Yes, I [bleep] do.
♪♪
[ Chanting ] USA! USA!
I'm probably going to be put on a security list now,
but it was worth it.
♪♪
Hi. I'm Lee Adams, I'm a host and producer here at Vice,
and the Internet thinks I'm a racist.
I'm black, if you couldn't tell.
We're talking about, "Minority Reports,"
which is a series that I host here
and it's about finding minorities in places
where you wouldn't expect to find them.
This episode, in particular,
is about young, black conservatives.
Black lives have never, ever,
ever mattered to the Democrat Party,
black votes always have.
The Democrat Party have established a house
of token niggas.
How do y'all feel about black conservatives?
Like y'all house negros,
y'all just trying to please this white man.
The Democrats are very nervous. They do nothing for you
and that was supposed to be automatic.
Not anymore.
Here we go.
So, let's check out these motherfucking --
alright, anyways.
You know what?
I don't even -- I don't even mind this,
you know what I'm saying, like?
There is a man that I look up to,
his name is, Adam Clayton Powell, Junior.
Adam Clayton Powell once said that,
"Black is beautiful, we have everything from chalk
to charcoal within our own race."
Meaning, if you don't know anything about black people,
our hair textures are actually different,
not unlike white people.
Some of us have straighter hair, some of us have curlier hair.
We come in different heights -- I don't know if you knew this.
Come in different weights.
So, yeah, we all look different.
We are different.
Now, you know, the more you know.
He's talking about when we were standing
in the East Room of the White House
and I'm about 15 to 20 feet away from Donald Trump.
Some of the stuff he was saying was kind of insane.
When I ran for President, I asked black Americans
to give me a chance with your vote by saying,
"What the hell do you have to lose?" Remember?
I couldn't really hide it on my face,
but I also didn't want to,
so I made sure I kept looking into the camera
because I kind of needed someone else to go through
what I was going through while I was going through it.
Wow.
Um...
Like, of all the things I think,
that's -- that's the most offensive thing.
To even, like, toss the word "plantation"
into the same sentence
when referencing a black person in America,
is one of the most offensive things you can really do or say.
I think it just goes to show, like,
someone has a severe lack of knowledge
about this country's history,
you know, my ancestors -- that -- you know what I mean?
Like, this is a thing that literally
is directly tied to my lineage and --
you know what I mean? -- in -- in a very real way.
So that's incredibly insensitive.
Thank you for letting us know.
I appreciate the sentiment here, right?
I appreciate it, what you're trying to do,
saying, like, "Race doesn't impact the way
that you deal with folks."
However, you cannot discount race in America,
because of how race has colored our past in the way that,
on a macro level, we view each other.
Being colorblind, or not seeing color,
actually discounts everything that I have gone through
as a black man in America.
You just can't ignore people's history, that's it, that's all,
that's it, that's all, that's all I'm saying.
I'm the guy that said we don't need
Black History Month anymore, so you can trust my opinion here.
This is bad syntax.
He's talking about the pheasant hunt that we went to
and now -- this was in Iowa.
First, it's, like, a really good time, highly recommend it.
I'm not saying killing pheasants is a good thing,
but I had a really good time going out with these dudes
and, like, drinking beer and, like, talking shit
and seeing these dogs have the time of their life.
As far as, like, rich old white guy activities,
this is definitely up there.
It's a good one. Like, this and sailing,
I'm trying to fully be a part of.
It was kind of awesome.
He was open to answering my questions,
and I will have to respect him for that.
He didn't run from us. He didn't hide from the cameras.
He didn't not want us to be there. He welcomed us there.
He even was, like, walking around
with no shirt on at one point,
and I'll never get that image out of my mind,
but, you know, he's a nice dude.
"Is that what journalism is supposed to look like
compared to, say, CNN?"
My job isn't to tell the audience how to feel about
whatever it is that I'm covering.
My job is to ask the questions
that cause whoever we are covering to,
you know, further explain themselves
and their perspectives and hopefully leave room
for the audience to come to their own conclusions.
Why is it that you can, like, stomach the injustices?
So, please tell me what injustices you're talking
about the Republican party?
Voter suppression laws for example.
So having an ID, which I have a driver's license.
People attribute these things to being, you know,
an infringement upon people's rights.
If anyone's disenfranchising minority groups,
it's the Democratic party, especially right now.
Politics don't have to be combative,
race doesn't have to be combative,
as long as both sides are willing to listen
to each other, which they rarely ever are.
I -- That's just ridiculous. How am I racist?
In what way am I in a position to be racist?
Also, black people aren't a monolith,
so me questioning the motives or thoughts
of another black person isn't racist,
and I would hope that you wouldn't watch this documentary
and think that I'm trying to smear
or smother the perspective of black conservatives.
If anything, we're trying to amplify it,
so that people can be made aware of it,
or maybe, like, agree with some of these folks.
What I'm trying to do is allow young black conservatives
to articulate themselves in a space free of harsh judgment
or combative ridicule.
At the core of the definition,
you're misunderstanding the concept of racism
or who can be even a racist.
So, you know, I disagree.