"(Forever Free) Hello I’m Your New Neighbor" (1997)

"I've heard a number of things, been called the sellout, the 'Chris Rock' of the art world (I like that one by the way). And people accuse me and question my blackness- they accuse me of making paintings that deal with these images because 'white folks want to see these images' And I'm saying to myself, 'Boy, I don't know,' in that white folks wanted to see these images to laugh at?"

- Michael Ray Charles