00:00: Charlie Rose: ''New York Undercover'' The New York Times has called him one of the 30 artists under 30 that will change the culture over the next 30 years. His television show, New York Undercover, is the most successful new show for Fox this season. He also spent six years as the vice president for City Kids Foundation, an organization that teaches leadership skills to children. Joining me now is Malik Yoba, and I'm pleased to have him here. Welcome. Great to have you.
00:25: Malik Yoba: Thank you.
00:27: Charlie Rose: How does it-- Well, let's talk about New York Undercover first. What makes it so successful? I mean, the first time we've had a pairing like this. It's--
00:38: Malik Yoba: Well, that's, that's--
00:40: Charlie Rose: --people who call it a sort of Miami Vice of the '90s and all that stuff.
00:43: Malik Yoba: You kind of wonder how successful it is when you don't know if you're picked up for next season, but that not-- notwithstanding, I think our show--
00:48: Charlie Rose: Now, is it the best show on the Fox network or not?
00:52: Malik Yoba: As far as I know. No, it's definitely the-- it's done the best out of all the new shows this year.
00:58: Charlie Rose: On Fox?
01:00: Malik Yoba: No question about that.
01:02: Charlie Rose: Yeah, but you still don't know whether you'll be--
01:05: Malik Yoba: We don't know.
01:06: Charlie Rose: --picked up. Yeah. Dick Wolf does it, right?
01:10: Malik Yoba: Yes, Dick Wolf's the executive--
01:11: Charlie Rose: Who's had a lot of experience--
01:13: Malik Yoba: --producer.
01:15: Charlie Rose: --in these kind of things--
01:16: Malik Yoba: Yeah.
01:18: Charlie Rose: --and certainly in shooting in New York.
01:20: Malik Yoba: Right. And a man named Andre Harrell from--
01:21: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
01:23: Malik Yoba: --Uptown Entertainment.
01:24: Charlie Rose: Yeah. Who's been on this program before.
01:25: Malik Yoba: Andre has?
01:27: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
01:28: Malik Yoba: Yeah. I think that our show has hit an emotional chord in Americans that hasn't been hit before in prime time dramatic television. Our show, with me portraying a father--
01:34: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
01:35: Malik Yoba: --a young man -- I'm 27. I play around that same age on the show. Playing a father to a 10-year-old, who is responsible to his child, responsible to his community, and responsible to the women in his life -- the child's mother, as well as his current girlfriend. And I think the pairing between myself and Michael DeLorenzo is-- is a dynamic one.
01:49: Charlie Rose: Why?
01:52: Malik Yoba: I just think our chemistry works. I think that just the rapport we have with each other off screen as well as on screen definitely is something that people get excited about and are interested in.
02:01: Charlie Rose: How much training did you have as an actor?
02:03: Malik Yoba: Training?
02:04: Charlie Rose: Yeah, training? Coaching?
02:07: Malik Yoba: What's that?
02:09: Charlie Rose: Experience?
02:10: Malik Yoba: No, I am--
02:12: Charlie Rose: You know.
02:14: Malik Yoba: I mean, I, I grew up without television, so-- and my--
02:16: Charlie Rose: How did you grow up without television?
02:17: Malik Yoba: My parents would not allow a television in the house when I was a kid so having six brothers and sisters, we wrote plays and we performed them for our neighbors--
02:23: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
02:25: Malik Yoba: --and made sets and costumes.
02:27: Charlie Rose: How come your parents were so smart? What made them so conscious of--
02:30: Malik Yoba: I think they understood that if, if-- I mean, well, first of all, we had the opportunity amongst ourselves, between six creative young people, to create--
02:37: Charlie Rose: Right.
02:39: Malik Yoba: --and that was more interesting to them than just having us sit in front of the boob tube, as my father called it.
02:43: Charlie Rose: Would you do the same thing for your kids now?
02:45: Malik Yoba: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I, I will have television in the house because television has become a big part of my life, and entertainment in general and using this medium to communicate has become a big part of my life, and I intend to use it. But I will definitely monitor and regulate how much my kids can watch.
03:00: Charlie Rose: If you could do anything in the world you wanted to do, what would you do?
03:04: Malik Yoba: Anything in the world that I wanted to do. I would run the world. I would figure-- because the way-- from my-- from the way I figure is there's 5.5 billion people on the planet. We have resources to take care of everybody. So my objective would be figure out how to take care of all of the people. Unfortunately, this country that we live in in the world as it is now has never really been about taking care of everyone.
03:26: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
03:28: Malik Yoba: It's only been about taking care of certain segments of the population, and I think that it is a travesty, where we are now. I mean, one of the things I talk about a lot -- I talk to young people all over the country and now around the world -- 500,000 people were sent to the desert to blow it up. Where are 500,000 people coming into my community -- my community being the world, America, New York City, you know, not just Harlem or the Bronx, or--
03:52: Charlie Rose: Five hundred thousand people, you're talking about Desert Storm?
03:56: Malik Yoba: To build it up. Yeah, Desert Storm.
04:02: Charlie Rose: Desert Storm.
04:04: Malik Yoba: I'm talking about how come we don't have that kind of effort going into building up schools and building up parks and building programs to build self-esteem and to build the lives and to nurture the lives of young people.
04:13: Charlie Rose: Why don't we see the same threats from other kinds of forces as we saw from an invasion by Saddam Hussein?
04:17: Malik Yoba: Exactly. Exactly.
04:20: Charlie Rose: And why don't we say that the threat from those kinds of forces is every bit as threatening--
04:24: Malik Yoba: Right.
04:26: Charlie Rose: --and as detrimental to our future as he would have been if he'd captured--
04:29: Malik Yoba: Right.
04:30: Charlie Rose: --oil and-- and access to oil for the West.
04:32: Malik Yoba: Right.
04:34: Charlie Rose: Right?
04:36: Malik Yoba: So that's what I would do.
04:37: Charlie Rose: Politics interest you?
04:39: Malik Yoba: Everything's political.
04:40: Charlie Rose: Yeah, but-- here's what I think, just knowing you for five seconds, you know. You-- you're very savvy and very bright, and you have had the benefit, obviously, of very wise parents.
04:46: Malik Yoba: Mm-hm.
04:48: Charlie Rose: And here you have an opportunity-- and you've used your intelligence, having to do with City Kids, and you've used your intelligence now to get involved in the entertainment world, where you know you can, (a), have an impact as a role model, and (b), make money, and (c), expand your options. What's wrong with what I just said?
05:02: Malik Yoba: What's wrong?
05:04: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
05:06: Malik Yoba: I agree. I, I can't, I can't complain. I mean, I spent six years with City Kids. I spent another three years with a group up in Harlem--
05:14: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
05:16: Malik Yoba: --called Upward Fund. Working in the not-for-profit sector, working with kids from Bel Air to Bed Stuy, you know, from, from you know, the rich, the poor, the fat, black, white, ugly, skinny, tall, acne, no acne. And so, being in the not-for-profit world trying to raise money and trying to raise awareness around what I consider the most vital issue. I mean, if we don't take care of the people on the planet--
05:38: Charlie Rose: Mm-hm.
05:41: Malik Yoba: --I mean, taking care of the people on the planet, if we do that to its highest degree, then we understand that we also need to take care of the planet, meaning the environment, and not the just air and the water and the trees, but also the space that people live in, you know. And I think that even the space people don't live in. And I just think that that's the most important thing, and being in the not-for-profit world trying to raise awareness and trying to raise money, sitting across the table with billionaires saying, you know, ''Who has the courage to give me $500,000?''
06:10: Charlie Rose: How'd you, how'd you know?
06:11: Malik Yoba: What's that? No, but that-- that's my experience, you know.
06:14: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
06:16: Malik Yoba: And so, who has the courage to-- to give up the money to do the work, you know.
06:20: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
06:21: Malik Yoba: And so now, here I am as a television star. I'm on the Charlie Rose show.
06:24: Charlie Rose: Hey.
06:26: Malik Yoba: I'm on Good Day, New York, ''Good Day, This,'' ''Good Day, That,'' ''Good Evening, This One.'' And so, I've discovered that now my voice is being heard, you know, by larger audiences.
06:35: Charlie Rose: What do you-- much is said about your generation of African-American men, and that we may very well be losing--
06:42: Malik Yoba: Mm-hm.
06:45: Charlie Rose: --you know, because 25 percent of the African-American men between the ages of about 20 and 30 -- at least 25 percent are somehow in the judicial--
06:52: Malik Yoba: System. Jail, parole--
06:55: Charlie Rose: --system. Jail, parole, et cetera.
06:57: Malik Yoba: Cemetery.
06:58: Charlie Rose: Yeah, and what the heck is going on here, you know?
07:01: Malik Yoba: Let's look at the genesis of--
07:03: Charlie Rose: And who has failed whom?
07:05: Malik Yoba: Let's look at the genesis of America. I mean, we can't possibly talk about the conditions of African-- African people, people of African descent in 1995 without going back to 1609, you know, and that--
07:11: Charlie Rose: Was that when the first slaves were brought over?
07:13: Malik Yoba: About that. I mean--
07:16: Charlie Rose: Right.
07:17: Malik Yoba: --my numbers may not be absolutely accurate, but what I do know is that 400 years ago, someone in my position was a slave. A little over 100 years ago, people were still slaves. Thirty-five years ago, you and I couldn't drink from the same water fountain. Thirty-five years ago, we might not have even been in this room together.
07:34: Charlie Rose: Mm-Hm.
07:36: Malik Yoba: So I think that America, by design, has been about denial. It's been about denying the native Americans their right to their homeland. It's been about denying people of African descent the right to their humanity, as well as the native Americans. And then it's been denying that all this never happened.
07:50: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
07:52: Malik Yoba: Like, so now everybody's on Prozac, and everybody's in therapy trying to figure out what's wrong. So what--
07:58: Charlie Rose: Yeah. But-- but tell me about the other side of that coin.
08:03: Malik Yoba: So what I'm, what I'm saying is that it's important-- this dialogue is very important. This is some of the most-- I like your show because it's always been intelligent dialogue, and so, that's what I want to partake in right now. What I'm saying is young black men in America right now, by design -- yes, we are responsible for our condition. I take total responsibility for who I am as Malik Yoba, as well as take responsibility for your kids, if you have any, and all the kids on the planet because that is my life's work. But what I'm saying is that by design we have systematically oppressed and left people out of the mix. So all of a sudden, we expect people to-- to know how to act, and, like, the whole-- America's, you know, remedy for the ills is create more jails. That's not the answer. That is not the answer. The answer is, like I said, 500,000 people sent-- if you want to fight the war on drugs, like we wanted to fight the war for the oil and the money, send 500,000 people into every depressed neighborhood where you have these statistics. What kind of effort are we putting into that, as opposed to just building jails. So what I'm saying is that America needs to recognize who she is. She's a beautiful country. We've done a lot of beautiful things. But we've been in denial, and we need to recognize that. I just-- I was in Kansas City recently, in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas. And I sat with a man by the name of Miller Nichols, whose father essentially built Kansas City, Missouri. And it's beautiful. You know, his father in the '20s went back, and went to Spain and came back with the architecture of Spain and the art and built this beautiful community. That same day, I was in Kansas City, on the Kansas-side, I was at the Y in the depressed neighborhood, and I was talking to kids over there, and these were kids like all the statistics speak about, who, from my sense, didn't really have a strong, passionate vision for their own future. But here I am on the other side of the fence, if you will, with Miller Nichols, literally in this ivory tower. He lives in probably the tallest building in Kansas City. And we're surveying the land that he's built up, or his family has built up. And I said to him-- he said, you see the college over there, the University of Missouri? We did that, and we did this, and we did this. And having just come a few hours earlier from the other side of the tracks, I said, ''Well, what have you done in the neighborhoods where people are a little poorer?'' ''Well, we haven't really done anything. I mean, we've concentrated our effort here.'' It's not Miller Nichols' responsibility to build up the poor sections of Kansas City, but what I'm saying is that we as a country, those of us that have really have to look out for the have-nots because at-- by the end of the day, if you have all the loot and you're not giving me any, I might mug you. I might mug your mother. You know what I'm saying? So how can you blame me for not being taken care of, you know? In America, black people in America, we complain about, you know, how the Koreans come over here and they, you know, they have their merchants association and they stick together and they fund each other's ventures and we don't have that sensibility because it's been stripped from us. Everything-- Malik Yoba, my last name, Yoba -- the reason why my last name is Yoba-- my father was born Milton Myers. He became Nature Boy, spelled backwards, which is Erutan Yob, and then he added the ''a'' because he needed to get back what was taken from him. Milton Myers was a name, a European name, and he needed a sense of identity. He became Muslim in the '50s and '60s. I was born Muslim. I'm not a practicing Muslim, and it wasn't the Nation of Islam and, you know, Elijah Muhammad and all of that, but his-- the whole-- his whole life has been about trying to reclaim what was taken. That has been our experience in America. So when we talk about these statistics, we just can't talk about them as they exist over here separate from the realities.
11:42: Charlie Rose: I agree with almost everything you said. However, the following: how much of the fact that you are seemingly wise, intelligent, observant, connected, is-- comes out of the fact that you grew up in a family like you grew up? Loving parents, two parents, loving parents who had time, opportunity, will, means to see that you were exposed and not exposed so that what came out would be Malik Yoba?
12:14: Malik Yoba: You're saying how much is--
12:17: Charlie Rose: This is of-- How much of-- of the problem we have is that too few -- we're now talking--
12:24: Malik Yoba: Have the--
12:26: Charlie Rose: --about African-Americans, who-- if you were not--
12:31: Malik Yoba: Yeah, people across America, yeah.
12:33: Charlie Rose: --in that environment--
12:34: Malik Yoba: I think-- my parents separated--
12:35: Charlie Rose: --that you had.
12:37: Malik Yoba: --when I was 10. My mother and I are very close. She's my manager right now.
12:39: Charlie Rose: Right.
12:41: Malik Yoba: My father raised us, the six kids. They had their problems and, you know, he made a point-- I mean, when I was little, I didn't understand it.
12:47: Charlie Rose: Right.
12:48: Malik Yoba: You know, he was very, very strict. I mean, we lived in a household where, you know, we ate dinner every day at 6 o'clock. For every minute you were late was a day in the house. Fifteen minutes late got you two weeks.
12:57: Charlie Rose: Fifteen days.
12:58: Malik Yoba: You know? I mean, exactly. So, you know, we had a very strict household.
13:05: Charlie Rose: You needed a little incentive to get there, didn't you?
13:08: Malik Yoba: Right. So I think it's unfortunate that not enough people do have, you know, complete family units.
13:13: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
13:15: Malik Yoba: And that is why I do the work that I do. I mean, I think that we have to redefine what we mean by family--
13:20: Charlie Rose: Yeah.
13:22: Malik Yoba: --in this country and in the world because we know, like-- There's an old African proverb that says, you know, ''it takes a whole community to raise a child,'' and we don't have that sensibility in this country. And so, the work that I've done with City Kids, the work that I do on my own right now, the work that I want to continue to do -- I want to build schools and parks and programs and that sort of stuff, you know, as well as do the entertainment thing because that's fun, I enjoy it, and you get paid pretty well to do it, you know. So I think that we have to kind of redefine what we mean by family in America.
13:48: Charlie Rose: Take a look at this. This is a clip. I won't-- I don't want to get too far away from--
13:53: Malik Yoba: Okay.
13:55: Charlie Rose: --the fact that, that you are here because -- in addition to talking about these things that I want to talk about, as well as take mention of New York Undercover. It is a series in which you star in, and here is a clip from that series on Fox Television. (Clip from ''New York Undercover)
14:10: Malik Yoba: Son, lying to me and sneaking out on your mother, you also committed a crime. You aided and abetted a fugitive. Do you know what that means?
14:24: Child Actor: You going to arrest me?
14:27: Malik Yoba: No, I'm not going to arrest you, but you will be punished, and I'm very disappointed in you, Jamie. Now listen. Do you know where Randy is now? You sure? Well, if he calls you, I want you to tell me, all right? And don't go near that boy.
14:46: Child Actor: Dad, he's my friend. Friends watch each other's backs. You even said that.
14:54: Malik Yoba: I know what I said, but not this time. This is serious. You understand? Now listen, I'm going to find your friend, and I am going to protect him. I promise you. Okay? Okay. Give me a kiss. Talk to you later.
15:14: Charlie Rose: J.C. Williams, single parent of a 10-year-old son.
15:18: Malik Yoba: That's the boy.
15:20: Charlie Rose: It's great to meet you. It really is. I thank you for coming. Malik Yoba, the star of New York Undercover on Fox Television. Tomorrow night, Matthew Broderick, the star on Broadway of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, and we'll have a discussion about art, European art stolen by the Nazis during World War II and what happened to it.