W. Kamau Bell
speaker
1,269 appearances
5 recordings
5 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard 14 Oct
W. Kamau Bell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Oct 2025 with 1.
Appearances
Of the book?
Who were like the... I mean, you know, there's probably like a Mount Rushmore. Of course, there's a lot of King. There's a lot of King. There's a lot of Frederick Douglass. Okay, of course. He was good. He was good. Who could forget? Of course. Hold for applause. Yeah, I don't think who else, because I don't want to leave anybody out. I'm trying to think.
There's definitely going to be a lot of Maya. Especially in the mid-'80s. That's when Maya was really blossoming publicly. I'm trying to think who else is in there. That's probably the... Oh, Malcolm X. Yeah. I'm going to say Malcolm X. Yeah, those are the ones.
I used to go to my dad's every summer in Alabama.
That's the best way.
My dad was in Alabama, born and raised in Alabama. My mom was in, we were in Boston, Indianapolis, Chicago, so we moved around a little bit, yeah. Are you aware of what's being built within you? Yeah, because I would go, like when my mom lived in Boston, like even little things, like I would go to Alabama in the summer and everybody in Alabama said, you sound like you're from the north.
Then I would go back to the north and everybody would go, you sound like you're from the south. And so I was aware that like, so I don't belong in either of these places. Like nobody thinks I fit in any of these places. And I was aware that when I go to Alabama, people are just living way differently than they're living in Boston. And the cities look different and the accents are different.
And as a kid, I didn't like Alabama. And now as an adult, I'm like, thank God I did that. So I have some perspective. But yeah, so it was like, I was always aware, like, you know, I'm like living in my grandmother's house and her dog's name is Freeway. And he runs around the neighborhood and people come by every few minutes to check on my grandmother. It's like a very classic.
She's on her Lazy Boy watching her stories. You know, so it's like a very slowed down version of life, summers in Alabama versus like Boston, where it's like...
I mean, I was an only child who loved being an only child, so rarely lonely, but I certainly learned, I learned how to keep my own company. Yeah. I learned how to like. I don't understand when children are like, I wish I had a brother. I didn't have any of that. I learned how to entertain myself. I think that's where the beginnings of being a stand-up comic, because I had access to my own
process and thoughts all the time.
Only as much as it made it easier to move around when you fit in, you know? Yeah. So, like, so I think, and I'm in high school, I'm in Chicago. It's also, like, I'm in high school when, like, hip-hop is fully going mainstream. Like, I'm in high school in the late 80s. So hip-hop is this thing that is now like it. And I'm like, I like it, but it's not like my, you know. It's a type of music.
I mean, I could do every lyric to like Rapper's Delight. I was there for all those things. But like when I went to rap shows, I went to see, I remember I saw Arrested Development.
Yeah, exactly, yeah. So I'm aware that I'm, and then the bands I'm listening to, I'm listening to Black Rock, Living Color, Fishbone. So I'm aware that from that, and I go to the Living Color concert, and there's more black people on stage than in the crowd. And then I go to like, you know. Which they loved, I'm sure. This is what we did it for. This is why we started a band.
And so I'm aware that the things that I like like associate with,
whiteness even when they're not white yeah like fishbone is like from compton you know right so like it's not so but and the things that black people like and there's and this was before the internet so like there's no way to even find my own people now i think well that's what's funny is because it it ended up there are you weren't alone no but you were isolated yeah and i didn't there was no way to sort of like go on a thing and go hey who else what other black yeah there was no there were no chat boards or no uh
At the time I was there, I mean, I don't want to describe Hyde Park Town, but it's very much like it's on the south side of Chicago, but it's the University of Chicago's campus. So it is not the south side of Chicago the way that people say. It's where the Obamas live. It's where the Obamas live very comfortably. Yeah, like the library is going to be, et cetera, et cetera.
And the University of Chicago, like all big campuses, has taken over more and more of the neighborhood. So it's basically a police state. So you can't, yeah.
so and michelle worked with the university or she worked with the hospital i don't know i don't know it was like community outreach but yeah there was definitely like and there's you know there are rappers from there i'm not trying to say it's like yeah but like vic mints is from high park so it's not like you know which so but like it's just i was sort of like aware that like even in this even on the south side of chicago i'm not in like the black so you but then as a black teenager who's on the bus going places oh so if you say you're from a high park
real black people be like oh yeah kind of like roll their eyes i can't say that for now for sure but when i was there definitely okay definitely like it's probably worse now yeah it probably is but i just don't want you know you don't get caught up like talking about a place you know sure so this is another black thing don't talk about a place unless you know it yeah don't don't be like yeah so uh
Showing 881–900 of 1,269 · page 45 of 64
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