WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:31.431 --> 00:00:32.899 - Many people are gonna think 4 00:00:32.999 --> 00:00:35.368 they know what this story is about. 5 00:00:36.269 --> 00:00:38.905 But they do not. 6 00:00:44.677 --> 00:00:46.379 - This morning, we look to America's 7 00:00:46.446 --> 00:00:48.782 civil rights struggle of the '60s and late '50s. 8 00:00:48.882 --> 00:00:50.450 Sadly, it's now estimated that one 9 00:00:50.550 --> 00:00:52.118 if not two generations of Americans 10 00:00:52.218 --> 00:00:53.686 are too young to have direct recollection 11 00:00:53.753 --> 00:00:55.288 of those years. 12 00:00:55.388 --> 00:00:57.524 Now, thankfully, the years are dramatically reconstructed 13 00:00:57.590 --> 00:00:59.526 in a six-part documentary series 14 00:00:59.592 --> 00:01:01.127 which begins on PBS next week. 15 00:01:01.227 --> 00:01:02.729 It's called "Eyes on the Prize." 16 00:01:02.796 --> 00:01:04.264 Henry Hampton is executive producer 17 00:01:04.364 --> 00:01:05.532 of the series, and he joins us now 18 00:01:05.598 --> 00:01:06.966 from our newsroom in Burbank. 19 00:01:07.067 --> 00:01:08.601 Good morning. - Good morning, Bryant. 20 00:01:08.701 --> 00:01:11.037 - What is it you wanted to achieve with it? 21 00:01:11.104 --> 00:01:13.106 - Well, I wanted to capture the miracle. 22 00:01:13.206 --> 00:01:15.108 You had an extraordinary group of leaders 23 00:01:15.208 --> 00:01:16.743 who emerged who literally 24 00:01:16.810 --> 00:01:18.545 changed the course of the country's history. 25 00:01:18.611 --> 00:01:21.147 - Camera roll 1032, sound roll 114. 26 00:01:21.247 --> 00:01:22.449 - Mark it. 27 00:01:24.317 --> 00:01:26.052 - Copy that. - Team K. 28 00:01:27.087 --> 00:01:30.156 - The purpose of this series is really to put the cameras 29 00:01:30.256 --> 00:01:32.992 on those unknown individuals, those little-known people 30 00:01:33.093 --> 00:01:34.627 from the backwater counties 31 00:01:34.727 --> 00:01:36.663 of Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi 32 00:01:36.763 --> 00:01:38.431 who really made this movement. 33 00:02:41.995 --> 00:02:44.197 - Have you seen the original "Eyes on Prize," Prentis? 34 00:02:44.297 --> 00:02:45.532 - Yeah, of course. - Okay. 35 00:02:45.632 --> 00:02:47.901 - I mean, not in a long time, but yes. 36 00:02:50.970 --> 00:02:53.173 - The first time I saw "Eyes" 37 00:02:53.239 --> 00:02:56.176 I must've been a teenager. 38 00:02:56.242 --> 00:02:58.845 My former high school teachers 39 00:02:58.912 --> 00:03:01.748 had all these cassette tapes. 40 00:03:01.848 --> 00:03:03.983 It had such an impact on me. 41 00:03:04.050 --> 00:03:07.487 I don't know if I would be doing what I'm doing now 42 00:03:07.554 --> 00:03:09.589 if it weren't for "Eyes on the Prize," 43 00:03:09.689 --> 00:03:13.993 if I didn't have representation, 44 00:03:14.060 --> 00:03:17.030 if I didn't have a place to see, 45 00:03:17.096 --> 00:03:18.932 you know, what was possible. 46 00:03:19.032 --> 00:03:20.867 - I always remember being inspired 47 00:03:20.934 --> 00:03:22.435 but very traumatized. 48 00:03:22.535 --> 00:03:25.572 I was traumatized by looking at the water, the dogs, 49 00:03:25.672 --> 00:03:27.907 these people dressed up in this beautiful style 50 00:03:28.007 --> 00:03:30.577 having coffee poured on them, not moving. 51 00:03:30.677 --> 00:03:34.180 I'm just enamored and terrorized 52 00:03:34.247 --> 00:03:36.583 and inspired at the same time. 53 00:03:36.683 --> 00:03:40.787 So it was like this tender rage and this beauty and terror. 54 00:03:40.887 --> 00:03:43.122 - I watched "Eyes on the Prize" 55 00:03:43.223 --> 00:03:47.260 on the south side of Chicago in my community center. 56 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:49.729 I was like 14, 15. 57 00:03:49.796 --> 00:03:53.466 A bunch of Howard College kids came to talk to us 58 00:03:53.566 --> 00:03:56.469 about their organizing campaigns on campus. 59 00:03:56.569 --> 00:03:58.605 And then we watched "Eyes on the Prize" 60 00:03:58.705 --> 00:03:59.739 for, like, three days. 61 00:04:03.243 --> 00:04:06.479 - "Eyes on the Prize" kept us-- it was like a bridge 62 00:04:06.579 --> 00:04:10.650 that kept us connected to this history long enough 63 00:04:10.750 --> 00:04:13.486 for us to understand how important it was. 64 00:04:13.586 --> 00:04:15.488 - When you really watch it and look closely, 65 00:04:15.588 --> 00:04:17.290 it's like a record of... 66 00:04:19.492 --> 00:04:22.262 - Of just Black brilliance. 67 00:04:22.328 --> 00:04:25.798 Absolute Black brilliance, 68 00:04:25.898 --> 00:04:29.302 and all that 69 00:04:29.402 --> 00:04:31.337 we brought to movement-- 70 00:04:31.437 --> 00:04:34.173 our spirit, our love, our strategy, 71 00:04:34.274 --> 00:04:37.110 all of it in there for the record. 72 00:04:39.078 --> 00:04:41.814 - We have gone in our own past... 73 00:04:43.249 --> 00:04:45.485 And in the past of others 74 00:04:45.585 --> 00:04:48.321 to look for alternative visions. 75 00:04:49.822 --> 00:04:52.792 - The archive ain't there to be enclosed in amber. 76 00:04:52.859 --> 00:04:54.160 It ain't there to be 77 00:04:54.260 --> 00:04:56.162 just dusted off every now and again. 78 00:04:56.262 --> 00:04:57.764 It's a tangible, living thing. 79 00:04:57.830 --> 00:05:00.366 And now it's like technology'll put things 80 00:05:00.466 --> 00:05:01.701 in the hands of people that you-- 81 00:05:01.801 --> 00:05:03.369 that wasn't supposed to have it, 82 00:05:03.469 --> 00:05:05.138 and now they get to tell the story, 83 00:05:05.204 --> 00:05:06.773 and they get to shift the narrative. 84 00:05:06.839 --> 00:05:08.675 Like, never before could you see 85 00:05:08.775 --> 00:05:11.311 these things happen in real time. 86 00:05:11.377 --> 00:05:13.479 - This country teaches you to forget. 87 00:05:13.546 --> 00:05:16.182 We are supposed to forget. That is America. 88 00:05:16.282 --> 00:05:19.018 If it doesn't run on anything, it runs on forgetting. 89 00:05:19.118 --> 00:05:21.454 You forget what happened to you. 90 00:05:21.521 --> 00:05:25.124 Move on. That is the past, right? 91 00:05:25.191 --> 00:05:29.796 You walk it off, but we must remember. 92 00:05:29.862 --> 00:05:32.632 Remember... 93 00:05:39.372 --> 00:05:42.208 - My first memory of civil rights really revolves 94 00:05:42.308 --> 00:05:44.911 around the story of a 14-year-old boy. 95 00:05:46.179 --> 00:05:48.715 It became-- for many of us, 96 00:05:48.815 --> 00:05:51.517 it was a time that we understood 97 00:05:51.584 --> 00:05:54.854 our vulnerability in this society. 98 00:05:56.989 --> 00:06:01.194 - In the summer of 1955, Emmett Louis Till, 99 00:06:01.260 --> 00:06:03.596 a junior high school student from Chicago, 100 00:06:03.696 --> 00:06:06.566 came down to the Delta to visit his mother's uncle, 101 00:06:06.666 --> 00:06:08.167 Moses Wright. 102 00:06:08.234 --> 00:06:11.404 - When I opened the door, there was a man standing 103 00:06:11.504 --> 00:06:15.007 with a pistol in one hand and flashlight in the other 104 00:06:15.074 --> 00:06:16.409 and wanted to know, 105 00:06:16.509 --> 00:06:18.878 did I have two boys from Chicago. 106 00:06:18.945 --> 00:06:20.513 I told him I did, 107 00:06:20.580 --> 00:06:23.082 and said they wanted the boy that didn't talk. 108 00:06:32.625 --> 00:06:34.127 - It's all yours, Kelly. - Okay. 109 00:06:34.227 --> 00:06:35.428 How did you hear about 110 00:06:35.528 --> 00:06:38.197 the Emmett Till case, Ms. Parks? 111 00:06:41.367 --> 00:06:43.569 - Well, it was on the news. 112 00:06:43.636 --> 00:06:45.638 - Would you start that again? Tell me what was on the news. 113 00:06:45.738 --> 00:06:47.206 Remember, people won't hear my voice. 114 00:06:47.273 --> 00:06:48.641 - Oh, I'm sorry. 115 00:06:48.741 --> 00:06:51.944 The murder of Emmett Till-- 116 00:06:52.044 --> 00:06:54.046 I believe he was about 14 years old 117 00:06:54.113 --> 00:06:57.049 who was visiting his relatives. 118 00:06:58.885 --> 00:07:01.220 His home was in Chicago, 119 00:07:01.287 --> 00:07:04.791 and the... 120 00:07:04.891 --> 00:07:09.495 news came that he had been brutally murdered 121 00:07:09.595 --> 00:07:12.398 and put into the river. 122 00:07:12.465 --> 00:07:15.301 His body was removed from the river 123 00:07:15.401 --> 00:07:16.936 after it had been weighted down 124 00:07:17.003 --> 00:07:20.473 and he was so badly mutilated 125 00:07:20.573 --> 00:07:23.242 he was unrecognizable. 126 00:07:24.410 --> 00:07:26.512 - I believe that the whole United States 127 00:07:26.612 --> 00:07:28.347 is mourning with me. 128 00:07:28.448 --> 00:07:30.616 For him to have died a hero 129 00:07:30.683 --> 00:07:33.519 would mean more to me than for him just to have died, 130 00:07:33.619 --> 00:07:36.589 and I hope that his death will certainly start a movement 131 00:07:36.656 --> 00:07:38.324 in these United States to clean up 132 00:07:38.424 --> 00:07:40.259 our own back alleys. 133 00:07:42.094 --> 00:07:44.197 Emmett was not just mine. 134 00:07:44.297 --> 00:07:46.432 He was a universal child. 135 00:07:55.508 --> 00:07:57.643 - I'm never gonna get my son back. 136 00:07:57.710 --> 00:08:00.012 He's never gonna come back. 137 00:08:00.112 --> 00:08:03.783 So I'm gonna use my time and my energy 138 00:08:03.850 --> 00:08:06.018 to help somebody else's son, 139 00:08:06.118 --> 00:08:10.189 to make a difference in somebody else's life. 140 00:08:10.289 --> 00:08:13.359 - I believed in all of the stories of America. 141 00:08:13.459 --> 00:08:17.463 You know, I thought I could be the exceptional one. 142 00:08:17.530 --> 00:08:20.733 And very quickly over those years, 143 00:08:20.833 --> 00:08:22.368 those Obama years specifically, 144 00:08:22.468 --> 00:08:24.904 I think, for a lot of us, the veneer of what the U.S. 145 00:08:25.004 --> 00:08:28.641 has told us we could be and what we could do snapped. 146 00:08:28.708 --> 00:08:32.311 - When Trayvon happened, it echoed to Emmett Till, 147 00:08:32.378 --> 00:08:35.648 but it also echoed to the people in my own life 148 00:08:35.715 --> 00:08:39.318 whose names we all didn't get to know. 149 00:08:46.359 --> 00:08:47.927 - This exists. 150 00:08:48.027 --> 00:08:50.830 The country, no matter who is the leader of the country, 151 00:08:50.897 --> 00:08:54.066 the steward of the empire, it's gonna remain the same, 152 00:08:54.166 --> 00:08:55.601 gonna be recalcitrant, 153 00:08:55.701 --> 00:08:58.104 gonna be evil, gonna murder. 154 00:08:58.204 --> 00:09:01.073 - For them, I feel committed 155 00:09:01.173 --> 00:09:04.243 to creating new possibilities for us. 156 00:09:04.343 --> 00:09:08.548 That feels like the honoring. That feels like the listening. 157 00:09:08.614 --> 00:09:10.917 Understanding what's created it 158 00:09:11.017 --> 00:09:13.252 and making it less possible each time 159 00:09:13.352 --> 00:09:15.855 for that to happen to any more of us. 160 00:09:15.922 --> 00:09:19.425 That that is how 161 00:09:19.525 --> 00:09:23.696 we create a monument for them. 162 00:09:23.763 --> 00:09:25.364 - What kind of impact 163 00:09:25.431 --> 00:09:28.134 did his death have on you personally? 164 00:09:28.234 --> 00:09:31.604 - Well, just like any person murdered, 165 00:09:31.704 --> 00:09:35.641 I couldn't be any way than... 166 00:09:38.044 --> 00:09:39.579 Very upset, 167 00:09:39.645 --> 00:09:42.915 very...devastated 168 00:09:42.982 --> 00:09:46.319 by the... 169 00:09:46.419 --> 00:09:48.721 fact that in... 170 00:09:50.756 --> 00:09:52.758 The United States of America, 171 00:09:52.825 --> 00:09:55.628 that a child could be 172 00:09:55.728 --> 00:09:57.630 just taken out and killed. 173 00:10:04.937 --> 00:10:06.639 - Listen to me! 174 00:10:08.307 --> 00:10:09.475 They'll pretend 175 00:10:09.575 --> 00:10:10.910 that I'm crazy! 176 00:10:15.448 --> 00:10:17.083 Let me tell you something right here. 177 00:10:18.751 --> 00:10:19.986 Listen to me! 178 00:10:22.455 --> 00:10:24.457 - So you go ahead and vote. So what? 179 00:10:27.460 --> 00:10:29.028 - How you gonna tell me to love 180 00:10:29.128 --> 00:10:32.264 this property that has flaunted me every day? 181 00:10:32.331 --> 00:10:35.668 - Anger inside me night 182 00:10:35.768 --> 00:10:38.371 after night! 183 00:10:38.471 --> 00:10:41.974 - I wanna get your-your-your feelings-feelings 184 00:10:42.041 --> 00:10:44.477 specifically towards white people at that time. 185 00:10:46.445 --> 00:10:48.948 - At the time he was killed? - Mm-hmm. 186 00:10:56.322 --> 00:10:59.525 - When Medgar was felled by that shot, 187 00:10:59.625 --> 00:11:03.696 and I rushed out and saw him lying there, 188 00:11:03.796 --> 00:11:05.631 and people from the neighborhood 189 00:11:05.698 --> 00:11:07.700 began to gather, 190 00:11:07.800 --> 00:11:10.670 there were also some whose color 191 00:11:10.736 --> 00:11:13.372 happened to have been white. 192 00:11:13.472 --> 00:11:16.208 I don't think I have ever 193 00:11:16.308 --> 00:11:19.078 hated as much in my life 194 00:11:19.178 --> 00:11:21.047 as I did at that particular moment 195 00:11:21.147 --> 00:11:23.582 with anyone who had white skin. 196 00:11:23.683 --> 00:11:25.184 I screamed at the neighbors, 197 00:11:25.251 --> 00:11:28.020 and when the police finally got there, 198 00:11:28.087 --> 00:11:30.723 I told them that they had killed Medgar, 199 00:11:30.823 --> 00:11:33.726 and I can recall wanting so much to have 200 00:11:33.826 --> 00:11:37.563 a machine gun or something in my hands 201 00:11:37.663 --> 00:11:40.599 and just stand there and mow them all down. 202 00:11:40.700 --> 00:11:42.768 I was just-- 203 00:11:42.868 --> 00:11:46.572 I can't explain the depth 204 00:11:46.672 --> 00:11:49.742 of my hatred at that point. 205 00:12:09.562 --> 00:12:13.365 - On the day that Medgar was--funeral. 206 00:12:13.432 --> 00:12:15.267 I mean, there was violence. 207 00:12:15.367 --> 00:12:18.604 I mean, there was no way to predict it. 208 00:12:18.704 --> 00:12:20.606 There was a different element, the people 209 00:12:20.706 --> 00:12:24.210 who had never participated in the movement before. 210 00:12:35.821 --> 00:12:39.158 The police department and others came there. 211 00:12:39.258 --> 00:12:41.627 They actually antagonized the people. 212 00:12:41.727 --> 00:12:45.131 They were there in full battalion gear 213 00:12:45.231 --> 00:12:47.299 with the riot armor on and guns, 214 00:12:47.399 --> 00:12:48.801 and they were being pretty rough 215 00:12:48.901 --> 00:12:50.669 with the people on the street. 216 00:12:50.770 --> 00:12:53.305 And the people just said, "We're not going to take that. 217 00:12:53.405 --> 00:12:54.974 "This is a funeral of our leader. 218 00:12:55.074 --> 00:12:57.143 "And here they are, you know, harassing us, 219 00:12:57.243 --> 00:12:59.245 and the white folk killed him." 220 00:12:59.311 --> 00:13:00.980 Don't shoot! Hands up! 221 00:13:01.080 --> 00:13:02.748 Don't shoot! 222 00:13:02.815 --> 00:13:04.250 Don't shoot! 223 00:13:04.316 --> 00:13:05.985 Don't shoot! 224 00:13:06.085 --> 00:13:07.453 We're still here! 225 00:13:07.520 --> 00:13:09.855 We're still here! We're still here! 226 00:13:09.955 --> 00:13:12.024 - When I think about... 227 00:13:13.859 --> 00:13:17.596 The times I have felt ancestral rage, 228 00:13:17.663 --> 00:13:22.134 it has been in moments 229 00:13:22.201 --> 00:13:27.006 where Black dignity was stripped away. 230 00:13:33.112 --> 00:13:34.947 I remember everything about August 9th-- 231 00:13:35.014 --> 00:13:38.317 where I was, what I wore. 232 00:13:38.384 --> 00:13:41.520 I understood the interaction. 233 00:13:41.620 --> 00:13:44.957 Police officer stops Black person. 234 00:13:45.024 --> 00:13:47.326 Harasses them. I understood that. 235 00:13:47.393 --> 00:13:49.995 Every Black person in St. Louis understood that. 236 00:13:50.062 --> 00:13:52.298 What I didn't understand 237 00:13:52.364 --> 00:13:55.301 was how that stop 238 00:13:55.367 --> 00:13:58.971 turned into Mike Brown being killed. 239 00:14:08.147 --> 00:14:10.382 - Your child's in my heart. - Thank you. 240 00:14:10.482 --> 00:14:13.719 - And when I went, and I saw... 241 00:14:16.322 --> 00:14:18.190 I saw all these Black people holding space. 242 00:14:18.257 --> 00:14:19.892 I knew what that was, right? 243 00:14:19.992 --> 00:14:23.662 This, like--this mourning, this public funeral, 244 00:14:23.729 --> 00:14:25.831 this grieving out loud. 245 00:14:26.866 --> 00:14:31.737 And then I saw police come in to attack that. 246 00:14:31.837 --> 00:14:35.574 Black mourning out loud was a threat, 247 00:14:35.674 --> 00:14:39.612 and they reacted as if though it was a threat. 248 00:14:39.712 --> 00:14:44.250 Black people being together in public was a threat. 249 00:14:47.052 --> 00:14:49.521 To try to suppress our mourning, 250 00:14:49.588 --> 00:14:51.790 I had a visceral response to that, 251 00:14:51.891 --> 00:14:54.093 that there are mothers who were crying, 252 00:14:54.193 --> 00:14:57.396 that there were people's children out there, 253 00:14:57.463 --> 00:14:59.298 and they drove down that street, 254 00:14:59.398 --> 00:15:00.699 and they got out those cars, 255 00:15:00.766 --> 00:15:02.234 and they had these dogs, 256 00:15:02.301 --> 00:15:05.771 and they had these aerosol cans of mace. 257 00:15:05.871 --> 00:15:10.910 And I just remember thinking, "This is violence. 258 00:15:10.976 --> 00:15:12.978 "You killed somebody. 259 00:15:13.078 --> 00:15:15.114 "And then you get to come in and tell us 260 00:15:15.214 --> 00:15:17.216 how to mourn what you did?" 261 00:15:17.283 --> 00:15:20.052 - You are in the streets blocking the roadway. 262 00:15:20.119 --> 00:15:22.054 You are unlawfully assembled. 263 00:15:22.121 --> 00:15:24.456 You need to disperse immediately, 264 00:15:24.556 --> 00:15:26.058 or you will be subject to arrest. 265 00:15:26.125 --> 00:15:27.459 Do it now. 266 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:29.762 - I was mad because Black people couldn't be. 267 00:15:29.828 --> 00:15:31.463 Mike Brown couldn't be, 268 00:15:31.563 --> 00:15:32.798 and then the people who came 269 00:15:32.898 --> 00:15:34.900 to mourn Mike Brown couldn't be. 270 00:15:36.468 --> 00:15:40.973 And that felt deep in my body like something 271 00:15:41.073 --> 00:15:44.109 I had never felt before, that level of anger. 272 00:15:48.847 --> 00:15:50.482 - I think that was the most fearless 273 00:15:50.582 --> 00:15:52.952 I've ever been in my life. 274 00:15:57.189 --> 00:15:58.824 I was so out of body. 275 00:15:58.924 --> 00:16:03.662 It felt like all spirit, all heart. 276 00:16:09.101 --> 00:16:12.871 Those long nights in Ferguson. 277 00:16:15.975 --> 00:16:19.778 The boots, the cop boots, 278 00:16:19.845 --> 00:16:23.949 the baton sticks that they use, 279 00:16:24.016 --> 00:16:29.021 the shields, the weapons. 280 00:16:31.223 --> 00:16:35.060 It's like I have never heard coldness, right? 281 00:16:35.160 --> 00:16:36.628 But... 282 00:16:39.164 --> 00:16:41.867 In that moment, at that time, I did. 283 00:16:41.967 --> 00:16:45.204 It felt and it sounded 284 00:16:45.304 --> 00:16:47.740 just cold. 285 00:16:50.009 --> 00:16:51.744 It just felt dangerous, 286 00:16:51.844 --> 00:16:54.246 and it felt like a loveless place, 287 00:16:54.346 --> 00:16:56.148 and time felt still. 288 00:16:58.217 --> 00:17:00.919 I would be out in Ferguson 289 00:17:01.020 --> 00:17:03.655 from as early as 6:00 p.m. 290 00:17:03.722 --> 00:17:06.525 until about 4:00 in the morning. 291 00:17:06.592 --> 00:17:10.863 No concept of time. I wasn't even on my own time. 292 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:18.037 It wasn't until one day-- 293 00:17:18.103 --> 00:17:21.540 I was doing my rotation at a children's hospital, 294 00:17:21.607 --> 00:17:23.942 and I had to draw up some medication. 295 00:17:24.042 --> 00:17:25.911 And my hands were shaking. 296 00:17:26.011 --> 00:17:30.716 That was the day I went home from clinical... 297 00:17:33.118 --> 00:17:35.354 I made a phone call, 298 00:17:35.421 --> 00:17:38.590 and I said, "I'm dropping out." 299 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:43.862 If I have to choose, 300 00:17:43.929 --> 00:17:47.199 I have to choose the community. 301 00:17:47.266 --> 00:17:48.867 That's where my heart is at... 302 00:17:52.604 --> 00:17:55.040 And I'm glad I did 303 00:17:55.107 --> 00:17:58.544 because Michael Brown 304 00:17:58.610 --> 00:18:00.813 changed this world... 305 00:18:02.915 --> 00:18:06.585 And the people who fought for him 306 00:18:06.652 --> 00:18:09.088 changed this entire world. 307 00:18:22.968 --> 00:18:26.171 - I believed in all of the stories of America. 308 00:18:26.271 --> 00:18:28.640 It's gonna be recalcitrant, gonna be evil, 309 00:18:28.740 --> 00:18:30.409 gonna murder. 310 00:18:30.476 --> 00:18:33.946 - Makani Themba caused 2020 a rupture. 311 00:18:34.012 --> 00:18:36.515 - Taylor, a 26-year-old former EMT 312 00:18:36.615 --> 00:18:39.251 was shot and killed by police in March. 313 00:18:39.318 --> 00:18:40.986 - Justified in their use of force. 314 00:18:41.086 --> 00:18:42.521 - Have not been fired. 315 00:18:42.621 --> 00:18:44.423 - Protesters demanding swift justice. 316 00:18:44.490 --> 00:18:45.991 - The death of George Floyd. 317 00:18:46.091 --> 00:18:47.860 - And the police officer has not been charged. 318 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:49.161 - Violence and protests. 319 00:18:49.261 --> 00:18:51.196 - You couldn't situate 320 00:18:51.296 --> 00:18:53.599 the encounter George Floyd had 321 00:18:53.665 --> 00:18:55.100 with those officers 322 00:18:55.167 --> 00:18:57.202 without understanding the larger pandemic 323 00:18:57.302 --> 00:18:58.837 and the economic devastation 324 00:18:58.937 --> 00:19:00.672 Black folks were going through. 325 00:19:00.772 --> 00:19:03.008 You couldn't separate the fact that Breonna Taylor 326 00:19:03.108 --> 00:19:05.511 was a frontline worker 327 00:19:05.611 --> 00:19:08.213 surviving COVID killed by police. 328 00:19:08.313 --> 00:19:12.451 All of that came to a head at that moment. 329 00:19:12.518 --> 00:19:13.819 In the face of a virus 330 00:19:13.886 --> 00:19:15.454 that was literally killing people, 331 00:19:15.521 --> 00:19:17.556 folks felt that it was still important 332 00:19:17.656 --> 00:19:18.857 to be in the street. 333 00:19:18.957 --> 00:19:20.492 So I understood it as a rupture. 334 00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:21.727 That's how I understand it. 335 00:19:23.495 --> 00:19:25.364 - What we're trying to do has never been done 336 00:19:25.464 --> 00:19:27.166 in the history on Earth! 337 00:19:27.232 --> 00:19:30.536 - Our lives matter. Black lives matter. 338 00:19:37.142 --> 00:19:38.477 - Our streets! - Our streets! 339 00:19:38.544 --> 00:19:39.811 - Our streets! - Our streets! 340 00:19:39.878 --> 00:19:41.346 - Our streets! - Our streets! 341 00:19:43.148 --> 00:19:46.885 - That uprising is so large because everyone was suffering. 342 00:19:48.554 --> 00:19:52.324 - Human life, let it marinate. 343 00:19:52.991 --> 00:19:54.726 So many people have reached out to me 344 00:19:54.826 --> 00:19:56.895 telling me they're sorry 345 00:19:56.995 --> 00:19:59.231 that this happened to my family. 346 00:19:59.331 --> 00:20:01.934 Well, don't be sorry 'cause this has been happening 347 00:20:02.034 --> 00:20:04.570 to my family for a long time. 348 00:20:04.670 --> 00:20:11.009 Emmett Till is my family. Philando, Mike Brown, Sandra. 349 00:20:11.076 --> 00:20:13.445 This has been happening to my family. 350 00:20:13.545 --> 00:20:16.381 - And so by the time George Floyd come around, 351 00:20:16.448 --> 00:20:18.083 I'm not surprised. 352 00:20:18.183 --> 00:20:19.251 - Unarmed. - Unarmed. 353 00:20:19.351 --> 00:20:20.552 - Unarmed. - Black teenager. 354 00:20:20.619 --> 00:20:21.720 - 18-year-old. 355 00:20:21.787 --> 00:20:23.088 - 26-year-old. - 17. 356 00:20:23.188 --> 00:20:24.923 - African American man. - Chicago woman. 357 00:20:25.023 --> 00:20:26.558 - Shot and killed by police. 358 00:20:26.625 --> 00:20:28.260 - Having any kind of conversation around this 359 00:20:28.360 --> 00:20:30.929 with anybody that ain't Black is a chore in itself. 360 00:20:31.029 --> 00:20:34.633 - This is nothing new. I'm not sad. 361 00:20:34.733 --> 00:20:37.936 I'm not sorry. I'm angry. 362 00:20:38.036 --> 00:20:42.941 And I'm tired. I haven't cried one time. 363 00:20:43.041 --> 00:20:45.777 I stopped crying years ago. 364 00:20:45.877 --> 00:20:48.280 I am numb. 365 00:20:48.380 --> 00:20:50.983 I have been watching police murder people 366 00:20:51.083 --> 00:20:53.452 that look like me for years. 367 00:20:55.554 --> 00:20:58.123 - The dream of Black people in the United States 368 00:20:58.223 --> 00:21:02.127 necessitates the destruction of this country 369 00:21:02.227 --> 00:21:05.297 from its roots. 370 00:21:05.397 --> 00:21:07.599 - They don't give two damns about us, 371 00:21:07.666 --> 00:21:09.501 and a lot of us always turn around 372 00:21:09.601 --> 00:21:12.471 worrying about what's good for America, what's good-- 373 00:21:12.571 --> 00:21:16.008 later for America. What's good for Black people? 374 00:21:16.108 --> 00:21:19.911 - We must arm ourselves, that we are in imminent danger. 375 00:21:19.978 --> 00:21:21.613 - Am I under arrest? Am I under arrest? 376 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:23.148 - Why don't you place him under arrest? 377 00:21:23.248 --> 00:21:25.350 - Liberation is not about being killed. 378 00:21:25.450 --> 00:21:27.319 We are not interested in those suicides. 379 00:21:27.419 --> 00:21:31.290 - We must continue to push for all of our demands. 380 00:21:31.356 --> 00:21:34.293 - We want a new life. - All power to the people. 381 00:21:37.596 --> 00:21:40.532 - We want a life that we remember vaguely 382 00:21:40.632 --> 00:21:43.001 sometimes in the back of our heads 383 00:21:43.101 --> 00:21:45.170 as a liberated African people. 384 00:21:47.506 --> 00:21:49.374 - I think it's generally agreed 385 00:21:49.474 --> 00:21:51.677 that if we are to solve our problems, 386 00:21:51.777 --> 00:21:54.946 we've got to transform our powerlessness 387 00:21:55.013 --> 00:21:57.516 into causative and creative power. 388 00:21:57.616 --> 00:22:00.385 - Then you talk about Black power. 389 00:22:00.485 --> 00:22:02.688 I wanna know what's wrong with it. 390 00:22:02.788 --> 00:22:04.456 - We believe that Black power 391 00:22:04.523 --> 00:22:06.692 is not only legitimate, 392 00:22:06.792 --> 00:22:09.995 it is necessary because we feel it. 393 00:22:10.996 --> 00:22:13.031 - We want Black power. - Black power! 394 00:22:13.131 --> 00:22:15.200 - We want Black power. 395 00:22:15.300 --> 00:22:18.837 We want Black power! We want Black power! 396 00:22:20.906 --> 00:22:22.908 - A lot of people call a revolution 397 00:22:23.008 --> 00:22:24.710 a confrontation. 398 00:22:24.810 --> 00:22:27.145 Really what you and I meant by revolution 399 00:22:27.212 --> 00:22:29.348 was a need to revolve more political power 400 00:22:29.414 --> 00:22:31.883 and economic power back into the hands of the people. 401 00:22:31.983 --> 00:22:33.218 That's really what revolution is. 402 00:22:33.318 --> 00:22:34.553 - Power is always being used 403 00:22:34.653 --> 00:22:35.887 against us, right? 404 00:22:35.987 --> 00:22:37.022 Power has been used 405 00:22:37.089 --> 00:22:38.590 as a force to oppress us, 406 00:22:38.690 --> 00:22:41.093 and so we naturally grow up feeling like power 407 00:22:41.193 --> 00:22:45.230 is inherently negative and bad, but power is neutral, right? 408 00:22:45.330 --> 00:22:48.600 Power can absolutely be shared. Power can be broken up. 409 00:22:48.700 --> 00:22:51.436 Power can be used. Power should not be hidden. 410 00:22:51.536 --> 00:22:53.171 Power should be discussed and talked about. 411 00:22:53.238 --> 00:22:54.840 And when Black people have power, 412 00:22:54.906 --> 00:22:57.008 we have the opportunity to show what life looks like 413 00:22:57.075 --> 00:22:58.577 when people use their power 414 00:22:58.677 --> 00:23:01.012 for the betterment of other people. 415 00:23:01.079 --> 00:23:04.516 - What the Black Panther Party has done and was able to do 416 00:23:04.583 --> 00:23:08.253 and where they emphasized their work or effort, 417 00:23:08.353 --> 00:23:10.255 you know, absolutely hitting the streets, 418 00:23:10.355 --> 00:23:13.024 absolutely talking to people, and they're also organizing 419 00:23:13.091 --> 00:23:16.228 but also caring for their communities too. 420 00:23:31.243 --> 00:23:33.278 - The idea was obviously twofold 421 00:23:33.378 --> 00:23:35.781 for the specific purpose of serving those people 422 00:23:35.881 --> 00:23:38.884 who were directly benefited by our programs, 423 00:23:38.950 --> 00:23:40.952 but also secondarily to influence 424 00:23:41.052 --> 00:23:42.788 the minds of people to understand 425 00:23:42.888 --> 00:23:44.956 not only that the Black Panther Party 426 00:23:45.056 --> 00:23:47.426 was providing them this, but more importantly, 427 00:23:47.492 --> 00:23:49.127 that if they could get food, 428 00:23:49.227 --> 00:23:50.829 that maybe they would want clothing, 429 00:23:50.929 --> 00:23:52.564 and maybe they want housing, and maybe they'd want land, 430 00:23:52.631 --> 00:23:53.932 and maybe they would ultimately 431 00:23:53.999 --> 00:23:56.067 want some abstract thing called freedom. 432 00:23:56.134 --> 00:23:59.271 - Power is who gets to set the choices, 433 00:23:59.337 --> 00:24:00.972 who gets to set the options. 434 00:24:01.072 --> 00:24:02.941 I want Black people to have more choices. 435 00:24:03.008 --> 00:24:04.643 I want them to define what those choices are, 436 00:24:04.743 --> 00:24:05.977 not just respond to what 437 00:24:06.077 --> 00:24:08.113 has been given to them as the options. 438 00:24:08.180 --> 00:24:11.783 - Affirmative action is not reverse discrimination. 439 00:24:11.850 --> 00:24:14.252 It is rather the recognition of the fact 440 00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:16.421 that, for over 200 years, 441 00:24:16.488 --> 00:24:19.991 Black persons in these United States of America 442 00:24:20.091 --> 00:24:21.460 have been excluded 443 00:24:21.526 --> 00:24:24.830 from the economic, social, and political milieu 444 00:24:24.930 --> 00:24:26.331 of this great country. 445 00:24:26.431 --> 00:24:27.666 - We got to be in every arena 446 00:24:27.766 --> 00:24:29.334 where they have power. 447 00:24:29.434 --> 00:24:31.603 We got to be willing to go contest for it. 448 00:24:31.670 --> 00:24:33.171 - Tonight we show the world 449 00:24:33.271 --> 00:24:35.340 that working people are united. 450 00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:38.343 - We want teachers who understand our community. 451 00:24:38.443 --> 00:24:40.645 - We will not compromise on any term. 452 00:24:40.712 --> 00:24:42.848 - We are reclaiming this house 453 00:24:42.948 --> 00:24:45.350 from a billion-dollar corporation. 454 00:24:47.986 --> 00:24:50.355 - The Black Panther Party talked about the police 455 00:24:50.455 --> 00:24:53.892 as an occupying force in the community, 456 00:24:53.992 --> 00:24:58.530 but we had not really understood the extent 457 00:24:58.630 --> 00:25:01.166 to which the whole criminal justice system, 458 00:25:01.233 --> 00:25:04.169 the police, the courts, 459 00:25:04.236 --> 00:25:06.738 the prison system 460 00:25:06.838 --> 00:25:09.741 is very much intertwined 461 00:25:09.841 --> 00:25:14.346 with the economic oppression 462 00:25:14.412 --> 00:25:16.047 of Black people. 463 00:25:16.147 --> 00:25:18.383 - The carceral system, it's a whole pie, right? 464 00:25:18.483 --> 00:25:20.018 It's a whole thing. It has many slices. 465 00:25:20.085 --> 00:25:21.386 Many different things that come into it. 466 00:25:21.486 --> 00:25:22.888 We got cut somewhere. 467 00:25:22.988 --> 00:25:25.390 We give our permission to cage our folks. 468 00:25:26.992 --> 00:25:29.528 We take the resources from this jail, 469 00:25:29.594 --> 00:25:32.230 our folks will be better off because that money 470 00:25:32.330 --> 00:25:33.598 can go to our people, 471 00:25:33.698 --> 00:25:35.066 and people can go home. 472 00:25:35.166 --> 00:25:37.002 - So when we say "defund the police," 473 00:25:37.068 --> 00:25:40.772 we mean take their money and invest it in the things 474 00:25:40.872 --> 00:25:43.742 that actually create safe communities. 475 00:25:43.842 --> 00:25:46.244 We mean reimagine public safety. 476 00:25:46.344 --> 00:25:49.514 When we defund the police, we have the capacity 477 00:25:49.581 --> 00:25:53.385 to reimagine public safety and invest those dollars 478 00:25:53.451 --> 00:25:57.622 in what actually makes safe communities. 479 00:25:57.722 --> 00:26:00.058 - When you have power, you have the ability 480 00:26:00.125 --> 00:26:01.760 to make your tomorrows 481 00:26:01.860 --> 00:26:04.095 look like you wanted them to look like. 482 00:26:04.195 --> 00:26:06.565 - I was talking about time. 483 00:26:06.631 --> 00:26:09.267 It's so hard for me to believe in it. 484 00:26:09.367 --> 00:26:13.471 Some things go pass on. Some things just stay. 485 00:26:13.572 --> 00:26:16.808 I used to think it was my rememory. 486 00:26:26.585 --> 00:26:28.420 - Who told you to buy a brownstone 487 00:26:28.486 --> 00:26:31.289 on my block in my neighborhood on my side of the street? 488 00:26:31.389 --> 00:26:33.224 - And our new Miss America 489 00:26:33.291 --> 00:26:34.626 is Vanessa Williams, Miss New York! 490 00:26:34.726 --> 00:26:35.961 - ...This happen just because 491 00:26:36.061 --> 00:26:37.429 you were walking down the street 492 00:26:37.495 --> 00:26:38.597 in a neighborhood where people 493 00:26:38.663 --> 00:26:39.965 thought you didn't belong? 494 00:26:40.065 --> 00:26:42.000 - Stop worrying about integrating 495 00:26:42.100 --> 00:26:43.802 and being accepted and start thinking 496 00:26:43.902 --> 00:26:47.005 about building for yourself, for our people 497 00:26:47.105 --> 00:26:51.476 so that we can provide a future for our children. 498 00:26:54.846 --> 00:26:56.314 - Liftoff. 499 00:26:56.414 --> 00:26:58.650 - If we were up in space, I would be floating around. 500 00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:03.088 - Lift me! 501 00:27:03.154 --> 00:27:04.990 - You've seen these young children. 502 00:27:05.090 --> 00:27:07.592 - What is it, a crime to be Black in this country? 503 00:27:09.260 --> 00:27:12.330 - I felt that I had to tell the truth. 504 00:27:12.430 --> 00:27:14.432 I could not keep silent. 505 00:27:17.936 --> 00:27:20.505 - You know, the end of the '80s, early '90s 506 00:27:20.605 --> 00:27:23.274 was very similar to this moment in history 507 00:27:23.341 --> 00:27:25.510 where there was a lot of uprising, 508 00:27:25.610 --> 00:27:28.680 a lot of, you know, people 509 00:27:28.780 --> 00:27:31.316 who were doing movement work. 510 00:27:31.383 --> 00:27:34.519 - We will picket. We will sit in. 511 00:27:34.619 --> 00:27:36.721 - Corrupt creatures-- - We will march. 512 00:27:36.821 --> 00:27:38.123 - Do you think age 513 00:27:38.189 --> 00:27:39.624 is a problem in your community? 514 00:27:39.691 --> 00:27:42.360 - You will be hunted no matter what you do. 515 00:27:42.460 --> 00:27:44.529 - They said we did not have name. 516 00:27:44.629 --> 00:27:45.897 - Where is the justice? 517 00:27:45.997 --> 00:27:49.134 - Things like this still exist in America. 518 00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:52.671 - I feel like the movement of the '80s and '90s is lost. 519 00:27:52.737 --> 00:27:55.040 I came up in that. There are young people-- 520 00:27:55.140 --> 00:27:57.242 I met a young person from Ferguson 521 00:27:57.342 --> 00:27:59.077 who was part of the Ferguson uprising 522 00:27:59.177 --> 00:28:02.080 and stuff who was--beautiful spirit, 523 00:28:02.180 --> 00:28:04.749 but he was telling me like, "We finally got, you know, 524 00:28:04.849 --> 00:28:07.218 people pushing back against police brutality." 525 00:28:07.318 --> 00:28:08.520 And I was like, "Are you-- 526 00:28:08.586 --> 00:28:11.322 are you-- what are you talking about?" 527 00:28:11.389 --> 00:28:13.324 - What was happening to me was happening 528 00:28:13.391 --> 00:28:15.560 to virtually everyone whom you could identify 529 00:28:15.660 --> 00:28:17.729 in that community who was of color. 530 00:28:17.829 --> 00:28:19.264 - Today we're willing to get arrested 531 00:28:19.364 --> 00:28:21.599 just so Giuliani knows that we're really serious 532 00:28:21.700 --> 00:28:23.268 and that the police shootings must stop. 533 00:28:23.368 --> 00:28:26.571 - What happened today with Rodney King was unjust. 534 00:28:26.671 --> 00:28:28.506 - Why'd they have to beat the mess out of him like that? 535 00:28:28.573 --> 00:28:31.576 - Movement has to continue or it's not movement. 536 00:28:31.676 --> 00:28:36.448 And so it may be lulls in it, but it never stops. 537 00:28:36.548 --> 00:28:41.453 So many people jump from the '60s to 2013. 538 00:28:42.454 --> 00:28:44.389 Yusef Hawkins, 539 00:28:44.456 --> 00:28:47.692 Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima. 540 00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:50.428 I was in the streets for all of that. 541 00:28:50.528 --> 00:28:52.797 Million Youth March was, like, '98. 542 00:28:52.897 --> 00:28:55.433 That was huge. 543 00:28:55.533 --> 00:28:57.435 We were protesting. We were marching. 544 00:28:57.535 --> 00:29:00.438 We were organizing, but a lot of that is lost. 545 00:29:00.538 --> 00:29:02.273 Guilty, guilty, guilty! 546 00:29:02.373 --> 00:29:07.112 Guilty, guilty, guilty! Guilty, guilty, guilty! 547 00:29:09.581 --> 00:29:12.817 - The documentation of movements, 548 00:29:12.917 --> 00:29:14.953 they're essential. 549 00:29:15.053 --> 00:29:17.122 And... 550 00:29:17.222 --> 00:29:19.491 where would I be without that information? 551 00:29:21.760 --> 00:29:24.729 I may have learned it a little late, 552 00:29:24.796 --> 00:29:27.132 but I needed it. 553 00:29:27.232 --> 00:29:29.801 I needed to know the truth. 554 00:29:29.901 --> 00:29:31.603 What happens when we isolate, 555 00:29:31.669 --> 00:29:34.172 when we single-story a systemic issue? 556 00:29:34.272 --> 00:29:35.907 If we only see 557 00:29:35.974 --> 00:29:37.809 Martin Luther King Jr. for example. 558 00:29:37.909 --> 00:29:40.912 - We are depending on moral and spiritual forces. 559 00:29:40.979 --> 00:29:43.815 using the method of passive resistance. 560 00:29:43.915 --> 00:29:47.152 - If we see him without the administration, 561 00:29:47.252 --> 00:29:49.921 without all the Black women that made it possible, 562 00:29:49.988 --> 00:29:51.322 without Malcolm, 563 00:29:51.422 --> 00:29:53.591 without understanding the story of the nation. 564 00:29:53.658 --> 00:29:56.961 - By any means necessary. 565 00:29:57.028 --> 00:29:58.663 - Sure, I learned about Bayard. 566 00:29:58.763 --> 00:30:00.598 - My point is that all the police, 567 00:30:00.665 --> 00:30:03.368 all the curfews, all the bully clubs, 568 00:30:03.468 --> 00:30:06.204 all the guns will not stop rioting. 569 00:30:06.304 --> 00:30:08.273 - But where were the other queer and trans people? 570 00:30:08.339 --> 00:30:11.843 But the truth is, there were more of us 571 00:30:11.943 --> 00:30:13.611 than I could even know about 572 00:30:13.678 --> 00:30:17.949 because I'm here, and I'm not so unique. 573 00:30:18.016 --> 00:30:20.185 I'm not so special. 574 00:30:20.285 --> 00:30:23.721 - We had to find things, uncover things. 575 00:30:23.822 --> 00:30:26.391 So much was hidden. So much was untold. 576 00:30:26.491 --> 00:30:29.661 So much stuff was not even given a space 577 00:30:29.727 --> 00:30:33.531 to be able to exist, right? 578 00:30:33.631 --> 00:30:35.700 So there are many lost stories, 579 00:30:35.800 --> 00:30:38.002 stories that weren't told at all. 580 00:30:38.069 --> 00:30:41.573 - I do mourn for those stories, 581 00:30:41.673 --> 00:30:43.374 that nuance, those details 582 00:30:43.474 --> 00:30:46.744 that inevitably get lost in time. 583 00:30:50.315 --> 00:30:52.417 - I truly believe from the bottom of my heart 584 00:30:52.517 --> 00:30:55.420 that Black trans women are the architects of resilience. 585 00:30:55.520 --> 00:30:59.591 I think about ancestors like Francis Thompson. 586 00:31:00.825 --> 00:31:02.560 Many of us were taught in schools 587 00:31:02.660 --> 00:31:04.829 that Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first woman to testify 588 00:31:04.896 --> 00:31:06.497 before a congressional committee, 589 00:31:06.564 --> 00:31:08.900 but in reality, it was Francis Thompson, 590 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:12.170 a formerly enslaved Black disabled trans woman. 591 00:31:13.504 --> 00:31:15.907 That testimony about the atrocities 592 00:31:16.007 --> 00:31:18.610 that happened during the Memphis riots 593 00:31:18.710 --> 00:31:20.278 was the reason why the 14th amendment 594 00:31:20.378 --> 00:31:24.115 was ratified, which afforded Black Americans 595 00:31:24.215 --> 00:31:26.584 equal protection under the law. 596 00:31:27.719 --> 00:31:29.454 A Black trans woman's legacy 597 00:31:29.554 --> 00:31:30.922 is forever engraved 598 00:31:31.022 --> 00:31:33.358 in the United States Constitution. 599 00:31:34.058 --> 00:31:35.560 The reason why she was robbed 600 00:31:35.627 --> 00:31:37.962 of her historical acknowledgment 601 00:31:38.062 --> 00:31:42.734 is because years later there started to be rumors 602 00:31:42.800 --> 00:31:45.904 that she was assigned male at birth. 603 00:31:46.938 --> 00:31:50.308 Francis Thompson's story is not an uncommon one. 604 00:31:58.750 --> 00:32:01.920 - Darling, I want my gay rights now. 605 00:32:01.986 --> 00:32:03.821 I think it's about time 606 00:32:03.922 --> 00:32:06.457 the gay brothers and sisters got their rights. 607 00:32:06.557 --> 00:32:08.927 - You know, when I was a kid, 608 00:32:08.993 --> 00:32:12.163 I couldn't see far into the future. 609 00:32:12.263 --> 00:32:15.300 I didn't see myself very far into the future. 610 00:32:16.301 --> 00:32:19.337 There was so much richness, so much joy in my life, 611 00:32:19.437 --> 00:32:21.606 but I grew up queer, 612 00:32:21.673 --> 00:32:23.975 and I didn't know many queer people 613 00:32:24.075 --> 00:32:26.477 who were the age that I am now. 614 00:32:26.577 --> 00:32:28.079 So many people didn't make it that far. 615 00:32:28.146 --> 00:32:30.848 - You need to begin with a movement 616 00:32:30.949 --> 00:32:32.150 which is what Black Power 617 00:32:32.250 --> 00:32:33.685 and the Civil Rights Movement was. 618 00:32:33.785 --> 00:32:35.186 Then immediately within it, 619 00:32:35.286 --> 00:32:36.854 you are going to get those people 620 00:32:36.955 --> 00:32:39.857 whose differences are not being articulated. 621 00:32:39.958 --> 00:32:43.161 - For me, it's a discovery to be this age. 622 00:32:43.261 --> 00:32:47.098 Life or God is out here creating 623 00:32:47.165 --> 00:32:50.001 just so many different ways of being. 624 00:32:51.769 --> 00:32:53.504 What if I looked at the world with reverence 625 00:32:53.604 --> 00:32:56.140 and not control? What would I see? 626 00:32:56.207 --> 00:32:57.775 - Those balls and all that, 627 00:32:57.842 --> 00:33:00.144 that's like our fantasy of being a superstar. 628 00:33:00.211 --> 00:33:01.679 - What if I looked at myself 629 00:33:01.779 --> 00:33:03.948 with curiosity and not control? 630 00:33:06.651 --> 00:33:07.852 - It helps out when somebody else 631 00:33:07.952 --> 00:33:08.853 is there in your corner. 632 00:33:08.953 --> 00:33:10.221 - 'Cause with y'all 633 00:33:10.321 --> 00:33:12.323 vicious mother , it do take nerve. 634 00:33:12.390 --> 00:33:15.994 - And allowed myself to discover myself, 635 00:33:16.060 --> 00:33:18.696 to unfold in front of myself. 636 00:33:18.796 --> 00:33:21.799 That's what my experience as a queer person 637 00:33:21.866 --> 00:33:24.035 is really about. 638 00:33:24.135 --> 00:33:27.839 - I know how you watch as you grow older--literally, 639 00:33:27.905 --> 00:33:30.041 that is not a figure of speech-- 640 00:33:30.141 --> 00:33:31.509 the corpses of your brothers 641 00:33:31.576 --> 00:33:33.578 and your sisters pile up around you 642 00:33:33.678 --> 00:33:37.215 and not for anything they have done. 643 00:33:37.315 --> 00:33:39.717 They were too young to have done anything. 644 00:33:39.817 --> 00:33:42.186 In any case, too helpless. 645 00:33:42.253 --> 00:33:46.324 - Also just the wonder of creation, you know, 646 00:33:46.391 --> 00:33:49.894 that I am, that we are. 647 00:33:49.994 --> 00:33:53.564 That's really been the teacher of queerness for me. 648 00:33:56.000 --> 00:33:59.070 - I don't want there to ever be a moment 649 00:33:59.170 --> 00:34:01.105 in which someone else can tell us 650 00:34:01.205 --> 00:34:03.941 what was true for us, 651 00:34:04.042 --> 00:34:09.614 and we not have the proof, 652 00:34:09.714 --> 00:34:11.249 the material, 653 00:34:11.349 --> 00:34:15.853 the documentation to show otherwise. 654 00:34:15.920 --> 00:34:20.758 We know what erasure can do to us. 655 00:34:24.028 --> 00:34:28.099 - What movement does each time and what we are seeing happen 656 00:34:28.199 --> 00:34:31.436 is that we're starting to even tease apart 657 00:34:31.536 --> 00:34:33.738 the things that our movement has not done right, right? 658 00:34:33.805 --> 00:34:37.108 The things that have been unseen that we made unseen. 659 00:34:37.208 --> 00:34:38.609 And the thing that I think about the most 660 00:34:38.709 --> 00:34:42.480 is how this iteration of movement centers 661 00:34:42.580 --> 00:34:44.649 and lifts up the voices of people 662 00:34:44.749 --> 00:34:47.285 who are often silenced in previous moments, right? 663 00:34:47.385 --> 00:34:49.787 That, like, our labor has been unseen. 664 00:34:49.887 --> 00:34:51.756 Our contributions have been unseen. 665 00:34:51.823 --> 00:34:53.658 What does it mean for Black queer women 666 00:34:53.758 --> 00:34:55.426 to be at the forefront of a movement? 667 00:34:55.493 --> 00:34:56.894 What does it mean for trans folks 668 00:34:56.961 --> 00:34:59.130 to be leading in this time? 669 00:34:59.230 --> 00:35:00.965 - Ours didn't really cover women 670 00:35:01.065 --> 00:35:02.633 as strongly as it should have, 671 00:35:02.733 --> 00:35:05.503 you know, but at least we got to see them. 672 00:35:08.573 --> 00:35:11.976 - It is staggering when you look at the history books 673 00:35:12.076 --> 00:35:13.411 and get a sense that this period 674 00:35:13.478 --> 00:35:15.746 was basically males because nothing 675 00:35:15.813 --> 00:35:18.749 could be further than the true. 676 00:35:18.816 --> 00:35:22.520 - Black women were playing extremely important roles. 677 00:35:22.620 --> 00:35:25.623 The Civil Rights Movement would not have been what it was 678 00:35:25.690 --> 00:35:28.993 without the roles of Fannie Lou Hamer 679 00:35:29.093 --> 00:35:31.863 and Daisy Bates and Ella Baker 680 00:35:31.963 --> 00:35:35.299 and Ruby Doris Robinson and Joanne Robinson, 681 00:35:35.366 --> 00:35:37.001 and we can go on and on and on. 682 00:35:37.101 --> 00:35:41.038 - We're not taught about Ida B. Wells, Ella Baker, 683 00:35:41.139 --> 00:35:43.474 Fannie Lou Hamer, right? 684 00:35:43.541 --> 00:35:45.776 And it's not just about the work that they did. 685 00:35:45.843 --> 00:35:48.846 I think it's also who they are as people. 686 00:35:48.946 --> 00:35:52.116 I know who I want to be, and it's informed 687 00:35:52.183 --> 00:35:53.718 by a lot of these Black women 688 00:35:53.818 --> 00:35:57.155 that I've seen, like, in movement spaces. 689 00:35:57.221 --> 00:36:00.057 - When we think about the ways in which Black women 690 00:36:00.158 --> 00:36:03.694 put our bodies on the line, our health on the line, 691 00:36:03.794 --> 00:36:07.865 and our safety on the line for the rights and dignity 692 00:36:07.965 --> 00:36:09.367 that everyone benefits from, 693 00:36:09.467 --> 00:36:14.839 but yet we're the last ones to reap the reward. 694 00:36:15.740 --> 00:36:19.377 - Black women have carried the labor 695 00:36:19.477 --> 00:36:22.480 of cultivating this country and this world 696 00:36:22.547 --> 00:36:24.849 on their shoulders in a particular way, 697 00:36:24.916 --> 00:36:26.417 and a particular experience. 698 00:36:26.517 --> 00:36:29.887 To navigate anti-Blackness, white supremacy, 699 00:36:29.987 --> 00:36:32.924 and then on top of it, navigate patriarchy, 700 00:36:33.024 --> 00:36:34.892 heteronormativity, transphobia, 701 00:36:34.992 --> 00:36:37.862 and all of these other levels of oppression 702 00:36:37.929 --> 00:36:39.530 creates this particular experience. 703 00:36:39.597 --> 00:36:41.866 - I have literally, since 14 years old, 704 00:36:41.933 --> 00:36:44.569 dedicated my life to Black people. 705 00:36:44.669 --> 00:36:47.772 I don't--there's nothing I love more than Black people. 706 00:36:47.872 --> 00:36:49.740 That includes Black men. 707 00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:52.410 I have stood by, worked with, held up, 708 00:36:52.510 --> 00:36:55.012 held down Black men my whole life. 709 00:36:55.079 --> 00:36:58.683 But the minute I talk about violence against Black women, 710 00:36:58.749 --> 00:37:01.786 I suddenly have become the enemy of Black men. 711 00:37:01.886 --> 00:37:04.589 There was this whole uprising around police brutality. 712 00:37:04.689 --> 00:37:06.057 Right? For the last several years, 713 00:37:06.123 --> 00:37:08.526 definitely. This new wave of people 714 00:37:08.593 --> 00:37:11.429 being outraged about police brutality. 715 00:37:11.529 --> 00:37:13.798 What people said to me is this is not the time 716 00:37:13.898 --> 00:37:17.134 for that "me too" stuff. We gotta deal with Black lives. 717 00:37:18.636 --> 00:37:21.072 And I'm incredulous, all right? 718 00:37:21.138 --> 00:37:25.610 I'm like, "So you think, you believe with all your heart 719 00:37:25.710 --> 00:37:27.445 "that Black lives matter, 720 00:37:27.545 --> 00:37:29.413 "and you don't think about the Black lives 721 00:37:29.480 --> 00:37:31.716 that are ruined by sexual violence?" 722 00:37:38.923 --> 00:37:40.291 Black women experience 723 00:37:40.391 --> 00:37:41.759 the second-highest rate of sexual violence 724 00:37:41.826 --> 00:37:43.961 in this country, and a lot of that violence 725 00:37:44.061 --> 00:37:46.330 happens at the hands of Black men. 726 00:37:46.430 --> 00:37:49.400 It's a truth that does not mean that Black men 727 00:37:49.467 --> 00:37:52.169 are bad, immoral, evil, 728 00:37:52.270 --> 00:37:55.606 but it does mean that we have to talk about something. 729 00:37:55.673 --> 00:37:57.475 There's a conversation to be had 730 00:37:57.575 --> 00:37:59.176 internally in our community. 731 00:38:02.246 --> 00:38:04.849 I need somewhere for this truth to live. 732 00:38:04.949 --> 00:38:07.618 This is a truth that Black women are holding. 733 00:38:21.766 --> 00:38:22.967 - Last year... - Okay. 734 00:38:23.034 --> 00:38:24.468 - Do you remember the young woman 735 00:38:24.535 --> 00:38:27.972 Oluwatoyin Salau? - Of course, Toyin, yeah. 736 00:38:29.607 --> 00:38:31.208 I didn't know you was gonna ask about that. 737 00:38:31.309 --> 00:38:33.377 It still makes me emotional. 738 00:38:36.647 --> 00:38:39.517 She was 19, you know? 739 00:38:39.617 --> 00:38:42.053 And she looked like one of my daughter's friends. 740 00:38:42.153 --> 00:38:44.722 - Our lives matter. Black lives matter. 741 00:38:44.822 --> 00:38:47.692 Black trans lives matter. - Yes! 742 00:38:47.792 --> 00:38:49.560 - Trans lives matter! 743 00:38:54.332 --> 00:38:56.000 You cannot take my Blackness 744 00:38:56.067 --> 00:38:57.301 away from me. 745 00:38:57.368 --> 00:38:58.369 My Blackness is not 746 00:38:58.469 --> 00:39:00.037 for your consumption! 747 00:39:00.137 --> 00:39:01.539 It is not! 748 00:39:01.639 --> 00:39:04.975 - There's no way that you should be able to 749 00:39:05.042 --> 00:39:08.179 go to a action... 750 00:39:08.245 --> 00:39:11.315 not have a place to stay, 751 00:39:11.382 --> 00:39:14.819 and sitting on a bus stop on your way 752 00:39:14.885 --> 00:39:18.556 to try to figure out your housing, 753 00:39:18.656 --> 00:39:21.192 be taken and killed. 754 00:39:25.096 --> 00:39:27.698 - That video is haunting. 755 00:39:27.765 --> 00:39:29.700 She's just dancing and laughing 756 00:39:29.767 --> 00:39:32.536 and twerking in the mirror and just being regular 757 00:39:32.603 --> 00:39:34.438 like what she should be-- 758 00:39:34.538 --> 00:39:37.074 free and feeling good about herself, 759 00:39:37.174 --> 00:39:39.410 and somebody took that away from her. 760 00:39:44.949 --> 00:39:47.918 She was running from sexual violence 761 00:39:48.018 --> 00:39:50.788 and ended up being vulnerable, 762 00:39:50.888 --> 00:39:52.356 and there's just not enough spaces 763 00:39:52.423 --> 00:39:55.760 for vulnerable Black girls to be safe. 764 00:39:57.695 --> 00:40:00.898 - She loved it so much... 765 00:40:00.965 --> 00:40:05.136 and she deserves to be here. 766 00:40:12.109 --> 00:40:16.414 I see so many Black women in her. 767 00:40:16.480 --> 00:40:20.751 I think about what could have been possible in her life. 768 00:40:20.818 --> 00:40:22.787 Who loved her? 769 00:40:22.887 --> 00:40:25.790 You know, what was important to her? 770 00:40:25.890 --> 00:40:27.758 Was she loved? 771 00:40:27.825 --> 00:40:30.294 Just her power and her dignity. 772 00:40:33.431 --> 00:40:35.132 When she told her story 773 00:40:35.232 --> 00:40:38.636 about what happened to her publicly, 774 00:40:38.736 --> 00:40:40.304 and I think about, 775 00:40:40.404 --> 00:40:45.409 "What if just someone would have listened, 776 00:40:45.476 --> 00:40:47.244 "would've been there, would have intervened 777 00:40:47.311 --> 00:40:49.113 in some kind of way?" 778 00:40:52.917 --> 00:40:55.820 - I don't know if we have solutions-- 779 00:40:55.920 --> 00:41:00.090 the necessary solutions to patriarchal violence yet. 780 00:41:01.325 --> 00:41:02.993 I want Black women particularly 781 00:41:03.093 --> 00:41:05.763 to be able to live out their wildest dreams, 782 00:41:05.830 --> 00:41:08.466 and so I hope that we can put more intention 783 00:41:08.532 --> 00:41:10.935 into asking Black women and girls, 784 00:41:11.001 --> 00:41:12.870 "What does it look like to feel safe? 785 00:41:12.970 --> 00:41:16.173 "What would need to happen here for you to feel safe, 786 00:41:16.273 --> 00:41:18.843 and how can we embody that?" 787 00:41:28.786 --> 00:41:30.154 - So many of our girls 788 00:41:30.221 --> 00:41:33.991 don't have a soft place to land. 789 00:41:51.375 --> 00:41:53.410 - Yer. - What? 790 00:41:53.511 --> 00:41:54.411 What is "yer"? 791 00:41:57.181 --> 00:41:58.816 - My dream sacred space 792 00:41:58.883 --> 00:42:01.252 involves a lot of trees around, 793 00:42:01.352 --> 00:42:04.522 to being close to nature and feeling around it. 794 00:42:06.156 --> 00:42:09.159 I would say that my sacred space 795 00:42:09.226 --> 00:42:12.196 will also have my dog Dream 'cause she's like-- 796 00:42:12.263 --> 00:42:13.330 - Puppy! - Yes. 797 00:42:13.397 --> 00:42:15.399 She's like-- she gives me-- 798 00:42:15.499 --> 00:42:17.268 like, you know, like, when I'm feeling sad 799 00:42:17.368 --> 00:42:19.169 or when I'm, like, depressed and laying in my bed, 800 00:42:19.236 --> 00:42:21.839 like if Dream comes and, like, licks my face or something, 801 00:42:21.906 --> 00:42:24.875 it's like everything to me. 802 00:42:24.942 --> 00:42:27.444 I would want a room that has-- 803 00:42:27.545 --> 00:42:30.347 that holds, like, a lot of emotional space for me 804 00:42:30.414 --> 00:42:32.550 to be vulnerable. 805 00:42:32.616 --> 00:42:35.519 And I think for me really to be okay 806 00:42:35.586 --> 00:42:37.087 with being vulnerable and not being like, 807 00:42:37.187 --> 00:42:38.756 "Well, you have to suck it up," 808 00:42:38.856 --> 00:42:40.624 or "You have to stop" because there's like 809 00:42:40.724 --> 00:42:43.093 all this other stuff going on. 810 00:42:43.193 --> 00:42:44.795 If I didn't have to worry about, like, 811 00:42:44.895 --> 00:42:46.363 all of this other outside stuff, 812 00:42:46.430 --> 00:42:47.932 there would be nothing holding me back, 813 00:42:48.032 --> 00:42:52.136 but I think the fear of, like, not being settled 814 00:42:52.236 --> 00:42:53.637 and not being like-- 815 00:42:53.737 --> 00:42:55.105 like it's not, like, necessarily, 816 00:42:55.205 --> 00:42:56.540 I guess, a safe space, 817 00:42:56.607 --> 00:42:58.542 but you know that your ends are gonna meet, 818 00:42:58.609 --> 00:43:00.277 and you're gonna, like-- you're gonna survive. 819 00:43:00.377 --> 00:43:03.948 And I think sometimes we choose survival over safe space. 820 00:43:15.726 --> 00:43:16.927 That's the ultimate goal. 821 00:43:16.994 --> 00:43:18.629 To just, like, be. - Yeah. 822 00:43:18.729 --> 00:43:20.264 - To be, and we've been talking about that all day. 823 00:43:20.331 --> 00:43:21.799 Like, no matter what we're gonna do, 824 00:43:21.899 --> 00:43:23.300 being a Black girl, like, 825 00:43:23.400 --> 00:43:24.802 there's always gonna be something, 826 00:43:24.902 --> 00:43:27.004 and sometimes you just want to be. 827 00:43:31.642 --> 00:43:33.844 - To me, building a home is like having 828 00:43:33.944 --> 00:43:38.082 my own sacred space where I think like, "You're safe. 829 00:43:38.148 --> 00:43:39.249 You're taken care of." 830 00:43:39.316 --> 00:43:40.751 Like, yes, life is difficult, 831 00:43:40.818 --> 00:43:42.353 but you're still growing every single day 832 00:43:42.453 --> 00:43:43.988 and everything is temporary. 833 00:44:22.292 --> 00:44:26.063 - A sacredness is a respect of the divine, 834 00:44:26.163 --> 00:44:28.732 even in places of trauma and terror. 835 00:45:13.844 --> 00:45:18.248 - These children unoffending, 836 00:45:18.348 --> 00:45:22.219 innocent, and beautiful... 837 00:45:23.787 --> 00:45:25.556 Were the victims of one 838 00:45:25.622 --> 00:45:30.894 of the most vicious and tragic crimes 839 00:45:30.961 --> 00:45:34.932 ever perpetrated against humanity. 840 00:45:35.032 --> 00:45:37.568 - 18 days after the March on Washington, 841 00:45:37.634 --> 00:45:39.236 Birmingham, Alabama, 842 00:45:39.303 --> 00:45:42.272 a bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist church 843 00:45:42.372 --> 00:45:44.408 just before a Sunday morning service. 844 00:45:44.475 --> 00:45:48.979 15 people were injured. Four children were killed. 845 00:45:51.148 --> 00:45:53.550 - They are the martyred heroines 846 00:45:53.617 --> 00:45:56.954 of a holy crusade 847 00:45:57.054 --> 00:46:00.224 for freedom and human dignity. 848 00:46:00.290 --> 00:46:02.259 We must be concerned 849 00:46:02.326 --> 00:46:05.763 not merely about who murdered them, 850 00:46:05.829 --> 00:46:08.799 but about the system, the way of life, 851 00:46:08.899 --> 00:46:12.736 the philosophy which produced the murderers. 852 00:46:25.249 --> 00:46:27.785 - Good night, sweet princesses. 853 00:46:31.121 --> 00:46:34.091 - May the flight of angels 854 00:46:34.158 --> 00:46:38.695 take thee to thy eternal rest. 855 00:47:10.627 --> 00:47:13.897 - Places like Ferguson and Baltimore 856 00:47:13.997 --> 00:47:16.033 where these uprisings took place 857 00:47:16.133 --> 00:47:18.702 after these state-sanctioned killings 858 00:47:18.802 --> 00:47:20.504 are hallow ground, right? 859 00:47:20.571 --> 00:47:25.175 And so seven years almost after Mike Brown is killed, 860 00:47:25.242 --> 00:47:28.812 I can't go on Canfield Drive 861 00:47:28.879 --> 00:47:33.483 and not feel immense energy, 862 00:47:33.550 --> 00:47:35.752 like, coming from the concrete. 863 00:47:44.895 --> 00:47:48.765 - A sacredness is a respect of the divine, 864 00:47:48.866 --> 00:47:51.368 even in places of trauma and terror, 865 00:47:51.435 --> 00:47:53.437 that there's this idea and understanding 866 00:47:53.537 --> 00:47:55.038 that there is something more to this, 867 00:47:55.105 --> 00:47:56.740 that there is a spiritual dimension, 868 00:47:56.840 --> 00:47:58.508 that there's always something happening 869 00:47:58.575 --> 00:48:02.045 behind the scenes that we can't see. 870 00:48:06.850 --> 00:48:09.386 I also I wanna uplift that 871 00:48:09.453 --> 00:48:11.188 anywhere where Black people are 872 00:48:11.255 --> 00:48:13.390 is a sacred space. You know? 873 00:48:15.926 --> 00:48:17.728 - What then is Black 874 00:48:17.794 --> 00:48:21.031 that it should be redefined? 875 00:48:24.401 --> 00:48:29.406 Black is the form of forms, 876 00:48:29.473 --> 00:48:33.477 the womb of infinity 877 00:48:33.577 --> 00:48:37.614 out of which all things come 878 00:48:37.714 --> 00:48:41.718 and to which they in time return. 879 00:48:44.588 --> 00:48:50.661 It contains all things without distinction. 880 00:48:50.761 --> 00:48:53.730 In its deep pitch, 881 00:48:53.797 --> 00:48:57.401 the seed of life begins. 882 00:48:57.467 --> 00:49:02.472 From its dark down comes healing sleep. 883 00:49:03.640 --> 00:49:06.810 To its merciful ink, 884 00:49:06.910 --> 00:49:10.480 consciousness flees pain. 885 00:49:10.580 --> 00:49:13.684 From its infinite reach 886 00:49:13.784 --> 00:49:15.786 comes the light of day. 887 00:49:18.422 --> 00:49:21.925 Black plagued, blacklist, 888 00:49:21.992 --> 00:49:25.162 Black Sunday, black market 889 00:49:25.262 --> 00:49:26.797 notwithstanding. 890 00:49:28.932 --> 00:49:31.034 - Roll 428. Marker. 891 00:49:33.203 --> 00:49:36.039 - And I'm gonna ask you one more time. 892 00:49:36.139 --> 00:49:38.642 You go--all Mississippi people go through, 893 00:49:38.709 --> 00:49:40.711 the violence, the struggles, the... 894 00:49:40.811 --> 00:49:42.646 Why-- 895 00:49:42.713 --> 00:49:45.349 why do you stay in Mississippi? 896 00:49:45.449 --> 00:49:47.517 - We put a lot in it. 897 00:49:47.617 --> 00:49:51.488 People like myself was born on this river. 898 00:49:53.357 --> 00:49:57.494 I love the land. It's the Delta. 899 00:49:57.561 --> 00:50:01.798 And to me it's now a challenge. It's history. 900 00:50:01.865 --> 00:50:05.035 It's everything of what Black people is all about. 901 00:50:05.135 --> 00:50:08.038 We came up out of slavery. 902 00:50:09.373 --> 00:50:11.708 And this is where we acted it out, 903 00:50:11.808 --> 00:50:14.711 I suppose, all of the work, all of the hard work, 904 00:50:14.811 --> 00:50:16.213 and all that. 905 00:50:16.313 --> 00:50:20.350 But we put in our blood, sweat, and tears, 906 00:50:20.417 --> 00:50:22.552 and we love the land. 907 00:50:29.326 --> 00:50:32.329 - It's only fitting that--and inevitable 908 00:50:32.396 --> 00:50:36.233 that Vincent Harding would be our first speaker. 909 00:50:36.333 --> 00:50:39.236 He was without doubt 910 00:50:39.336 --> 00:50:41.438 the spiritual father in many ways 911 00:50:41.538 --> 00:50:44.541 of "Eyes" and led us from the very beginning. 912 00:50:44.608 --> 00:50:47.344 - In this period, 913 00:50:47.411 --> 00:50:51.048 I think that the major part 914 00:50:51.114 --> 00:50:53.683 of our experience 915 00:50:53.750 --> 00:50:57.888 has been the search for alternative visions. 916 00:50:58.755 --> 00:51:03.293 And we have gone in our own past... 917 00:51:03.393 --> 00:51:05.562 and in the past of others 918 00:51:05.629 --> 00:51:08.865 to look for those alternative visions. 919 00:51:21.044 --> 00:51:22.779 - If you're only looking at what's in front of you, 920 00:51:22.879 --> 00:51:26.483 you can't look up. 921 00:51:30.787 --> 00:51:33.590 - Matter cannot be created nor destroyed. 922 00:51:33.657 --> 00:51:36.493 I existed from the beginning of time. 923 00:51:36.593 --> 00:51:38.595 I just didn't exist in this form. 924 00:51:38.662 --> 00:51:42.732 All the particles and atoms in me 925 00:51:42.799 --> 00:51:44.134 were somewhere. 926 00:51:44.234 --> 00:51:47.237 They just weren't together yet to form me. 927 00:51:47.304 --> 00:51:49.272 And so I've been here. 928 00:51:49.339 --> 00:51:53.310 I have pride that I'm related in some form or fashion 929 00:51:53.410 --> 00:51:55.312 to whatever heritage that I, unfortunately, 930 00:51:55.412 --> 00:51:58.348 I don't know about. I share their blood. 931 00:51:58.448 --> 00:52:01.284 They live inside me in some form or fashion, 932 00:52:01.351 --> 00:52:03.987 and their energy has traveled with me too. 933 00:52:04.087 --> 00:52:06.823 And I feel like they will always continue to guide us. 934 00:52:06.923 --> 00:52:08.792 They will always live in us. 935 00:52:11.628 --> 00:52:16.199 - My dreams are a space of radical imagination. 936 00:52:17.767 --> 00:52:21.872 They are not restricted and confined to a world 937 00:52:21.972 --> 00:52:25.041 in which white supremacy has dominated. 938 00:52:25.142 --> 00:52:29.846 They allow for creativity and exploration. 939 00:52:32.115 --> 00:52:34.017 Sometimes what we are fighting for 940 00:52:34.117 --> 00:52:35.852 is right in front of us. 941 00:52:35.952 --> 00:52:37.654 It's a safe house along the way 942 00:52:37.721 --> 00:52:39.289 to the North Star. 943 00:52:39.356 --> 00:52:40.957 Getting people safe, 944 00:52:41.024 --> 00:52:43.627 improving their conditions gives them opportunity 945 00:52:43.693 --> 00:52:46.396 to think about the North Star because if you're only looking 946 00:52:46.496 --> 00:52:49.399 at what's in front of you, you can't look up. 947 00:52:53.904 --> 00:52:55.572 - If we're gonna talk about a Black dream, 948 00:52:55.672 --> 00:52:59.409 a Black African American dream, a Black diasporic dream, 949 00:52:59.509 --> 00:53:01.244 it has to start at the radical root. 950 00:53:01.344 --> 00:53:03.813 Who are we when we are not the benefactors 951 00:53:03.880 --> 00:53:06.383 of the exploitation of women, 952 00:53:06.483 --> 00:53:07.751 the exploitation of people 953 00:53:07.851 --> 00:53:09.586 in so-called third world nations, 954 00:53:09.686 --> 00:53:11.488 the exploitation of domestic colonies 955 00:53:11.555 --> 00:53:12.889 within the United States? 956 00:53:12.989 --> 00:53:15.659 Who are we when we reach that self-actualization, 957 00:53:15.725 --> 00:53:17.394 that community actualization 958 00:53:17.494 --> 00:53:20.864 where we can just be? Be who we're supposed to be? 959 00:53:20.931 --> 00:53:22.766 - This work is about bringing people 960 00:53:22.866 --> 00:53:24.401 back to their true nature, 961 00:53:24.501 --> 00:53:26.102 to what you were before the terror 962 00:53:26.203 --> 00:53:27.237 of white supremacy, 963 00:53:27.337 --> 00:53:29.739 to what you were before the lies, 964 00:53:29.839 --> 00:53:31.575 the terror of capitalism. 965 00:53:33.043 --> 00:53:34.611 - Healing is the work of getting 966 00:53:34.711 --> 00:53:37.113 other people's stories out of your system, 967 00:53:37.214 --> 00:53:40.116 other people's shame out of your body. 968 00:53:42.852 --> 00:53:46.690 - When I think about how our ancestors lived 969 00:53:46.756 --> 00:53:49.759 and I think about African indigeneity, 970 00:53:49.859 --> 00:53:51.461 in particular, 971 00:53:51.561 --> 00:53:55.465 there wasn't "time." There was space. 972 00:53:55.565 --> 00:53:57.434 There was us. There was place. 973 00:53:57.534 --> 00:54:00.537 There was community. There was sustenance. 974 00:54:00.604 --> 00:54:04.441 And that so much of what we operated by 975 00:54:04.541 --> 00:54:06.943 was based off of the land. 976 00:54:13.617 --> 00:54:16.586 All of us may not be free yet, 977 00:54:16.653 --> 00:54:18.788 but we can create freedom portals, 978 00:54:18.888 --> 00:54:23.326 and we can create these experiences of freedom. 979 00:54:29.232 --> 00:54:31.668 - And we're talking about Black futures. 980 00:54:31.768 --> 00:54:35.005 You can't get to a Black future without Black dreaming. 981 00:54:37.274 --> 00:54:39.075 - Well, you know, the title of the series 982 00:54:39.142 --> 00:54:40.477 is "Eyes on the Prize," and-- 983 00:54:40.577 --> 00:54:42.078 - And the prize remains elusive, 984 00:54:42.145 --> 00:54:43.613 the prize being freedom. 985 00:54:43.680 --> 00:54:47.951 - I think the prize remains well-defined 986 00:54:48.018 --> 00:54:50.487 for many Americans, many Black Americans, 987 00:54:50.587 --> 00:54:53.490 many women, many people out of the mainstream. 988 00:54:53.590 --> 00:54:55.625 The prize still remains elusive. 989 00:54:55.692 --> 00:54:57.093 But I think that those of us 990 00:54:57.160 --> 00:54:59.796 who came out of that experience 991 00:54:59.863 --> 00:55:03.600 continue to try and focus on those areas 992 00:55:03.667 --> 00:55:06.503 where total dream of the movement 993 00:55:06.603 --> 00:55:08.471 hasn't been realized. 994 00:55:10.206 --> 00:55:13.009 - If I had a legacy to leave, 995 00:55:13.109 --> 00:55:15.679 there's very little else I could ask of it, 996 00:55:15.779 --> 00:55:18.181 but, of course, I will, 997 00:55:18.281 --> 00:55:20.617 that maybe those countries that haven't seen it will 998 00:55:20.684 --> 00:55:24.621 and maybe it'll be there for generations yet born. 999 00:55:24.688 --> 00:55:26.523 - And then I'm gonna do my last one. 1000 00:55:26.623 --> 00:55:29.459 I want to know what the prize is. 1001 00:55:29.526 --> 00:55:31.061 - Hm. - You know? 1002 00:55:31.161 --> 00:55:32.662 What does that mean to you? 1003 00:55:32.729 --> 00:55:35.532 What is the prize that your eyes are on? 1004 00:55:35.632 --> 00:55:37.967 - Hmm. Wow. 1005 00:55:40.236 --> 00:55:42.672 Ooh, ain't that a question, huh? 1006 00:55:46.309 --> 00:55:48.411 - Mary Hooks says that the mandate 1007 00:55:48.511 --> 00:55:52.916 for Black people in this time is to honor our ancestors, 1008 00:55:53.016 --> 00:55:55.018 earn the respect of future generations, 1009 00:55:55.085 --> 00:55:56.853 and to be willing to be transformed 1010 00:55:56.920 --> 00:55:58.755 in the service of the work. 1011 00:55:58.855 --> 00:56:02.759 That willingness and that transformation 1012 00:56:02.859 --> 00:56:05.395 is the prize. 1013 00:56:05.495 --> 00:56:08.164 - I don't think I've ever really sat down 1014 00:56:08.231 --> 00:56:10.767 and thought what does a world without me, 1015 00:56:10.867 --> 00:56:13.570 like, having to fight for something look like. 1016 00:56:13.670 --> 00:56:16.439 I don't think we've ever historically 1017 00:56:16.539 --> 00:56:19.242 have had just, like, a moment of rest. 1018 00:56:26.516 --> 00:56:28.718 - The prize for me is that folks 1019 00:56:28.785 --> 00:56:31.054 should have the fundamental necessities 1020 00:56:31.121 --> 00:56:33.289 of what it means to be a human being, 1021 00:56:33.390 --> 00:56:35.759 that folks can live into their dreams. 1022 00:56:45.068 --> 00:56:47.370 - Most people would say the prize is freedom. 1023 00:56:47.437 --> 00:56:50.106 And I think we define freedom in different ways, 1024 00:56:50.206 --> 00:56:52.475 and think about freedom in different ways, 1025 00:56:52.575 --> 00:56:55.478 but, you know, prize is always our liberation. 1026 00:56:57.547 --> 00:56:59.916 - Just an equitable society that yields 1027 00:56:59.983 --> 00:57:03.653 dignity, safety, and access for all of us. 1028 00:57:03.753 --> 00:57:06.456 - The prize is abolition. 1029 00:57:06.556 --> 00:57:09.259 The prize is our ability 1030 00:57:09.325 --> 00:57:12.429 to determine our own destinies. 1031 00:57:14.230 --> 00:57:16.900 - The prize is we win. 1032 00:57:16.966 --> 00:57:19.135 And I know you want to ask, "What is winning?" 1033 00:57:19.235 --> 00:57:21.304 You know, what is the victory? 1034 00:57:23.139 --> 00:57:25.108 I think it's just hundreds of thousands 1035 00:57:25.175 --> 00:57:28.311 if not millions of people who are completely transformed 1036 00:57:28.411 --> 00:57:32.916 and know who they are, know whose they are. 1037 00:57:32.982 --> 00:57:34.784 They love each other. 1038 00:57:34.851 --> 00:57:38.288 They feel powerful in the presence of one another. 1039 00:57:41.991 --> 00:57:44.527 - Self-determination... 1040 00:57:44.627 --> 00:57:48.097 it's...it's... 1041 00:57:50.166 --> 00:57:51.334 Creation. 1042 00:57:51.434 --> 00:57:53.369 It's becoming all over again. 1043 00:57:56.973 --> 00:58:00.677 It's taking everything that has happened 1044 00:58:00.777 --> 00:58:06.115 and remaking the world in a new way. 1045 00:58:06.182 --> 00:58:10.353 It's Black children 1046 00:58:10.453 --> 00:58:14.791 that imagine futures 1047 00:58:14.858 --> 00:58:17.293 that I can't conceive of yet. 1048 00:58:29.672 --> 00:58:31.808 - Any and every part of my journey 1049 00:58:31.875 --> 00:58:34.711 has had ancestral guidance. 1050 00:58:58.768 --> 00:59:00.236 - Come on, now, rock with me.