- [Danielle] Thank you to
Target for supporting PBS.
- Today as a nation,
we are learning to live
with a life-threatening pandemic.
People can appear to be healthy
and well, but in actuality,
they can be the host
to this deadly disease.
Oftentimes this disease is passed down
from generation to generation.
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Racism is a disease that is
able to seep into a person.
It buries itself within a
person's heart, body, and mind.
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- How's it going, Danielle?
- Um, I don't know if I
could have a genuine response
to that question anymore, but it's going.
Hopefully there'll be a day
again where it will be safe
to ask "How are you doing?" and not have
to brace yourself for impact.
- United we stand.
- Divided we fall.
- United we stand.
- Divided we fall!
- Back up! Back up!
- We want freedom, freedom!
- [Danielle] Since the
killing of Breonna Taylor,
George Floyd, and too many others,
people have taken to the streets
to protest racial inequality
and police brutality
in record-breaking numbers.
With anti-racist activists
gaining more attention
from wider groups, we want to explore
what their lived experiences are like
versus the way activists are usually seen.
- We do this work so that we
don't have to do it anymore.
You know, I will, I will
be okay if I am told
that I never have to write
another book on racial justice
if it's because there
has been racial justice.
- [Danielle] Rachel Cargle,
an activist and teacher,
first gained her platform
after a photo of her
at the 2017 Women's March was shared.
- The thing that made the
most conversation was a sign
that said, "If you don't
fight for all women,
you fight for no women."
As that photo continued to go viral,
I just was invited to be part of more
and more conversations
about feminism, about race.
- [Danielle] And with the
recent wave of protests,
she's gained 1.5 million new followers.
- So much of what we understand as success
in the world right now,
whether it's the number
of followers you have, or, you know,
the opportunities for press and media,
me having a book deal
to talk about race only
to talk about the things
that are killing us,
it is very much so a
mind twist of, you know,
what am I doing and how am I doing it
and why am I doing it and to what end?
- [Ali] Ijeoma Oluo
also had immense success
in the wake of these tragedies.
Her book "So You Want to Talk
About Race" recently shot
to the top of many
bestseller lists two years
after it was first released.
- To realize that it takes, you know,
the type of brutality we saw to get people
to like suddenly realize they,
they can have these conversations.
They're willing to have
these conversations.
It can, it can hurt to realize like,
oh, people could do this.
People can engage and they've
just chosen not to, hurt a lot.
You know, I'm just trying
to leverage the attention
that's being paid right now in
hopes of getting real action.
- [Danielle] You might think
the idea of an influencer
or using media to promote
your own self image
or a certain vision of
yourself is a new idea.
But it's actually something that goes back
as far as media itself.
Think about the civil rights
movement of the 1950s and '60s.
Groups like the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,
or SNCC, went out and had
their own photographers
and their own media coordinators
so that they can control the narrative
of what the movement was
and what it looked like
for broader audiences.
For example, this poster
featuring John Lewis
and other student activists
kneeling as they're praying.
This poster sold out after
they made 10,000 copies.
This could be considered
an early viral image.
- This looks like it could
have been made in 2020.
It's so relevant to right now.
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- [Danielle] This work is
also attracting younger
and younger activists
who are making lasting
change their life's mission.
- My name is Elijah Lee.
I am a 12-year-old activist originally
from Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.
I became a minister at the
age of ten and it started
when my church had children's
church every fifth Sunday.
And I would get up and I
would tell a little story
from the Bible and over
time that kind of escalated
to now me giving these full-on sermons.
Every morning I leave my house,
I am forced to pass
multiple Confederate flags.
You say to me that this is just history.
Yet when you have a heritage of rape,
bondage, and slaughter, I stand here today
to tell you that that
is a heritage of hate.
I take it upon myself to take a message
and write it down and really put effort
into what God wants
others around me to hear.
In Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina,
a majority of people come
from low-income families
and we are moving to Richmond, Virginia
because of my mom's job.
With all of this, just put
away the activism for a minute.
I'm a 12-year-old child.
My family is here,
my friends are here and we're moving
in the midst of a global pandemic.
We're moving in the midst of a lot of hate
and racial wars going around.
- The common perception
of an activist can seem really narrow.
They're not necessarily
thought of doing normal things
like vacationing with their family
or spending time with
their children or resting.
- The anti-racism educators in the world
and the way that we're portrayed is
that anti-racism work is all that we are
and all that we do.
I, as a Black woman, have
been putting in so much work,
both to survive, both to educate.
One of the things that I've had trouble
with is things like going on vacation
and sharing it on social media.
Do I have to, you know,
be marching at all times
in order to prove that
I'm really for the people?
- Finding a way to be your own self
and to occupy space is hugely
important for every person.
Social media could be a radical way
to share that full self online.
- Just existing online
kind of with the freedom
that I give it, that's
part of my resistance too
to say, "I'm not gonna exist
in a box for your comfort."
I've posted nude photos
of me from, you know,
very artsy shoots that
I've done with friends.
And then the next post is me
posting a social syllabus.
I often say, when we
show up authentically,
we write permission slips for each other.
And so I hope that my
work is really continuing
to write permission slips for Black women
to exist in whatever way they want.
- All right, it's recording. (laughs)
So I have done most of
my base makeup already.
And we're just gonna do the fun part.
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- One of the things I love
about your Instagram feed is
you share photos of your makeup.
- I love makeup and it
brings me a lot of self care.
Women of color's bodies are so policed.
We are only allowed to
exist for one thing.
We are rarely seen as whole
people. I'm a whole person.
By the way, if your wing is ever smudgy,
just take your finger and kind of drag it.
I like things to be a little messy.
If you build the mess in,
then the mess you didn't
intend kind of fits.
- How do people react when you're jumping
to these different parts of your identity?
- Sometimes people will tell me
if I post, you know, two
makeup pictures in a row,
I might get a message saying,
"I came here for the politics
and not for the makeup."
Well, I don't really care
what you came here for!
(laughing) Like, I'm a person.
I still write about
issues of race and gender,
and I am taken seriously in that work,
and I still believe that I deserve
to put sparkle on my face if I want to.
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I am fighting for Black joy.
I am fighting for our not just survival,
but for our ability to thrive.
- Hi everyone! We are out
here in downtown Richmond.
Right next to the beautiful museum,
we have the Robert E.
Lee Confederate Memorial.
Now that we've moved, I'm
surrounded by a sense of hate.
I'm surrounded by this negativity!
But at the same point in time,
I'm also surrounded by a
lot of beautiful people.
I definitely want to just show like
how racism has really almost
brought people together
in a sense.
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Behind me you can see
Robert E. Lee's statue.
And here you can just
see messages of hope,
messages of Black Lives Matter.
We have a little bit of
a barricade right here,
and I just really quickly want to show all
of this graffiti that's right here.
This is some really
beautiful pieces of art.
We're talking that love is power.
We initially thought this
was going to be grim,
it was going to be like a funeral.
Whereas we walked in,
it was like it was going to be a party.
Behind me, you're going to
be able to hear a little bit
of music and it's honestly there just
to show the sense of community.
It's there to show a sense
of life, to show that
yes, there is this systemic racism,
but at the end of the day,
we are here to be one with one another.
We are here to love one another,
no matter the color of your skin.
It's important that we remember
how Black lives do matter
and that all lives can't
until Black lives do.
- There's part of me that
is incredibly hopeful
that this will be the last
time we see an unjust killing.
This is the last time we'll have to march.
This is the last time that we'll have
to raise our voices for racial justice.
I'm also somewhat pessimistic
because I always remember
what the last instance was,
what the last conversation was.
And it's almost impossible
for me at times to shake that.
- This fight is a fight
that needs to be won.
And it needs to be won now
because too many children are dying
and too many children
have already been hurt
and are pained by this horrible thing
we call racial injustices and hate.
- Well, you know, looking at my kids,
they need to see me act like we're going
to get through this in order to know
that there is a positive future
waiting for them as well.
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- [Ali] We'd like to thank Target
for being a proud supporter of PBS.
- Target stands with Black families,
team members, and communities.
- Target is committed to
using its resources nationwide
to help heal and create lasting change.
- Target is investing time,
resources, and funding
to support new and long-standing partners
across the country.
- Groups working to
empower Black communities
and create opportunity.
- To learn more about Target's support,
go to target.com/community.
- [Woman] PBS American Portrait is
- A platform where
- People can go to in order
to share their experiences.
- To join in,
- Go to pbs
- .org
- /americanportrait.
(swelling instrumental music)
- When one falls, we all fall.
But when one rises, we all rise.
So now is the time that the
United States of America rises
to end racism!
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