- Can we have Lindsay answer that question first?
- Race doesn't pop into my head every day.
Just living my everyday life,
that completely comes last.
- I think about it all the time
and I think it's cool that you don't have to think about it
'cause it's a huge burden.
(gentle music)
I was raised in a very white, suburban town.
My whole childhood was just surrounded by people
who looked like me.
Race was never in the conversation so much.
- I wouldn't say that I have talked about race
a lot throughout my life.
When the topic of race comes up, it's not something
that I'm a pretty loud voice in, 'cause I don't feel like
I have the experience to be a voice in that conversation.
(gentle music)
I'm gonna try hard not to be quiet
but I'll be dealing with people who just have,
I guess, a closer connection to the issues.
- I feel like I was very privileged growing up
and I don't know what it feels like
to be discriminated against.
I don't really almost have the right to talk about it.
(gentle music)
- Race is still a really big issue.
I wish we lived in a world where we didn't need
to talk about it, but I feel like we do.
- I agree with you, Derek.
Can't we all just be people?
But I know that that's not real.
- To say, "I'm a good white ally",
I feel inherently, that makes me feel uneasy.
- I'm also a little uncomfortable with the term white ally.
I feel like it's very separating.
- Personally, I don't feel like I have anything
to contribute all of the time to discussions on Facebook
or social media, so I stay absent from them.
- A big, important part of being an ally
is being a listener.
- This conversation is definitely tricky.
- The fact that it's just hard to talk about
just shows that we all need to get
really comfortable talking about race.
- I feel like I was super comfortable.
We were all kind of coming from the same place,
both racially, but also opinion-wise.
- For the most part, we have the same line of opinion.
There's always a degree of awkwardness, I think,
when it comes to talking about race.
- Just a white guilt thing that we have to deal with.
- I felt comfortable expressing myself.
- It was fine.
(drum music)
- First of all, gotta have diverse friends
because someone has to talk to the cops.
That's number one.
- Do you think that when people see you,
the first thing they see is your blackness?
- Yeah.
- I always think about how that is the first thing
people notice about me. - Yeah but I love that.
The definition of what black is a whole nother conversation.
I'm not typically a black American,
my family's from the Caribbean.
so this totally different upbringing.
- I made something that was made by
an Asian-American woman, and that means something.
- Josh, do you feel that--
I always wondered if white people feel that same way.
Do you hold that, like whatever you do here,
- you do as a white man. - white man, yeah.
- Not at all, no.
- That's like the difference, I think.
- Going beyond just the loud and the violence
that is being shown, this is a conversation
that should be happening on TV.
- When I was growing up, I didn't care--
I can talk to you guys and totally care
because I know you and I hear your stories,
but I was not surrounded by that whatsoever
to even think about protesting for someone
that I don't, never met even before.
- Which is definitely very fitting.
Right there, definitely very fitting.
Because of all the oppression you had
as someone of color, you always feel like
I have to do something so the future can get better.
- I think what occurred to me with the second conversation
is, that's the conversation we need to be having.
- The second conversation, I definitely did more
listening than talking.
I think it's really important coming from
a white male perspective, to be doing more
listening than talking.
- I didn't feel as awkward as I thought I would
in the second conversation.
I almost felt better, I could hear everyone else's
viewpoints and understand from the other side, the issues.
- Coming from a place as someone who hasn't had
a lot of conversations about race, I think it was natural
to be a little nervous,
but the conversation was great.
- I think they were really understanding
with the fact that I grew up a certain way.
- I felt like what I had to offer was accepted by others.
- I think knowing now that people of different races
care about my white opinion,
I feel like I can be in other conversations.
I feel like this was the first step to actually
being a part of this big conversation.
- It can't just be a conversation within people of color.
There needs to be white people in the conversation.
- I appreciated the fact that Josh and Lindsay
were part of the conversation. - Definitely.
- I learned some really eye-opening things.
Now that I've just kind of dipped my toes
in this candid conversation about race,
it's totally something I'd be interested
in taking part in again.
- I don't feel as scared, I feel like I can connect
to people that aren't like me.
It's just important to come together
and be a part of that conversation.
- Listen, have empathy, try to find a way
how you can try to change it from your
personal point of view, that's pretty much it.
- Don't be scared, step forward and just talk.
That's the first step.
(whoosh) (squeak)