"By Degree" (1995)

"In the West, particularly in America because it’s such a young country, you get the sense that so much comes in to America and is re-fashioned and regurgitated without really understanding what it is. In other countries they know about the history of the thing that they have, and maybe that’s holding them back in some ways. So perhaps their problem is not knowing what they know...There are so many stereotypes about people and cultures and ideas that have been translated into the visual through black collectibles, and sometimes that's hurt me in the past because that’s how people see me before they even get to know me, because of all this media material..." - Fred Wilson ...

"In the West, particularly in America because it’s such a young country, you get the sense that so much comes in to America and is re-fashioned and regurgitated without really understanding what it is. In other countries they know about the history of the thing that they have, and maybe that’s holding them back in some ways. So perhaps their problem is not knowing what they know...There are so many stereotypes about people and cultures and ideas that have been translated into the visual through black collectibles, and sometimes that's hurt me in the past because that’s how people see me before they even get to know me, because of all this media material..."

- Fred Wilson