good evening from los angeles. i'm tavis smiley. a conversation with kenya barris creator of "black-ish ". we'll see how the election of donald trump changed the show "black-ish." specifically tomorrow night's episode. kenya barris coming up in just a moment.

moment. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. kenya barris creator of "black-ish" exploring provocative issues around race. no surprise mr. barris included donald trump as part of the story line tomorrow night. here is a sneak preview. >> we don't have school today. >> they gave us a day of reflection.

>> a day of what? >> reflection. >> a lot to think about. >> much-needed. my first 90 days as student body president have been rough. it's a pressure cooker about to blow. >> told me i stole his phone. i stole your computer. >> will you please get back in your seat? >> i don't have to listen you ms. gomez. they are about to ship you back to your country. ship her back! ship her back! >> two of us. [ laughter ] >> two of us. when you saw donald trump with the connection, how fast did your mind start working how this would fit into your show? >> it crazy. immediately. immediately because i -- i didn't know if i would do it right this year because other commitments and stuff like this. i've been running the show. i woke up that next morning and i was like i got to talk about this. it was -- the way it affected my kids. the way it was literally house

full of tears. the way i saw that it was affecting everyone. you know, i just -- i wanted to talk about it. i wanted -- those are the best conversations to have when you feel something inside and it was sadly -- i was sad but i wasn't surprised. >> right. >> you know, i had -- when he got the nomination, which i didn't think could happen, i felt like you know what? they looked at a black family in the white house for eight years, i was like are they willing to look at a woman for eight more? things like that started coming up. i was -- i was really troubled we were so off in our way of what we saw the country, that people did not see it coming. i was like we need to talk about it. we need to have more conversations. >> clearly you mastered it. how can you take serious issues

like the election of donald trump and put it in a cam omedy make it funny and not -- >> i think it's being honest and if you think about it, the things that are most serious in our life, you know, tragedy and comedy. you really find that there is real humor behind the things we have to go through. as a people, we've had to laugh our way through everything and so i kind of feel like the -- sort of the formula is like let's look what we're really talking about and find the humor and absurdity of it sometimes and honesty of it sometimes but i think that the key for me is that comedy allows us to swallow things. it's a spoon full of sugar to take things down in a way that sometimes being too dramatic doesn't -- it is off putting people. if you can make people laugh, you can make them hear things a lot. >> i've always said that.

if you can make them laugh, you get them to listen. if you can make them laugh, you can make them listen. tell me how it is -- [ laughter ] >> tell me how it is that you get the notion to write a series based upon loose lay ly on your family and what is it about your family, we all think our families are special. what is it about your family you knew would work? >> you know what it was? i feel like i would have a conversation with someone like you. i started having a conversation with so many people of color, black, white people and we were changing. >> yeah. >> our place a lot of us were changing and we saw barack and michelle in the white house. that wasn't being reflected and i started feeling like there was an opportunity to have a conversation about where we are now -- >> you say we were changing, we who? the country? black culture. >> black culture. >> okay. >> i looked around and felt like

the kids, what i remember being a black kid growing up was not what my kids were. like that was not what i remember it would have been and then at the same time, i looked around at the situation that i had sort of brought them up in, they had a lot of white friends and things like that and those white kids were a little more black than i remember. [ laughter ] >> and so i was like my kids were a little less. >> yeah. >> and the white kids were a little more and there was an ishness to it. i'm the dinosaur. this is a story because i'm sort of -- i'm not really sure what i'm raising. i looked around like who are these kids? i felt like that was something so many of my friends with the same experience had. whenever you can find a relatable point other people share, i think there is -- there is something. but the truth in this story is the specificity speaks universal. so i wanted to talk as honestly as i could about my family and i did for like -- i looked around

and my wife was a doctor. you me, we both came from very meager binnings but we had grown up in a situation where your kids were not going through that and it was interesting that we were so -- had such different lives. i was in television. she was in medicine. our kids were doing this. this is a story i really want to talk about and tell my story. that's the best story you can tell is your story and you'll find your story is more people's story than you think. >> so the challenge that you and your wife, the challenge that you and your wife face is not that different in the challenge that many of my black friends face who have started from meager begins as you did, as i did, who have gone on to be successful and those kids, of course, because they live in your house. >> right. >> get to be part of that success. >> right. >> i have friends who have kids who never flown commercial. >> right. >> because mom and daddy

so famous they fly private. they don't know what to do at an airport. the problem you have a lot of other black people thankfully and not so thankfully have to navigate. how do you process what you said a moment ago as a black parent, you are raising kids a little less black than you were and they white friends a little more black. >> than i remember. >> than you remember. as a parent, how do you process it? >> i think it's a -- you know, it's a dynamic evolving thing. you keep doing it. that's what it shows. hopefully that's a reason it works because i'm consistently going through what -- because the challenge is -- we're taught to give our kids more than we had. in doing that, what do they lose out on? and every day it is, you know, christmas. i remember christmas for me i got a gift or two and it was amazing. >> yeah. >> i go look sometimes and my kids are like next, next, next. you know what i'm saying?

have we done? you know. it's -- but at the same time, i'm some -- sometimes i think i'm easing my own conscious because i'm not around as much and somebody told me it's your presence, not your presents. i try to tell it honest story of we're flawed parents. i didn't have my mom and dad around. my mom was around and my dad was around but not there raising me. i didn't have a mom and dad like my kids do and we didn't have the blueprint, the book. so we're sort of figuring it out along the way. that's what they are doing on the show. they are figuring it out. and they are trying to navigate this world in which i want my kids to reap all the benefits of music ses. at the same time, there is part of that hustle and part of that ambition and part of that i got because i didn't have it. >> how scared are you then -- >> terrified.

[ laughter ] >> i haven't even got the question out yet. he knows i'm going. i think about this and i talk about it to my friends all the time. where is that line of wanting your kids to have more than you had but not wanting these little negros to feel entitled to evening they get? >> it's a very fine line because i feel like, you know, there is moments where i see that my kids are appreciative. i'm like my god, i'm glad. there is moments where it's, you know, we did an episode -- sizzler for me growing up was it. that was it. sizzl sizzler. >> wolf gang park. [ laughter ] >> so i was having a moment trying -- let's go to sizzler. i went in there and my kids are like where are we? you know what i'm saying? what is that stuff over the sal salad? >> that's a sneeze guard. >> a sneeze guard? >> i was like i hate you. i hate all of you.

they ruined -- [ laughter ] >> they ruined your sizzler moment. >> there is those moments. but in general, i feel like the things that i do see they have, you know, is an appreciation and a respect. you know, i see my kids come onset and they are very respectful. i feel like my daughter on her own went and wrote a short about police brutality and got the crew together and i helped her pay for it but she produced it. my other daughter is applying for college and diligent about doing it on her own. i think i ha-- i have six kids one is a baby but five very different people, it's nature over number tour. they will be who they are. the thing i can try to show them is their mom and dad work hard. we didn't come from much, i think that's sort of hopefully will translate but i worry.

>> i want to go to your back story just a second. before i do that, why choose a comedian vehicle to tackle these topics than say drama or some other beggenre? i'm glad you did. >> i'm a comedy writer but also, i felt like, you know, i saw with the cosby show did, for whatever is going on, surrounding it, it was amazing for us. we hadn't seen that. with the show did it was about a family that almost happened to be black. you could have taken those same characters and basically put -- i wanted to tell a story about a family that was absolutely black and i wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the things we hear the people talk to us and i remember i was on a -- excuse me, i was in the writer's room and a writer turned to me like, you know, how would you -- how do you think he would say good morning? i was like what? probably just like that.

like, you know, but i'll ask at the next meeting. i was like those are the questions i would be asking in the writer's room. always asking me about the black voice. this is -- it's absurd. you know, because we are forced as -- we are forced to sort of speak both languages. we have to speak the language of our people but we have to also speak the language of the main stream and i kind of feel like that's sort of the world that dre walks and there is a humor to that every day i'm sure something happens and you shake your head. somebody says something and i'm like did you not realize what you said? >> i saw the episode a few weeks ago, i'm still laughing to this day. i told all my friends about it who didn't. most of them watch your show. that episode when dre encounters the little white girl in the elevator. [ laughter ] >> i think i would have had the same reaction. you don't know what to do. black man. little white girl. do you really want to go in the

elevator with the child? >> we caught hell for that. >> i'm sure you did. >> i don't know if i'm getting on that. that's a little white girl. anything could happen. [ laughter ] >> i feel like, you know, of course, in real life you probably get -- but there is that moment where you still have that pause. >> yeah, yeah. >> you're like this could go bad for me. that's the world that we have to live in. >> yeah. >> every action that we take even the things that just seem from a humanity stand point you want to do, we have to really think what is the next step and how is this going to affect me? that is the absurdity of the world that we live in that i want to talk about. >> you mentioned a moment ago this experience you had, had had over the years being in the writ writer's room and being the only black person in the writer's room. the this is is inside baseball but what people see or don't see at home. it begins and ends in the writer's room. if you take a second to tell me what that experience -- you gave

an example a moment ago what that was like. how do you -- what am i asking here? how do you keep the front from turning into anger? how do you stay in the writer's room and get confronted with the silliness and you're the negro in the room, how do you not get angered by what happens in a writer's room in this town when you're the only person of color in the room? >> i do get angry. i grew up bagging. where you -- i turn my anger into comedy. i don't -- i don't. >> explain. >> playing -- >> bagging? were you at a grocery store? what were you bagging? >> when you literally turn those around in a good way. the trick is not to let it

contain it because i looked at bar raack doing the debates. we knew he couldn't be the angry black man. the kick is keeping it sarcasm and being smart. beat them with intellect. >> appreciate that. to your back story because i read to it and talked to 1,000 people that knew you when i didn't know you. tell us about kenya barris. i saw this deal. congratulations. the deal to do movies and audition to television. you're rolling now. >> i'm trying. >> the back story of growing up in inglewood. tell me about the back story. >> i grew up all over. we started in the hood. it so interesting because you

don't think about that when you're growing up because you grow up and you're around -- everybody is broke because everybody is broke. you don't realize until you step out because this is what a house looks like? [ laughter ] >> all the forks are supposed to match. we had those moments but my dad had a chemical accident and him and my mom were divorced at the time but he got some money. my mom worked really hard. she was a real estate broker and pulled herself up. some things at a certain point, our life took a different turn and that's when i started seeing the difference. we got a little more money when we got older and i will never -- those moments, my mom never let

us be on welfare but we had government cheese sandwiches. one of the greatest moments is my mom would work the sales at like macy's or whatever. you would see the ladies folding clothes. she would do that extra while she was selling real estate and insurance in the day and then she would go bar tend at night. i mean, she was killing herself but she would take -- she had a tip jar and i would see her taking the tip jar and i came in one day and this tip jar my mom had been saving for so long, the money was gone and i was like what did you do? i didn't think about it. she said kenya, can you talk out the trash? please don't argue with me. i went to take the trash out and there was a brand-new bike and everybody else -- she saw me not having a bike and i realized at that moment she had done this and that was a big turning point. she took and work -- she had no extra money and saved tip quarters and dollar here and

dollar here. i owed her something. to go to school and get good grades and to do the best i could with what she was giving me. >> powerful story. black love. man. that black mama love. >> it is. just arrestihumbling. you had a big week. just all the accolade, the nomination. >> it is. >> take it away. >> we sold our show and we got our hulu -- >> big deal. i saw that. sell your show that means kenya going to make money with his dad. >> we got nominated for a golden globe. tracy ellis -- >> congratulations, tracy. >> we had three -- congratulations. anthony was nominated. tracy was nominated. tree s tracy was nominated. many, ga nomination and naacp.

>> saw the piece. picked an episode of best of tv for the last season. >> it was amazing and it been literally -- honestly, this sounds crazy but i -- my son came two months early. the only one of my kids that came early. my wife got this thing called preeclamps preeclampsia. crazy time but i believe babies bring such blessings. there is an energy that opens up. i had so many blessings that i really just want to pour upon my friends and loved ones. this is not -- this is not me. you know, i've been favored upon and want to do the best i can to take my opportunity because i can be over tomorrow. you know, tell stories that

matter to us and be funny and at the same time, do a good job. i think that's the thing that we have to do. we can't just do it and be like black people will come. hidden figures i love and talking about moonlight and all these -- we're rising to the occasion and it used to be that's a black show. we're defining what culture is in a very main stream sense. that's a special time. >> what do you make of this time as compared to literally one year ago when we were in the midst of this oscar so white campaign? what's happened in the year? >> i think that people have looked around and said this is the real world, you know. we made enough noise. you know, we're like, we're not going to take it anymore. it's absurd we had to make any noise because it's just like --

i love "friends" and "seinfeld" but what part of new york is that? i can't get a purr toe rierto r? that wasn't the real world. i think one of the big things is cable and streaming. they gave more opportunities of realistic versions of what the world is and i think everyone else film and everything had to start catching up with it. >> is that why you took the hulu deal as opposed to traditional television? >> well, it's -- now big part of it, that's one part of it. we sold it to cable. hulu, it's a big piece we didn't used to have and hulu, that's where our kids watch tv. that's a big part of the thing because now i can be watching it in the daytime.

>> speaking of your kids, let me talk about them. what do your kids make of daddy's show? >> it's a blessing and a curse for them because they literally get their lives ripped -- i will come. i got a story. [ laughter ] >> i didn't tell her this is about her. pause that. i need to talk to you real quick. it is their life. it's ripped from their life. i love telling those stories. i love telling things so true to me. the greatest gift i get is that wednesday night we sit there as a family and watch those stories. i tell the stories about where is the story about jack who is played by miles reynold, whether or not he would get a spanking because for some reason, we had all been spanked but didn't spank our kids in the room. i got mine. you know what i'm saying? he was going to get a spanking

and the whole show was whether or not he's going to get the spanking and at the end he's going to get it and at the last minute dre pulls up and my son beau who at the time was like 6 thinks he's jack. he's based on him. and he stands up and he goes, that was a close one. [ laughter ] >> that moment for me, that was everything. i get to do this while my kids are still this age and get to see their lives reflected. no one can ever -- this could end tomorrow. this can't take this experience from me. >> the manifest blessings are real. so honored to have you. >> so happy to be here. thank you so much. >> tomorrow night lemons, the episode will air on abc as it does every wednesday night created by one kenya barris. congrats my friend. see you later this year. >> i hope. >> that's our show for tonight. as always, keep the faith.

>> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. >> hi, i'm tavis smiley, join me next time for a conversation with john lipco. that's next time. we'll see you then. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. the actor known as the most interesting man in the world. he charts success to "stay interesting" i don't always tell stories about my life but when i do, they are true and amazing and regina king joins us to discuss her career working in front of and behind the camera. we're glad you joined us. jonathan goldsmith and regina king in a moment.