- All Black people aren't gonna be the same.
- Cool, and I agree with you.
And that's why I'm in the disagree column.
I don't need that kind of foolishness around the children.
- All right, let's fight, what's up?
What's up? (panelists laughing)
(pensive rhythmic music)
(pensive rhythmic music continues)
- [Interviewer] I enjoy fried chicken.
Three, two, one.
(feet shuffling)
- Run over here.
(panelists laughing)
- I thoroughly enjoy fried chicken.
(panelists laughing)
I love it.
You know, I understand the stereotypes about it
and all that kind of stuff, but hey, I love it.
- I just don't really like fried food.
I'm not really a fan of chicken.
I never ate it, so.
- You've never had fried chicken?
- I have had it. - Oh.
- I just, I don't enjoy it.
I don't really eat fried foods.
I try to eat pretty healthy, so.
(chord strikes)
- [Interviewer] There is nothing wrong
with white people wearing dreads.
Three, two, one.
(pitch whirring)
- I feel like I'm always on the wrong side of the room.
(panelists laughing)
- I'm with you.
- Wish you guys be offended if I had dreads
since I'm biracial,
since I'm half Black and half white.
So where is the line?
Like if someone's a quarter Black.
- I'm not gonna sit there and come to your face
and be like, you're not a hundred percent Black.
Therefore you can't, like, that's not my place.
However, if you are a white person,
and you have dreads in your hair,
it's like, what does that mean to you?
And you're not even wearing them, right?
Like, you don't even wash 'em.
- I just don't see how a race can own a hairstyle.
To be honest, like hair is hair.
There's all kinds of hairstyles in Africa.
I still don't think that like a single race group
can say this one hairstyle, nobody else can do it but me.
- [Interviewer] Kanye West is invited to the cookout.
- Oh, Jesus. (panelists laughing)
Three, two, one.
(panelists laughing)
- Oh, wow. (pitch whirring)
- This cookout needs to just die.
Like, no more cookouts.
No, bro, just go home.
Like there ain't no cookout.
- I'm sorry.
I strongly agree because I don't like the idea
of perpetuating this concept
that all Black people have to be the same
and think the same and act the same.
I don't think he's fully understood.
People like Kanye are creatives
and he uses like creative speech
and some people just take him at face value
or like, kind of like the literal sense of what he's saying.
And if you did that,
every creative could be taken the wrong way.
- I disagree with that.
Like, I don't think that he's so creative
and that his words are being misinterpreted.
Like 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,
that's people misunderstanding what he's saying.
I really don't think he-
- How you interpret that though?
- Yeah, how would you interpret that?
- How do you interpret that?
- No, I think what he's saying is
there's a mindset
where, you know...
Like. - Here, so, okay.
Like he was trying to say it in the term of like,
you know, it was a choice for you to stay there
when you knew that you could have
done whatever else to get out
and maybe you would've ended up dead
but it would've been better than being a slave.
(panelists indistinctly chattering)
So I don't, I don't-
(panelists indistinctly chattering)
It's not like I'm, whoa. (laughing)
- It's not you, I'm talking Kanye.
This negates the millions of people who did.
- Don't you believe that today,
there are people whose mindset they're corporate slaves
or there are people-
- But see, you gotta be careful with the language you use.
Kanye's a artist.
He's a lyricist, so you can't say stuff like that
because some people- - He's using metaphors.
- Haven't learned their history yet.
And some people don't know
that it was millions and millions and millions of Blacks
who fought oppression, who fought slavery.
- But you're right in that he needs to be more conscious
of his word choice
because there's not everybody who's gonna understand that.
- And that why I say. - Yeah.
- Somebody as smart as Kanye,
I think he's doing this for shock value and for money.
And if he's doing that, he's setting people back.
And that's why I can't rock with him on that.
- What scares me is the second somebody,
be in PC or not,
or they're able to articulate
what they're trying to say well or not,
that they're excluded from cookouts
and from a culture and from your identity.
And I think that's scary
because I'll tell you right now,
the more we treat people who are different
and and isolate ourselves even,
I think the worse it is for us long term.
And to be honest, we're gonna drive more and more people
to have closeted feelings and emotions.
And this goes back to people saying like,
would you rather have a racist next to you that's hiding it?
Or would you rather have a racist next to you
that's letting you know how they feel
and you know where they're coming from?
- Cool, and I agree with you.
And that's why I'm in the disagree column.
He could come eventually once we have some conversations,
but right now I don't need that kind of foolishness
around the children. (laughing)
- [Interviewer] Police target Black men and women.
Three, two, one.
(pitch whirring)
- I said strongly agree.
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.
- I see it as like
there's a little bit of a socioeconomic piece to it.
It's like kind of saying
the SEC mostly prosecutes white people.
Through like years of institutional racism,
you know, where there's poverty
and there's communities that are kind of like
have created this like perfect storm of issues,
like whether it's legal issues,
people robbing each other, selling drugs or whatnot.
You know, the idea is if you police that neighborhood more,
you're gonna have more of them arrested.
- Can I ask you?
Can I ask you like do you feel like
there are equal amount of arrests happening on Wall Street
than there are happening in the hood?
- Like the white collar, like crimes,
I do think that they're less like monitored and less,
you know but without having all the data that I need.
But I do feel that they don't suffer as much consequence.
- They don't. - When they commit crimes.
- That's very true.
You gotta look at the prison industrial complex here too,
in the US, that's huge business.
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.
- Yeah, and I also think that, you know,
the qualifications to become a police officer are so low.
And it's like my life is literally in your hands, man.
Like if I get pulled over,
maybe that will be the day that I go home
to be with the Lord.
And I think that that's really tough for me
because you don't wanna be distrustful of the police.
But they're so incredibly distrustful of us that it's like,
you could literally kill me.
- My father worked in law enforcement and he's a Black man.
So there are some law enforcement officers
that don't feel that way.
However, I think a lot of it does have to do with fear
and the fear of Black people.
So I think that if we kind of address that fear level
and that we didn't portray Black people,
especially Black men as you know, big scary guys,
that that would change a lot of stuff.
(chord strikes)
- [Interviewer] I act differently around people
who aren't Black.
Three, two, one.
- You moonwalking. Which one?
How you gonna moonwalk?
Which one you going to? (pitch whirring)
- I agree that I act differently
around people that aren't Black
just because like corporate America
doesn't wanna hear me talking,
doesn't wanna hear me speaking in slang.
And I am not happy about it.
Like I wish that it was different,
but I feel like I need to do it to fit into that group.
- I strongly disagree.
I am me wherever I go.
I'm a proud Black man
and I'm gonna speak my truth every day of the week.
If you don't like it, it ain't on me.
That's on you.
And I feel like it's a disservice to anyone of 'em around
if I'm not being my authentic self
because my white friends might wanna hang out with me
because I'm Black.
They want some flavor.
So if I go in being something totally different, then hey-
- That's two different things, that's two different things.
One thing is are you changing yourself
or are you changing how you're communicating who you are?
And I'm changing how I'm communicating who I am
and I still remain the same.
- Like do you have a white voice?
- Do I have a white voice?
I know, I know, I'm a Black man.
Trust me, every Black person growing up in America
can code switch.
- Then you need move a little bit.
(panelists laughing)
- But no, but no, no, but here's the thing,
here's the thing.
The question was do I act different
when I'm in different surroundings.
And no, but see, how would I ever be accepted
if I'm always code switching?
That means I'm always acquiescing to something else.
You see what I'm saying?
So in order to be accepted, you gotta bring you.
- Do you guys, when you say code switch,
do you mean you change the actual words you say
or do you mean you change the tone of your voice?
- I change how I say it and I change what I say.
I'll walk into a business meeting
different than how I walk into the basketball court.
So that's me changing to fit the scenario
to benefit the end goal.
And I don't view that as a negative.
I view that as me focusing on what the end goal is.
- But I feel like society has made,
American society has made Black people
operate in that fashion
because nobody asks white people to code switch.
They can be white in America, China, wherever.
They're accepted, world wide around like Visa.
But I'm the only one that has to go around
and say, "Oh, hi, how you doing?"
- [Interviewer] I am proud to be Black.
Three, two, one.
- Well, all right y'all. (pitch whirring)
That's what I'm talking about.
(panelists playfully chattering, laughing)
- You better be! - I'm glad, though.
We all strongly agree.
Yeah. - Yeah, I love that.
You know, we can have these discussions
and like still go home knowing that we are family.
And I love being Black.
I love that Blackness has expressed many different ways.
It's not just one way.
- I'm proud to be biracial.
I'm proud of my immigrant half,
proud of my Black half,
my ancestors bought their own freedom from slavery.
- Yeah, I love being Black.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
I mean, yeah, it presents its challenges
but I couldn't fathom being something else.
So I am very proud
to be an African American here in America, yeah.
(panelists clapping) - This was fun.
- Thank you. - Good job, guys, yeah.
(panelist indistinctly chattering)
- The comment section is gonna be blown up
on these topics alone. - Yeah, yeah.
(pensive rhythmic music)