I really love color. I notice it everywhere and in everything.

My family makes fun of me because I like to use colors with elusive-sounding names,

like celadon ... (Laughter)

ecru ... carmine.

Now, if you haven't noticed, I am black, thank you -- (Laughter)

and when you grow up in a segregated city as I have, like Chicago,

you're conditioned to believe that color and race can never be separate. There's hardly a day that goes by

that somebody is not reminding you of your color. Racism is my city's vivid hue.

Now, we can all agree that race is a socially constructed phenomenon, but it's often hard to see it in our everyday existence.

Its pervasiveness is everywhere. The neighborhoods I grew up in