Stevie Wonder Opens Up About His Childhood, His Religion and His Intolerance for Ignorance

In an episode of the wonderfully animated lost interview series “Blank on Blank“, the great Stevie Wonder shared his thoughts on childhood amongst adults, his relationship with God and his intolerance for ignorance during a 2005 interview with music writer Barney Hoskyns in an English pub.

think that I really didn’t understand the severity of the situation or the circumstances. I think I was so in love with my mother, and my brothers, my sister, my friends, and just in love with the discovery of life itself that my focus was not on those things. I think I discovered a whole thing of color when I went down south once when my grandmother passed away. There were some kids, white kids that lived nearby or whatever. The kids said, “Hey, n–r!” Whatever they said. …I think I may have heard it, but I said, “What, I’m from Detroit.” I started throwing rocks over. “Oh you better not do that, you’ll get into trouble.” I said, “I don’t care.” I hit the kid, I kept throwing stuff. I just… I have never accepted stupidity and ignorance as making me then determine how good I was or how less I was.

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Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.