♪ (industrial music) ♪
(silence)
- I am not black.
♪ (light music starts) ♪ I mean, that's what the world calls me.
But... - Huh.
- (Prince Ea) ...it's not me.
- I think I've seen other videos by this guy.
- (Prince Ea) I didn't come out of my mother's womb saying,
"Hey, everybody, I'm black." - Hmm.
- (Prince Ea) No, I was taught to be black.
- Mm-hmm.
- (Prince Ea) And you were taught to call me that
along with whatever you call yourself.
- Is the idea like, "I'm just a person. Don't label me"?
- (Prince Ea) It's just a label. - (quavering sigh)
- (Prince Ea) See, from birth, the world force-feeds us these
labels. - Oh, wow.
- (Prince Ea) And eventually, we all swallow them.
- That's right. - (Prince Ea) We digest and
accept the labels. - Everything is based on a label,
no matter what.
- (Prince Ea) But who we truly are is not skin deep.
Listen, I'm not here to tell you... - This is very cool.
- (Prince Ea) ...genetically we're all mixed in.
- Right. - (Prince Ea) Race in the human species
doesn't exist or how every historian knows that race
was invented in the 15th century...
- I love seeing all the different people.
- (Prince Ea) And it has worked perfectly.
No.
I just want to ask one question.
Who would you be if the world never gave you a label?
- Dude, I'd be Alix. - (Prince Ea) Never gave you a
box to check. - Who can check just one box?
- (Prince Ea) Mexican? Asian?
Native American? - It's pretty deep.
- (Prince Ea) Indian?
No.
We would be one.
We would be together. - Hell yeah.
- (Prince Ea) We would be one.
- That's right. - (Prince Ea) We would be together.
- Together. I love this. - (Prince Ea) ...of calling human beings
black people or white people, these labels
that will forever blind us
from seeing a person for who they are.
- Got chills. This dude's amazing. - (Prince Ea) ...judgmental,
but instead seeing them through the judgmental, prejudicial,
artificial... - I like the hope behind it.
- (Prince Ea) ...of who we think they are.
Where there is division, there will be conflict.
And conflict starts wars.
Therefore, every war... - That's right.
Every war is over a label 150,000%.
- (Prince Ea) So the answer to war, racism, sexism,
and every other -ism is so simple
that every politician has missed it. - Wow.
- (Prince Ea) It's the labels. We must rip them off.
Isn't it funny how no baby is born racist...
- No. - (Prince Ea) ...yet every baby cries
when they hear the cries of another. - This is gonna make me cry.
- Oh. This is gonna make me cry now!
- (Prince Ea) ...deep down, we were meant to connect
and care for each other.
That is our mission.
Please listen. - Amen, brother.
- (Prince Ea) ...distort our vision,
which is why half of those watching this will dismiss it
or feel resistance... - This is so beautiful.
- (Prince Ea) ...just remember... - How could you dismiss that?
- (Prince Ea) Human beings were not meant to be slapped with
labels like groceries in supermarkets.
DNA cannot be regulated by the FDA.
We were meant to be free.
And only until we remove them all and stop living in
thinking so small will we be free... - Mm-hmm.
- (Prince Ea) ...to see ourselves in each other for who we...
- That's a beautiful image. - (Prince Ea) ...truly are.
- (softly) Oh gosh.
Okay, guys. I need a tissue.
- It's a beautiful sentiment.
I can't afford to be colorblind,
'cause people don't look at me that way.
There's certain labels that I choose to identify with.
I say that I'm Chicano. I say that I'm queer.
I'm not afraid to say that I am those things,
because it's important.
♪ (light industrial music) ♪
- (Finebros) So what are your initial thoughts
after watching this video? - (takes deep breath)
It was beautiful. I loved the message.
- I think that it's really touching.
- I like this, because it advocates in favor of
a unified world.
- It was so... emotional.
Before kids are affected by the family or society,
no kid is looking at another kid
and thinking they look different.
- It's the message we need (emphasizing) exactly right now.
This thing in our country about labeling--
it makes me so angry.
- (Finebros) This is a video by Prince Ea,
who's a spoken-word artist who's made content on topics
ranging from politics to the environment.
What do you think about him using his talents in this way?
- I think it's great.
- No one wants to hear speeches.
If you put it in a poetic and almost like a song,
you'll listen to it.
- It's kinda boring to watch a politician.
So when you see a video of someone younger
and they're talking passionately about something they feel,
I think that's really inspirational.
- It's so memorable, and it sticks with you.
He's speaking to younger people especially, I would say,
through a way that they can connect in.
- The words would've done it, but the way that he phrases it.
Then you start thinking about all these things
and everything you've experienced
and maybe even things that you've said in the past.
And you're like, "Dude, I suck."
- So many people, um,
use their talents to further themselves in their career
and don't have much to say.
People have grown up facing so much adversity,
seeing so many horrible things.
And they want somebody to speak on their behalf,
'cause not everybody has a platform.
- (Finebros) What was the message that Prince Ea
was trying to convey here? - Well, there was the labeling.
Cultural diversity. Just peace, world peace.
- The message is about labels and social constructs.
- Not label people anymore, because it's silly, you know?
We're all one.
- Don't let labels, um, make you shortsighted.
See past that label and see the whole person.
- We are the ones that put labels on each other.
We don't come with labels.
It's a great message. Is it realistic? No.
- (Finebros) Have you yourself dealt with your race
impacting any aspect of your life? - Oh yeah, many times.
My whole life.
- Not race, but I am Jewish, so I have definitely dealt with
several situations of pretty extreme antisemitism.
- When I was in grammar school,
I had a friend who lived about eight houses down.
And her parents did not allow her
to play with the Mexican kids that lived down the street,
and that was me.
- I've seen it myself.
You know, moms clutching their child to their side
when they see my son that's tall and brown.
He will physically try to shrink himself down.
And it's not because of anything he has done.
It's all external.
- They see me and they look at my hair.
And they kinda prejudge me, you know, a little bit.
But once they get past it, they see I'm just a regular person.
You know, I'm not just a stereotype.
- I'm Middle Eastern.
I remember being in middle school
and putting "Asian" because the Middle East is in Asia.
And my teachers would be like, "You're not Asian."
And I'm like, "Okay, so what am I?"
You're telling me to check a box, but no box fits me.
- (Finebros) Some have said about the video
that focusing on the labels given to people
ignores the systematic racial issues that do exist in the world,
and having an open dialogue about the differences
is the way to combat that
versus telling people that the labels shouldn't exist.
What do you think about that thought?
- I don't really get that criticism, honestly.
- I don't think you can just completely forget about it,
'cause it's still there.
I mean, yeah, I'd love to eliminate labels.
But that just doesn't happen.
- It's nice in this idealistic world
where we don't have to see these labels.
But that is not the case.
People are so more covert with their racism.
- You can't just do away with systematic racism.
It's not that you don't see race.
It's that you accept them as equals.
- I don't think he's saying, "Just throw it away."
He's saying that, if you think about it,
it's really ridiculous.
We can't just forget about it and act like it doesn't exist.
But we can help do away with it
by exposing the system for what it is.
- (Finebros) As a country, we sometimes act as though
we've moved beyond the issue racism,
that it was something from the past.
As an adult living in the United States,
do you see racism as the major issue of our time?
- Yeah. I mean, it's still a major frustration of our time.
- I think it's different. I don't know that it's worse.
And I don't know that it's better, but it's just different.
- Yeah, I do.
Especially in the gay community as well.
Things within the gay community,
it's about the physical before who that person actually is.
- It's all over.
But through technology
and our connections to different people
that we weren't able to connect to five years ago,
ten years ago, it's slowly getting better.
- It matters more so today,
because we're supposed to be so past that.
We're supposed to be so evolved from that.
- (Finebros) Finally, do you think the impact of videos and art
created by people like Prince Ea
and how it gets shared in social media
does effect change for these issues? - Absolutely.
- I think that video will have an impact.
It's not to be taken lightly. Media is powerful.
- I think it's beautiful. And I think whether people
are sharing it on YouTube or on Facebook,
if it's gonna affect someone and make them think for a second,
I think it's amazing.
- Sharing it's nice. Just doing that at the click of a button,
that's easy. But talking about it.
That's what's important.
- Once you've shared that video,
you have to take what it said, absorb it, and apply it.
The varying sides have to be willing to meet and talk about this.
We need to work harder together.
(silence)