HHNLive Interview with Tay Zonday of "Chocolate Rain"
HHNLive: Can you give us a brief background? Where are you from? How old are you? What is your background?
Tay Zonday: I live in Minneapolis. Im 25 years old. Im not sure what you mean by background.
Is that a code word for race? The straight-faced answer is that Im Martian. 
They dont have a box for me on the census form. Im the write-in candidate that the 
government leaves no space for when you have to choose your race.
Seriously, is race something you choose? The whole point is that I dont choose it. It is 
somebody elses shortcut to my soul. So journalists ask whats your background? 
like Im supposed to retell someone elses story about me as though its a fact of 
who I am and where I come from. As long as I talk about myself in fiction that someone else wrote, I 
might as well write my own fiction: Im from Mars. Most believe the story that Im a black mulatto.