Oscars host Chris Rock on being black in America

American actor Chris Rock, who is set to headline one of the most embattled Oscar telecasts in years amid ongoing outrage over the nominees' lack of diversity, says when he goes to pick his children from "white schools", it feels like they're on "another planet".

In an interview with Vanity Fair, conducted before the Oscar controversy erupted, the star spoke on a wide range of topics, including a few that now take on a deeper resonance amid the ongoing furore, reports people.com.

Asked which historical figure he most identifies with, he cited Janay Palmer, the wife of NFL star Ray Rice who was seen in video footage being punched unconscious by her husband in a hotel elevator.

"Mrs. Ray Rice - it's not the punch in the face that eats your soul; it's having to defend the person that punched you in the face that eats," he told the magazine in its Proust Questionnaire section.

"Oddly enough, this is what it feels like to be a black man in America," he added.

Rock, 50, even spoke about his family and said that he considers his parents his real-life heroes for raising seven children in a rough Brooklyn neighbourhood. As for himself, he savours picking up his daughters from school every day.

"I had such a horrible school experience (bussed, one of the only black kids, called 'n-----' (sic) every day, bullied, etc.) that picking my kids up from their mostly white school, where they're having such a great time ? it's almost like I'm picking them up from another planet, and I am," he said.