*With diversity being the hot topic in Hollywood since nominations for the 2016 Oscars included an all-white slate of entertainers for the second straight year, Chris Rock will be the one to watch when he hosts Hollywood’s biggest night comes on Feb. 28.
In the meantime, the 50-year-old funnyman sat down recently with Vanity Fair before the nominations were announced and was candid on various topics that ranged from President Barack Obama to being black in America.
When it came to the historical figure Rock identified with most, his answer may come as a bit of a surprise.
“Mrs. Ray Rice – it’s not the punch in the face that eats your soul; it’s having to defend the person that punched you in the face that eats,” Rock said in Vanity Fair’s popular Proust Questionnaire. “Oddly enough, this is what it feels like to be a black man in America.”
As the interview progressed, Rock got serious while discussing his personal pet peeves. According to the entertainer, it’s no-no for him when folks in different financial brackets overemphasize their status and background just because.
“I hate rich people that feel a need to tell you how hard they had it (‘We had the smallest pool on the block’),” Rock stated as he referenced a certain Matt Damon film to hammer in his point. “And I hate poor people that feel a need to puff up their bios so they can better fit in with the rich – you meet a lot of Talented Mr. Ripleys in showbiz.”
Shifting gears, Rock had to gave credit where it’s due to his parents, who he listed among his real-life heroes for raising seven kids in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood against all odds.
“Nobody in jail, nobody in rehab, not one kid out of wedlock,” he said.
Now that he’s a parent himself, Rock confessed that he enjoys picking up his daughters from school everyday.
“I had such a horrible school experience (bussed, one of the only black kids, called ‘n—–‘ every day, bullied, etc.) that picking my kids up from their mostly white school, where they’re having such a great time … it’s almost like I’m picking them up from another planet, and I am,” Rock shared.
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