“Whenever there was progress in America, that progress was met with a backlash.” KEITH: (continued) I think the title I like best is ‘human’. I like the fact that I get to live my life with freedom and to do so in a way that works for me. One day that might mean being a writer, another day that might mean being a producer and another day that might mean being a TV commentator or an author or a lawyer or whatever else. I like the flexibility that comes with being human and being free.
ALLIÉ: Back to that quote of yours, the second part was “Don’t work so hard that you forget to smell the roses along the way.” Often, we get so caught up in the ‘race’ of life that we forget to slow the pace on occasion to simply enjoy it. Keith, what are simple pleasures in your life that you enjoy?
KEITH: I'm glad you asked that question. It always reminds me of the quotation from Alice Walker's book, ‘The Color Purple,’ where she says, “I think it pisses God off if you walk past the color purple in a field somewhere, and don't notice it.” And I think that there's so much beauty in the world that we just take for granted: the fact that we're alive, we get to be a part of this planet right now, and share with so many other people the experience of being human. I live here in Los Angeles now and I love every day that I get to wake up and have this beautiful view behind me of the city. I love seeing the palm trees swaying in the wind. I love just the simple pleasures of life. Just a moment ago I was eating my favorite little morning snack, warmed cashews and almonds and mango chunks separately. In the past few months, I kind of got addicted to this little thing, but there are so many little pleasures in life that you take for granted. I love that I have freedom. Most of all, I love that I get to go to the gym every day. I mean, I go to the gym mostly every weekday when I'm at home. I love that. I just get to just be me and be free. I get to control what happens on my day and in my days, on a regular basis and not have someone else tell me where I have to be and when I have to be there.
ALLIÉ: Let’s talk more about race. In your latest book, ‘Race Against Time: The Politics of a Darkening America’, you share your own personal stories in a book about race and politics. You recognize a growing fear of a darkening America—a country in which there is no longer a predominant white majority. As a black man in politics, what have you personally witnessed?
KEITH: I've been involved in politics since I was a teenager going back to high school, and I've seen so many changes during that time period. I worked on the Michael Dukakis campaign for President in 1988 and Bill Clinton's campaign in 1992. I went to law school with President Barack Obama back in the late eighties and early nineties. I don't think a lot of what's happened today would've been inconceivable, both the good and the bad. I don't think people would've conceived. I wouldn't have conceived in the late eighties and nineties that we'd have a black President by now. And Barack Obama, my classmate and schoolmate would be that President. I didn't imagine we would have marriage equality by now for LGBTQIA people. I didn't imagine that we would be as far as we are in some respects on some issues in our country, but I also understood that there was this tension… whenever there was progress in America, that progress was met with a backlash. So the fact that we have had so much progress, it's not surprising to me then that there would be so much of a backlash that we would have the rise of a Donald Trump following Barack Obama. And, that we would have the rise of fascism in our country, the rise of white supremacy and white nationalism, and that we would have this division in our country that is unprecedented. I think you'd have to go back some decades to an equivalent to what we're experiencing today. 49 AWARENOW / THE WAVES EDITION
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