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(applause and upbeat music)
I mentioned a second ago about
realizing your own power throughout this process.
Now that you are somebody who's in a position of leverage,
how are you learning how to use that leverage?
And in what direction?
- Big thing is I'm putting my money where my mouth is,
in terms of the Hillman Grad mentorship program
which we're doing,
and also too there's another thing we're doing.
People follow me on Instagram,
I heard about the Toni Braxton-
Toni Morrison documentary
Thinking about Boomerang and this and that.
- [Jemele] Sorry!
- But the Toni Morrison documentary
which lot of people may not know about.
I just bought out a theater in Los Angeles
and we filled up every seat.
It's happening tomorrow during the day.
We bought a theater in New York as well.
It's for the Hillman Grad mentees,
but we can't fill up a whole theater,
so I was like, anybody wanna come see it?
You got any aspirations of being a writer?
Even if you don't it's important for folks to go see.
So to me what's exciting is that there's gonna be
all of these people,
predominantly African American,
showing up to,
because we work with ArcLight,
at the ArcLight tomorrow,
to go see this Toni Morrison documentary,
which I'm sure the ArcLight employees are gonna be like,
"what the hell!
"Where are these people going?"
They're like, "Black Panther ain't playing no more!"
I just feel like it's important that folks go see it,
even if I gotta pay for it.
It's like so what, go take it in.
It may inspire you.
You may walk out feeling like,
"Oh I'ma go write again or I'ma go walk in my purpose."
But then also too a big thing we're doing,
is sponsoring writing classes which we've always done,
and then also for those who wanna be actors,
no matter what city they're in,
we try to find a reputable acting classes.
Then if they're like, "yo, I can't afford it,"
we go, cool, we call the place
and say "hey, we want to sponsor this person",
or, "hey, there's five people in your city that want to
"go to your acting school but it's a little expensive,
"So if we pay for all five of them,
"is there a group rate we can get?"
They usually accommodate us with that.
So that's really what I'm trying to do,
is just be feet on the ground,
understand what people are looking for,
where they're trying to go,
what they're actually trying to do,
and then see how we can help them take those next steps.
Ultimately what I eventually want to do is
buy a couple of condos where it's free housing
for people that don't live in Los Angeles
or that are coming from other places.
We wanna pay for their room and board, food, all that,
maybe even work with a car company,
where they have a car to drive
and they can be in Los Angeles for a year,
provide them with opportunities so any money they make,
they get to bank it.
By the end of that year,
they can have money that they saved up,
and hopefully by the end of that time,
they'll be able to go out into the workforce.
So that's what we're working towards now.
I'm just really trying to think about it
more in terms of logistically.
You know what I mean,
because people can always say,
oh diversify, inclusion this and that,
but how do you then get to that to being here?
Ultimately a lot of these young Caucasian males
have parents that can afford to pay their rent,
afford to pay their cars, food, all that kind of stuff
and if you can't afford that,
how can you go PA for 100 bucks a week?
How can you go intern?
What I wanna do is be able to,
again it's about leveling the playing field,
and create a black privilege that we don't necessarily have.
So again that's sort of a way I'm using what I have.
It just boils down to just common sense.
I can't tell you to go out there and win,
if you don't have a leg up,
if you don't have a support system,
and basically if you don't have some money in your account.
A big thing I'm even doing with some of my assistants
when they're in between jobs,
I do this thing called I'm gonna give you an investment
where I put some money into their bank accounts,
so they don't have to worry about
are they gonna make their rent, or their car, no.
And I don't call it a loan,
I call it an investment.
Meaning they don't have to pay it back.
But all I ask is that they go super hard
when they're at their internship,
go super hard when they're a PA,
and pretty soon they'll be working a job
that pays all that kind of stuff.
And when they say,
"well, how do I pay you back?"
I say, "just pay it forward.
"That's really how you can pay me back."
(upbeat music)