WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:01.502 - It tends to be White people, 00:00:01.502 --> 00:00:03.449 when they're just trying to figure out what to call you. 00:00:03.449 --> 00:00:08.026 They're just like "she's Bla (mumbles) and African, 00:00:08.026 --> 00:00:11.532 "I don't know, (laughs), she's my friend!" 00:00:15.066 --> 00:00:17.270 - I grew up identifying as Black. 00:00:17.270 --> 00:00:19.290 - I identify as a Black man. 00:00:19.290 --> 00:00:21.989 - I think I identify, I call myself Black, 00:00:21.989 --> 00:00:24.400 just because I'm still trying to trace my ancestry. 00:00:24.400 --> 00:00:26.404 - I identify as African American. 00:00:26.404 --> 00:00:28.632 - I identify as Black, but I'm also Creole. 00:00:28.632 --> 00:00:32.824 - I am Bayesian American and Nigerian American, 00:00:32.824 --> 00:00:35.195 but I, honestly, I call myself Black. 00:00:37.197 --> 00:00:37.898 - Black is beautiful, 00:00:37.898 --> 00:00:40.101 and I've always just found strength in the word. 00:00:40.101 --> 00:00:41.985 Black is strong, Black is pretty. 00:00:41.985 --> 00:00:44.142 - Depending on the situation or the moment in time, 00:00:44.142 --> 00:00:45.330 I feel hella proud, 00:00:45.330 --> 00:00:47.534 like incredibly proud to be a Black man, 00:00:47.534 --> 00:00:50.540 and Black Power, all that other good stuff. 00:00:50.540 --> 00:00:51.217 But then-- 00:00:51.217 --> 00:00:53.376 - To society, there's a lot of negative. 00:00:53.376 --> 00:00:55.092 So Black is synonymous with ghetto, 00:00:55.092 --> 00:00:57.924 it's synonymous with loud, it's synonymous with lazy. 00:00:57.924 --> 00:00:59.620 - The only time that it really bothers me 00:00:59.620 --> 00:01:02.652 is when it's used amongst people who look like me. 00:01:02.652 --> 00:01:03.848 Someone from the Caribbean, 00:01:03.848 --> 00:01:06.370 or someone from a country in Africa, that are saying-- 00:01:06.370 --> 00:01:07.766 - I'm not Black, I'm Nigerian, 00:01:07.766 --> 00:01:09.885 or I'm not Black, I'm Bayesian. 00:01:09.885 --> 00:01:10.886 - Members of my family, 00:01:10.886 --> 00:01:13.510 they wanna separate themselves from Black Americans, 00:01:13.510 --> 00:01:16.737 because they think that being too tied to that 00:01:16.737 --> 00:01:17.849 means that they're ghetto. 00:01:17.849 --> 00:01:20.307 - We should be on a much stronger unified front. 00:01:22.009 --> 00:01:23.052 - It's interesting for me, 00:01:23.052 --> 00:01:25.477 because I technically am African American. 00:01:25.477 --> 00:01:27.058 - I mean me personally I feel like, 00:01:27.058 --> 00:01:29.774 African American is a label that was created for us. 00:01:29.774 --> 00:01:31.305 - It just seems like something that would be 00:01:31.305 --> 00:01:33.804 in like the New York Times to describe Black people. 00:01:33.804 --> 00:01:35.270 - I'm not from Africa directly, 00:01:35.270 --> 00:01:37.151 so I don't feel like I should label myself 00:01:37.151 --> 00:01:38.498 as an African American. 00:01:38.498 --> 00:01:40.730 - I think for some people it just feels wrong 00:01:40.730 --> 00:01:43.513 to hearken back to something that they now, 00:01:43.513 --> 00:01:45.837 unfortunately don't really have a connection to. 00:01:45.837 --> 00:01:48.645 - I sometimes refer to myself as Ghanaian American, 00:01:48.645 --> 00:01:50.843 just because, I mean that's what I am. 00:01:50.843 --> 00:01:55.357 African American is still such a wide and broad term. 00:01:55.357 --> 00:01:56.353 - My family is from Haiti, 00:01:56.353 --> 00:01:59.514 so I never really tied myself to African American. 00:01:59.514 --> 00:02:02.505 - There's 90 something countries in Africa, right? 00:02:02.505 --> 00:02:04.273 - Just like there are varying types of White people, 00:02:04.273 --> 00:02:05.689 there are varying types of Black people. 00:02:05.689 --> 00:02:08.103 - I don't think there's anything wrong with that term. 00:02:08.103 --> 00:02:10.913 I think it just depends on where you are, 00:02:10.913 --> 00:02:12.984 and finding yourself and your ancestry. 00:02:14.724 --> 00:02:17.976 It's just kind of interesting how as a people, 00:02:17.976 --> 00:02:19.730 we find identity with certain words. 00:02:19.730 --> 00:02:20.752 - And maybe that's the other thing, 00:02:20.752 --> 00:02:23.284 is that how you identify with it is just fluid. 00:02:23.284 --> 00:02:24.676 - I think bein' Black is dope. 00:02:24.676 --> 00:02:26.416 I think if you are rejecting it, 00:02:26.416 --> 00:02:28.507 you're missing out on a lot of fun shit. 00:02:28.507 --> 00:02:30.827 - Regardless of your race and your ethnicity, 00:02:30.827 --> 00:02:32.199 your background so to speak, 00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:33.665 just be proud of who you are. 00:02:33.665 --> 00:02:38.096 ("The Gang")