By Into More
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Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:00
I love this moment here we all are black
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beautiful queer gay man
00:09
we’re living in America and I just want
00:12
to throw the question actually just say
00:14
you being the mature one a man of a
00:18
particular age in the group as Wendy
00:19
Williams would say how do you feel about
00:22
the state of the racial inequality in
00:25
the state of America in 2020 it’s scary
00:27
because now we are able to see what’s
00:31
going on in the past I tell people I
00:34
says I don’t think it’s any different
00:35
now it’s just that we have more access
00:38
to everything that’s going on this
00:39
that’s killing us and how is being done
00:42
and what’s not it’s not that it’s worse
00:46
yeah we just got cameras mm yeah I feel
00:49
the exact same way I felt years ago 20
00:52
years ago it’s like are we still at this
00:54
point you realize how far we haven’t
00:57
come honey I would love to throw the
00:59
same question out to you in a different
01:01
form so we are close to the same age and
01:04
I remember watching Rock McKee be beat
01:06
down in the street then him now you are
01:09
a black man growing up how do you feel I
01:11
don’t feel the same as I did last month
01:12
as I do right now I have been creating
01:15
social justice art and I started doing
01:18
that at the age of 10 because I could
01:20
see all of the turmoil in the world that
01:22
I was gonna grow up into as a person of
01:24
color and right now with the way that
01:26
the world has reacted to this movement I
01:28
have never felt more heard like this is
01:31
just the beginning but we are on the
01:33
precipice of change for the first time
01:35
ever yeah you know for me my reality has
01:39
been so altered because for the longest
01:42
time I couldn’t identify that I was a
01:43
black man I would say that I was other I
01:45
would say I was chocolate Kevin because
01:46
my surroundings were so white I did not
01:49
want to be perceived as the thug the
01:50
criminal the other everything that we
01:52
are portrayed in media and so I wanted
01:54
to just throw at the group everyone’s to
01:55
jump
01:56
what would you speak to as far as
01:58
perception in the minds of non black
02:00
people of who we are in America
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it’s important right now – listen listen
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to stories like this saying that we’ve
02:09
been censoring ourselves to be treated
02:11
differently to be treated fairly so
02:13
where I want to throw this out to you
02:14
same question just a different form what
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do you say to yourself to keep going
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because the reality
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is muscle six-foot-four deep voice
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without being the threat you are the
02:24
threat and that’s the threat that’s
02:25
perceived I can’t change like someone’s
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mind even when they even when laws
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change if your heart isn’t changed it’s
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not gonna it’s it doesn’t check being
02:35
big and being I’ve had people say things
02:37
to me like oh my god I just didn’t
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expect or you see people like kind of
02:41
look at me and then I’ll smile and it
02:43
will change the whole atmosphere of that
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you know and it doesn’t matter how much
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money I make it doesn’t matter how much
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you know how many shows I’ve been on it
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still rests in my mind that that’s how
02:55
you’re looking at so with all of this
02:58
talk you know right now it’s such a
03:00
heightened time everyone’s talking about
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we need reform we need to defund the
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police we need all of these things to
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change how do we bring change to a
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system that was built on hate we need a
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real solution what do you think well I
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think that policing people’s lives has
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never been a solution imagine if when a
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mother steals to steal something to feed
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her kid as opposed to being thrown into
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jail she met with a social worker who
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asked her why she did it and prepared
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her with the things she would need to
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survive like imagine that kind of world
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that’s where we need to move towards
03:32
it’s just like you’ve got the good old
03:34
boys still in there okay and you got
03:36
this one again and it doesn’t matter if
03:37
you have you know everybody was trying
03:40
to do all this all this change these
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it’s so deeply rooted in there you can’t
03:44
have people that have been on a police
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force for 20 years that hate black folks
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or hate any Mexicans or whatever and
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think that that’s going to change that’s
03:51
not going to change like that and it
03:53
also I thought of something is us voting
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we talk we talk we talk so much but
04:00
maybe actions speak louder than words I
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I have become as a 16-6 almost 67 year
04:07
old black man I know I do I feel good
04:09
too and but I I look at it and I get
04:14
aggravated now and I am using my voice
04:17
as the pendulum swings we are starting
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to focus on the issues in every single
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community not just the black ones but
04:23
also the black trans with all of them we
04:25
have to take care of all these issues at
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once because now we can all see them
04:30
in closing gentlemen I feel like these
04:34
times don’t happen often where we kind
04:36
of get to have a black caucus moment
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what would you say is the end goal like
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I believe now people are listening now
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friends who were like oh I thought it
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wasn’t an issue but it is what can I do
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what is it that we want what is the end
04:52
goal for black people what would you say
04:53
I think that more than ever it’s really
04:56
apparent that we need to start over and
04:59
a lot of different ways we have you can
05:01
only paint on a clean canvas so I think
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that the the end goal is for us to look
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into every aspect of our community and
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of our government and figure out the
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places that aren’t celebrating diversity
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and aren’t equal because we really
05:16
shouldn’t be having the discussion
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anymore about if we should or shouldn’t
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treat people equal surround what would
05:22
you say me as a black man in America I
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honestly don’t have an idea I don’t have
05:28
a clue to think to myself where do you
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go from here like we could want this
05:32
because kick it scream but us as if
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people have to want to work together and
05:37
do that
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everybody was locked up in the house and
05:39
you had to face whoever you really were
05:40
now whether you decided to change it not
05:42
that was up to you but you had to we
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just simply need to learn to love this
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is kind of the best thing that’s ever
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happened for us because everything’s
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been hidden and now it’s coming out
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right and everybody’s like what people
05:55
didn’t know we just need to start over
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and my whole thing with starting over I
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will want to propose to you at home in
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to us here in this room is that we are
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gonna have to challenge our levels of
06:07
comfort ability or comfort because in
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starting over that means that we are
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letting go of our pleasantries and the
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things that keep us at bay because it
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keeps the system alive no longer just a
06:19
seat at the table but we want to own the
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table it is no one we’re good for me
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just to be invited in the room that’s
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fine I’ll build my own
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you
06:32
[Applause]
06:34
[Music]
06:47
you
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This post was previously published on YouTube and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video