You say we're the American

Dream?

Yes you're the American Dream.

Finally somebody sees it.

[Laughter]

How could you not be?

[music]

Hey I'm Troye

This is Darius.

And that's Danny.

We were college roommates and

played football at Georgetown.

During college, yeah we threw a

lot of parties, but at the same

time we were out in the

community doing good.

Our senior year, we met a guy

named Frank Luntz.

You might know him.

You might not.

But he's a very big political

strategist.

We started working with him and

he challenged us to take our

experiences growing up in DC and

go out into our community and

make a difference.

At the time, we would have never

have guessed we'd have grew GOOD

and raise millions of dollars,

and make a huge impact where we

live and work.

Darius, he's the one who's not

afraid to speak his mind.

He knows everyone.

Me, I'm super empathetic.

I'm in touch with the community

and I know how to get things

done.

Danny, he's the go-getter.

When we talked about the idea of

starting GOOD in college.

He came home the next day to our

dorm and said, "Hey guys I filed

the paperwork." Along the

journey, we linked up with the

good people at Chasing the Dream

and they challenged us to go out

and explore the authenticity of

the American Dream.

And this, this is what we found.

Chasing the Dream!

Minus one.

Next episode, we got my man

Richard Gant.

How did we find Richard Gant?

Did you find him?

Did Darius find him?

I don't know.

We can't ask him, he's not here!

[Laughter]

Nah, it was at the Milken

Conference.

Oh!

He was walking around like, I've

definitely seen him in some

movies.

Oh, he's been in a lot of shows

and TV series.

When did he debut, in the 80s?

1980 was his first.

See?

So there you go.

That's about 40 years being in

the industry.

He's seen it all.

The American dream for him

definitely has to have changed.

Yeah.

Also, I think we're scheduled to

have his daughter, too.

If we have his daughter, we can

definitely flip that, as well.

Yeah.

Like, how does the American

Dream feel different, you know,

being the daughter of an actor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And does she even have like an

American dream because is she

already living it?

I wonder if for him, does it

feel different?

Like, at this point in time,

does it feel like the American

dream is different for you, or

does it just feel like you're

just living your reality?

Or has he even realized what

the American -- the new American

dream is for young black men

like ourselves?

Maybe we could teach him

something, you know?

You never know.

Hey, we are the American

dream.

Exactly.

So Richard, you look good for

75, man.

You've got your beautiful

daughter here....

He's not 75.

[Laughter]

1944.

I did my research.

Google always lying, you know

that.

1944.

1944.

I'm not counting your clock by

any stretch Richard...

But you're now also telling the

audience something they might

not know...

But I'm saying, as you start to

get up and you are starting to

see a lot of your friends go

that you came up with, how do

you stay motivated?

Like you talked about, 'Hey, I'm

still working on new projects.'

But that's it

you know.

There's an excitement about what

I'm doing now, you know.

Yes, I'm in the arts.

Yes, I have a life in the arts.

Yes, I'm on stage.

Yes, when I kick out of here, I

probably hope that I'm on stage,

you know.

But I'm also...

Yes, you were in Rocky.

You know, I've had a good

career, but the other things

that I'm doing.

When I first stepped foot on

stage, it is because of Langston

Hughes.

I was introduced to Langston

Hughes in a theater class, a

black literature class.

Then I was introduced to Wole

Soyinka, a Nigerian playwright,

and that became my passion then,

to get black Americans and

blacks from the diaspora in

Africa together on stage as part

of production.

And that's become my life's

work.

What was it for you?

Like to say, 'I want to be

great.'

Cause, as I'm sure you know,

there's a lot of people that

even you grew up with, and

there's people that we surround

ourselves with that we're trying

to pour into them every day.

'You can do this, you can do

that.

You can be anything you want to

be.'

And it goes in one ear and out

the other.

But you made that decision at

some point in life to, 'Hey, I

want to be Richard Gant!'

I mean I was always doing

something, there's no two ways

about that.

I was either the president of

the junior choir at church, or

the usher boy, or something

always.

Then in the service, I was in

the NAACP there in whatever

little town that I was in.

kind of a thing

But when I got out, got back to

school, I was at Merritt

College, and I joined a Black

Literature class, you know.

Stepped foot on stage for the

first time and realized that's

where I was supposed to be

Dakota, what was it like for

you, you know, growing up,

watching this guy do his thing?

Ah

People have been asking me for

the past few days, and I really

don't have a good answer, like I

don't have another dad.

[Laughter]

Like what is it for you?

Nothing to compare it to.

I don't have anything else to

compare it to, like I don't know

what it would be like to not.

It's pretty cool!

[laughter]

The weirdest thing is like comis

like hearing him and I'm

thinking he's in the living

room, and its.. he's on TV.

And I'm like 'Oh!

Okay!'

[laughter]

we just came back from Ethiopiad

Ethiopia this past Christmas.

Ethiopia blew my mind.

[laughter] Then we go back to

Addis Ababa and we see the

bones...

we see Lucy's bones.

Lucy, the first person, the

first woman.

What do you mean the first

person?

Like the first person ever.

I learned about that in our

history.

Lucy, yeah.

What?

Yes, but see that's not the

killer.

The killer is she's black.

So what does that do to you?

What does that do now to your

dreams?

Of who you are, and what you can

be and want to be.

In our work and the community

we work in, do you think that

that seeing Lucy's bones or expg

that to the kids that are in our

programs would change their

mindset?

Hell no.

No, I'm joking.

I don't know.

[laughter]

well

For the younger kids

maybe

For the older kids, I think

they've experienced such traumas

and et cetera that they wouldn't

be able to appreciate it at that

point.

I think some of them are too far

gone in a sense, with their

experiences, where their head is

at, or what the American Dream

could be to them honestly and

what the world is that they

wouldn't be able to appreciate

it at that point.

I think the American Dream, in

all senses that you've been

describing, is about expansion.

Like economic expansion,

expansion of self knowledge,

expansion of the mind.

So like, most of this stuff, if

you were to take children to see

Lucy or whatever, it's expanding

their mind and taking them out

of whatever construct they've

been placed in, right?

So it's really about like, you

know, you see Lucy, but what

does that do for who you are?

Like what does it spark in

you?

What does it spark, exactly.

So even if you feel like you may

be too far gone, what it fixes

in you when you realize that you

are more than your experiences,

you are more than what happened

to you or your trauma or

whatever.

That is the American Dream.

It's interesting you say that

because when we first started

this work working with our

juveniles, you know, I used to

tell them all the time, you

know, you're bigger than your

situation.

Like you come out of the system

as a 16 year old, your

right

your commitment is over and nowu

write a book on how you're

changing your life.

I'm like some of these agencies

that would have locked you up

or these court systems that woup

now will pay you to talk to oths

about how you got out and how

you changed your life.

If you're just a normal African

American boy that's living every

day going to a bad school, not

really knowing what to do, not

much support at home, I think

you're less likely to be

successful, have trajectories

than somebody

who is coming

out of the prison system

who just served a long sentence

for drug offenses because that

person has more attention and

more resources that are going to

be focused on them when they

return home.

I think you're absolutely right.

But by the time we help you,

we've already taken away half of

your civil liberties.

It's almost like a dependency

thing too is that the system is

almost setup as if I'm coming

out of these communities, I want

you to be dependent on me to

make it out.

So you've now went into the

prison system, you can only get

certain jobs, so now let me come

in and kind of be your savior

and be helpful for you.

Where we're not setting up a

system where people can be

self-sufficient, can be

independent.

And that's really troubling.

And I think that's why we always

say us three are the exception

to the rule because at the end

of the day, we went the normal

trajectory.

We were poor in a messed up

situation in a messed up

community, and we fought through

and did the right things and got

into private school and got into

one of the top universities in

the world and graduated and did

our thing.

Well, but it's a system and how

do you break out of the system?

How do you recognize that you're

in the system and can break out?

You have to recognize that

you're in the system.

Yes but, so you've identified

this particular problem, a

regular kid.

What's his trajectory?

How does he project?

And where is the help for him?

But I contend that the system is

more pervasive than even that.

I mean you go to school, right?

You come out owing from 40 to

120-thousand dollars.

And so you're already in the

system.

Then maybe the American Dream

should really be called the

American Standard?

Right?

The American Standard is you end

up in the system where you have

a job, you're in debt, and

you're just continuously paying

bills, and that's your life

trajectory.

And yeah you have the

opportunity to shift, and to go

from here to there and industry

to industry and career to

career, but at the same time,

you're still gonna be in that

debt system unless you become

richer somehow.

I would say that the color of

your skin still factors into

your ability to obtain that

dream.

But I think that I'm really

naive in the sense that even as

a black man, like growing up in

this generation, I feel like

there's nothing holding me back.

Honestly.

It's the generation.

We're privileged.

But we're privileged because of

our knowledge and our education.

Yeah, that's why we're

privileged.

There's levels of privilege.

You have privilege because of

your wealth, you have privilege

because of your education -- You

have privilege because of your

skin color.

Because of your skin color,

because of your access.

There's different levels to

privilege.

And so you go to a top

university, more than one

percent of the world haven't had

that privilege of receiving that

level of education or access.

Yeah but how about the notion

that because I'm

African-American things are

better for me.

Simply because that's how I

think, and that's how I approach

the world.

And I think that's an attitude

that those people who have a

positive spirit need to have:

Because I am this, I am that.

I believe it's about spirit.

I swear to you.

If you can some kind of way

believe that other things are

possible, that I am greater

than, or that there's other

kinds of things out here other

than what everybody is talking

about, I believe that's it for

me, you know.

And I believe that's my mission.

You say we're the American

Dream?

Yes you're the American Dream.

Finally somebody sees it.

[Laughter]

How could you not be?