(dramatic upbeat music)
- [Interrogator] White people having dreads
is cultural appropriation.
Strongly agree, strongly disagree.
Answer in the comments below
and suggest a prompt on our Kickstarter.
- I thoroughly enjoy fried chicken.
I understand the stereotypes about it
and all that kinda stuff.
- That chicken thing, man.
- The chicken.
- Chicken is just not...
That's just not something that black people enjoy.
You name me one group of people that don't like a Yardbird.
(bright upbeat music)
- [Interrogator] Kanye West is invited to the cookout.
(all laughing)
- No he ain't doing that. He's not doing that.
I know you didn't do that.
(laughter drowns voices)
- I told you I was leaving you this time.
- Then you're talking about change.
They're about to go worse. Let's just be honest.
- Well, last time I was, agree
because I was like, he's just the crazy junk uncle,
but now he's a little too disruptive.
I don't want him at my cookout.
- He's got a lot of things he's going through.
So I'm not expecting him to change anything right now
but right now he's just still.
He needs some time, figure out life, then come eat.
- I'm doubling down, again he's misunderstood.
People like Kanye are creatives
and he uses like creative speech.
- Like I don't think that he's so creative
and that his words are being misinterpreted,
he's making very specific phrases,
like black people chose to be slaves.
That's completely untrue
and in my opinion, that's just unacceptable.
- But I think that's people misunderstanding
what he's saying.
And let's be real, nobody including Kanye,
doesn't think that people got in line
to get shackled to be a slave.
This is part of the problem the media cut off,
kind of like the overall meaning of what he's trying to say.
People were angry that he was Republican
or that he was voting for Trump.
What he was basically saying is you're not...
Don't be a slave to like the Democratic Party.
I think there's an identity politics issue
in the black community.
You're not allowed to think freely
and he is to me, another member of my community
and I want him on my cookout--
- Invite him over your house then for a barbecue.
- Kanye West, you're invited.
- Would you let Kanye teach your children?
- I think Kanye West, - That's a yes or no.
- Is not a bad person.
- No. I'm not saying his bad person.
- I'm not saying he's a bad person either.
- That has nothing to do about him as a person.
- But I wouldn't let the grand wizard
give my children a history list.
- [Interrogator] Dave Chappelle
- I have loved ones and friends and family
who are like part of the queer community
and I have friends who are trans
and talking to them about like the last couple specials
and just sort of like his comments in general
about trans people.
It has kind of rubbed me the wrong way,
which is like it sucks
cause I really did love Chappelle show.
I loved a lot of his standup specials
but like over the years it's just like,
okay, well now I'm seeing it through a different lines
because other people are bringing things too light
that I probably wasn't thinking about when I watched it.
- I'm a big Dave Chappelle. I love comedy.
He was trying to navigate a very, very narrow channel.
I think he did it quite well, cause he's a comedian,
they're there to push the boundaries are funny.
And at the same time what you were saying
you gotta be careful.
So I agree with you on that.
But after hearing Chappelle explain,
sort of when he was on stage after he did The Closer.
- He came back.
- After hearing,
I don't think he had any malice in his heart.
- I think we need to learn how to not apologize for people
because of their historical importance.
Just because I love the Chappelle show
doesn't mean I'm gonna stand up for The Closer.
It's not always just a joke
cause it might be just a joke to you,
it's not just a joke to that person who just got murdered.
(logo whooshing)
- [Interrogator] Black people are more homophobic
than other races.
- So I almost say this I'm an avid golfer.
So a lot of my friends who I play golf with are white
and they say some stuff too when it comes to this.
So that's why I was like,
I gotta come with somewhat disagree,
but, I only can speak for our community.
We are a little rough on the LGBTQ community.
- Why do you guys think this prompt is asked?
- Cause there's a lot of rappers
who say homophobic stuff all the time.
- Yeah, and the black church.
I think religion plays a big part of homophobia
and like our society today
but it's not just the black church.
- [Interrogator] America would be better off
if only black people voted.
- I think our votes would pretty much reflect
what would be good for the outcome of America.
- Even for the LGBTQ community?
- Yeah. I believe so. I believe so.
- I'm not saying you wrong.
I'm just asking things
that are just within our own community
that we don't all agree on.
- That's a good question.
I think the majority of us
will actually be for equal rights.
Black people know what it's like
to be discriminated against.
- I think anytime you have a homogenous group
that's making decisions
you're inevitably gonna have problems.
So, I think it might start off
with this idealist way of like,
yes, let's vote for things
that are gonna make everybody happy
but eventually like power just corrupts people.
So if we're the only ones voting
we're gonna start to do stuff that advantages us
especially given our history here.
- [Interrogator] Black people can be racist.
- I think somebody told me about how racism exists
within the space of power.
And you have to look at it in terms of
racism comes from having the power for your ideals
to actually cause harm to other people
or disadvantage other people
and so most of the time,
a racist black person doesn't have enough power
to harm somebody that they're racist against.
- Are you saying there aren't black people
who can hire and fire people?
- No.(murmuring in the background)
- Well I hire and fire people all type.
- What's power to you then?
- Racism is a specific type of prejudice.
Everyone could be prejudice.
- Can a Chinese person be racist?
- In China? Yes. - How about here?
- I think in America,
it's all predominantly white run society.
So I think as a racial, a precious system--
- So a Chinese person cannot be racist
to black people in the United States.
- I think they could be prejudice to black people.
I think they can influence individual black people.
But lemme say this, I look at racism as a system.
- I think context matters in this situation here.
So can you look at it like this,
when you just break, can a black person be racist?
Yes.
Can a black person be racist in America?
I don't really know. Think about it.
How does a black person being a racist in America
benefits a black person?
- That's my point.
- Think about it.
How if I wanna be racist in America
how can I get ahead...
I'm gonna set out to be a black racist.
- But getting ahead, isn't the criteria to be racist
- But racism that's where it start
and bro it's like one of the main engines.
- So we're gonna use different words.
What you guys are basically saying is that
in order to be racist,
you can only be white in the United States.
- I'm just saying the impact is bigger.
So the judgment around what it is.
None of it's right, but the impact is widely different.
- [Interrogator] The U.S. should pay black people
reparations.
The U.S. should pay black people reparations.
- You gonna wait. (Christian and Efa laughing)
- [Interrogator] Three, two, one, go.
- Without doubt.
- I will say though, it's not just black people.
U.S. owes a lot of people money.
- The U.S. doesn't exist without black help,
African Americans.
- (Christian murmuring) at every stage.
- I'd like to correct it though.
I think something should be done
for the descendants of slaves.
- That's why I was like, I wanna come speak more.
- I took it as black Americans.
I took it as black Americans, because--
- Cause I feel like my family just got here
in the seventies.
So do I feel like I deserve what a person deserves
whose family has literally purchased in slavery? No.
- No. The question you asked was a good question.
Do you deserve, I think, yes.
But how much do you deserve
in comparison to others with longer history here?
That's the next question?
- Why does a recent immigrant from Africa
that came maybe 10 years ago deserve money?
- Because they have to deal with...
There is systemic oppression still happening today.
So they're still impacted.
It may not be the same degree, but they're still impacted.
And reparation for me doesn't mean here's $5
or here's a million dollars one individual black person.
It means what are we doing to repair the community
that we have disenfranchised in our society.
That's all it means to me.
- Anyways, I think reparations, the term to me
people look at it as like getting a check.
- And a check need to be cut.
Don't make no mistake about that.
A check need to be cut just right.
Because the wealth of this country
was stolen from our labor, bro.
Don't think it's because you from Africa,
you don't deserve none of that either
because they did a number on Africans as well.
- [Interrogator] Police target black men and women.
Three, two, one, go.
(high-pitched hiss sound)
- I like law and order, I like safety
and I do think for the most part,
a lot of the police throughout the country
do it to serve their communities.
But the last two years has really showed me that
we have a lot of problems and it's not...
It was emotional for me as well,
especially after the George Floyd incident.
But that wasn't even the only one, there's so many.
And it got to the point where,
I started to really ask myself is this,
how can you get law and order and safety
and still respect police, but at the same time,
fight for change. It's hard.
I don't know what to do.
I don't think any of us really have the solution.
- It was created to monitor the minority in the group.
Back in the day, it was the Irish, it was Italians.
And so it's ingrained into the system of policing
and that's the problem.
I think we have to reframe what policing is now
and until we do that,
it will always be targeting people of color
because that's what it was created to do.
It's one of those things for me,
the phrasing of it is police and that's a big term.
That means,
it's not an individual person we're talking of.
We're talking about an institution.
We're talking about all the people within that institution.
The system, the institution is protecting,
the individuals who have target people of color,
and we see them doing that
because the ones that get caught in media,
it's not the first infraction.
So that means they were individuals
who were aware of what happened,
either being a partner in the car with them
or on those streets with them or a supervisor
or whoever it may be,
who allowed them to go back on the streets
in the same manner that they were before
and continue doing the same things.
- And the institution makes money
from the targeting of black people.
If the police don't arrest people,
prison can get no customers.
- You gotta look at the prison industrial complex here too
in the U.S, that's huge business.
So, and if you look at a group of citizens
that have been perceived as no value
having to society or whatever,
okay, boom, we're gonna push them.
We're gonna pipeline them into that system.
- But also you have to remember
that like almost 20% of murderers is us.
And like we're the victims of a lot of crime
and so we are also the beneficiaries
of some of the protections that do happen.
So it hurts us to have like no type of protection
or safety as well.
- We're not saying abolish all forms of protection.
We're saying we need to reframe
what that protection looks like so that we can feel safe.
Even though people say,
the statistics are saying we're safer on the statistics
but really do you feel, does the community feel safer?
- [Interrogator] What did you all think about
Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict?
- I feel like it's still performative in some ways
like cool.
All right, there's that verdict.
Probably, there's gonna be a video tomorrow
of somebody else.
So it doesn't feel like it moves the needle very much
when it's just one very high profile case.
Something needs to change for those people
who are supposed to be our protectors
to actually protect us.
I do wanna say that, you said something about like
we're the ones who do the most crime or something like that.
- I said we are victims.
- We're the most victims.
And it's like, why are we victims all the time?
Why are there being guns put into our communities
at higher levels?
Why are we getting sentenced for certain offenses,
more heavily than other races?
- Cause the prison need customers.
- Exactly and it's customers too.
It's not just (beep sound) prisoners.
- We are the number one customer.
- You're saying that we're victims
we're getting killed and robbed and hurt
we, we're getting hurt.
- But why?
- Not because...
I think that has nothing to do with prison.
- No, it does it.
There's research that says
impoverished communities have more crime.
It's not because they enjoy crime more,
it's because they're impoverished.
It's because they need money, they need to survive.
And so there's a cycle,
- They need economic (murmuring)
- There's a cycle of prison, which means less education
which means less income,
which means smaller money coming to your community
which means less education, which means more crime,
which means more prison.
So the statistics about our community making crime.
Yes, but why is that cycle happening in our community?
- [Interrogator] I am proud to be black.
Three, two, one, go.
- We all gonna go back to the same letter
we went to last time.
- Nothing's changed there.
(Adib clapping)
- Glad to have you on the same side as us for a while.
- Finally.
- I feel more proud of our people every day.
Cause it's another day we survived.
Just even the slightest microaggressions
that happen to our community throughout
and yet we wake up and yet we get dressed
and yet we go out and we do it again and again
because we have the hope of a better future of change.
I think that's something to be very proud of
and to to never let slide, always be proud of that.
- I think the more I see people gaining traction
like in America, changing to where we're able to make moves
in ways that we couldn't before, the prouder I get.
So, it might sound silly to be excited
about seeing more black billionaires
or like a black, I think, miss America,
miss USA and miss something else.
All three were black women for the first time ever.
- I just wanna say for all the people in the comments
that were saying, I'm not black, I'm black.
Cause a lot of people were accusing me
of basically not being black.
I think it's important to remember that black is diverse
and that we have different types of hair,
different skin tones and anyways--
- We're not a monolith.
(murmurs drown voice)
- I actually spoke up over you all this time.
- You let him know.
- I already know, black and black.
- Gonna let him know black and black.
- Yes.
- Thank you!
(woman clapping in background)
(gentle jazz music)