All language subtitles for Black.Boys.2020.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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- [Koven] Uh, right there?

- [Greg] Yeah.

- [Koven] Uh, right there?

- [Greg] Mm-hm.

- [Koven] Mmm, right there?

- [Greg] Let me see,
wait one second.

There you go.

Okay, start right there.

- [Koven] Look, animal.

- [Greg] Animal?

- [Koven] Yeah.

- [Greg] And it is an animal?

- [Koven] Animal.
- [Greg] Yeah.

- [Koven] Woo- Woop! (giggles)

- [Greg] Show daddy.

Here we go.

The Little Engine That Could.

- [Koven] Right there.

- [Greg] Yeah, it's a
red choo-choo train.

- [Koven] There.

- [Greg] Is that Sophie?

- [Koven] Ding dong, ding dong.

- [Greg] Oh no, that makes
ding dong, yeah. - Yeah.

- [Greg] Is that an elephant?

- [Koven] Yeah, boom.
- [Greg] What noise does

an elephant make?

(Koven squeals)

(Greg's lips squeal)

(Koven and Greg laughing)

(Greg's lips squeal)

(Koven laughs)

- [Greg] Yeah, okay.

You ready to go night-night?

- [Koven] Okay.
- [Greg] Okay.

I love you.

- Mm-wa.(smacks lips)
- Mm-wa.(smacks lips)

- [Greg] Okay, good
job buddy, I'll see you
in the morning, okay?

- [Koven] Okay.

- [Greg] You were
very good today.

- [Koven] Bye-Bye.

- [Greg] Bye-bye, hey,
you're gonna be great,

'cause Daddy says so, right?

- [Koven] Okay, bye.
- [Greg] All right.

(soulful piano music)
♪ Wire on the fences

♪ Mm

♪ Curved to stop the climb

♪ Hey ya, bars on the windows

(soulful piano music)

♪ What is walking by

- [Malcolm] It's often
a double-edged sword

to be a black boy in America.

Because you have
to tell yourself

that you are magnificent,
and that you are free,

and beautiful, while
simultaneously acknowledging

that the world is
not built for you.

It's not built for your success,

it's not built for
you to survive.

And you have to live
in these two worlds

of I am whole and worthy,

but I am also the hunted, and
hunted down, and sought after.

- [Dr. Howard] When people
treat you as such an outsider,

as such a threat,
where they see you

as somebody to be feared,

as much as we try to
hold onto our humanity,

you realize you live in a
world where your humanity

is constantly being challenged,

and constantly being questioned.

- [Chris] You can't run from it.

It doesn't matter what your
socioeconomic status is

there is an assault
on the black mind,

the black heart, and the
black spirit and psyche.

- [Shawn] This is America.

And this is 400 years of what

this blood stained
soil is about.

- [Sharif] The bottom line
of why things haven't changed

is 'cause there's no
love for black boys.

♪ These are dark dark times

♪ These are dark, dark times

(upbeat bluesy rock
synthesizer music)

♪ These are dark dark times

♪ These are dark dark times

♪ These are dark dark times

(moves into slow ethereal music)

(men groan)

(slow music)

(men groan)

(slow music and men
groaning alternatively)

(slow music)

- Good, good, good, good,

good, good, good, good, good.

(door slams)

(crowds chattering)

(man yells)

(man yells)

(train whistle hoots)

- [Greg] I was fortunate
and blessed enough

to be able to go play on
Sundays, win a couple rings.

I had some good experiences
and bad experiences.

So injuries kind of
cut my career short.

The opportunity came
up to come home.

(footsteps crunching)

So this is the crib.

This is the crib.

I grew up here.

My mom was a single mom for
the most part, four kids.

My father passed away
when I was eight.

That made me kind
of grow up quick.

(children playing)

It was a little rough, the
neighborhood that I was in.

It wasn't the greatest
place I could be.

The only thing I cared
about was making sure

that my mother did not
have to pay for school.

That's the only thing
that mattered to me.

So I decided to play football.

(fuzzy rock guitar music)

(moves in heavy bass
and rock guitar music)

Man, opened the floodgates
of scholarships,

Tennessee, Ohio State,
I mean, the big schools.

(crowds cheering)

I just worked, worked,
worked, worked,

worked, worked, worked
for as long as I could.

That was the only thing I knew.

(heavy, upbeat rock music)

(crowds cheering)

It isn't until you look at
it from a 30,000 foot view

that you understand.

For us as young
African American males,

what is my vision of success?

(crowds cheering)

- Well, the only thing
I could see on TV,

entertainment, video music
awards, or you see sports.

So this kind of imagery
of using my body

and being blessed with speed,

the ability to cut
quick, jump, shoot,

everything was
pertaining to sports.

So.

I mean they better
make it happen.

I mean these, (pats
legs) these things better

become some money makers
real quick, real quick.

(intense deep
drums and chanting)

- [Jemele] There's always been
a obsession with black bodies.

That obsession became
the economic base

of America, in slavery.

- [Narrator] Cheap slave
labor owned by the planter.

- And even during slavery

there were still
athletic games played.

There was fighting, and
all these things done

with black bodies for
white entertainment.

And that was a tradition
that kind of manifested

its way through sports.

- [Howard] The black
athlete is the most visible,

most important, most
influential black employee

this country's ever produced.

(upbeat intense low drums)

(men grunt)

- [Cris] White
people like sports.

(crowds cheering and screaming)

- As a little black boy I
found out about white people as

when you're walking out
there with your equipment on,

white people would pick you
up and take you practice.

They knew you was going
to the ball field.

But when me and my buddies
was walking out there

and we was trying to go to some
friends out and everything,

wasn't nobody trying to pick
up us, it was dangerous then.

- [Howard] Black
aggression sells.

We love that when we
see a football player

crunch a guy and
sack a quarterback,

and then he does his sack dance

and snarls at the camera,
and everybody loves it.

That black aggression
is also being used

as justification
for shooting you.

How many times do we
hear the police say,

"Well I feared for my life.

And that's why I put 20
rounds in a teenager."

(flowing piano music)

- [Quan] Like so many black
kids who are very athletic

I dreamed of going to the NFL.

And then when I actually
started experiencing it

it blew my mind how
disappointed I actually was,

starting with the combine.

(plaintive saxophone music)

Where we get broke
down to our tights

and we get walked on a
stage, and twirled around,

and my weight and
height, length,

all the above is talked about.

And after that's done
I walk down the middle

of 1,000 people making marks,

talking this,
talking about that.

One of the most humiliating
points of my life I feel,

because there has
to be a better way.

I grew up in Texas
and I saw cattle

being done the same thing.

(plaintive solo saxophone music)

- [Greg] The sad thing about
it was they used to tell me,

the NCAA is a meat market,
man they are looking for you,

because you are a
gorgeous piece of meat.

Straight like that.

- [Howard] The black
body is the commodity.

And I think when we
talk about ownership,

and we talk about power,

today's black body is a
multi-billion dollar enterprise.

(chalk scraping)

(bluesy full acoustic
guitar music)

(moves into slow acoustic
fiddle, banjo and guitar music)

- [Elijah] Everybody here
grew up playing sports.

And we used to
run in these roads

that has potholes in
them. barefooted, so,

Like everybody here is fast,
everybody here is strong.

(graceful acoustic music)

We feel like if
you're black in Mart

then you should be
playing football.

(folksy banjo music)

- [John] In this town
there's more like,

you always want to
be a Mart panther.

You wanted to play
up under them lights

that everybody else
before you played.

And you want to get out,

get out of this town and
go play ball at college,

and do something with yourself.

(graceful acoustic guitar music)

- [Elijah] My dream is
to go to a division I
college, play football,

major in business management,

and hopefully go to the NFL.

- [John] Every Friday night the
whole town is really shut down.

They come, they fill
up the stands, and

it just feel like
all eyes on you.

You score a touchdown
and we're winning.

And the more we win
the more people came.

(crowds cheering)

It builds your confidence
that you was somebody,

and people knowing you
that you don't even know.

It just felt like you
was on top of the world.

- [Elijah] I knew that I
was gonna have to be in

the weight room every
day, run outside,

eat healthy, get bigger.

But I grew up big,
bigger than everybody,

so that wasn't hard to do.

- [John] My sophomore year I was
up for the Dick Butkus Award,

best linebacker in the
nation my junior year.

The whole process of,
wow, I'm going pro.

I just got to stay healthy
I'm gonna get a big old check,

and I tore my ACL up.

(acoustic music)

And it's like
everything just changed.

I felt like the
world came down on me

and took away what I do best.

(twanging acoustic music)

And then,

I came back and tried
to get on another team

and kept getting hurt, and
I just, it's not worth it.

I was about 24 years old when
I decided to stop playing.

(graceful acoustic
strings music)

There ain't really
that many opportunities

outside of sports in Mart.

You can be a correctional
officer at that prison,

or, play sports, I
think that's about it.

'Cause there ain't
too much else in Mart.

- [Interviewer] What do
sports represent to you?

- [Elijah] It represents ah,

life, represents

courage and hope
for something better

than what I'm living right now.

(acoustic guitar music)

- [Coach] Come on,
get up, get up!

- [Announcer] Steal by
number 32, Carmelo Anthony.

- [Carmelo] Black kids
want hope and need hope.

They just want people
to have faith in them

and believe in them.

I grew up in Baltimore, so
I know what that's like,

you're in survival mode.

So if I got to deal
with how to be strong,

and being tough and surviving,

but then there's no
one believing in me,

I really have nothing
at the end of the day.

It's like a bottomless pit,

unless I can play sports.

- Anthony!
(crowd cheers)

- [Announcer] And
Anthony is now tied

with the most points-

- [Jemele] What happens is
you're conditioned to think

that all you have to offer
is your body, and that's it.

And I think psychologically
it damages you into thinking,

well, what's the point of
working on any other part

of who I am as a fully
realized human being,

if this is the only part
they're gonna value and accept?

(fans yelling)

A lot of it has seeped into how

Black parents, and family
members, and community members

view their own children
in the community.

Because they see the
acceptance that athletes,

and entertainers are able
to gain outside the world,

and acceptance and belonging
that they've often longed for.

- [Justice Page] Football
was the thing to do.

There was a tremendous
amount of pressure

to be a football player.

When babies were born in that
community during that time,

if it was a boy, they
put a little football

in the crib with
them at the hospital.

(children playing)

- Chatter...Ra, ra,
I'm gonna get you.

I'm about to get you,
I'm about to get you.

- [Jemele] So rather than
send them through the trials

of maybe being a doctor,
which seems unrealistic

in a lot of communities,
or a lawyer,

they take them down the
path of being an athlete,

and pushing that as
like, this your way out.

This is how you equal
the playing field.

When statistically
if you look at just

the number of NBA
athletes, or NFL athletes,

it's such a minuscule amount,

that you basically
have a better chance

of either getting
hit by lightening, or
winning the lottery

than you probably do of
becoming a professional athlete.

I mean, because
it's just that hard.

- [Howard] There are
streets littered with kids

who believe that dream,

didn't follow up with plan
B on the educational side,

have nothing, and are watching
the great ones play on TV.

And then you look at the few
that reach the NBA or the NFL.

Man, if it wasn't for sports
I'd be dead or in jail.

And I think about that every
time I read those stories

and my heart breaks.

Because I'm thinking
at this late date,

if dead or in jail is all
there is, we have failed.

We have failed miserably.

- [Paparazzi] How
about a peace out?

- And yet, people look at
that dead or in jail narrative

as progress, because
this one person

makes $20 million a year.

And there are graves
all around him.

(insects chirping)

- [Greg] What up?

I'm Greg.

I wanted to come say what up,

'cause y'all exactly
where I used to be.

You know what I'm
saying? Same spot.

What you all gonna do when
you all get out of here?

You all gonna go to high
school, and then what?

- I want to be a football
player or a lawyer.

- [Greg] A lawyer?

- You trippin', baseball.

- He want to be in baseball.
- Like Pro basketball.

- I bet, well you all
gonna go to college, right?

- I'm trying to go to a
college away from Mart.

- [Greg] Away from Cincinnati?
You trying to get out?

- Yeah.

- [Greg] Man, y'all go do it.

You say you want to go to
college and be a mechanic,

you go do it, you
want to be a lawyer,

you want to go play Pro, do it.

Just have a back up plan,
you know what I mean?

I was able to do it, was
able to get my degree.

And you know when
I was down here,

shoot, I'd be happy if
I graduated high school.

Man, y'all put y'all mind to it.

Don't let nobody tell
y'all you can't do it,

just 'cause where y'all
are, where y'all live.

It's the hood, so
what? I'm proud of it.

Y'all do whatever
y'all wanna do, man.

- Yeah, that's cool.

- [Greg] Yeah, all
right y'all. I'll hola.

(somber music)

- [Howard] There has to be a
collective belief system shift.

It's okay to envision
something else.

And what is that something
else gonna look like?

I don't know.

But this can't be all there is.

Because this doesn't work.

This isn't working for anybody.

(children playing)

- [Greg] I hope they believe me.

♪ Turning making enough

♪ Harlem say the little girl

♪ You fell, you fell, you fell

- [Greg] My little
brother, he was working

to do great things
with his life.

There was an incident where,

I don't know the
ins and outs of it.

But apparently there
was a misunderstanding,

and both ended up with
firearms in their hands, and,

my little brother caught
the short end of the stick.

♪ Are you able to
find your ground ♪

- What's saddening about that,

besides the fact that my
little brother was killed,

is the fact that the
last text message I have

in my phone from him

was that he was
working to be better.

♪ I can be a snowflake

♪ You believe you say
you can't believe ♪

- I think he was a line
worker at a restaurant.

And I always tried to challenge
him to think beyond that.

Think bigger, because you
have the ability to do it.

(door thunks)

But did he...

Did he have somebody showing
him that day in and day out?

♪ Except that you
can't be weak ♪

- It's just the epitome of
what goes on in our world,

and it's so saddening and so,

so frustrating.
♪ Ooo

- At the same time
so motivating.

(players chattering)

(whistle bleats)

What you need, you let
me know what you need.

Huh?
(players yelling)

For me, coming home meant a lot,

because now I can work
with young men and women

who might be at the same
crossroads that I was of,

you know, do I focus
more on my athletics,

or do I focus more
on my education?

So I get a chance to go back

and kind of
reconstruct their mind,

and rewire their brains
every single day,

to help young men know
that, there's more to it.

There's more to
you, more to life,

despite what they
tell you, despite what

our blinders limit us to.

There's more, there's more,
there's more, there's more,

you just got to believe
me, just believe me.

Here you go, argh.

(plaintive solo violin music)

(traffic roaring)

(groups of people chattering)

- [Sharif] Malcolm X
wanted to be a lawyer.

And his teacher, not
some outside person,

not someone in a KKK
robe, or some judge,

or police officer,
his teacher told him,

"No, you're black, you
can't be a lawyer."

(kids laughing)

I often think of the
millions of black children

who's dreams have
been just crushed.

(kids chattering)

- Hey Mom!

(kids chattering and yelling)

- Let's go, you come
here. (drowned out)

(crowd conversations
echoing in halls)

- [Sharif] So this is Mastery
Charter Shoemaker Campus

in Parkside, Carroll Park
neighborhood of West Philly.

As a turn around school,
this is our 13th year.

(kids chattering)

We're a 95% black school,

and half of our student
body are black boys.

- What's up buddy?

- [Sharif] Because I grew
up not too far from here,

I understood that anxiety,
that angst that a lot

of black boys experience.

- [Teenager] All
right you coming?

- Hello guys.

(laughter and voices echoing)

- [Sharif] Five months
after graduating

at Indiana University
of Pennsylvania

I was shot three times.

I was in the
hospital for a month,

they thought they were gonna
have to amputate my legs.

It was a pretty
traumatic experience.

Yet at the same time
I was thinking about

the young man who was
a very similar age.

I was 20, he was 19,
and what that meant.

And why we had such
different paths.

(bell dings)

That's the bell
- That's the bell.

- So what I wanted to do
was work with students

that were like the
young man who shot me.

How you doing?

- What up?

- I heard the bell.

- Yeah?

- People always talking
about the achievement gap.

A lot of times for black
boys it's an opportunity gap.

And if people actually
gave them the opportunity

they would just reach all
of their own personal goals,

the community's goals,
their family's goals.

And I think too often they're
shut out of opportunities.

- [Russlynn] President Bush
called it the soft bigotry

of low expectations, right?

That was riddled across
America's schools.

When the truth is,
it's not so soft.

If we don't believe
that students of color,

that African American boys
in particular can learn

at the same rate as their peers,

then we don't institute
policies, or practices,

then we simply don't
teach them to the levels

of which they should learn.

- I'm smart, if you put
me in the right situation,

the right testing environment,
the right everything,

I will really surprise
a lot of people.

- I feel like I
have to be better,

even though I feel as though
I'm already good enough.

But they want to make
you feel even lessor,

so I got to try to bring
myself up even more,

which is kind of hard.

- As a black child
growing up in America

they are getting
bombarded with messages

that you don't matter,
you don't belong,

you're worth less.

In that context, we
have to work overtime

to make sure that
we are countering

that message that
they're receiving

about them not being worthy.

- Good job.

- [Sharif] And empower students

to recognize their own humanity.

- [Chawn] It is a
peculiar sensation, this
double consciousness,

this sense of always
looking at oneself

through the eyes of others.

Of measuring one's soul
by the tape of a world

that looks on in amused
contempt and pity,

W.E.B Dubois.

(soulful guitar music)

- [Shawn] The amount of
resources that are needed

to really shift and
level the playing field.

When we talk about equity
for black men and boys,

I often feel like
I'm shooting a BB gun

at a aircraft career.

(upbeat guitar and
bass guitar music)

- [Russlynn] We take kids
that have less to begin with,

and we turn around
and give them less

of everything that makes a
difference in public education.

So then we get this
burgeoning achievement gap

that starts and shows up as
early as entering kindergarten.

- {Dr. John King,
Jr.] We're in trouble,

because the majority of
our kids are kids of color

in the nation's public schools.

And we just don't do a
good enough job making sure

that students of
color have access

to the full range of supports
necessary to be successful.

And we see the consequences,

the consequences
in unemployment,

the consequences in involvement

in the criminal justice system.

- [Russlynn] Quite frankly,
that's how this system

was designed to happen.

We don't call it a caste
system in this country,

we're too enlightened
for that, right?

But when you look at it,

peel back the onions
of inequity, systemic,

embedded, pervasive inequity
in our school systems.

One can't help but
see a caste system

with black boys at the bottom

in almost every community
in this country.

- [Sharif] Education was always
used as a control feature

of who gets it and who doesn't?

- [Jemele] There was countless
educational material,

quote, unquote, that
used to try to prove

that slaves, their brain
sizes weren't the same.

Everything they could
to just reduce them

to being just simply
a physical being.

- [Sharif] So a long time
ago, who deserved education?

It was the wealthy,
landowner and white male.

When you look at today, it's
almost the same mindset,

who actually deserves education?

Because if somebody
deserves something

then I'm gonna fund it,
if I'm the government

I'm gonna fund it.

If I don't think you deserve
it, then I don't care.

You get whatever
pennies fall your way,

but it's not gonna be a
concerted effort to fix things.

And that's how you create power,

that's how you create choices,

that's how you create control.

(low bass ethereal music)

- So right now,
independently, silently,

I'm gonna give you one minute.

Please write a summary
based on the information

that you have for
questions one through five.

Good, I see Maneer
getting started, Ray Meet

has already gotten started.

A lot of things are
fed to us on purpose

in order to keep
you within a box.

I was one of those
kids that thought

that football was
gonna be my way out.

And then once I became a teacher

I started hearing a
lot of my students

only talk about playing
sports, being a rapper,

things that are only
portrayed in the media.

It wasn't because there
was nothing else out there,

but it wasn't being
placed in front of them.

They didn't see
successful doctors,

they didn't see
successful engineers,

they didn't see
successful teachers.

- [Howard] And the
message that we send to
each other so many times

is that being smart, and
speaking in complete sentences,

and be aspiring to be educated,

and to be intellectual is
anti-black, is inauthentic.

And this is a type
of self hatred.

This goes back to the
James Baldwin line that

"The most insidious
piece of racism

is believing what
they say about you."

- [Shawn] America created the
greatest marketing campaign

in the minds and
hearts of black people

to try and convince us
that we were inferior.

- [Sharif] One of the
things we talk about

is this windows and mirrors.

A black child in
a typical school

in America, they get windows.

From the literature that's
put in front of them

from the teacher,
from all the messages,

they get windows to
other people's world

and like this other world,

these other people
are better than you.

Not a shared humanity, but a
separate level of humanity.

White children typically
get the mirror.

Who's in front of them, the
literature that they're read,

the posters on the wall,

everything reinforces their
whiteness and their superiority.

- You know who else
is going to prom?

- Christa's friend, Bethany?

(digital smack)

- No, Barbie.

(both girls giggling)

- [Chris] There's been
different research projects

around children as young
as three, four and five

when they pick a doll,

they're picking a white
doll or black doll,

the society, because of
celebrating and privilegizing,

advantaging the
beauty of whiteness.

And then everything
dark, or black or brown

is bad and negative. Children,

it doesn't matter
what color you are

well then pick up the white
doll versus the black doll.

- [Carmelo] For me, I've
never been told what

the word black means in America.

It was always, whatever
I learned in school

at that point in time was
what I knew what black was.

It was one thing,
it was slavery.

That was the only thing that
we were taught that we knew.

And it was almost like that's
what they wanted us to know.

- [Russlynn] The week that
it was Black History Month,

grabbed two assignments.

One from a district that was
serving mostly white kids.

And they were reading the
letter from the Birmingham Jail.

And they were, as
you might imagine,

engaged in rigorous debate.

The black kids,

in a classroom serving
mostly black boys

was told to read
that same letter,

and draw a picture,
because neatness counts.

You can only imagine
what that assignment

looked like when completed.

It was a black man in jail.

- [Teacher] For the next five
minutes we're going to label

all of the different
places, the regions

and the land forms
that are on the slide.

You're going to label those
onto your United States map.

You're gonna have
five minutes to do so.

You may begin.

- [Dr.John King, Jr.] We
really got to tackle this issue

that the majority of our
kids are kids of color,

and only 18% of our teachers
are teachers of color.

Only 2% of our teachers
are African American men.

We need kids of color to
see educators of color,

but we also need white
kids to see educators

of color leading in their
schools and classrooms.

- [Teacher] You're only
half way there if you
only wrote the fraction.

So you write the fraction,

and then you have
to do what with it?

Give a solve, give an answer.

(bell dings)

(crowds chattering)

- [Sharif] Hustle,
hustle, hustle.

- [Student] I have to ask
a really good question.

- [Sharif] All right.

- [Student] Want to
hear the question?

- [Sharif] Well, I want
you to go to class,

I don't want you to be late.

Can I catch you-

- [Student] It was
real quick question.

- [Sharif] The trauma that
a lot of our black boys face

it makes the work more crucial,

it gives us a higher
sense of urgency.

- [Student] My mom was
like she was in school,

taking us to school, had a job,

but it wasn't like
paying her enough.

So we have like,
eat what we have.

And we have to take little
bits of what we got,

so we can have it
for even longer.

- My uncle, he used
to come outside

and play football
with me all the time.

And then he went to jail,
and he died in jail.

Or I think he got killed.

But they never told
us why he died.

- My brother, he had passed,
he was nine years old.

He had actually shot himself.

He was playing with a
gun, I saw it right there.

- [Michael Smith] It's post
traumatic stress disorder

that is taking place in
communities across this country.

And young people are
in this constant state

of fight or flight.

- [Carmelo] You hear about
as kids, acting up in school,

he don't go to school,
he's dropping out.

It's because they have
so much inside of them

that they don't know
what to do with that.

And they don't know who
to turn to for that.

And then what happens?

You drop out of school,
which leads to prison.

The hood, school, prison.

It's like a triangle.

(kids chattering)

- [Chris] We interviewed several
thousand African American males

from kindergarten
through 12th grade.

80% of black boys said when
they were first on campus

the adults on that campus
did not engage them,

did not say hello,
or speak to them.

When adults would
interface with black boys

from kindergarten
through 12th grade,

then the response
typically was negative.

What are you doing?

Why are you here? You're late.

Pull up your pants,
take off your hat.

It was overwhelmingly, over 80%,

the response was a
negative response.

- [Sharif] Black boys, their
experience from very early on

is around submission.

Something black boys
are approached with

just this firmness
that's unnecessary

where you have to be
controlled in such a way

I got to put my
foot in your neck.

(ethereal wavy music)

- [Russlynn] Black
male kindergartners
are being suspended,

and expelled from our schools

at disproportionately
higher rates.

That gap gets wider the longer

our young people are in school.

- [Sharif] A lot of times when
people enter the learning space

not feeling that that child
is a human being, one,

the child is my equal, two.

If you're not starting
with that premise,

then it's very easy to oppress,

it's very easy to
think I'm saving you.

And if you don't
allow me to save you

I'm gonna punish you.

- [Akeia] It's so scary to
have to feel like you have

to exist in those spaces,
because how can you?

Because you exist in a
world where nobody sees you,

but everybody sees you.

And when they see you,
your silhouette doesn't

look like you, it's a monster.

- I went to school
in Daytona Beach

when Trayvon Martin happened.

A white couple saw
me sitting in my car

on my break from my job,
called the police on me.

The police literally
snatched me out of my car,

slammed me on the ground.

And when I'm asking like,
"Why are you doing this?"

They literally said,
"We got a report

of a suspicious black male."

I can't even explain the
kind of emotional impact

that had on my because
after the fact,

I literally was just
sitting in my car.

And I was like, I
literally did nothing.

I didn't have to do anything.

- I have so many
questions like why?

- What did I do?

(boys laughing)

- How did my
presence offend you?

- [Teenager] You
generalized me, already.

- Yeah, how does my
presence offend you?

What did I personally do?

You immediately think
I'm a bad person,

you immediately
think I'm violent,

or loud, or vulgar.

- Especially me, it might
be a little different.

- Why do you say that?

- 'Cause I'm the big,
black man in the room.

- Bro, we're dark skinned dudes.

- True, true.

- We all hang with
dark skinned males.

- The big black man of America.

It gets deeper,
it gets real deep.

- How deep?

- Like this morning,
for an example.

- Yeah.

- I'm walking with my headphones
in, listening to music.

- [Boy in White Sweater]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- A lot of white
females walk past me,

and it's like they're
on their guard,

they're holding their
purse like this.

- You've seen it?

- Yeah, face-to-face.
- That happens on the regular.

- And I'm just like,

for what, for what?

- I'm not a big, violent guy,

people have to understand that.

I'm very loving and caring.

And people are looking
at me like I'm a threat.

- Yeah, I dig that.
- I used to wear glasses,

because it makes you an
approachable dude, right?

- You used to wear
them fake glasses?

- Yeah, and I didn't even
have to wear glasses.

I had to go out of my way to
make people feel comfortable

that I'd never meet again.

- Yeah, and I'm tired,
I get tired of that,

you know what I'm saying?

Why do I have to make you
feel comfortable about me,

when I'm not coming in-

- We in the same situation.

- I'm not coming in
with no mal intent.

I'm not coming in with
no type of ill will.

- [Duane] I'm tired of
having to be intentional

just to show that
my hands are clean.

That's fatiguing.

I'm tired of stepping
on an elevator,

and having people have
to literally clinch.

We have to think
about our blackness

in every intersection
of our lives,

be it a black musician.

- I feel insecure.

- [Interviewer] You feel what?

- Insecure.

I didn't do anything to you.

You might have seen
somebody else do something.

But you don't know me, so.

- We just met.

- We didn't even meet,
that's the craziest part.

- I don't even know your
name, first impression, I
don't even know your name and
you're clutching your purse,

walking all fast

- Walking with your head down.

- Exactly, you don't
even know who I am.

Sometimes you have to take it in

and just accept it how it is.

(hand clapping and guitar music)

♪ I'm a black man
in a white world. ♪

♪ I'm a black man
in a white world. ♪

♪ I'm a black man
in a white world. ♪

♪ I'm a black man
in a white world. ♪

- [Jemele] There's a reason
why Ralph Ellison wrote

about being "The Invisible Man."

Because that's just
a reality, I think,

for black boys in general.

You see that you have
the power to create

a level of fear and
hysteria in white people

that will jeopardize your life.

♪ I'm a black man
in a white world ♪

♪ I'm a black man
in a white world ♪

♪ I'm a black man
in a white world ♪

- [Dr.Edwards] I was
walking down the street
with a walking cane

in a neighborhood I'd
lived in for 35 years.

And all of a sudden I'm
facing eight squad cars,

police jumping out
with guns drawn,

because some white woman

looked out her window and said,

"There's a huge black
man in dark glasses

brandishing a rifle
walking down the street."

- [Malcolm] As a black man to
see a white woman afraid of you

is one of the most terrifying
things there is, because

history will tell you
how highly regarded

the white woman is in America.

And people have been
hung and lynched just

in the name of
protecting white women.

♪ I'm a black man
in a white world ♪

♪ I'm a black man
in a white world ♪

♪ I'm a black man
in a white world ♪

- [Sonia] So when you see
fear in a white woman's eyes?

- [Tyron] It hurts.

It hurts, it hurts
so bad, I can't.

That's hard to talk about.

Cause it is different
between boys and girls.

Let's save that till
the end, how about that?

- [Dr. Bristol] I think it's
the way that the American eye

has been socially
constructed to see black men.

(intense digital slam)

And so it's not
only white women.

It's all of us that
have participated

in this American project, right?

- [Gerald Dessus] I want
you to take a look at
some of those stereotypes,

like the one about
Latino men and women,

the one about black men,

some of the ones about
white men and women,

and Asian men and women.

I want us to look at
those stereotypes.

Look at the comments.

And start to think, are
these stereotypes negative,

are they positives here?

Do I agree with them?
Do I disagree with them?

This time we're not gonna
take our sticky notes.

We're just going with our groups

and we're gonna have
those conversations.

- [Sharif] The approach
to education has to
include social justice.

It has to prepare students
to enter the world

where there is no cocoon,

there is no real protection
for students of color.

We can't operate a school
and ignore the realities

that are occurring
on a daily basis.

(somber orchestral music)

This is sacred work, we
can't falter, we just can't.

Their very lives are dependent
on it, mostly our own.

(somber orchestral music)

- [Malcolm] This world built
by men for men to protect them.

Holy war, say amen
with aggression.

Throwin' money out of pocket,

getting intercepted.

Kaepernick could stand
and never get respected.

They were writing history
books down in Texas.

See their systems getting bigger

when you're asking questions.

Who am I to call
myself a blessing,

if the god in my is
constantly getting arrested.

The darker the berry,
the darker the sentence.

I too sing America, so
don't tell me to pipe down,

or sit at a table my granny
used to wipe down, uh!

Fuck a system less
it come with sin.

Look at all the dead bodies
laying on the ground.

But still we rise
like Maya Angelou,

step outside playing D'Angelo.

Chicago smile for Timbuk Two,

not many avenues for us to
live up to, so what you want?

Benjamin or Aretha Franklin?

Respect on your name or
a couple great faces, uh.

(elevated train engines roaring)

- [Malcolm] My name is
Malcolm Xavier London.

When my mother was
pregnant with me

she watched Denzel
Washington as Malcolm X.

And in the theater she said,

"That's gonna be
the name of my son."

(elevated trains roaring)

(kids playing)

Baby shoes we only
got 2Cs, 4C, 10C, 11C.

And the youth sizes we
got 6 1/2 or 7 Youth.

Those are the only
sizes we got left,

and I'm so very sorry from
the bottom of my heart.

We've been trying
to organize this.

It's a lot of shoes,
it's a lot of people.

But we will be doing this again.

I grew up on the
west side of Chicago,

which is both all the
things we hear in the news,

and there's also so much more.

The things the world told
me about where I was from

make you not love yourself,

and make you question
your own existence,

and the capabilities of
the people around you

and even yourself.

I'm gonna give you a question.

Person A, person B, I'm
gonna give you a question.

I want person A to ask
person B this question

over and over again.

The person B it's
your job to give

a different answer every time.

And the question
is, who are you?

- Who are you?

- A rapper.

- Who are you?

- A black man.

- Who are you?

- Ambitious teen.

- Who are you?

- A hard worker.

- A little kid.

- Always alone.

- Class clown.

- High school graduate.

- Optimistic.

- Lost.

- Human.
- Troubled.

- Ambitious.
- Broken.

- Who are you?

- Ah. (laughs)

- Shortly after Trayvon
Martin was killed.

I had a mentor come up with

this idea called
Occupy Whiteness.

And we would go around the city

where folks who look like us
traditionally weren't welcomed.

Now there's no sign in Chicago

that says no blacks
allowed, right?

But there is an aura. (laughs)

And there is a
policing that happens

that make you feel like
you're not welcome there.

And so we would go
to the art museum,

or the expensive
restaurant downtown,

and just be black as fuck.

♪ (unintelligible lyrics)

- [Vic] I was in
London performing

and it was the week
that both Alton Sterling

was killed in Baton Rouge,

and Philando Castile was
killed outside of Minneapolis.

And I'm in the hotel
room and I just had

this extreme
emotional breakdown,

and I'm just fucking sobbing,

and I can't keep it together.

I feel filthy, I feel
dirty for being black.

I mean I was having nightmares.

I couldn't sleep,
I'm having nightmares

the police are shooting
at me in the alleyway.

(car clicks)

- [Officer] Can I see
your license, please?

Get out of the car,
get out of the car!

(gunfire popping)

Get on the ground!
Get on the ground!

- [Malcolm] My mom used
to talk to me about,

yo don't behave this
certain way around police.

Do x, y and z.

And the only space for my
identity was to be perfect.

And if I was not
perfect, I could die.

- [Motorist] I just
got my license.

You said get my license.

I grabbed my license right
there, that's my license!

- [Officer] Put your
hands behind your back,

put your hands behind your back.

Put your hands behind your back.

Put your hands behind your back!

- [Motorist] I
can't feel my legs.

I don't know what happened,
I just grabbed my license.

- [Officer] 866 I need a 1052.

- [Motorist] Why did you,
why did you shoot me?

(easy going acoustic guitar)

- [Dr. Edwards]
Slavery was eliminated.

But much of the values,
the cultural sentiments,

the political dispositions,

the perceptions of threat from
black males has persisted.

The control mechanism
has simply gone

from the slave
master to the police.

(man singing in
foreign language)

- [Cris] People say, "Well
man, are you still scared

of the police?"

Absolutely.

Don't have a police record.

Have a significant amount
of money in my pocket,

don't owe anyone,
haven't done anything.

But I've been raised
to know better.

I've seen too many visuals,

I've seen too many
truths played out.

Not myths, truths played out.

(man singing in
foreign language)

(light guitar music)

(man singing in
foreign language)

And I can either be 12 years
old in Middletown, Ohio

in the projects, or I
could be on 42nd Street

on the platform catching
the damn D train.

And I'm just as black
now as I was then.

(man singing in
foreign language)

(light guitar music)

(man singing in
foreign language)

- [Vic] We feel
vulnerability as black men,

because we've been under
attack from day one.

So weakness is to be feared.

(man singing in
foreign language)

- [Malcolm] Why
you talk like that?

With fake bass in your voice?

Like you got foundation.

Why you talk like that?

Speak up like police lights
on street posts, up like that.

Like surveillance, like
coffee, black but not strong

like they like they
coffee integrated,

obeying the cream, talk like
a playground in your lungs.

See your tongue
crisp and crossed

like you momma done
raised you on crucifixion.

Like you know she pray you
never come home in a coffin.

(train roaring and rattling)

(kids playing)

- Hey you all.
- This is so many feet.

(father laughs)

- Easiest way to get
down is from the way

that I just went down.

- No I don't want to do that.

- Okay.
- It's easy.

- All right, you ready?

- Grab me.

You got to get up.

Yay!
- See, I told you.

You did it! I told
you you could do it.

Oh. (laughs)

(mother laughs)
- That was so funny.

- Okay high now.

- Whoa!
- Oh.

- Blah, blah, blah.

- Okay.
- This thing got big.

- I've had nightmares,
I've had day nightmares,

you know, dreaming.

Not only do we worry about
their physical safety,

but we worry about them
being in a classroom

where they're already
being defined as deviant,

they're already being
defined as criminal.

They're already
being defined as not,

potentially not having the
same intellectual capacity

as their white classmates.

So their emotional and
their intellectual selves

are also at harm, you know?

(train roaring)

(kids playing)

- Nope, watch out
for the baby, Camari!

(kids playing and screeching)

- Sorry. (laughs)

He is going kind of fast.

- Yeah, a little bit. (laughs)

- Everywhere I go,
people are always like,

"You know your son, he's
like a beam of light."

Anytime that I can hear that,

counters anytime
where I feel fearful.

- Watch out!

- [Young Mother] She's
so independent, too.

She's not intimidated.

(boys yelling)

- I lay down.

(kids playing)

(train roaring)

- [Malcolm] Where I come
from cats commit crimes a lot

because they have
to, or they feel like

they have no other choice.

- [Vic] We've been
assigned to these areas
that are poorly funded.

The schools are not
funded the same way

that the white schools are.

Access to clean food
and infrastructure,

filling up the
potholes doesn't happen

the same way in our communities.

- [Malcolm] And I always
felt like if people knew

that it's a revolving door,

my education was subpar,
and then I sold drugs.

And now I got arrested and
then couldn't get a job.

If they could hear this
story they could change it.

But then you learn
that the world

isn't just not listening,

but they're deliberately
not listening.

- [Dr. Edwards] These
young black men are
not born like that.

This society puts
them in a situation

where that becomes a patterned,

coping mechanism for survival.

- [Conan] I remember someone
distinctively in my life.

I was in 7th grade.

And a young man that was
in the 7th grade with me,

and he got into a
neighborhood fight,

and he ended up getting killed.

(ethereal music)

And so we went from playing
basketball as young men,

to now knowing that we
could really be hurt

and never come back from that.

And so at that moment it
was like a shift for me,

because I did not want to
be in those circumstances,

and I didn't want to be hung.

And so I adapted to that

and became more
dangerous as a youth.

And my life took on a trajectory
of its own because of that.

(echoing digital music)

- [Student] I live through
this, and the only thing they do

they sit on this block
and we do all this stuff

that we do, 'cause that's
the only thing we saw.

Nine times out of 10 it's
really not what you want,

but sometimes at a
certain point in time

you're already caught up
in it, you can't get out.

There ain't no runnin'
away from the streets.

- Are we like lions in a cage?

Say it's two lions in a cage.

Me and my brother, I'm
gonna find a way to eat.

So what I'm gonna
do is I'm gonna hurt

my brother so I can eat.

And it's like, oh they
see it on the outside

that's the only thing
we're portrayed on

on the news, like we're violent.

- The problem in this
case is the cage.

Like when you're in the
cage, you're a lion,

you're big, you need your space.

There's nothing you can
do about the other one,

you're gonna have to fight them.

Nobody's considering why
they're getting pushed

to the projects, and why they
have to act the way they do.

- [Carmelo] You're growing up,
you're in those neighborhoods,

seeing alcoholics, seeing
drug addicts, seeing murders.

And you have these
feelings that's so consumed

and so tight inside
of a little boy.

And you become a product
of that environment,

and everybody around
you is kind of dealing

with the same thing.

- [Vic] And then we
grow into adulthood

and the kids' fights
start escalating

into people getting shot
at, people getting stabbed,

people getting killed.

You've got a whole
bunch of resentful

young, black men that have just

been mentally pummeled
their whole life.

And the worst has
been expected of them,

and everybody becomes a victim.

- [Dr. Edwards] There were 14
and 15 year old kids that I knew

who were going down
and picking out

the clothes that they
wanted to be buried in.

- [Interviewer] What is it like

to go to a funeral
at such a young age?

- [Malcolm] I think...

I don't

know if I've interrogated my
own trauma enough to tell you.

(strong piano music)

what I noticed is
that in the world,

how it responds to death.

And where I'm from,
there isn't much of one.

I think for me it was
recognizing that oh, shit,

nobody cares when we die.

(low bass beats music)

- [Reporter] Are you
surprised that you guys

eventually decided not
to go to the White House?

What aren't we listening to?

- [Malcolm] You started see
these images over and over.

You have people losing their
lives at the hand of police.

And it was in 2016
with Philando Castile,

and Alton Sterling, that it
was just enough was enough.

(light music)

I wanted to know how do I, as
an athlete use my platform,

a voice to draw
attention to these things

and be a bridge to
reconcile this thing.

- [Carmelo] During the
Freddie Gray situation,

well I first saw him, oh I
have to do something, right?

Let me see what I can
do by my presence,

by my influence, by my voice.

(crowds yelling)

(easy going piano music)

And I get there
and you can feel,

you can feel the tension.

You can feel the death.

It felt like I was in a cloud.

Just a dark, dark, dark space.

That's what I felt
by being there.

I also felt that being
on that front line

with my community,
those people felt

that I was a part of them.

And I will forever
be a part of them.

- [Chris] It was right
after Charlottesville,

and I just decided, hey
I got to do something.

Malc, do you mind if I put
my arm around you during

the anthem, I don't want
to steal your spotlight.

I don't want to be center stage,

I want to be there with you.

And just tell you that
hey a lot of people

that look like me,
we can be there,

and we agree with what
you're protesting.

- [Jemele] Only think
that Colin Kaepernick

and other black
athletes have said,

"Please just don't shoot us."

That's literally the
basis of the message.

Don't shoot us
while we're unarmed.

Don't beat us when
we're unarmed.

Don't physically
violate us in ways

when we're unarmed,
or do so in a way

that is so overly physical,
and out of bounds compared

to how you deal
with other citizens.

They're just asking for dignity,

and fairness and accountability.

Which you would think
all of us would want.

- [Malcolm} James Baldwin said,
"To be a negro in this country

and to be relatively conscious
means that you are enraged

almost all the time."

- [Carmelo] We've
been angry for long.

And we're angry because of
the notion that we do love.

We love our community.

We love our black boys
and our black girls.

- [Dr. Edwards] When Malcolm
Jenkins raises a fist,

when Kaepernick takes a
knee during the playing

of the National Anthem,
when Smith and Carlos raise

a fist during the playing
of the National Anthem.

That's not against
the National Anthem,

that's a statement
of faith in America

that we're better than
what we are doing.

That we better than
what black people

and black males
are experiencing.

That we are better than that.

- [Malcolm] Using your voice
seems like a simple concept.

But we've also, as black men,

have seen tons of examples
of what that can bring you.

And there is a danger to that.

And it's the old trick
is those who actually

have the knowledge,
and self awareness

that you speak up and fight up.

And you have to get
rid of those people.

(crowds screaming)

- [Howard] The effect is
to silence the player.

Because now you can't speak.

- Throwing this in the fire,

because Colin Kaepernick
is now the face of Nike.

- [Howard] You see
what happens to Colin
Kaepernick and Eric Reed.

You saw what happened
when players challenge

this authoritarian narrative.

They lose their jobs,
they lose their careers.

(dramatic bass beats music)

- [Reporter] Could you hold it
up again? We couldn't see it.

(dramatic bass beats music)

- [Reporter] What
aren't we listening to?

(dramatic bass beats music)

- [Malcolm] When I say
you aren't listening,

it's because I don't
want to talk about things

that don't matter.

And everything is asked except
for why are you protesting?

They'll ask you, "What do
you think about the troops?"

(dramatic, strong
bass beats music)

It's not about the troops,
it's about systemic racism,

it's about a lack of education,
a lack of equal housing.

Well, what do you
think about Trump?

(dramatic, strong
bass beats music)

It has nothing to do with him.

It's all about our
criminal justice system,

systemic racism,
our school systems.

And then they'll continue
to go down this road,

and the conversation is about
everything but these issues.

And so, when I say
you aren't listening,

it's trying to
force people to deal

with what is actually
happening to real Americans

on a daily basis.

(intense bass drum music)

- [Malcolm] So, I believe that
all the things that we are,

from our history
to where we live,

it impacts us, it influences us.

And so I want you to write,
I am, or I come from.

Essentially I want you
to tell me who you are,

and where you come from.

And then we'll read around
if you would all like

for 10, 15 minutes.

- I come from the city of pain

where it's kill or be killed,

where it barely
snow, but it rain.

Corner junkies smell
like liquor and beer.

(chuckles) That's all I wrote.

- I come from people
drinking and smoking outside.

I am a band of builders
churches and schools.

I am mom's meatloaf
and mashed potatoes.

I come from a broken
family. I am a felon.

I come from selfishness.
I am a weapon.

- Where you come from?

I come from poverty
in all honesty,

the neighborhood and the
city that's incriminated.

Where you come from?

The brains of the projects

and in a low income two flats.

Where you come from?

Englewood, a place of sorrow,

where some people
don't see tomorrow.

Where I come from is a
good with bad intensions

and influences on
different dimensions.

- I still can recall the
night when my bloods died,

my eyes stay red like hot fries.

Even underwater I
couldn't stop crying,

was healthy, but you can't
tell me I was not dyin'.

Picked up a pen back then
and I ain't stopped writing.

And I am no rug, I am not lying,

took a step on on that ladder

and I haven't stopped climbing.

Was healthy, but you can
tell me I was knocked down.

Growing up, everybody
was friends,

later we separated
like Siamese twins.

And I'll be damned if
they say leak or fake,

I just want to feel my family
put a smile on my face.

Slipping, but I got to hold on.

How are you allowed to hate?

That an oxymoron,
so please everybody.

I would need four arms
just trying to find my way

in this world with no OnStar.

I'm on my ground, so I
pray you're on yours.

They sleeping on me, but
I don't mind the snores,

'cause no matter what I'm gonna
rap my city it's on the map,

so they gonna respect my
city 'cause it's Chiraq.

To the death my city,
brain damage will make

me forget my city.

Can't stop the hustle til
I'm famous at deaf people

while saying my verses
in sign language.

And everybody with me
gonna eat when I make it,

so then all the criticism,
give it, I don't take it.

This is truth music.

No lies included, that's me.

(people snapping their fingers)

- Hey go crazy, bro.
- Hey dig.

(classmates clapping)

(crosstalk)

I was hoping you
had something dope

on all them pieces of paper.

He was right.
- He put me right.

(guys laughing)

(train roars)

- [Interviewer] I
have a question.

Have any of you ever
cried at a movie?

- (laughs) Yes, I did.

I cried when I went
to go see "Coco."

- I heard about it.
- Yeah.

- Which part?

- The last part, you know
the granny she never talked.

She was just out of it.

- Oh when she was
singing, "I remember me."

- And then when they give.

Yeah.
- Okay, yeah.

♪ Remember me.

And she starting singing
with the grandson.

It's sad-
- The way he did it,

the way he did it
was definitely hard.

- I was literally emotional,
I was like, (crying).

- And the ugly cry, just have
the Michael Jordan going.

- When I saw "Coco" that
was emotional I mean,

what can I say?
- Like people told me

it made me cry, I
didn't believe them.

- Anyone with a heart
should cry to that.

Like should shed
a tear at least.

I hope nobody at
school sees this.

(boy laughing)
- You're trippin' now.

- They are.
(everyone laughs)

(windchimes tinkling)

- I'll sit my butt right
here, thank you very much.

- [Instructor] Well talk
about Blank Panther.

So what did that
movie mean to you?

- Hey! The first
time, we were, who?

- I saw it in Seattle.

- We were in Seattle.

- We see the text open 1992.

- Oh! We went wild
that was crazy,

because we know where it's at!

We know the area and
we know it's Oakland.

I mean, I thought
it was beautiful.

- Yeah.
- It showed the equality

that everybody had, you know?

There wasn't no division,
everybody went together.

Now he did have that one cousin,

but he was from America.

- Oh he was.
(boys laughing)

- You had that one
cousin. (laughs)

- When you think about it the
key motto just represented,

if a child does not feel
the warmth of a village

he'll burn the village
down to feel warm.

So-
- I heard about it.

- That really connected to me.
- That's deep.

- It was just anger
every time he spoke,

whether it was to T'Challa,

whether to say, "Hey, Auntie,"
whether it was to Zuri,

or the people who are tending

to the Garden of
the Heart-Shaped.

It was always anger.

It wasn't directly towards
them it was just towards

the world for taking away
his only sense of love,

which was his father.

- [Interviewer] How many
of you have single moms?

- We sort of talked
about earlier like,

if you could tell
the world right now

what black boys
need in this moment,

what do you think it is?

- [Student] Guidance.

- Guidance.

From whom?
- Other men.

- [Student] All right
from each other.

- I think maybe a mentor.

A lot of kids

they start out bad
already because of

the neighborhoods
that they grew up in.

But that could still, I
believe the younger kids

that they had mentoring
by the right people

they could still like grow up.

Like not have the
world is right now.

Because they be giving
up on the young kids.

As soon as they hit
like 8, 9, they be like,

well, he gonna be in
jail when he get out

of elementary
school, high school.

So I feel that they didn't
give up on us so bad,

we had a lot more mentor
programs, a lot of kids

it's be changed and different.

- I don't know I just say

they probably need a father
figure in their life.

Maybe someone that
could mentor them,

like he said to help
them, I don't know.

(elegant slow, piano music)

- [Shawn] The beauty of
mentoring, it's really
about relationship.

And at the heart of what we
all need in our development

is a healthy relationship
with a caring adult.

- [Dr. John King, Jr.]
I distinctly remember
in kindergarten

kids teasing me
about my skin color,

saying that I was dirty.

And I remember coming
home to tell my mom that.

And my favorite cereal
was Cinnamon Life cereal,

and my mom told me
that I was cinnamon.

And I remember being so happy.

And it was important
that she took this moment

of being harassed and teased,

and tried to give me a
positive self identity.

And I worry that some
kids don't have someone

who's doing that for them,

helping them build
positive identity.

(elegant classical piano music)

If you don't have that then
you end up internalizing

that racism, that
bias from others.

(kids and parents laughing)

- It's vulnerable, it is
vulnerable for us too,

because we know that to
raise black boys that are,

that express their
emotions, right,

or that cry when they're sad.

Or have all the spectrum of joy,

then that means that
they're open to all

the things that other
folks are gonna say.

- Yeah.

- They're open to the
harm and the harsh words

and actions of other people.

(slow, elegant piano music)

- [Interviewer] So,
if you're willing

I want to return to this

idea of a white female's fear.

- Yeah, okay.

So my mom's white.

I go home everyday
I see a white woman.

A white woman raised
me, washed my clothes,

picked me off the
ground whenever I fell.

That will hug and
tell me she loves me

every time she sees me.

I guess you could say
general energy projected

from white women that
don't know me, just,

I see this fear in their eyes.

This fear that I
can't imagine that

a black boy has
incited in her before,

so why does she look
at me like that?

It's just so hard to
talk, to open up to them.

Just how I've just perceived
them perceiving me.

And I've just, it's just
so different from my mom.

I never scare her,
she's my mother.

- [Interviewer] What
do you want to say

to the black boy in you?

- I forgive myself.

I forgive myself for
giving up at times.

For believing what the
people said about me,

I forgive myself,
you know? (sniffing)

Because

there's nothing wrong with me.

I was told something
was wrong with me,

there's nothing wrong
with me. (sniffs)

And not to be ashamed.

There's nothing wrong with us.

- [Shawn] It's not black boys
that really have to change,

or be the one responsible
for changing this nation.

This country needs
to put the mirror up

and do the changing,
and until that happens,

we're still gonna be
having this conversation.

(easy going digital music)

- [Chris] We're passing this
stuff on from generation,

to generation, to generation.

It's reinforced in every
institution, every system,

every structure in this country.

So we have to think
about in this process

of creating the discourse
and building trust,

a way of healing.

- [Interviewer] What
is white people's part

of the conversation?

- Yeah, I mean it would
great if they joined it.

(laughs) Just in
general it'd be great

if white people just
joined the conversation.

- [Chris] I think a lot of
people are actually feeling like

if they acknowledge
some of these things,

then they're guilty, like
they did something wrong.

You didn't do anything wrong.

The only thing wrong that
you could do is ignore it.

- I think it's okay
to acknowledge that

there is no simple answer.

And that love says I don't know,

but I'm committed
to finding out.

I can see the
complicated history.

And that because I love
you, I won't ignore it.

(low bass beats music)

- [Interviewer] What do
you love about yourself?

- What up? Well I got
a few parts of me.

- Let me make a list.

- Let's see, one thing
I love about myself

is the boldness that I have

to not allow what
people think about me

determine what I'm gonna be.

So that's the part
of me that I do love.

The fact that I know how
to push through the storm.

And allow the storm to elevate
me to where I need to be.

You know, it's like a eagle.

I view myself as a eagle.

- Talk about spirit animals.

- Eagles are the
highest flying birds.

But they can see
the ground so clear

as if they're on the ground.

- Yeah.

- So it's like for me I
take that as I can soar high

over my situation, you know?

But see what it
could it have been.

- [Friend In White Shirt]
Yeah you always have clarity

of what it could have been.

- Exactly.

- You know what?

I'm gonna keep that
bird thing going.

- What you gonna
be a hawk? (laughs)

- No, no.
- A hummingbird?

- No, no.

- Mocking Jay.

- You can't guess it!
- Red robin.

- Ah-ha!
- Woodpecker?

- No, no! A woodpecker?
(boy laughing)

- Seagull?

- A seagull, no, no.

- Chicken?

- A chicken of all things.

- Hey it's a bird.

- Boy, I view myself as-

- A rooster.

(boys laughing)
- An owl, an owl.

- Oh, okay, why, why an owl?

- You know what? Because
I trust my instincts.

- No, no, no, you see
what's around you,

that's a good thing.

- I trust my instincts.

And I believe in myself,

and I feel like I have a
lot of self confidence.

So I view myself as an owl.

Because you know owls, they
have this scope of vision.

They see other paths
and other things.

I also believe
that about myself.

I see different sides
of different stories.

I'm not omnipotent,
but I feel like,

owls are wise, I
feel like I'm wise.

- You're like a
senior citizen huh?

(boy laughs)

- You know what, you
know what? Yes, yes.

- [Friend In White
Shirt] You have matured

a lot, trust me.

(man singing in
foreign language)

- [Interviewer] What
do you need to receive?

- Outside of God's grace,

you just pay me with love.

If you could love me,

then I know that you truly care.

(man singing in
foreign language)

- The kind of love that says,

I am committed to being
accountable to you.

- I think we have to show
love to the young black men.

to black boys, we have
to love them honestly,

and critically and
also unconditionally.

- Actual love helps
to heal trauma.

- Love has no logic
model, all right.

There are transformational
things that are happening

in the lives of black
boys that can't be found

in a theory of change
that's found in

this heart to heart connection.

- To the degree of
which we focus on them

and they feel safe, feel
heard, feel validated,

it actually will impact
the entire system.

A rising tide raises all ships.

And so we have to stay in
that and that takes time.

(man singing in
foreign language)

- Hair.
- Huh?

- Hair.

- Yeah, that's Da-da's hair.

- Yes, Da-da's hair.

- Yeah, where's Koven's hair?

Where's Koven's hair?

I can't see, is
that Koven's hair?

- Yeah.

- It is?
- Yeah.

- Well, when I lost my dad,

it was one of the

hardest things to do
deal with when I became

of the age to actually
understand what had happened.

Oh come here, let me tie
your shoe. Come here.

- No.

- It wasn't until

I started to have things
happen and be around people,

and see things that
I really wondered

what my dad would think.

How proud would my dad be

to see me even get to high
school and graduate high school.

I'm going here
because it's important

for every young father, for
every person who understands

the importance of a role.

Especially in young
African American males.

The day that I was
supposed to get drafted

higher than I was, I paced
up and down the street

for like six and a
half hours straight.

End to end, didn't
talk to anybody,

I didn't want anybody
talking to me.

The only person that

I would have let talk
to me at that moment

was my dad.

And for whatever
reason when I pacing up

and down that street

all I could hear my dad
telling me was... (crying)

(somber piano music)

The only thing I could hear
pacing up and down the street

was my pops telling me he
was proud of me. (crying)

♪ It's all right
it's all right. ♪

- So there's one
non-negotiable in this world.

♪ It's all right,
it's all right. ♪

- And that is me
being around my son.

Because so long as God allow it,

he'll always hear from
me that I'm proud of him.

♪ It's all right,
it's all right. ♪

- What's that in the bucket?

Oh, give me that,
give me that one.

Hey.
(water sloshing)

Bubby, what you gonna
be when you get older?

Are you gonna fly airplanes?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, are you
gonna be a doctor?

- Yeah.

- Can you be an engineer?

- Yeah.

- Can you do more
than play sports?

- Yeah!

- Yeah, that's right why?
'Cause Daddy said so.

- Yeah.

- That's right you're great,

you're gonna be great,
'cause Daddy says so, right?

- Right.

(water sloshes)

(Colvin growls)

- Daddy proud, you did
a really good job, okay.

- Ah!
- Okay.

- Did you hear me?

Did you hear me?
(splashing water)

- (laughs) Da-da.

(happy flowing piano music)

- We have to be courageous
in re-imagining ourselves.

We have the power to
change whatever we want.

(child yells)

- [Greg] Do you see it?

- That we're stronger
than we know.

- What's up there?

- The cloud.

- It's important for
us to present a message

of infinite possibility
to black boys.

- What's this?

You got a boo-boo.

- We're gonna make sure
that black boys recognize

their own humanity,
because then that's gonna

be human nature for them
to demand much, much more.

♪ Happy Birthday to you

- It's a new day and age, now.

♪ Happy Birthday to you

- These young people
don't need saviors,

they need believers.

Once you believe
in them and know

that they are great
beyond measures

by who they are, not by
what you bestowed on them,

then everything else will
shift and change as a result.

♪ Happy birthday to you

- They're as great as your kids.

They're as great any young
people on this earth.

You don't need to save them.

All you gotta do is
believe that they are great

and the rest of the work

will follow.

- Blow it.
- Okay you blow it.

All right you blow, blow.

Oh blow harder, blow harder.

♪ Oh oh oh oh

♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh

♪ Oh oh oh oh

♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

♪ Oh oh oh

♪ I was looking for a hero

♪ To reach out to save me

♪ Oh oh oh oh oh

♪ What I needed was someone

♪ To look beyond what they see

♪ Oh oh oh

♪ That's why I
choose my struggles ♪

♪ Through the lens
of compassion ♪

♪ Oh oh oh oh oh

♪ You will see the
phoenix in me, ♪

♪ Trying to rise
from the ashes ♪

♪ Oh oh oh

♪ Oh oh oh oh

♪ I don't need a hero

♪ I need a believer

♪ Through all of my struggles

♪ Someone who can see the

♪ Potential for greatness

♪ Possibilities

♪ Don't need you to save us

♪ Just say you believe

♪ Just say you believe

♪ Oh oh oh oh

♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh

- [Interviewer] What do you
want to be when you grow up?

- I want to be a scientist.

- [Interviewer] Awesome, why?

- Because I can
save people's lives.

And then when I'm retired
from being a scientist

I'm gonna be a surgeon.

(upbeat piano, and guitar music)

(moves into full
bass and organ music)

♪ We will be all right

♪ Yeah we're gonna
be all right. ♪

- My mom gonna
cook with us, okay.

- Uh-oh.

- You did.

- Yeah my momma
is a hungry woman.

(lady laughs)

She like this.

(child grunting)

- Hungry woman. (laughs)
- Hungry woman.

- [Child] Hey momma.

♪ Oh oh oh

♪ We're gonna be all right

♪ We're gonna be all right

♪ Oh oh oh

(upbeat music)

(moves to bright piano music)

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪