[upbeat music playing]
[clicking]
[Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" playing]
[clicking]
What the fuck? [scoffs, sighs]
[spray hisses]
[squeaking]
What took you so long?
Thought you was gonna be here an hour ago?
[man 2] Man, it's straight Mad Max out there.
People ain't got the sense they were born with.
Out here rioting in the streets during a damn pandemic.
It's crazy, man.
You see what they did?
[man] Damn.
You know what I should've done?
I should have went to the gun store in March when I had the chance.
Had me on the phone with insurance all morning,
using my high-pitched voice.
Hey, how's the work coming?
[man muffled] I set up the cameras.
How am I supposed to hear you through your mask?
We're outside, ain't we?
Six feet apart, you safe.
Just saying, I got here early and set up the cameras and the switcher.
So if you just focus on these speakers, maybe we get outta here early?
Cables need to be swapped.
I got to use the XLRs for the Electro-Voice.
Wait, why are we using those?
'Cause the goddamn looters stole my good speakers.
Lucky I had these dinosaurs still in storage.
How many times I got to tell you not to set the exposure to auto?
No big deal. I'll fix it.
You know I have to reposition and demo each setup after we finish with the audio?
To guarantee the quality.
You, uh, sure you need me here for that, today?
You got somewhere else better to be?
You think this is how I wanted to show up to my only contract in three months,
with some busted up old speakers?
No, sir. I didn't say you did.
You're acting like it, man.
If you're gonna be mad, be mad at these looters.
Destroying people's property who was struggling to survive
during this pandemic.
A lot of the things I've seen online was peaceful protesters.
They don't show that on the news.
Except I know that they was looting 'cause they broke in my van, stole shit
and left a goddamn gang tag.
That's not what that is.
[man 2] What?
It's not a gang tag.
ACAB, stands for "all cops are bastards."
Really? Get that smirk off your face.
-[laughs] -All cops are bastards?
Who that's for? And what is that even accomplishing, man?
My uncle was a lieutenant. He bust his ass every day to provide for his family.
They calling him a bastard?
I don't know. I guess all cops are bastards,
except John's uncle who just wasn't as sketchy. [chuckles]
You're lucky you got jokes. Tell you what,
you destroy another man's property, you deserve whatever is coming your way.
I wish I would've ran up on one of them white boy anarchists,
out in the streets, busting up windows.
Put me in a room alone with them for 30 seconds,
-would had a field day whooping that ass. -[rings]
I gotta take this.
It's a free country.
Hey, baby.
Hey. Okay, so I narrowed down our sign options to these.
Top three.
-One sec. -I gotta--
[Ayana] These are the ones I got.
The neon one 'cause I'm like, it's in your face. It's the future.
I got this black one 'cause it's like black, like blackness.
I also got this one.
-Because it's like-- Yeah? -Ayana. [laughs]
Look, the posters and everything, they're real cool. Um…
I'm worried John's not gonna let me get outta here
in time for the protest. That's all.
Are you serious?
You know, it's like, does he not know he's Black too?
Overseer John on the wrong side of history.
Uh, I think we might want to reconsider that nickname,
in the light of the current moment.
I'm not comparing, I just--
[scoffs] You know what? You're right.
-We should lift each other up. -Listen.
I'm gonna do everything I can to talk some sense into him, okay?
Um, but one thing's for sure, I promise I will not miss this protest.
It's way too important.
Okay, cool, 'cause I made mad posters and you need to carry one.
-I mean, I'll carry you if you ask me. -[laughing]
Oh, my God. You're so corny. Bye.
[man] You, huh, want me to connect these speaker cables?
-[chiming] -Yeah. That's why they're there.
Can you tell me why white people I barely know keep texting me
-asking me if I'm okay? -[chuckles]
White sympathy texts. Think somebody on Black Twitter put 'em up to it.
-White people are so confused. -[laughs]
"Heard about this racism thing.
Wanted to make sure you didn't get murdered since we last spoke."
They always end it with, "Feel free not to respond."
-Bitch, I always feel free. -[laughs]
Hey, um…
So, you know how I was telling you about those peaceful protests earlier?
Yeah. What about it?
I-- I-- I was wondering, maybe since I got here early to set up the cameras,
maybe I could get off early to go to one.
Leave work early to go march in the streets.
-Yeah. -Hell no. Absolutely not.
I should've figured.
Should've figured what?
[sighs] That you would be on the wrong side of history.
What you got to tell me about history?
You was in diapers when Obama got elected.
I was seven.
That's the problem with y'all generation. Think y'all discovered racism.
Man, now ain't the time. Get back to work.
I'm sorry.
I'm just curious. What exactly am I supposed to do then,
every time another Black person gets murdered by the police?
What? Just shrug it off?
Not fight back? Sit and do nothing?
What makes you think you're doing nothing?
[laughs] We are setting up a remote graduation
for a bunch of rich, privileged, white private school kids.
This is a Black-owned business.
This is how you fight.
You work hard, you learn and you build something that lasts.
It's hard to build something that lasts
when an officer has his knee on your neck for nine minutes.
The man screamed out for his dead mother.
Are the police stopping you from doing your job?
Why you wanna get in these big-ass crowds,
when Corona is hitting Black people hardest?
I'll wear a mask. You were telling me not to.
Wear a mask for what? So you can fight racism?
[chuckles] How you fighting it?
Is it going somewhere if you don't get out there today?
Y'all kids ain't got no strategy. Y'all thought about demands?
We demand that they charge the officers that murdered a man in broad daylight.
We demand they defund and dismantle the racist institution of American police.
-I could go on all day. -You're tripping.
-Black people need police. -I'm tripping?
You know American police was founded on the idea of slave patrols
and the oppression of Black lives?
What janky-ass history book you get that from?
They got police in Kenya. Police in Sweden. Police in Japan.
Is that from slave patrols?
This boy don't even know what he's protesting.
I'm protesting the systematic killing of Black people by the State.
And you should be too.
You're screaming at the sky without a plan.
You and your friends, y'all here playing civil rights hero.
Out here destroying your own damn city.
Y'all say y'all out here in this man's memory?
-Looks like an excuse. -His name is George Floyd!
I know his name. Keep your six feet.
If you know his name, then you say it.
So that you remember the way he was murdered in the street.
You remember he was a person. He had a daughter!
And if you understand that, if you really care about Black lives,
then you will say his name.
George Floyd.
That's a nice speech.
Now get back to work or you fired.
[rings]
I need to take this.
You need to work!
Man…
do what you gotta do.
So, some random Becky from my World History class
decides to Venmo me
for my emotional labor like some kind of reparations microloan.
Like, I don't know what's happening. I don't, but I'm down. [laughs]
I think I, um…
I think I might have just lost my job.
What happened?
I don't know. John started criticizing the protest again, and…
I just couldn't fucking take his--
his "how to be a good Black man" tutorial bullshit anymore.
And I said some shit. I don't know what the fuck I said, but--
-Fuck. [panting] -Baby, baby.
-Look at me. -Hmm?
Okay, what I need you to do right now is breathe and keep breathing.
[breathing heavily]
Good. Real good.
[man continues breathing]
John's not gonna fire you after one stupid argument.
You've been working for him for two years. He loves you.
If he does fire you, he's petty as hell, and you don't want to work for him anyway.
If he does fire me, where am I gonna find another job right now with COVID?
I mean, my mom is getting no hours. Nobody's hiring. It's--
-I know, babe. Just breathe. -[panting]
[Ayana sighs]
[exhales]
Do-- do you think maybe we're--
we're being impulsive
or stupid? Just-- just…
[sighs] racing out to raise our voice, and we really don't even have a plan.
I scrolled through Breonna Taylor's Twitter this morning.
You know she said 2020 was gonna be her year?
That breaks my heart.
John's generation is the one that fucked everything up in the first place.
The economy. The environment.
They thought they had done their job with the civil rights movement
and that a Black president ended racism.
Now they try to leave the table before the check comes? No. Fuck that.
Today is not just about today. It's about all the days after.
It's about making sure this type of shit does not keep happening to us.
I mean, yeah, but in the real today, right here, right now,
I have a job that I will definitely lose if I go with you.
And I mean, come on. I-- I need this. My family needs this.
So, you don't wanna come?
No, I-- I don't know. I don't know.
I-- I don't know.
Well, you already know I'll support you in whatever you decide to do.
I just want to make sure that whatever that is,
is a choice you're proud of.
That's all.
Okay.
All right.
[sighs]
After you finish with the mixer, we can sync the sound with the slideshow.
Yeah, no. I'm not doing that.
What?
Look. I don't mean to disrespect you,
and I'm grateful for everything you've done for me, but…
I have got to get out there and fight for my future.
I can't just sit on the sidelines trying to…
cling to some version of the past.
Did I just hear you say that you're grateful?
For what?
For how I took you on for a paid high school internship,
because I wanted to invest in my community?
For how I took the time to teach you about this business I built from nothing?
For how I struggled to keep you on payroll,
even though terms of my PPP loans said I had to let you go?
That's not lost on me.
It damn sure seems like it is!
Without this contract, business is done.
No more.
My life's work is gone!
You ain't got patience to see this through after everything I sacrificed?
No. I can't be patient anymore! We've been patient!
That patience, where's that gotten us?
Ain't shit changed in the last hundred years.
[chuckling] Are you serious?
You're saying shit ain't changed since 1920.
Things are the same today for Black people as it was in 1920?
You spit on the grave of every civil rights leader that came before you.
MLK did nothing.
Thurgood Marshall did nothing. Shirley Chisholm did nothing.
You stand on the backs of those that died for your freedom,
and all you do is complain about the breeze?
They still lynching us in the streets!
And you're racing to give them a reason.
You like listing dead Black people?
Let me give you some more names. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice.
Laquan McDonald, Eric Garner. You want me to go on?
-Walter Scott. -Freddie Gray.
Sandra Bland, Corey Jones, Jamar Clark, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile,
Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd!
You think I ain't paying attention to this shit?
You think it doesn't pain me every time another name's added to that list?
-You should be there with me. -No, there's another way!
We plan. We take economic action.
We donate, and we vote.
-You handle that. I'm gonna go do this. -So you're a big man now, huh?
You gonna burn it all down?
Why are we the ones that are expected to regulate our response,
but no one expects them to stop killing us?
Because if we stoop to their level, we lose.
Because the way I see it,
it's a bunch of house niggas and porch niggas
complaining about their fucking property,
when they are out here killing our people!
That's how you feel?
After everything?
Yep.
I ain't got shit else to say to you.
Do what you're gonna do.
I was out there last night, and I seen what happened to your van.
It wasn't no fucking white boy anarchist that did it.
You'll be damn sure, I didn't try to stop them
'cause your property, your cheap ass van,
doesn't mean shit compared to a man's life!
Ungrateful motherfucker!
You know how hard it is to start a business as a Black man?
You know I'm responsible for your clothes?
Without me, you ain't got that. Without my blood, sweat and tears.
It's that plantation mentality shit, man.
You know what? I want my money back.
What are you talking about?
Everything I invested in you. Starting with the shirt on your back!
Give me my shirt.
-Are you serious right now? -Don't make me repeat myself!
You fucking want this shirt so bad?
This shit matters so much to you, huh?
Here! The fuck is wrong with you?
What the fuck is wrong with you? You see this?
I built this for you and your generation!
So you didn't have to struggle as hard!
You can rest.
It's not your struggle anymore. It's ours now.
["Blackberry Molasses" by Mista playing]
♪ Blackberry molasses One of the things that never change ♪
♪ You gotta keep pushing on The sun don't rain all the time ♪
♪ There's gonna be Some heartache and pain ♪
♪ Blackberry molasses ♪
♪ One of the things that never change ♪
♪ You gotta keep pushing on The sun don't rain all the time ♪
♪ There's gonna be Some heartache and pain ♪
♪ Blackberry molasses One of the things that never change ♪
♪ You gotta keep pushing on The sun don't rain all the time ♪
♪ There's gonna be Some heartache and pain ♪