Obama; he had to straddle two worlds. A week ago I was talking to a young woman. “You talk so proper,” she said. “You need to relax.” My father stressed speaking good grammar. Some people think that being black means you have to be a certain way—a stereotypical black person. And as a black person, you’re supposed to talk a certain way. When I was dating, a number of women said to me, You talk white. One of the reasons why I married my wife was that she never tried to change me. She accepts me for who I am.
PR4P: Do you think it’s harder for a person of color to be successful in the entertainment world?
Wali Collins: No, it’s based on talent, and it’s based on smarts. You just have to know and not believe that the white folks hold the cards. There is definitely a way to get it done.
PR4P: What advice would you give to people about how they should respond when they experience or witness racism?
Wali Collins: It takes a lot of courage to do it, but call it out. If you call it out as soon as you see it, that will kill it. If you keep it quiet in that awkward way, that’s when it gets fueled and picks up momentum.
PR4P: Why do you think there has been such a horrific show of racial hatred suddenly rearing its ugly head?
Wali Collins: Racism has always been there. Listen to Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory. There has always been violence against black folks. The Police have always gone after people based on racial profiling. One reason why we see an explosion of racism is because the media is covering it. The media is drawing attention to racism. Rich White Men can walk into the room and get a job. A brown or a dark person has to prove himself. Obama represents the way America is going. He knew rap, Kanye West, Aretha Franklin. Obama was comfortable going into a black church, as much as he was comfortable going into a white church. Obama is a brown person who represented America. Trump is a great metaphor for what is going on in America. He’s a backlash to the direction we were going in, but he can’t stop the world from changing. The white supremacists are in their death throes because they’re losing. I see a shift taking place. A white man used to be able to walk into a room and get the job or get the deal, but because of technology those jobs are going away. Technology is doing its thing. You have companies like Google and Amazon who are hiring people who can do the work. Peer-to-peer. Dark and brown people are thriving. Clean Energy is replacing mining. The ICOs, the bitcoins and digital currency are replacing banks. Governments can’t regulate bitcoin and it has skyrocketed in value. You don’t need to have a financial institution to help you spend your money. That’s where the world is headed—a digital world.