(slow intense music) (people yelling) (flames burning) - Well, racism means... (clears throat) - A race feels that they superior to another race.

(slow intense music) - It makes you feel like your life is worth less.

It really does.

- I don't know, I just wish there was a solution already.

(slow intense music) - A race feels that they are superior to another race.

Not only do they believe that, but they act on it.

(Rakesh rapping) (beeping) - My name is Rakesh and I should be judged about what kind of person I am.

Rakesh means the sun and the moon.

- I think the policemen aren't the safest people.

I guess I had a naive perspective of racism back then.

- Oh, cops are your friends, you're supposed to, they're here to protect you, but all I'm seeing is the opposite.

I was just looking at my expression.

How can I not be afraid when I feel like I'm being hunted?

Obviously I was very angry.

I also kind of see this subtext of longing, this real desire for things to not be this way.

Don't mind me.

(upbeat music) Fear, the frustration, the fatigue, all brewing and boiling together, constantly bubbling at the top, always threatening to burst, but don't interrupt, stay cool.

- As I got older, I saw that there's so many different types of racism, so I think that was one of the things I would probably tell myself to look out for.

(slow intense music) - Imagine that your words worth less your life, worth less, can you imagine the kind of rage that that would inspire?

♪ And I think to myself ♪ And you were here when truth was killed.

♪ What a wonderful world ♪ - When I was in fifth grade, I didn't know half of this stuff that we were talking about.

Especially in school, I feel like they find a way to sand the rough edges of slavery and other discrimination against people of color.

(slow intense music) (people yelling) - I felt so much of these feelings when I was a kid.

In sixth, seventh grade, we're reading these history textbooks.

We opened the page to this painting.

And this is the symbol of manifest destiny.

But those of us that are Brown, that are indigenous, that are Black, we are literally chased out of the frames of these pictures and then forced to invest in that emotionally or believe in that.

All of it, when I think about it, when I sit with it, it's crazy.

- [Man] There's a narrative that we're dangerous.

- I mean, every day, people are getting killed, so it's like, it's hard to be hopeful, to be honest with you.

- I can't watch another video of a Black and Brown person being murdered by police officers with impunity.

I just can't do it anymore.

'Cause I've reached a breaking point.

- Many moments that I encounter my Blackness and have to decide whether it was something to be proud of or something to be scared of.

Just something to have to reckon with.

- An interesting conversation I was having with my white friend was just the acknowledgement in the difference of our race and the impact that plays in our relationship and our lives individually.

- Five years ago, I was still chasing whiteness.

I realize that that's futile now.

White supremacy taught me that the world is destined to a certain group of people.

I've worked to undo all of that.

And I have a language to address this stuff that I don't believe in.

(slow intense music) - I've always been taught to think critically, to always question authority, question orthodoxy, and I still am learning and trying to figure it out 100%.

But I'm understanding that racism is a tool.

(slow intense music) - I have no more time to deal with chasing institutional space or agency over some art career that really means nothing because it's all founded in a farce of an American dream that I no longer believe in.

- Call it as you see it, but don't make your voice too loud.

We don't wanna scare the white folk, even though when we scream and shout and voice our pain, many of them seem to think it's a joke, and then they want to tell us about hope.

Or community.

It's important to name your emotions, but the naming has to be followed with a decision, as well.

I am angry.

What do I do about that?

- Here goes Malik!

Malik!

I'm honestly surrounding myself with Black people.

It goes along the way to know that someone is feeling the exact same way that you're feeling.

It makes you kind of wanna advocate for yourself and it makes you understand that you have value in a way.

- I am fortified in my history and my ancestry and I have only but one way to go from here.

- Being in this constant state of discovery and exploration, that's really restorative for me, especially when we're living in a time of so much trauma and so much violence.

This feeling of self-determination, it kind of guides my life.

How do I wanna be in the world?

How do I wanna feel?

What do I wanna do?

- I think all Black people are inherently activists.

Our existence is radical.

- When I was younger, I didn't really see that.

And I kind of had that thought in my head that, oh, this is not my fight, this is not my battle, but it is.

(audience yelling) - I think I have a duty not only to call out anti-Blackness, but to also lift up pro-Blackness and lift up my Black peers.

(upbeat music) - [Don] For so long, I've been vying for a seat at the table.

- [Rakesh] But as I've gotten older, I've realized, I don't have to live in that structure.

I don't have to look at myself by how whiteness looks at me.

- [Man] These is all this stuff we can do on our own.

And with each other.

(slow intense music) - I came from Black people.

I got my identity from Black people.

And it would be disgraceful not to step up for people being oppressed.

I am included in that.

(slow intense music) (upbeat music) - We're constantly finding new ways to access levels of freedom.

It's not so much about how we excel despite all odds in this society, but how we find room to breathe, how we find room to dance, how we find room to love.

(upbeat music)