All language subtitles for Origin.2023.720p.AMZN.WEBRip.900MB

Ella, I know you wanna say it.

Go ahead.

I'm not gonna say it.

But you wanna?

Yeah, I do.

I know. Go ahead.

I told you so.

See? Always with
the "I told you so."

'Cause I told you so!

You's right this time.

Uh, what you mean, "this time"?

I'm always right.

Aight, aight, I got you.
Calm down, calm down.

Aight, so get your
little candy or whatever.

- And call me back.
- Aight.

Hey.

3.50.

Like, I don't know, some...

Oh, oh, oh... You
know, like, breakfast.

- Okay, breakfast.
- I like me some eggs...

You like grits,
berries. I got you.

You got me? I don't know if
I want... You like berries?

What, you be eating
berries with pancakes?

Yeah, I eat berries
with pancakes.

Like blueberry pancakes.
They're so bomb.

See, okay, okay.
We've gotta have fun.

We gotta do our own
thing. I feel like...

We gotta do our own thing.
It's gonna be amazing.

I'm really excited...

- Tray?
- Hey, I think...

I think this car's following me.

What? For real?

It keeps looping
around the block.

Dang. Try goin' another way.

Call me when you get home, okay?

All right.

Mama?

Mama?

Afternoon.

Afternoon. Are you
sleeping or kinda?

Kinda.

Hey, Sleeping Beauty.

- Hello.
- Hey. Hi. Hi.

Want to sit up? Sit up.

There you go. All right.

Come on, one more time.

- That's good. That's good.
- Okay.

- Okay.
- How's that?

Yeah. There we go.

Sweetie with you?

He's bringing the
trash around back.

Ah, yeah, garbage day.

Everything in its right place.

Of course you know how to do it,

but you don't have to do
it, not while I'm here.

Don't take my job
from me, please.

There's only so much joy
left for me in this world,

you gotta let me have it now.

Okay.

You ready?

Come here.

Okay.

Go slow, okay? Come on.

I got you. Okay.

Could you tell me how many
apartments there are in...

We have 200 units.

- 200, okay.
- 200 units.

And everything...

Kitchen, full kitchen...

Full kitchen and...
Yeah, that's...

Well, everyone
looks really nice.

- Yes. It's a great group.
- You know, Mr. Mayhew,

my husband was a
Tuskegee Airman.

Fought for America
in World War II.

Oh.

Oh, this is a gym here, yeah?

Beautiful, open 24 hours.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

So, um, you've got a
really nice kitchen.

Hey.

- At least there's good light.
- Mmm. Yeah.

Look at that cloud.

I see a swimming pool
with boys jumping in.

- Where?
- There. Look.

There's the arms.

Oh, yeah, I see it.
I see it. I see it.

They're a Little League
team, just won the big game,

celebrating and having a ball.

See the splashes?

Mama.

Little League team. Splashes.

It's true.

You and your imagination.

You gonna be all right?

Yes.

I'm gonna be all right, honey.

I'm going to be all right.

Okay.

If anybody can
maneuver, it's your ma.

Okay? What's she
say all the time?

"My husband was a
Tuskegee Airman."

Listen, I know
keeping elders at home

is supposed to be a
noble thing and all,

but there's something to be said

for keeping her as
independent as she can be.

- Where'd you find them?
- Next to the lamp.

Under a scarf with
the ringer off.

Ugh...

You've got to use the hook.
That is what it is there for.

Is that Mr. Brett?

- Oh!
- Ready to go out?

Is this Marion? How's Teddy?

You know, working my nerves,
but what else is new?

- You need some paper towels?
- Yeah.

Let's not miss
this flight, okay?

I love you. Please
be safe, okay?

Okay.

You got your boarding pass?

- I knew you had that.
- Yeah, you knew it, huh?

- You got it.
- Bye.

Bye, baby.

The shipyard owners
of Blohm & Voss

gather for a ceremony
celebrating the company's

new 295-foot vessel.

Adopted by the Nazis,

a "heil" salute was mandatory
for German citizens.

But if you look closely,

you'll find someone
who defied this.

His name is believed to
be August Landmesser.

He had joined the Nazi Party
two years before this day,

but in that time,

August met and fell
in love with a woman

unlike any he'd ever met.

Unlike any he was
supposed to have met.

Irma Eckler.

A Jewish woman.

An unexpected
treat. You're early.

I'm a surprise.

That you are.

A handsome one.

Although a member of
the dominant class,

August saw in Irma what others
like him chose not to see.

Her humanity, her beauty,

her love.

On this day,

he folded his arms

rather than salute a regime
that deemed that love illegal.

On this day, he was brave.

He couldn't have been the only
one who felt something tragic

was happening.

So why was he the
only one among the men

to not go along that day?

Perhaps we can reflect
on what it would mean

to be him today.

I'll leave you with that.

Thank you.

- Good luck.
- Thank you.

Bye.

Let me get this.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

- Water?
- I'm fine. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Isabel, Isabel. Hey!

Amari!

I didn't know you were speaking.

No, no, no, one of
my reporters is.

Hey, can you guys give
me a minute? Okay.

- You were solid.
- Uh...

- Nice work.
- I am a better writer

than I am a speaker.

Yeah, well, you're
a better writer

than most people do anything.

So, listen, I was gonna reach
out to you on something.

So I'm gonna take
seeing you as a sign.

This... This
Trayvon Martin case.

- I know.
- Have you heard the tapes?

No. Of what?

Not the murder?

911 calls. This
killer called 911

before he did it.

And tapes of people that
heard the boy screaming out

and called the police.

- Is this public?
- No.

But it's being released.

Slowly.

But we got him.

Are you interested in listening,

to consider writing
something for us?

Amari, you have a
stable of writers.

They don't have Pulitzer Prizes.

Some of them do, actually.

Yeah, well, then they're
not as brilliant as you

on things like this.

- You know what I do.
- Yeah, and I know what you used to do.

Some of the best reporting
I've ever edited.

I write books now.

So, that one book you wrote
took way too damn long.

It was a masterpiece
and whatnot, but

it took too long, Isabel, if
you ask me. Writers write.

So write.

I don't do assignments
anymore. I...

I wanna be in the story.

Really inside the story.

And, yes, that takes time.

Okay.

Maybe after you hear the tapes.

I'm gonna send them to you.

- Okay.
- Okay. No pressure.

Sanford Police Department. Is
there a report of the shots?

Hey, we've had some break-ins
in my neighbourhood.

And there's a real
suspicious guy, uh...

This guy looks like
he is up to no good,

or he's on drugs or something.

Okay, he's just walking
around the area...

Looking at all the houses.

It's raining and he's
just walking around,

- looking about.
- Okay.

And he's a Black male.

Now he's just staring at me.

Did you see what he was wearing?

Yeah, a dark hoodie,
like, a gray hoodie,

and either jeans or sweatpants,
and white tennis shoes.

- Shit, he's running.
- He's running?

Which way is he running?

Down towards the other
entrance to the neighbourhood.

These assholes, they
always get away.

Are you following him?

- Yeah.
- Okay, we don't need you to do that.

Okay?

All right, sir,
what is your name?

George.

He ran.

All right, George,
what's your last name?

Zimmerman.

911. Do you need
police, fire or medical?

Maybe both, I'm not sure. There's
just someone screaming outside.

Okay, what's the address
that they're near?

1211 Twin Trees Lane.

And is it a male or female?

- It sounds like a male.
- And you don't know why?

I don't know why. I think
they're yelling "help,"

but I don't know.

So you think he's
yelling "help"?

Yes.

I can't see him. I don't
want to go out there,

I don't know what's
going on, so...

Just... gunshots.

- You just heard gunshots?
- Yes.

- How many?
- Just one.

Is he right outside
1211 Twin Trees Lane?

Yeah, pretty much.
Out the back, yes.

- Good to see you.
- Thank you. You too.

Hi.

- Hey.
- Hi!

Looking gorgeous.

- Oh, Brett. How are you?
- Hi. Yeah. How are you?

- You well? Great to see you.
- Okay, and you.

He's wearing that tux very well.

Very well.

- He can hear you.
- Well, he can.

But he's grateful, thank you.

- Hi.
- Hello.

Amari Selvan asked me
twice if you were coming.

He wants something
for the paper.

He's made that very clear.

You interested? We can
time it with the audiobook.

Did you listen?

Yeah. Yeah.

It's a lot.

- Yeah.
- It's a lot.

There's a lot there.
But longer-form stuff,

questions that I don't
have the answer to.

So ask them in a piece.

I don't write questions.
I write answers.

Questions like what?

Like why does a Latino
man deputize himself

to stalk a Black boy to
protect an all-white community?

- What is that?
- The racist bias I want you to explore,

excavate for the readers.

We call everything "racism."
What does it even mean anymore?

It's the default.
When did that happen?

- Hey, Brett.
- How are you doing?

So, what? So you're saying
that he isn't a racist?

No, I'm not saying
that he's not a racist.

I'm questioning, why
is everything racist?

- This feels like a setup.
- I've been there.

Okay.

- Home ownership.
- Okay.

Covenants were written
into land deeds

barring Black people
from having wills.

No generational wealth allowed.

We could not pass
on what we earned

to our kids for
almost 500 years.

Every time, we'd have
to start from zero.

So, if we are not allowed
to pass on the fruits

of our lab our to our family,

is that the same racism
that took Trayvon's life?

Systemic racism. Yes, same.

Are you sure?

Are you sure?

What does it mean?

Murders of Black
people by the police,

we call that racism.

- Everything's the same.
- I get it.

Being followed in
a department store

and being lynched shouldn't
be called the same thing,

- I get that.
- Racism as the primary language

to understand everything

is insufficient.

- See, this is good.
- That's all.

This is good.

Look, I need a piece delving
into what the Martin case means.

Set the context with
these questions,

it's what you do best.

Make the hard stuff digestible.
And this is a hard one.

"What does it all mean?"

These questions are the piece.

Hey, I'll make it splashy,
prime placement, Sunday.

- Maybe even the cover.
- You're terrible.

You're terrible, Amari.

I'm just saying. Your
face on the cover?

There's a lot there.
There's a lot there.

But I am on hiatus.

- Isabel, come on. Come on.
- I am. I am.

I... I have family
responsibilities.

Well...

Well, good for you
for taking time.

- We'll talk again.
- All right.

Hey, you two take
care, all right?

Good to see you. All right.

- I don't like this.
- Okay.

Okay. Okay.

- I don't...
- She's wrong.

She just said the
only movie she knows.

Oh, she deserves
to lose that money.

Speak to an issue that obviously
has gotten a lot of attention

over the course
of the last week,

the issue of the
Trayvon Martin ruling.

I gave a preliminary
statement...

That poor child's mother.

Right after the
ruling on Sunday.

I wish he'd answered
the man right.

What was that, Mama?

I wish he had answered the man

when he asked him why he was
there in the neighbourhood.

Maybe he'd still be with us.

Are you saying it's
the boy's fault?

No, of course not,
don't be silly.

I'm saying you got to act
in a way to keep you safe.

He was...

He was too young to know it.

He shouldn't have had
to answer to anyone.

"Should have" and real life
are two different things,

darling, you know that.

You can't be walking around
at night on a white street

and not expect trouble.

That's intimidating
to most whites.

True or not?

Yeah.

Yeah. Unfortunately,
I think it is true.

But I also think that
you can't live your life

based on what's
intimidating to people.

Sure you can, sweetie.

So you're going on hiatus, huh,

- is what you're doing?
- Huh?

You told Amari you
were going on hiatus,

you told me that you were gonna
be travelling less for work.

So I'm just trying to figure
out what exactly it is

that you're gonna do. 'Cause...

I said I wanted to focus on her.

Okay.

People are asking you to
write because of your voice,

because they...
the way you think.

- I just... I don't know what you're doing.
- She...

She doesn't belong
in that place.

Oh, right.

She should be at home.

She moved because
she was lonely.

I should've spent
more time with her.

Daddy would want me to fix this.

Hmm.

I think your father
was pretty clear

that what he wanted was
for you to be happy,

people to be happy.

Sacrificing your work, well,
that's gonna accomplish exactly

the opposite, so...

Your mother was very clear
about what she wanted.

It's not that, so...

- I don't see it, Betty.
- Maybe it's checked out.

In 1933,

two African-American anthropologists
were studying in Berlin.

There are no books
here at all by him.

At the premier
library in the city.

The country.

Beautiful library, though.

I could get lost in all
these books forever.

All these ideas.

Your library card.

Good afternoon. Of course.

And your passports.

Can you tell us when Erich Maria Remarque's
'All Quiet on the Western Front' is due back?

They witnessed events that
would change the world.

Baby.

Brett.

By trade, Brett Hamilton
was a mathematician,

a financial analyst.

By heart, he was a
passionate champion

for those he loved deeply.

He played classical guitar,

was an enthusiastic cook,

and volunteered his
time and efforts

to those less fortunate.

In college, he
joined Phi Kappa Tau,

Delta Chapter,

and with his friends,
enjoyed caving trips,

watching thunderstorms,

and debating the big stuff.

Recently, he travelled
extensively in Europe,

accompanying his beloved in
her professional activities

in the cause of social justice.

I'm Mrs. Copeland from
across the street.

How is Isabel?

She's... she's
resting right now.

I can't believe it.

Thank you so much for coming by.

Give her my love, please.

Isabel Wilkerson's office.

Hello, hi.

This is Kate. I'm
Isabel's editor.

Yeah, I know who
you are. Hi, Kate.

This is her cousin Marion.

Marion. Marion, hi.

My condolences for
your family's losses.

I don't have the words.

It's unfathomable,
it's unthinkable.

I just, I can't...

Two of the closest
people to you in a year,

who can withstand it?

How is she?

Hold me. Don't leave me.

I am right here.
I am right here.

I am right here.

Stay. Stay.

- Stay. Stay.
- I am right here.

Stay. Stay. Stay.

Stay.

Hey.

- You made it in okay?
- Yeah, I'm here.

How are you?

Tell me how you're feeling.

How does it feel to be back
there with all of her things?

I'm here, Marion.
That's all I am.

- You know what? I gotta go.
- Right.

I've gotta get
this house packed.

I could come down this
weekend and help you.

We could take it slow.

I've gotta get these
things packed up

so I can start back work.

Wait, you're starting
back to work?

Of course.

What am I supposed to do?
How am I supposed to live?

Okay.

What is the work you have to do
and when do you need to start?

Marion, I have to go.
I'm already behind.

I...

I'll talk to you
later, okay? Bye.

Okay.

The HVAC guy got the
sump pump working

and got most of the water out.

This has never happened before.

I'm never down here.
My husband was always

the one down here,

changing the filter
in the furnace

or checking the fuse box.

But he died last year, so...

Uh-huh.

There's where the
water's coming in.

Where?

The sink.

The sink doesn't overflow.

I mean, is it a pipe
that's clogged, or...

Probably the pump
needs clearing out.

I'll write an estimate.

My mother died a few months ago.

What about you?

Is your mother still alive?

No. No, she's not.

Died in 1991, 52 years old.

Goodness.

That's not old... at all.

It sure ain't.

Your father?

He's 78.

Hmm.

You're lucky to have him.

He's mean as they come.

Well...

I guess, in the end,
we miss them no matter

no matter what they were like.

No, not him.

You know what? Uh...

- You see something?
- Well, maybe.

- I have an idea. Yes.
- You do?

Thought that might
be why you came.

- Tell us, tell. Is it...
- Well, I

didn't explore the
Trayvon Martin case.

I know it's been a while,

but I think there's
a lot to unpack.

I've been thinking
about my mother

and how she insisted

we be polite and buttoned
up around white people.

And there's all
this... Nazi symbolism

all over the place. You
heard about what happened

in Charlottesville.

- Yes. Neo-Nazis.
- Yeah.

Drove his car through a crowd
at a protest for Black Lives.

Killed a white woman.

Heather Heyer.

All these idiots walking
around with tiki torches,

invoking imagery from the KKK
and Nazi Germany to stoke fear.

There's this terrific
Indian scholar.

I've been wanting to read
his work, but I haven't.

Um...

He's a Dalit professor,
and he won a...

- Sorry, a "Dalit" professor?
- He's a Dalit

and a professor.

The Dalits are
untouchables in India,

beneath the lowest caste.

- Have you ever heard of them?
- No.

- Have you ever heard of them?
- No.

No! Me either. Why?

There's connective tissue here.
There's connective tissue there.

There is connective tissue
here. I... I could...

I could... I could...

I could build a thesis
that shows how all of this,

all of it,

is linked.

Well...

Well, that's the
writer's journey, right?

Sorting all of that out.

There's a lot going on in
that big brain of yours.

I love that. I love it.

But I gotta be honest with
you, I don't understand

how the woman that they
killed, by the neo-Nazis...

Heather Heyer.

How that connects to
the Dalit professor...

- Mm-hmm.
- Connects to Trayvon Martin,

connects to your mom.

I don't see it.

Yet. I don't see that yet.

But if you can
make people see it,

then that is an incredible book.

Come here. Mm...

I love you. Please
be safe, okay?

- Hello, excuse me.
- Hi.

Um, this is the
book you ordered.

- Oh, yes, yes. Please sit down.
- And the list we talked about.

This is a list
from 1935, October,

- a little bit later than the first list.
- Yes.

And here, Remarque,
Erich Maria...

That means everything he wrote
is "to destroyed." Blown.

- "To be destroyed."
- Yes.

Excuse me.

I heard you inquire
about Remarque.

But I couldn't hear
the librarian's answer.

I'm Kästner.

I'm from here.

How long have you
been in Berlin?

About five weeks.

You've no idea what's happening.

- Pardon me?
- I'm sorry, I didn't catch that.

You have no idea
what's happening here.

Everything is being torn apart.

The period of exaggerated
Jewish intellectualism

is now at an end!

The German soul

can express itself again!

No to decadence,

and moral corruption!

Yes to decency and morality
in family and state!

In Germany, there's
memorials to nearly everyone

victimized by the Nazis.

And there's no
entry sign, no gate.

- It's just opened both day and night.
- Yes, yes.

Just standing to bear witness.

20,000 books that
were lost that night.

Books filled with imagination
and ideas, and history.

Leave here, my friends.

Leave Germany.

Go to your home as
soon as you can,

you'll be safer there.

I deliver to the
flames the works of...

Sigmund Freud,

Heinrich Mann,

Ernst Gläser,

Erich Maria Remarque...

Erich Kästner.

"Where you burn books,
you end up burning men."

It's a quote by Heinrich Heine.

He was a poet.
German and Jewish.

No. You are not changing
the subject anymore.

- Oh, yeah.
- Okay.

- Guns, Christmas.
- Yes.

- And then?
- Ah!

- Jawohl. Sweetheart?
- No, I still have

a couple sips left.

You're basically in danger

when you're visiting
your family.

- Yeah. Always.
- It's the American way.

I mean, we know. We
know. It's ridiculous.

That is what I'm looking
at with the article.

You have 900 shootings a
week, it seems, in America,

and you keep giving people guns.

I don't understand at all.

We don't even
understand it ourselves.

We don't understand.

You know, I um... I heard, here,

that displaying the
swastika is a crime.

- Mm-hmm.
- Three years in prison?

Yes, yes, that's true.

I mean, it's not tolerated.

Well, in America, um

the Confederate flag, which
is like your swastika,

the flag of murderers
and traitors,

it is a part of
the official flag

of one of our states,

- No.
- Mississippi.

Men who wanted to
wage war for the right

to own other human beings.

Statues of them sprinkled all
over the country right now.

- Madness.
- Hmm.

You know, it's not perfect,

but Germany has no monuments
that celebrate Nazis.

I mean, everything
Hitler's gone,

paved right over it all,
and built new things.

I mean, you can literally
walk right over Nazi places

and never know they
were even there.

- And the bunker.
- Yes, the bunker.

- It's long gone.
- It's like nothing.

- Yeah.
- I mean, it was 30 feet underground,

and was protected with
reinforced concrete.

And now it has,
like, a Volkswagen

or something parked on top of
it at any given time of the day.

It is very different
than the States.

A very different approach.

Well, there are so
many differences

between here and
there. We are talking

about the systematic
murder of 6,000,000 Jews,

that's the official number.

So it's just very different

than monuments to
soldiers and whatnot.

And what? What are you
saying is different?

All of it. We're talking
about deliberate extermination

over many years.

Yeah, but wasn't slavery
for, like, hundreds of years?

- Right, Isabel?
- Slavery lasted 246 years.

That's 13 generations of people.

Plus another 100
years of Jim Crow,

segregation,
violence and murder.

It is, of course, horrific. I
am not downplaying any of it.

There were so many millions
of African Americans

who were murdered.

From the Middle
Passage until the end

of legal segregation,

that it goes beyond the
realm of an official number.

- There is no number.
- I didn't know that.

- No. It's stunning.
- It is.

And I understand you're
trying to make sense

of American racism. It is noble.

But your thesis linking
caste in Germany

with the United
States is flawed.

Maybe it's not exactly the same,

but the thesis of
structural similarity

certainly gives context
for a framework.

Right, but a framework is
not a book, my friends.

She is trying to connect the
United States to Germany,

but it doesn't fit.

It's as if you're trying

to "fit a square inside
the circle," as they say.

I would just like you
to note for yourself

that American slavery is
rooted in subjugation,

dominating Blacks for the
purposes of capitalism,

using bodies and
lab our for profit.

But for the Jews
during the Holocaust,

the end call was
not subjugation,

it was extermination.

"Kill them all.

Wipe them off the
face of the Earth.

There's no need for them here."

It's different.

I say, leave Jewish folks alone.

They're fine. They
don't need you.

Write about us, Isabel.

I am writing about us.

I just...

I couldn't fully explain

- what was in my head.
- You better than me.

Because I would have had words.

She was rude.

I had words.

I had a ton of words.

Wow. And none of them were,

"I'm the right one on
the wrong day, baby"?

Yeah, well, I'm still
my mother's child,

- and that wouldn't have happened.
- I know.

You never could bag back,
even when we were kids.

Always thinking
about your comeback

the next day.

"I know what I should
have said was..."

What if Brett had
been there last night?

Poor lady.

Probably would still be there,

confronting.

Afternoon.

Hi, afternoon.

Some unwanted visitors, huh?

Looks like they even
built a guesthouse.

I'm putting these out in
the backyard to empty out.

Just have your gardener
pick 'em up in a day or two.

Sir. Sir.

Sir, I don't want that.

I'd rather not have
those nests in my yard.

I have dogs,

and that spray can't
be good for them.

It's fine, won't hurt 'em.

Hey.

Can I help?

- Can I just...
- Yes, go ahead.

Excuse me.

She doesn't want it
back there. Did you...?

Did you not hear what she said?

Yeah, but I can't
take it with me today.

- My bins are full.
- Okay. Well,

I guess we're just gonna have to
figure something out then, right?

I mean, you didn't

you didn't remove that
for free, did you?

No. Right?

- No, I didn't.
- So, look, if this is your tree,

you go ahead and you leave
that wherever you'd like.

But if you do want to
get paid for your work,

you're gonna have
to finish the job.

Appreciate the cooperation.

Did I just mansplain?

- Well, you asked for permission, so...
- Right.

And if you hadn't...

I'd be in a white
saviour mode, right?

What do you know about that?

Oh, hey. Well, break bad habits,

you never gonna
get broke, right?

Well, you asked for permission,

so we'll just call
it being neighbourly.

Okay. Let's... let's do that.

I haven't seen your mom and
dad on their walks for a while.

- How are they doing?
- You know,

they're slowing down. Thank you.

But they're having the
conversation about moving

to Florida.

But they're hanging
in, you know.

- My mom, too.
- Mmm.

I get it.

My mom made me promise
I'd come by today. It's...

It's my birthday, so...

Wait...

- Today is your birthday?
- Yeah.

- Today is your birthday?
- It is.

- Yes, she...
- Oh.

She made me a cake.
Like I was a little kid.

'Cause she still
thinks you're her baby.

I think it's sweet.

Hmm.

Um...

Happy birthday...

It's Brett.

- I'm Isabel.
- Yeah, I know.

And I think birthdays
are a big deal.

- Do you? Wow.
- Yes, I do.

- Not me, honestly, but...
- They should be.

- Really?
- Yes.

Okay.

Will you come over?

Come have a slice
of cake with us,

you know, that would
make my mom so happy.

And... And, you know, it
would make the birthday

a big deal, because I don't
have any idea how to do that.

Well, I haven't seen your
mom and dad for a while.

- There you go.
- Yeah.

I'll come in and say hi.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.

Wow.

- Okay.
- Oh, God.

- What?
- Nothing, what?

Come on, let's go eat some cake.

- She makes a mean cake, too.
- Really?

Oh, yeah, she's got
the layers going.

- What kind are we talking about?
- We're talking about, I mean...

Hopefully, there's not gonna
be, like, a fire engine on it

like when I was seven, you
never know with my mom.

These are the minutes
from the meeting in 1934.

15 months after the
meeting, they become law.

- Jim Crow laws.
- Yes.

- American race laws.
- Yes.

It's mind-blowing.

"Our problem is different."

Their problem is

negroes with nothing
to build upon.

A problem that plays no
part for us here in Germany.

Our problem is the Jews,

"who must be kept
enduringly apart."

- What is this?
- That is a transcript

of a meeting that
I saw a picture of,

where Nazi lawyers were studying
American law and customs

to figure out how to
pull off the Holocaust.

Our problem is the Jews who
must be kept enduringly apart,

since there's no doubt
that they represent

a foreign body in the Volk.

And segregation will
never achieve the goal

as long as the Jews
have economic power

in the German fatherland
as they do have now.

As long as they have the
most beautiful automobiles,

- the most beautiful motorboats...
- Mm-hmm.

As long as they play
a prominent role

in the pleasure
spots and resorts

and everywhere that costs money.

This can only be
achieved through measures

that forbids sexual mixing
of a Jew and a German,

and imposes criminal punishment.

We must answer
the question today

as to whether laws that
the Reich will institute

should declare only the
separation of races,

or if it should declare
the superiority of one

and the inferiority of others.

In the fall of 1933,

Allison Davis and
his wife, Elizabeth,

cut short their advanced studies
at the University of Berlin,

and fled Germany when
Hitler took power.

Well, we finally got proof

that one landowner named Bailey
has been whipping sharecroppers.

Bailey's wife told me

that's the way to manage them
when they get too "uppity"?

We heard about a tenant
farmer, one county over,

who was beaten so badly by a store
merchant, he can't bring in a crop.

We're headin' over
there tomorrow.

Do you know what sparked that?

The Negro man asked
for a receipt.

Beat him right
there in the store.

It inspired him to study
the process of injustice.

This gave Dr. Davis new insight
into the nature of hate.

The other half of their
team was a white couple

named Burleigh and Mary Gardner,

also Harvard anthropologists.

The mission was
quietly revolutionary.

Together, all four
would embed themselves

in an isolated Southern
town from both sides

of the caste divide.

One breach of a social
order could cost them

all their lives.

And this was exactly
what they were doing

in Natchez, Mississippi,

breaching the social order
to study the social hierarchy

of the South.

A mission that would render them

undercover investigators

in order to fit
into the community.

This would be one
of the first studies

of its kind.

Neither couple fully
knew what they were

getting themselves into.

Out in public,

they had to remain in
character at all times.

With the Davises required
to show deference

to the Gardners and
never give the appearance

that they were, in fact,
colleagues in the trenches,

they had to keep to their
own caste performance.

Everyone had to play the
part expected of them.

They don't need to be
out on these streets.

You seen 'em around before?

Oh, yeah.

The monkey's getting too
big for his britches.

Hmm.

Might've to train him.

Come on.

I don't see how we
stay much longer.

Our neighbour
practically invited us

to a lynching yesterday.

And Allison, there've been some

some unkind things
said about you.

I can't be sure these
folks don't get in mind

and do something.

We're seeing similar suspicion,

- we should consider.
- Not yet.

- Allison.
- You're getting into the wide inner circle

- of this town...
- It's not worth our safety.

And that is what
we need to observe.

We're close.

The two couples
kept on the move,

constantly changing clandestine
locations for safety.

They couldn't go to
each other's homes.

Mixing of races was
not allowed publicly

in any form except subservience.

"A most striking tenet of
their embrace of supremacy

is deference."

That should be the core of
the chapter, don't you think?

Maybe you're right.

Deference goes beyond
mere observance

of certain formalities.

We call them "sir"

and they call us
"boy" and "gal."

Exactly.

Never contradicting whites.

Always agreeing with them.

Evenin'.

- Hey!
- Y'all eat?

Been out here readin'
and writin' for hours.

Greens with fatback
gonna get cold.

Hey, now, ain't
gotta tell me twice.

No. Yes, ma'am. Can't
wait to try them greens.

We'll be there.

All right.

Hey!

Hi!

The American material gives us

a path to an answer.

Yeah. America has
succeeded here.

Their legislation
does not base itself

on the mere idea of
racial difference.

But to the extent this
legislation is aimed at Negroes,

it bases itself absolutely

on the idea of inferiority.

Well, Germans are already
convinced that the Jews

are an inferior race.

German laws should reflect that.

Precisely.

I am of the opinion
that we can proceed

with the same primitivity
as the American states.

Such a procedure would be

crude legally,

but it would suffice.

The Nazi blueprint,

for the extermination
of millions of people,

was directly patterned
after America's enslavement

and segregation of Black people.

- America taught the Nazis?
- Caste in America.

In Germany, it
functions the same.

The outcomes might be different,

like Sabine said.

But it is the same.

I think that the
caste system in India,

I think that there is
a connection there too,

but... the interconnectedness.

That is my point.

That is what I'm saying.

Come here.

We proudly bestow
this Ambedkar Award

to Dr. Suraj Yengde,

postdoctoral fellow at the
Harvard Kennedy School.

Come on, win it!
Come on, win it!

Nathaniel, I know it's
gonna be worth the wait.

Give it to me.

Carol, can you finish
uncovering this one?

I got it, baby.

This chicken looks good.

What?

- Respectfully...
- Yeah.

We and everybody are just
wondering about an ETA.

The ETA is when
I say it's ready,

respectfully.

Yes, ma'am.

- Hi, Isabel.
- Hello.

- How you been?
- I've been all right.

Yeah, how are you holding up?

All is well.

How are you two?

We're good.

- Everything's good.
- Starvin'.

I wanted to ask if you
knew one of my professors,

Dr. Montgomery?

I think he studies the
same things you do.

Oh, no. But I'm not keeping
up like I used to, so...

Of course. Well,
he is a smart man,

a nice older gentleman.

I thought you might
like to meet him.

He is handsome for
his age, Black.

Why don't the two of you take
this over to the Uno table?

And tell them we startin'.

- Okay.
- Okay.

Boy.

They mean well.

You know, Brett always
looked forward to these.

You and Mama were the
only ones that let him in.

Folks weren't mean.

I know, but there
was always... that.

"When is she gonna leave him

and find herself
a good brother?"

Now, these containers,
these containers we're in.

We, we... Maybe the...

Maybe the label
says, "Black woman."

Maybe the label says,
"White man, or Asian."

Hey! Fix your face.

You're too young for all that.

You read the label
and we think we know

what's on the inside.

Y'all can eat now. Mm-hmm.

We trust the label.

We put the container
on the shelf.

And that's it.

That's it.

Who need a kiss for good luck?

- Me.
- 'Cause that hand is trash.

Come on, Mama,
give me some sugar.

There you go. Thank you, baby.

Okay, so now go
ahead, I'm listenin'.

I think that's what
my book is about.

Oh. Okay.

I forgot, which one is
yours, which one is mine?

This one is mine.

Okay. Oh, here you go.

So, your book is about
interracial relationships.

Mm, no, no. It's about

it's about caste.

It's a phenomenon of placing
one group above another group.

In a hierarchy.

And the consequences
to its victims

and presumed beneficiaries.

Um...

One more time in English?

A little Pulitzer
Prize-less, if you can.

I can!

Okay, well, then do
it. Make it plain.

Because the stuff you were
saying about the Nazis

got me all twisted around.

How is that in the
same book about Brett?

I don't get it.

Do you think
slavery was a system

of terrorism and torture

that the Europeans used
to profit off the lab our

of Black people who they
considered inferior?

Yeah. Hell yes, it was.

- No.
- Don't shake your head, it was!

No, they made it all up.

Your girl Toni Morrison said,

"Why would you give your
child to be nursed and raised

by people who you
think aren't human,

who are animals?"

- Yes, Toni.
- Yes, Toni.

It was all lies. They
knew we weren't inferior,

but they magnified, they
magnified the myths.

They codify them,
set them in stone,

in systems, in our laws,

in our healthcare, in where
we live, how we learned,

the kind of work that
we do, even our food.

- Racism at its finest.
- Mm-hmm.

No, it's caste.

Everything you just
said was racist.

Okay. Well, if it's racist,

then why is the same
thing happening in India?

They're all brown.
They're all Indian.

Marion, right now to this day,

there is a system in India

where generations of people
are forced to clean sewers

with their hands,

their shit, with their hands.

They are beneath the
lowest of the hierarchy.

They're called Dalits.

At one point, they were
forced to tie brooms

around their waists because

their shadows were
supposedly polluted.

- Hmm.
- Their shadows.

They had to sweep
behind themselves

when they walked.

How is it racist if
they're all the same race?

Okay, do you think
that Jews are white?

Definitely.

The majority are.

But the same thing
happened to Jews in Germany

during the Holocaust.

The Nazis wanted to create
an all-white republic,

but they hated,
they hated the Jews.

So, they said, "How do we
make the Jews not white?"

So, they put them at the
bottom of the hierarchy.

They said that they were greedy.

They said that they
were dishonest.

They blamed them for Germany
losing the First World War.

They blamed them
for everything bad

that happened in Germany.

They were dogs.

"Kill them. Gas
them, wipe them out."

The Jews and the Nazis
were the same colour.

We have to consider
oppression in a way

that does not centralize race.

We do it here in America, yes,
because racism is all we know.

But these containers,

the Dalits in India,
Jewish people in Germany,

Black folks in America,

all these containers
have something in common.

Race is not one of them.

It's caste.

Only took you 10 minutes
for that comeback.

Figure out how to say more
of what you just said,

make it plain.

Talk to real people
like you just did to me.

Real people.

Real things.

You know, we met in college.

So, one time, she
comes up and saying,

"Can I borrow a pen?"

You are... nigga!
That is not true!

And he didn't know
the day of the final.

So he's like, "I've
seen you in my class..."

And I'm just going...

"Do you know exactly
what the day of the..."

And... see. I think you
were trying to get to me.

- Let me let you in on a secret.
- Mmm.

- Okay.
- I knew when the final was.

- That's my baby.
- Night, night.

Night, night. Sweet dreams.

Isabel.

Come by more often, will ya?

We seem to only get the
lasagne when you around here.

I'm hearing that she's
stingy with the lasagne.

I don't know what it is.

Stop, you are lying too
close to Sunday, come on.

- Love you.
- It was good seeing you.

- Good night.
- Good night. Good to see you, too.

Make sure they bathe.
With water, real water.

Yes, ma'am.

- And a washcloth.
- I'll do my best, baby.

Shit, do I...
What... Do I just...

Do I talk slow? What do I...

Okay, so I was in 10th grade,
and we had just moved to Texas,

and my friend and I had
this... these walkie-talkies.

Which, you know, we'd be
using between classes,

to talk or whatever.

- And this was pre-cell phone, of course.
- Right.

- Right.
- Late 80s.

And... the principal
called me to his office,

he was all suspicious.

Because he wanted to
know why all these people

were gathered around my locker.

So I showed him
the walkie-talkie.

And he asked my name.

And I said, "Miss Hale."

And he said,

"What is your first name?"

"It's Miss."

I said, "What is
your first name?"

"My name's Miss."

He's, "I don't have time for
all this foolishness, gal.

What is your real name?"

I've... I've repeated
my damn name four times.

That's a direct
defiance of caste.

The most personal
I've heard yet.

Can you imagine that?

A young Black man plotting

to force the respect
of white people.

Your father tore a loophole
through the hierarchy.

It's brilliant.

Brilliant. Go on, go on.

So the principal was furious.

So he tells his secretary
to check my records,

and, of course, they
confirm that my legal name

is Miss Hale.

So he says to me,

"Hale. I don't know any Hales.

You not from around here.

Where's your father from?"

And I said, "He's from Alabama."

And he said,

"I knew you weren't
from around here."

You know how I knew?

And I said, "No."

And he said, real cold.

"'Cause you looking
me in the eye.

Coloured folk around
here know better."

I was...

I was scared.

- You know, I was a kid.
- Yeah.

I had never felt

that

that cold glare.

You know, he was lookin'
me right in the eyes,

demanding that I not
look him in the eyes.

You know, my...

You know, Daddy would...

It's okay. It's okay.

Daddy tell me again and again,

"Always live up to your name."

He said, "Miss..."

They don't have the
corner on humanity.

They don't have the
corner on femininity.

They don't have the
corner on what it means

"to be a whole, noble,
honourable person."

Far from it.

Thank you.

You okay?

Most relationships end.

Friendships, romances.

Divorces. I mean, separations,
people grow apart.

They break.

But we didn't break.

We fought that night.

It was about something
so silly, Miss.

I should have spent
more time with her.

Daddy would want me to fix this.

For Christ's sake,
would you stop, Isabel?

Just stop.

It's her idea,
she made a choice,

she's a grown woman,
let her make it.

It's like you hide behind
this thing with your mother.

- Hiding?
- I just don't get it.

- Hide? I'm not hiding.
- Hiding. You're hiding.

I'm not hiding.

So silly.

And then

he offered me some pasta

to apologize.

You want some of that pasta?

- Save me some.
- Okay.

And then that was it.

But we didn't break.

We did not break.

We were together.

Til' the end.

He should be here, Miss.

He should be here.

And the one person

that I could talk to about

she's gone, too.

What the hell am I
supposed to do now?

Come, come, come.

You're okay.

I just wanna scream,

I just wanna scream,
I just wanna scream.

Then scream. Then scream.

Scream.

Roomy. Fantastic light.

Will you update or
sell as original?

I was thinking a
fresh coat of paint.

Vintage it is.

Yeah.

There might be
water damage there.

Yes, with everything
going on, I just...

I just basically
locked up the house,

I have to deal with it.

It's a process.

Isn't everything?

So what is the price difference

between fixing it up
and selling it as is?

- As is?
- Yeah.

You're basically giving
this little jewel away.

The area's hot right
now with hipsters.

And these older homes,
when they're fixed up,

can sometimes double in value.

If you can put a few thousand
towards getting it fixed,

you would have a competitive
situation on your hands

with multiple bidders.

You write books, right?

A book.

I'm writing another one, but

books don't pay as
much as people think.

I get it.

Sell as a fixer and don't
even worry about it.

Let someone else do the work.

So let's discuss the contract.

Once the property is
clear, we'll go ahead

and do an open house, that
way, people can come in

and view the property and see
what they're willing to offer.

Like I said, we'll get
multiple bidders...

- Who is that?
- What?

They didn't wanna
get in trouble.

Stop.

She sucked her thumb
and peed in the bed

'til she was 20 years old.

I'm not... I'm just... Stop.

So cute. So cute.

Mm, mm, mm.

Look at Mama.

So cute.

- So fine.
- Yeah.

How much is it?

Eh...

All four estimates
are over $10,000.

- Damn.
- Yeah.

You can't sell the
roofless house.

Well, we'll have to
wait til' I get back.

- You leave when again?
- Next month.

I have so much
research to do here,

and I have to start
a new draft soon.

Do you even know
anybody in India?

Marion, here's Uncle.

That's the point of travellin'.

Meeting new people.

Travelling to places where
you are warmly welcomed

by familiar faces is underrated.

Well, I might have found
an Indian professor

who can help me navigate.

"Might"?

No, no "might."

Here you are.

No, no, no.

- Thank you.
- Thank you, Madam.

Okay, good. Oh, good.

Isabel! Isabel!

Suraj!

- So good to see you.
- Hello, hello.

Allow me to introduce
my esteemed friend...

- Yes.
- Professor Ram Kamli.

- The pleasure is mine.
- Thank you, thank you.

You know what we're gonna
do? We're gonna go straight.

We're gonna walk right there.

- That's where we gotta go.
- We're doing that?

We're gonna do that.

- You're excited?
- Yes, I am.

Welcome to India, Isabel.
It's so good to have you.

I'm happy to be here.

There are signals
on all the corners.

And this is one of the...
This is not four-way.

- This is five-way.
- Five-way.

And if you add a person like me,

I make my own way.

- So, it's like six-way.
- Six-way?

Oh my...

A beautiful market.

- I like this one.
- You like this one?

She would like this.

- It's for my cousin.
- That look gorgeous.

Thank you.

Why is the statue caged?

Ah. Quite observant.

He's Babasaheb, the
leader of Dalits.

Isabel, he's Dr. Ambedkar!

This is the time when
he had just completed

the task of drafting
India's constitution.

There, he's holding
it and standing tall.

You will find these statues
all across the country.

From a busier street,
square, parks,

railway stations, bus stations.

Even in people's
private properties.

Him standing is an
affirmation of our existence.

To us, he is revered.

To others, they revile him.

Dr. Ambedkar statues are
one of the most vandalized

in the country.

The cage is to keep
the vandals away.

Dr. Ambedkar is
more than a champion

and a hero to the Dalit people.

He's the hope that
lives within us.

He went to the heart of
the problem of caste,

and he thought purity was lying

- beneath the artifice of caste...
- Mm-hmm.

And where the human
population was chopped

into what he called "fixed
and definite units."

In America, you
have what you call

the Blacks, the Browns, the
Asian, the Whites, and etc.

Similarly, we have in India,

where the Dalits are
supposed to be at the bottom

- and the Brahmins at the top.
- Mm-hmm.

And between, there are
various units of caste.

What maintains this unit into
continuing of caste system

is unending violence
in the form of rape,

mutilation and murder.

In India, a Dalit person is
attacked every 15 minutes.

Every day, 10 Dalit
women are raped,

and these are only
the reported cases.

Rohith Vemula's friends, family
and the wider Dalit Movement

called it an
institutional murder.

And they called it
this because it was not

simply a case of suicide.

They said that this
was an institution

that was systematically
discriminating

against a young Dalit student.

And this was important
because for a lot of us,

as young folks who were looking

for a life of
dignity and respect,

and were looking to education

and the university
to give us that life,

it showed that the spectre of
caste was still haunting us.

In a world where Dalit
people are brutalized,

simply to keep us in our place,

Dr. Ambedkar remains
our shining light.

Our guardian, our
hero, our father.

The site of
Dr. Ambedkar's last home.

- It's a museum now.
- Ah.

Quite magnificent.

As you can see, it's
an open-book concept.

While he is a
giant among Dalits,

the world has failed to
acknowledge his genius.

Dr. Ambedkar was separated
from the kids of high caste

so as not to pollute them.

As a child, young
Bhimrao Ambedkar

was not allowed to
touch many of the things

his classmates would touch.

He was not even allowed to
touch water at the school.

This is because
he was considered

an "untouchable."

That was the term used
for Dalits at the time.

Young Ambedkar was not
allowed to touch or sit

at a desk during class.

But he persevered.

He continued to study
and break barriers.

Dr. Ambedkar earned two PhDs.

One at Columbia University,

and the other at the
London School of Economics.

After obtaining his PhDs
and passing the bar,

Dr. Ambedkar returned to
India as a heralded scholar.

We have been carrying
on with untouchability

for the last 2,000 years.

Nobody has bothered about it.

You see? Yes, there are
some... some disabilities.

We are very harmful.

Apparently, people
can't take water.

People can't have land, you see,

to cultivate and earn
their livelihood.

There is an insistence on
conflating caste with race.

- Oh, yeah.
- If I brought you

to the family reunion,
what would you say?

What would you say to them?

My cousin Marion.
My... my mother.

What would you say to them

that's important
for them to know

about you, about India,

about caste and our connection?

Our heroes found the connection.

And it is up to us
to find it again,

and build upon it in
sibling solidarity.

When Bhimrao Ambedkar was a
young Indian graduate student,

he found himself
in New York City.

Harlem, to be exact.

He saw kindred spirits among
Black people in America.

Both in the
oppression they faced

and in their survival.

He immediately recognized
the similarities

between how African
Americans were treated

and the treatment of Dalits.

Asha, you've been doing
some work on this right?

Yes, my thesis centred on
Dr. King's visit to India.

He saw many of these
things first time,

while he and his wife
toured the country.

I found the way in which
he wrote about India

to be fascinating as
someone afflicted by caste

in their own country.

I used his essay in the
magazine of United States

as the core of my research.
Uh, do you know Ebony Magazine?

Yes.

Yes, I know Ebony Magazine.

Dr. King wrote about
India in Ebony?

Yes.

July 1959.

It is quite extraordinary.

And so, there is a
connection between us.

The African
Americans, the Dalits,

the indigenous people
around the world,

the Palestinian people, the
Roma people, Buraku people.

- Yes.
- The outcasts of Africa

are still fighting
for their rights.

Be it Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal.

You go to Latin America,
you find outcasts

within the Mexican society
or Brazilian society.

And if we think
about our histories

through the wonderful
ability of love,

the symbols of hate
and diets of violence

will be replaced by compassion,
care and solidarity.

This is the world that
we have to imagine

for ourselves and for others

who have not yet seen the beauty

that human beings have to offer.

One afternoon, I
went down to speak

in the southern part of India,

and I remember that afternoon
that the principal got up

to introduce me.

He said, "I would
like to present to you

a fellow untouchable

from the United
States of America."

And for the moment, I
was peeved. I was shocked

that I would be introduced
as an untouchable.

Pretty soon, my mind ran
back across to America.

And I had to say to myself,
I am an untouchable.

And segregation
is evil and sinful

because it stigmatizes

the segregated as an untouchable

in a caste system.

And this is why I'm convinced

that we have the moral edict,

a moral mandate,

to work to get rid of this
unjust and evil system.

I'll put the phone near her.

Okay.

Baby.

You're on speaker. Um...

She's...

She hasn't been
responding to folks.

I understand.

Marion.

It's Isabel.

Hi, Cousin.

I called to say goodbye.

I believe you can hear me.

You mean so much to me.

I remember everything
you have ever said to me.

From the time that we were kids

until the last time
I heard your voice.

I'll never forget it.

I'll never forget you.

You will walk with me.

You will live in me.

For as long as I'm here.

Watch over me.

Cover me, okay?

I won't see you,
but you'll see me.

There's more to life
than what you can see.

You're going to
experience it all.

I love you. I love
you. I love you.

I could stay around for a bit.

Don't you dare. You go.

So you can come home and
you can write your stories.

'Cause folks need
to know about this.

The pillars are working.

You know, it gives it shape.

Good, good.

Then how many of
them will there be?

Six or seven.

Maybe eight.

And you are going to
make this deadline?

I am going to make
this deadline.

This self-imposed deadline.

Well, I don't have anyone
to push me anymore,

so I have to push myself.

A caste system needs scaffolding

in order to maintain
its hierarchies.

Dr. Ambedkar wrote,

"Caste is an artificial
chopping up of

the population into fixed units.

Each unit is prevented
from fusing into another

through the custom
called endogamy."

Our rehearsing has paid off.

It's only taken six months
to get that twirl down.

But

completely worthwhile.

Let's go again.

Let me powder my nose first.

In showing how
endogamy is maintained,

we can prove the genesis
and mechanism of caste.

Endogamy is defined as
restricting marriage

to people within the same caste.

Have you heard

they're asking for
names and addresses.

They won't.

They're looking for artists
and people who like jazz.

I don't believe it. It's
all blown out of proportion.

No. This happened at the
Wonder Room last month.

This is an ironclad foundation

of any caste system.

From ancient India,
to the Nazi regime,

to the American colonizers.

Laugh, dear.

Laugh right now.

Endogamy enforces
caste boundaries

by forbidding marriage,
sexual relations

or even the appearance
of romantic interest

across caste lines.

It builds a firewall
between certain people.

By closing off legal
family connection,

endogamy purposely
blocks sense of empathy

and shared destiny
between people.

Mama!

Mama!

It was the caste system,

through the practice
of endogamy,

which essentially regulated
people's romantic choices

over the course of centuries,

that created and reinforced
the idea of races.

By permitting only those
with similar physical traits

to legally mate.

Endogamy laws written
and enforced by white men

designed the population
of the United States.

If you were not a white man
and you violated that...

An unknowable number of lives
were lost due to endogamy

the defining pillar of caste.

It triggered the
most publicized cases

of lynchings in America.

A protocol strictly
enforced against Black men

and white women.

Front row seat, darlin'.

One of the foremost
scholars of caste

in America once wrote,

"Tied to what one looked like,

membership in either the
upper or the lowest caste

is immutable.

Fixed from birth to death.

Inescapable.

"One may neither earn
nor wed their way out."

That scholar was
Dr. Allison Davis.

The Davis and
Gardner team emerged

with perhaps the most
comprehensive study,

to this day, of the
American caste system.

Their book, Deep South,

is a quietly revolutionary
landmark experiment

in interracial scholarship.

The Davises and the Gardners
remained lifelong friends.

Nazi Germany, the
United States and India

all reduced Jews, African
Americans and Dalits

to an undifferentiated
mass of nameless,

faceless scapegoats.

Millennia ago,
Dalits were called

the "untouchables" of India.

Enforced into the degrading
work of manual scavenging,

the practice of
cleaning excrement

from toilets and
open drains by hand

in exchange for leftover food.

The only thing that they
have to protect their bodies

is oil, each other

and their prayers.

To refuse is to invite
severe punishment or death.

This persists to this day.

The trade and sale
of African people

demolished communities,
obliterated families

and tore flesh from spirit.

Human beings were
tortured to death,

and thrown overboard
on slave ships

during the Middle Passage.

Upon their arrival at
the concentration camps,

Jews were stripped
of the clothing

of their former lives.

Their heads were shaved.

Distinguishing
features like sideburns

or red hair were
deleted from them.

They were no longer
personalities to engage with.

They became a single mass,

purposely easier for SS officers

to distance themselves from.

Indian activists explained
that the manual scavenger

is not a form of
employment, but an injustice

akin to slavery.

It is one of the most prominent
forms of discrimination

against Dalits, and it is
central to the violation

of their human rights,

to their dehumanization.

Through violent storms
at sea, starvation,

mutilation and rape,

Black people were
stacked and squeezed

into the hulls of ships

to be sold into further
unfathomable terror.

Their bodies did
not belong to them,

but to the dominating caste
to do with however it wished.

No longer daughter
of a fisherman,

or a nephew of the midwife,

loving mothers,

headstrong nephews,
dedicated bakers

and watchmakers,

all merged into a single mass
of undifferentiated bodies.

No longer seen as humans
deserving empathy,

but as objects over whom
control could be exerted.

They were no longer people.

They were numbers.

S.

Dehumanized.

Now a soulless animal.

Not human.

It is harder to dehumanize
a single person standing

in front of you,

harder to dehumanize
an individual

you've gotten the
chance to know.

Which is why people and groups
who seek power and division

don't bother with
dehumanizing an individual.

Better to attach a stigma,
a taint of pollution,

to an entire group.

Dehumanize the group

and you've successfully
dehumanized

every individual
person within it.

Racism is not the same as caste.

Because race does not matter

in order for the system to work.

"Little League team
wins championship."

Mama.

"Little League
team... splashes."

Oh...

It's true.

Go, go, go!

It was a hot day like today.

We were pretty excited

because we had just won
the city championship

when the coach told us he
was bringing us to this park.

And we're gonna get to
eat and go swimming.

And we were quite excited,
as you can imagine.

And then the park ranger
came over and pointed out Al.

Hey, boy!

- Yes, sir?
- You can't be in here right now.

And you know better.
Who you with?

Everything okay here?

- This boy with your team?
- He's one of my players.

You know how long it'd take
for our maintenance crew

- to clean this up?
- Disinfect it?

- Disinfect what?
- This is a whites-only pool.

We didn't know.
Being young kids,

we didn't understand
what was going on.

- Yeah.
- And um,

yet we wanted to go in the pool

because it was so
hot that day, too.

And then the park
ranger, he said,

"If he goes in, nobody goes in."

So, they took Al outside
to a blanket out there.

But, you know, we kept
looking back at Al,

and see him. Why
was he over there?

Mm-hmm.

So, a few of my friends and
I went over to talk to him

and to make sure he was okay.

So it felt strange
when that happened,

that he was over there

- and you guys were here.
- Yeah, it felt separate.

- He was on our team.
- Yeah. Right, right.

And he was a big part
of our team, and then,

they wouldn't let him in.

Some of the parents brought
him over some food to eat.

Mm-hmm.

- He sat there by himself? Ugh.
- By himself.

And then, the coach talked
to the park ranger again

and said, "Hey, you've
gotta let this kid in,

at least for a little swim."

- Yes, yes.
- So he talked to the coach

and he said, "There's
only one way"

- "I'm going to let this happen."
- Mm-hmm.

Everybody out. Come on, now.

Come on.

Come on out now. Come on.

You cannot touch
that water, boy.

You hear me?

Keep your balance.

Do not touch that water.

Real still.

Real still.

Don't touch that water.

It really affected us and
we didn't know what to do.

Right.

And it still bothers me today.

As a kid, we just want to
play baseball and swim.

We didn't know what to do.

And I wish I could
do it over again.

'Cause I don't
think I did enough.

How old were you?

I was nine.

Nine years old.

Al Bright went on to become

an artist and educator.

He was the first full-time
Black faculty member

at his Alma mater,
Youngstown State University.

I missed talking
to him for the book

by a matter of months.

He passed away at age 82.

But a part of him died
that afternoon in 1951.

You're going to be fine.

You're going to be just fine.

The tragedy of caste

is that we are judged
on the very things

that we cannot change.

Signposts on our bodies
of gender and ancestry,

superficial differences
that have nothing to do

with who we are on the inside.

The goal of this work has
not been to resolve issues

of a millennia-old phenomenon,

but to bear witness
to its presence

in our everyday lives,

to shine a light on its
history despite those

who would deny it, despite those

who would withhold
it from us even,

who try to convince us
that we don't need to know.

We need to know.

You don't escape
trauma by ignoring it.

You escape trauma
by confronting it.

When you live in an old house,

you may not want to go in
the basement after a storm

to see what the
rains have brought.

But choose not to look
at your own peril.

We're all like homeowners
who've inherited a house

on a piece of land
that's beautiful

on the outside.

But the soil is unstable.

People say I had nothing to
do with how this all started.

I never owned slaves.

I didn't mistreat untouchables.

I didn't gas Jews.

And, yes, not one
of us was around

when this house was built.

But here we are.

The current occupants
of a property

with stress cracks built
into the foundation,

and a roof that
must be replaced.

We are the heirs to whatever
is right or wrong with it.

We didn't erect
the uneven pillars,

but they are ours
to deal with now.

The cracks won't fix themselves.

Any more deterioration
is on our watch.

Caste is not simply hatred.

It is the worn grooves of
routine and expectation.

Patterns of a social order

that have been in place
so long, it looks natural

when it isn't.

Caste is everywhere,
yet invisible.

No one avoids exposure
to its message,

and the message is simple.

One kind of person is
more deserving of freedom

than another kind.

Freedom to love whoever
you want to love.

Freedom to go wherever
you want to go.

Freedom to express
yourself however you want

to express yourself.

Freedom to resist and fight
for your human right to do so.

♪ We are the colour ♪

♪ Found in spring ♪

♪ You are the wind ♪

♪ Breathe into me ♪

♪ You inherit me ♪

♪ I inherit you ♪

♪ I am the language ♪

♪ You speak to me ♪

♪ As far as the eye can see ♪

♪ Everything has changed ♪

♪ Tell me how can we stand by ♪

♪ I don't wanna be the same ♪

♪ He toiora ahau nu ♪

♪ Te toi n Kurawaka ♪

♪ Taku rongomaiwhiti e ♪

♪ Tkiri ko te ha eat a ♪

♪ Anga atu ki te r ♪

♪ Whiti, whiti ki te or a e ♪

♪ We are the waters ♪

♪ The rivers and streams ♪

♪ Flow through the arm our ♪

♪ Of a dying breed ♪

♪ I am with you ♪

♪ And you are with me ♪

♪ Baptised in fire ♪

♪ We're lions in the ring ♪

♪ As far as the eye can see ♪

♪ Everything has changed ♪

♪ Tell me how can we stand by ♪

♪ I don't wanna be the same ♪

♪ He toiora ahau nu ♪

♪ Te toi n Kurawaka ♪

♪ Taku rongomaiwhiti e ♪

♪ Tkiri ko te ha eat a ♪

♪ Anga atu ki te r ♪

♪ Whiti, whiti ki te or a e... ♪