America, unfortunately or fortunately, are just discovering different aspects of the humanity of African-American people. And so I think with that discovery comes, 'Oh, you could be a superhero; you could be president or whatever it is that we thought you couldn't be.'
I came up seeing what a lot of young brothers see in this world, and you learn to deal with people with a long handle spoon in order to survive.
Women want you to feel that you're just as attracted to them today as you were when you first met them, and for me, that's the truth.
It's less about Trump and more about the people... If the American people are willing to elect someone like that president, then that's more of a problem.
Most guys have to go through this: When do you separate yourself from your friends? Some of them are going to go left, some of them are going to go right, some are going to go straight. And you have to go on your path.
I never like to do storytelling where everything is just copacetic right after that episode.
When you see a superhero that looks like you and lives in and fights in a neighborhood that is sort of like yours, it's empowering to a degree that makes you have hope. That is the power of storytelling, and that is the power of images.
We don't have a lot of black superheroes.
If you bury me in a grave, don't ever come visit - because you won't find me there. You'll find me in the books that I've read, the music I've listened to, and the art I've created.
In popular culture, there is this notion that African-American men and women can't get together, and we're having these issues. I think it's an American problem because I know a lot of white women and men who are having just as many issues trying to find 'that person' as anyone.
No matter how happy and peaceful you can be at a certain time, you always have this - at least, I do - paranoia or catastrophic thought that even now that I have all this peace and quiet, what's the next challenge? What's coming next? On a very human level, I think most people can identify with that.
What I saw in Black Lightning, Jefferson Pierce, even the villains, are aspects of myself.
You change the landscape in Hollywood with action, not words.
It doesn't make sense to constantly talk about the lack of diversity in Hollywood. We all know it's there. My wife and I just want to change that conversation with our work.
America has a strange relationship with its racial memory. Death has always been a constant companion of black people.
Come election time, black and white politicians put on their costumes of compassion and care, shake black hands, kiss black babies, sing 'We Shall Overcome' in black , and pray that we will ignore the reality of everyday suffering and the damage that is being done to our future in exchange for our votes.
In this larger conversation about diversity, we want to really show that we're all the same. We are all experiencing the same stories.
