so we've just arrived here at uh black
lives matter plaza
uh in washington dc and we see that
uh the fresh asphalt here the
the black lives matter uh that was
painted on the road here has been uh
covered up
uh so we're gonna try to see a little
information here on
uh what the situation is and uh
i'm actually kind of surprised to see it
because it's been standing here for
quite a long time so we're gonna try to
find exactly
uh what's going on here and why it's
been covered up
and this is black lives matter plaza
right next to uh the white house
which is right over here so
oh we're going to talk to people see
what we can find out
what do you have to say about the fact
that they covered up uh
the uh painted black lives matter here
where it's temporary
important to the report that is
temporary it's temporary yeah
that they temporarily covered it doing a
little bit of construction
and they'll be having it back uh-huh
then that's the
official uh statement uh-huh okay and
what does this place mean to you
as a black man do you hear me
that's what i mean yeah uh-huh okay
what do you think is the future in the
united states with the african-american
community it's tough yeah it's tough
because
for so many years we've been silenced
uh even verbally through the laws
regulations through bank restrictions
living areas you go in certain areas you
don't feel comfortable
and it's based on your skin it has
nothing to do with your
content of character and it's difficult
to understand why
it takes so much energy to be heard
but as long as we continue to say do you
hear me
such as black lives matter plasma
it's kind of hard not to acknowledge the
plants because you have to drive by
walk by and see it and then
across the country we're just fighting
back for equal
equal just see me as equal treat me as
if
i am your family if you do that
and we can do that without color
it'll be a better place it's just going
to take a long fight to get there
and that's about all i have to say thank
you very much
[Music]
we just talked to the police officer
there uh i didn't want to shove the
camera in his face but
he says actually it's going to be
repainted tomorrow so the
first man we talked to was correct uh
it's just temporary
um kind of interesting
so fast forward a day and a half we're
back here just around the corner from
black lives matter plaza
we're gonna see if in fact it was uh
restored or repainted
um let's have a look
so in fact they have repainted it and
restored it
uh fresh new paint we got the b we got
the l the a
the c and the k and lives matter
so it was kind of surprising when i saw
that it was covered up
but wasn't for very long as you see
uh can you tell us where we are right
now we are at black lives matter plaza
washington dc and what does this place
mean to you
oh this is a wonderful place to be in
the heart of dc
it represents how hard people have
worked
and struggled for their freedom or
continuing to struggle for their freedom
and racial equity in this country
and what do you think about the overall
black lives matter movement
i think it's a wonderful movement i
think it's continuation of the freedom
movement here in the united states a
continuing
continuation of the civil rights
movement and
um glad to see that we have so many
allies in this space now and that so
many people are learning about the black
lives matter movement
and are you from uh dc or no i'm not
from dc but i've been here for a long
time
[Music]
uh hi hi um can you tell us where we are
right now
we're in washington dc and near the
black lives matter i mean what would we
call this
i guess the memorial of some sort what
do they call it black lives matter plaza
yeah yeah and uh can you tell me what
what
does this place represent to you um
i think it represents the fact that the
us is starting to actually
recognize that we've mistreated black
people for a long period of time through
our justice system
and as far as the black lives matter
movement overall how do you feel about
it
i mean i support it i i personally
feel like i don't know why people don't
see that we have a problem in criminal
uh law enforcement so i don't know i
think it's nice that
everyone seems pretty united behind it
finally and i'm hoping that it continues
and we continue to see things like what
happened with uh
derek chauvin and uh-huh yeah so i think
we're maybe at a turning point hopefully
so i don't know okay okay thank you
what's your name
katie
uh can you tell us where we are right
now um we're in washington dc this is
black lives matter plaza
and what does this place mean to you um
i mean a lot actually i used to live
here before
like this was a thing so for me to come
back and see that
dc is taking initiative for such an
important movement
i'm proud to say like i lived here at
one point proud to be able to see it
proud to see
others being able to understand and kind
of like stand with us in this whole
journey
and as far as the black lives matter
movement itself
uh i mean what are your feelings on the
the overall movement
um i think that we've been making a lot
of headway but it's still more to do
i feel like um
we're a minority trying to be heard
i don't feel like everybody fully
understands
that black and brown people go through a
plethora of different things that other
races don't necessarily
relate to don't necessarily experience
so i feel like
now we're in a space where everybody's
trying to understand and trying to
create
some kind of what's the word i'm looking
for peacefulness
within a nation so i feel like hopefully
we get to a better place
than we are currently okay well we've
got some
uh more uh insights into what
black lives matter it means to
some people here in d.c tourists and
locals
um so it's a nice educational
time here at blm plaza
so we've got a lot more stories to come
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