“We need to give people hope in the system again so they have a good education, stable learning environment, real jobs for a 21st century, highly technological global economy,” Gates says.

He adds, “But on the other hand, we need a revolution of attitudes within the black community. No white racist makes you get pregnant when you’re 16, no white racist makes you drop out of school, no white racist makes you not do your homework. Far too many of our values are associated with the bling-bling. No deferred gratification. And this is a horrible outcome.”

In his interview with Gates, the comedian Bernie Mac expresses some of the same concerns.

“Our mentality, and not just blacks, but a lot of minorities, has fallen,” Mac says. “It has fallen from where we were. The spiritual guidance has gone and left us, for number one, and that’s a very dangerous thing. And the mentality in terms of microwaves has risen. We want things overnight. It’s a fast-food, instant-gratification, efficiency-not-quality society.”

Gates says that wasn’t the way it was when he was growing up in the 1950s.

“Education was the blackest value of all. Getting an education was defeating white racists,” he says.

There is a knock at the door of Gates' hotel room. He puts the phone down for a moment. When he returns, he reports that he was making arrangements to have his suit pressed because "I gotta look clean." He laughs and explains that he is appearing on HBO’s “Dennis Miller Live.”

“Schwarzenegger’s on tonight. I’m on tomorrow,” he says.

Talk changes quickly to politics. Who does he predict will win the Democratic nomination?

“I think Kerry and Edwards. We’ll see if I’m right,” he says.

Back to the subject of education, Gates says people today do not have their priorities straight.

“Something’s happening to our community, when far too many people think it's easier to be a basketball player than a doctor, and that’s not true,” he says. “There are far more black doctors than black athletes, but we’ve lost our way. The black middle class is perpetuating itself, but the black underclass is perpetuating itself. Some of this is caused by historical forces like institutional racism. But some of it is caused by behavioral problems, and we need to return to our traditional values.”

People Person

Gates is a self-described people person.

“I love meeting people and I love interviewing people,” he says. Of the 44 interviews which he conducted, Gates says his conversations with Chris Tucker and Mac were the most fun.