[APPLAUSE]
Hello there!
There's some smiling faces.
They're here as much as they can be in spirit.
And I am so, so happy to meet you.
Thank you for being here.
Likewise.
I'm here in the flesh, so that works.
Y'all are in spirit.
I'm in the flesh.
I like it.
I like that you're here.
OK, let's talk about this.
You had a very successful YouTube series,
and then obviously conversations need to continue.
So you wrote Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.
And now you wrote for young adults.
And first of all, it's a great idea.
How did you come up with this?
Honestly, people ask me, Ellen-- they
say, Emmanuel, what was your inspiration
for writing Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man?
What was your inspiration for the video series?
And I said, after thinking, it wasn't an inspiration, Ellen--
it was a devastation.
Because after the murder of George Floyd,
I was walking around my house.
I was in Austin, Texas, and I was like, I don't know what to.
Do I cry?
Do I vent?
Do I scream?
And then I stopped and said, my voice is my sword.
So Ellen, I haven't marched--
I haven't protested-- I haven't created a sign.
I didn't go outside.
I went inside to a studio.
True story-- I called my friend, who's a wedding videographer.
And I called my best friend, who's an Olympic gold medalist.
And they stood in as my production team.
It wasn't some sort of high quality thing.
It was just me and about four others in the studio.
I didn't rehearse.
I just put my head down.
I said 3, 2--
and on 1, I opened up my eyes and spoke from the heart.
And about 30 million views later, my world changed.
Yeah.
And a lot of this is stories from your experiences.
Yeah.
I realized this.
So I was born in Dallas, Texas, but I'm
first generation American.
My parents are born in Nigeria.
But I went to an affluent white high school in Dallas--
St. Mark's School of Texas.
An all boys school--
we wore a uniform.
I was super awkward-- super awkward.
I know.
I feel bad for myself still.
But nonetheless, Ellen.
So now I am a blank canvas.
Nigerian cultured growing up-- so now
I'm getting white culture in my high school
but then Black culture as I played football
at the University of Texas and in the NFL.
So I'm realizing there's a difference between color
and culture.
We always think they're just all combined,
but I was Black by skin color but cultured Nigerian.
And so I realized the problem in our country--
one of that I'm major problems, Ellen--
there's a communication barrier.
My Black brothers and sisters are saying one thing,
and my white brothers and sisters
aren't understanding it.
And vise versa-- my white brothers and sisters
are saying one thing, and my Black brothers and sisters
aren't understanding it.
And I'll say it like this.
Ellen, if you can go back to high school,
remember your Spanish teacher-- your foreign language teacher.
They would say, if you want to be fluent in a language,
you have to immerse yourself in the culture.
You can have a Spanish speaking friend.
Ain't going to be fluent in Spanish.
You can listen to Spanish music.
You ain't going to be fluent in Spanish.
You got to go immerse yourself in a Spanish speaking country.
I was immersed in these different cultures,
and so now I just try to stand as a bridge of reconciliation
for the betterment of our world.
And you're doing it.
You're doing it.
It's amazing.
[APPLAUSE]
So our friend, Oprah, I understand
is a huge supporter of all you've done,
and that must have been a fun call to get.
Yes.
So after the first episode of Uncomfortable Conversations
with a Black Man, we got 25 million views
in about five days.
My phone rings.
It's Saturday morning.
I'm sitting in my kitchen table in Austin, Texas.
I pick up the call.
The first call-- all I hear is this.
Acho-- McConaughey speaking.
I want to have a conversation.
I look.
I'm Like, McConaughey?
Like, Matthew McConaughey?
He's like, yeah, man.
I want to have a conversation.
I was like, well, I'm recording the next episode
in about four days.
He said, let's do it tomorrow.
McConaughey wants to do it tomorrow.
We do it tomorrow.
We record the next episode that following day.
Then five more days later, I get a call.
Hey, Emmanuel, this is from Oprah Winfrey's team.
She'd love to talk to you.
Are you available?
Am I available?
Is Oprah available?
So I cleared my schedule.
I hop on the call.
Oprah's sitting in her kitchen--
just chilling there.
And she says to me, Ellen.
She says, Emmanuel, what is your intention?
I said, Oprah, my intention is to change the world,
and I truly believe I can.
I said, I'm currently working on writing a book--
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.
She said this-- books?
I love books!
And so we partner together on Uncomfortable Conversations
with a Black Man.
Gratefully, that became a New York Times bestseller.
But then Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black
Boy-- it was imperative--
imperative to follow.
Yeah.
Let's talk about that, because it is imperative.
And I just love you.
I think you're amazing.
We're going to take a break.
We'll be back.
As you were saying just before we went to break,
it was really imperative to write a book for young adults--
not just for grown adults.
So why is that?
Let me put it very simply.
Racial ignorance and racial insensitivity--
it can manifest itself and give birth to racism.
So as a young adult, we're just racially ignorant.
We're racially insensitive.
Ellen, remember, I was at an affluent school--
primarily white.
And I often heard this, Emmanuel,
you don't even talk like you're Black.
Emmanuel, you don't even dress like you're Black.
Or Ellen-- Emmanuel, you're like an Oreo--
Black on the outside, white on the inside.
So I had an identity crisis.
Remember, my parents were born and raised in Nigeria.
There's not racism-- everybody Black.
And so I got an identity crisis.
I'm like, I mean, I think I'm Black,
but they said I'm like an Oreo--
Black on the outside, white on the inside.
They didn't mean to be intentionally emotionally
killing me, but they were.
So I said, if I can help educate the next generation so
that people don't have to go through what I went through
of these identity crises.
And I wasn't alone.
When I posted I was writing the book, so many members
of the Latinx community who followed me said, Emmanuel,
I often heard, you're like a coconut--
brown on the outside, white on the inside.
And I was like, wow.
This isn't an isolated Emmanuel Acho thing.
This isn't isolated just to Black people.
This is insensitivity and ignorance across the board.
So let's address the root, because if you
want to fix a tree, you could cut down the branches.
You could pluck the leaves.
But you could address the roots.
And if we want to fix racism in our society,
let's address the youth.
Because they are the root of the future.
Yeah.
[APPLAUSE]
So good.
This book is going to help a lot of people,
and please come back as often as you want.
You're very important, and you are
meant to be doing what you're doing right now.
You're reaching a lot of people.
Emmanuel Acho's new book, Uncomfortable Conversations
with a Black Boy, is out today anywhere books are sold.
Everyone in the audience is getting a copy.
[APPLAUSE]
Lucky you!