(solemn music)
- [Interviewer] In an age of call outs,
culture wars and perfect facades,
people can be afraid to express how they really feel.
So we brought together seven strangers,
protected their identities,
and asked them all seven burning audience questions.
What will be revealed when we take the mask off?
If your answer is, yes, you'll turn your light on.
(drum beats)
(beep) The police.
(counter beeps)
- [William] I know that there are quote unquote "good cops"
but if you are working in the entire force
with individuals who are essentially mostly racist
and where police come from, the history of it,
with being the sheriffs of slaves
and tracking down slaves using dogs
or whatever they're using,
it's just, wearing that badge,
you're never really here for us,
and we never feel safe for that reason so (beep) them.
(someone chuckles)
- [Terrence] The only reason why I can't fully say that,
like he just said there are some good out there,
and personally having a cousin who is a police officer,
but everything else behind that
and all of the other people who introduce,
who bring the racist and pretty much (beep) mentality to it,
yeah no, it's (beep) them for sure.
- [Interviewer] All right, we're gonna have
everyone join the conversation.
- [Kennedy] I don't really feel
anything towards this statement
because I haven't had any encounters with police, like ever.
- [Maurice] Why do you have to have a personal experience?
Why can't you just look at the damage that's has been done-
- [Kennedy] It's different 'cause I feel like
I feel the weight of my ancestors in certain situations,
in other areas of my life than I do with the police.
- [William] Okay, this is not me taking away from
the Black community in general,
'cause police are always targeting us,
but I find it interesting
that only the Black men had agreed with that.
- [Female] Yeah.
- [Alexus] I'm on the fence with it
because I know that there are Black cops out there
that are truly trying to protect and serve,
and I really don't know what I would do
if we completely destroyed the police system.
I would be scared because it's like, okay,
well I don't believe that is the solution,
but yes, Black men have that main encounter with the police.
And sometimes it's annoying because it's like,
okay is this the only cause that y'all care about
is police brutality?
But yeah, I just, it's halfway with me.
- [Terrence] I think feelings do become
more intense though once you have an experience.
- Yeah, yeah. - Obviously.
- No, definitely. - And so, seeing situations
where my dad got pulled over,
got questioned, got harassed for no reason,
then to experience my situation down in Texas.
I mean, I had bought guns for the first time,
registered them, followed everything to the T,
and then still get pressed up against the side of my car
like I did something wrong
when I did it the exact way that y'all said I had to do it.
That experience right there, my dad's situation started it,
and then my situation is what finalized it.
(drum beats)
- [Interviewer] Are Asians racist towards you?
(counter beeps)
- [William] I have a neighbor who is very privileged.
She's married to a white man, she's Asian,
and I feel like that comes a lot nowadays in America.
I feel like Asian women are trying
to be the white woman of America,
and they're not realizing that they're also
in marginalized communities, just as we are.
- [Alexus] Especially Asians that are born
into American culture.
It seems like they're just pretty much white,
and they don't have any empathy for other minorities.
- [Maurice] I have had negative interactions
with Asian people or other people because I'm Black
and because colorism is a thing
but I've also had positive interactions.
So, I feel like, yeah,
Asian is just a very generalized term.
- [Jasmin] I know it happens of course,
but me personally I have not experienced racism
from the Asian community.
I do totally agree with the idea of colorism
because it does seem like the darker you are,
the quote "uglier you are" in any ethnicity,
which does suck.
- [Terrence] I think the American influence is big
and that's on anybody that comes,
no matter where you come from, what background.
When you get to America, you spend a couple years here,
you start to see how things are done,
whether they're right or wrong, you see how things are done,
how Black people are treated, how white people are treated.
So a little bit after I left the military,
I spent a couple years in Malaysia,
Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea.
These places were places where I was accepted
more so than back home.
It was shocking to me to not be followed around in stores
in South Korea.
It was shocking to me to not be treated
or even looked at the same way I would be
walking down the street in certain places here.
(drum beats)
- [Interviewer] I have dated outside my race.
(counter beeps)
- [Kayla] In my past dating history I feel like
I tasted the rainbow pretty much.
(panelists laugh)
I've dated East Asian man, I've dated Hispanic men.
It's different.
You're never gonna find somebody outside of your race
that's gonna a hundred percent understand you,
understand your struggle, understand your family,
why you do things the way that you do.
When I'm dating them I know it's gonna be different,
and I feel that's why I'm entertaining
the fact of even doing that.
- [Maurice] I don't think that
I would necessarily date a white person.
I just feel like there's a disconnect,
but as long as they're willing to
have those conversations with me
and understand my blackness,
I wanna have those conversations with them,
and I don't mind what their race is.
- [Terrence] I think for me,
it's just all about my comfort level with you
and how much I can relate.
And like he said, I think a white woman
would be at the bottom of the totem pole
just because we don't have that much to connect on,
but I'm not opposed to it.
I would just kind of rather work with something
that I know there's a lot of compatibility there.
- [Kennedy] I'm not opposed to dating outside my race,
but in terms of marriage,
I would love to marry a Black man, yeah.
- [William] Think about our ancestors.
They're probably turning in their grave.
They're like, what are you doing?
We've done so much and you wanna be with this white person
or this non-Black person?
- [Alexus] I've never dated outside of my race,
but maybe I should
because a lot of Black men tend to go to non-Black women.
- [Male] 'Cause they can control them.
- [Alexus] Yes, and because-
- [Female] 'Cause they're easier.
- [Alexus] And because they have European features,
softer hair, they like the Kim Kardashian-looking woman.
You know, you want the Black woman aesthetic
but you need the European features.
So, maybe I should date outside of my race,
but I personally, like you said,
I wanna build with a Black man.
I wanna have Black children.
That's what I want to do,
but with this generation of Black men,
I don't know if it's possible.
- [William] Me having sex with a white man
is just, it's the master aspect.
It's the buck breaking history,
if you know what buck breaking is.
It's all of that combined.
And then, the idea of most times,
even in heterosexual relationships,
it's usually a fetish for the individual to be with you.
It's either because you have a nice body
or your skin is so dark and lovely
or because you have, you know, that tool that they want,
if y'all know what I'm talking about.
(panelists laugh)
So yeah, in general, it's always something
on your body that they want.
And if it's genuinely true love, that can happen,
but for the most part,
I just think interracial dating is disgusting.
(drum beats)
- [Interviewer] I've felt oppressed by my own community.
(counter beeps)
- [Alexus] I actually sometimes feel very uncomfortable
in spaces full of Black people.
If you're not desirable as a Black woman,
if you're not desirable to men
then you tend to get overlooked.
I have to work my ass off for things that I want.
Black men, CIS hetero Black men specifically,
they oppress all of us and it sucks
because I wanna be with a Black man
but it's like, I have to try to appeal to my oppressor.
- [William] I'm gay and I'm also Black.
So, within the Black community,
I feel like, again, when we go to these protests,
when we go out to these clubs or parties
and I'm in heterosexual spaces,
I feel like, oh, it's yeah he's Black, but he's gay,
so we can't really mess with him.
He can't really be in our space.
And it's like, how is this your space that you claimed
over a sexuality and a sexual preference essentially,
rather than us being the same race?
- [Maurice] Yeah, of course.
Like you were saying, if you're in the LGBTQ community,
it's intersectionality.
People are more cool with me if I'm passing
and they see me as a CIS Black guy
versus if they know I'm trans.
- [Kennedy] In terms of my experience,
I feel like maybe Black people
were gate keeping opportunities
or trying to be super stingy
or trying to be the token Black person.
They kind of bully other Black people
to making them be like, you don't deserve to be in my space.
This is my zone. This is the area that I'm working in.
And it's like they're trying to keep other Black people
from being successful.
I feel like I've seen that a lot,
and I feel like that's happened me before, too.
- [Kayla] When I was living in Mississippi
I was around predominantly Black people.
I didn't feel any different
but now that I'm back here in California
and I'm around other races,
well I can see why this could be considered colorist
or I can see how in this situation
maybe I'm feeling like I'm not as worthy
as these other people,
but I just couldn't use the word oppressed really
to describe how my experiences have went.
(drums beat)
- [Interviewer] Have you ever wished you weren't Black?
(counter beeps)
- [Jasmin] I wanna say, record straight, I love myself now.
I love being a Black woman,
but for so long because of also family members
feeding into the whole idea of you're so pretty
because you're lighter.
For so long as a child,
I associated being Black
as being something that was a bad thing
because I saw how people
that were darker than me were treated.
And I was just like, oh, I don't wanna be this anymore.
But I mean, with a lot of love
and compassion and hardcore teaching,
I was like being Black is honestly the best thing ever.
- [William] We lit.
(panelists laugh)
I just feel like we're lit and I get where that comes from.
That's a part of colorism.
And that happens a lot in our community.
And I just feel like
if we all just accepted our blackness more,
we would just be great.
- [Maurice] When I was younger, I moved to a town
that was predominantly white and Hispanic.
I never felt specifically like, oh I wish I wasn't Black,
but I did look at other people
and say, "I wish I had hair like them.
I wish I looked more like them."
- [Alexus] I love being the race that I am
but having 4C hair
and having darker knuckles, darker kneecaps,
especially in elementary school and middle school,
getting through that was really hard.
Now at this age, I'm learning to accept all parts of me
but I still battle with it every day.
- [Kennedy] There were times where I maybe wish
that I wasn't Black American,
that maybe I wish I was an African woman or Brazilian
because I feel like Black Americans,
we kind of were disconnected
from our African roots and our heritage.
And that part kind of hurts
'cause it's like we don't really have much to call our own
besides Ebonics or A.A.V.E.,
but Black American cultures ultimately set the tone
for a lot of modern day pop culture, too.
So I'm proud of that part, as well.
(drum beats)
- [Interviewer] I would raise my kids differently
than my parents raised me.
(counter beeps)
- [William] If you haven't had an experience
with whether sexual abuse
or some type of violence in your home,
you are lucky in the Black community
because it happens to so many of us.
And I feel like with me, experiencing that growing up,
I would never beat my child.
I don't want to have to feel
like beating my child is a source of them respecting me.
I want them to know about mental health
and take their mental health actually serious
because we don't take it serious
in the Black community at all.
- [Kayla] I love that you mentioned that
specifically about mental health
because it's something you can't talk about
in our community sometimes.
It's like, well, what's wrong with you?
Are you crazy?
I'm gonna whoop your tail.
You shouldn't be acting this way.
I give you everything.
You have no reason to be depressed.
I don't wanna reciprocate that unto my children
and I don't want them to feel
like if they're feeling depressed,
if they're feeling overwhelmed
I don't want them to think they can't come to me
and talk about it.
My parents, they didn't have that opportunity
to communicate with their parents
because they were raised
in a completely different generation.
So now, I see my mom was raising me this way
because that's what she's used to
but I'm gonna cut it off with my line.
- [Alexus] Our kids are probably gonna be like,
yeah I ain't doing that when I have my kids.
Each generation gets wiser
and they learn something else
or have resources to something else.
I just wanna always highlight
the good things that my parents did.
I've already acknowledged them
and addressed the bad things with them,
but now I can forgive and let it go
and just highlight what they did do right
and kind of mix that with my own.
(drum beats)
- [Interviewer] I can't be honest about who I am.
(counter beeps)
- [Maurice] Being Black, if I'm in a white space,
I'm constantly like, how am I coming off?
But a lot of times, for me, in terms of being trans also,
like, how am I walking?
How am I talking? How am I being received?
Do these people, are they speaking at me
or looking at me like they're comfortable with me?
And it's just pretty tiring sometimes
when I'm around other people
and I'm constantly checking myself.
- [Kennedy] Since we're in the age of cancel culture,
it's just really easy.
I feel like even if you wanna be honest,
it's like sometimes you can't
because you have a fear of getting cancer
or fear of people lashing out on you.
And I feel like in certain senses like that
I can't be completely honest
in terms of my views on certain things
just because of how people are going to react.
- [William] It takes a lot for a person to be themselves
and fully own their identity,
no matter who you are or what you are.
So living in that, I've learned to own that.
I'm always blunt. I'm always me.
What you see is what you get.
If you got a problem, you can leave.
So, (chuckles) yeah.
- [Alexus] It's exhausting to try to defend yourself
all the time about who you are,
but at the end of the day
I sleep better at night knowing that I'm just me.
(upbeat music)