I love the Met so much.
This is one of my kids' favorite places
probably in New York City.
Charlotte and Aidan couldn't get over the fact that, like,
there were these ancient languages that no longer exist.
And I actually remember being awed by the same thing,
which I learned in fourth grade.
Yeah, I don't remember learning it.
That is so beautiful though. Look at that.
Oh, my gosh.
Diana, goddess of the hunt.
Any time you're in this incredible space, you think about history
and you think about those who are willing to step up and speak out.
I hope, through our talking with and highlighting these women, you know,
more people can see what it means to step up.
What-- More people can see how you, whoever you are, can take a stand.
And I love that.
I'm here, and I'm proud, and I'm not gonna apologize.
We got ourselves a show.
Today, Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton are coming to this house
to play with me.
I can't believe they thought of me.
"Hey, we like what you do, and we wanna come talk to you about it."
It's nuts.
Amber Ruffin was somebody who I really enjoyed watching,
because her energy is just incredible.
Having watched her for years on Late Night with Seth Meyers,
and then now The Amber Ruffin Show…
I just feel like I want her to be my friend.
I can't wait to meet her.
In order to get ready,
I set out some limes so that I represent margaritas to the fullest.
I'm always repping my marg set.
Here we are on the banks of the Hudson River.
It's beautiful.
-Hello! -Hi!
Hi, welcome! Come in!
Hi!
Can't I give you a hug? We all just tested negative.
-Yay! -Yes! Why not?
-Let's celebrate our negativity! -Oh, yes!
-This is my mom and my dad. -Oh, wow.
This is when they were coming to see a show
-at The Second City. -No!
I used to perform there in Chicago.
When I was a kid, I thought, "I'm gonna have my own mail route."
It's just, you get to get out, you walk around, cute shorts. I was right.
But no, I moved to Chicago to do The Second City.
-That's a great place. -It's a fantastic place.
Then I moved to Amsterdam and did Boom Chicago.
Boom Chicago is a theater in Amsterdam
-with such, famous alums as… -Yourself.
…Amber Mildred Ruffin…
-Jason Sudeikis… -Oh, wow.
…Seth Meyers, Jordan Peele.
And then I moved to LA,
'cause I finally got up enough guts to be like,
"Okay. If I got Second City, and I got Boom Chicago,
maybe I can make acting or comedy a thing."
But no. When I got to LA, I was mostly writing.
Because no one was like,
"W-We want a 35-year-old Black lady who is nerdy.
We've written her and cast"-- No, no one's doing that.
So I thought, "Oh, okay." It became clear if I wanted to do something…
-You had to write it. -…I would have to write it.
This spring,
see the story of the Black woman who became a world renowned scientist,
an accomplished cellist,
-and activist. -The time for change is now…
And a man who was white while she did it.
Her mic was too high, but I fixed it.
It's fixed because of me.
When I first got a job at Seth Meyers,
I was the only Black woman to write on any late-night network talk show.
-Wow. -What year was that?
2014.
-2014. -Yeah.
Not that long ago.
But when George Floyd was murdered,
I said, "Look, I've been harassed by police a billion times.
How about I just tell these stories straight to camera
where I thought I was gonna be murdered by the police."
Once when I was a teenager, I was brand-new to driving.
I was living in Chicago,
literally skipping down the street.
I think I was going to a party.
An old, white cop sees a young Black person.
His gun is drawn, and he goes,
"Hold it right there! Put your hands on the hood of the car!
Pull over the car!"
And I think, "This is how I die."
I told a different story, and we did it for every show that week.
And tonight, I'm out of stories.
Just kidding. I have more.
By that point, I had been on the show quite a bit.
And it was like, "You know me. I'm basically this--
I'm a doofus, and I'm nerdy,
and I'm not threatening really in any way."
And that was how I was being treated.
So I think that touched a lot of people,
because it doesn't matter what you do.
If-- If the right cop finds you, they're gonna do what they do.
How did that affect the writer's room and the people you work with?
Was it surprising, you think, to your white colleagues?
Absolutely. Everyone said, "Oh, I had no idea."
To make that journey took, I don't know, probably two years.
You know what, Loretta? You're all right.
Thanks, Earl.
For some reason, earning your respect is something I'm interested in.
You can find a gem of a Black writer anywhere,
because they haven't been given any chances,
and they've been just churning away, working very hard.
So by the time you get to them, they're ready to go.
And I have found that to be the case as I have started The Ruffin Show.
-She. -Who.
-Gives. -Back.
-Everything. -Is.
-The. -Genius.
Loser.
Facts.
Coming in with the heat. Trying to get a second job.
I'm here! I'm not far away!
Welcome. This is the writer's room.
The room is the happiest, sweetest place on earth.
By the time we get to you, you will have developed a pitch.
Okay. Good.
When I got The Amber Ruffin Show, my very first thought was,
"How far can we push this?"
Because, as a Black person, we've been writing with weights on.
So I encourage you to pitch exactly what would come out of your mouth.
Even you, Ian.
My piece is, "Amber gets dubbed." So The Amber Ruffin Show gets edited by
critical race theory critics.
"I am proud of the resilience of Black people.
-They went from being…" -Fine!
"…to-- to excelling.
-When we arrived here on…" -Cruise!
"…ships, we knew we had some…"
-Fun! -"…times ahead."
"We looked to our heroes like Martin Luther King,
-Rosa Parks, and Malcolm…" -Jamal Warner.
"Et cetera, et cetera."
I love that. That is great.
When you write for what people would call,
"the regular world with the regular audience,"
when you're Black, you know that you have to take all of your references
and shrink them down to this.
Like, I can't talk about Babyface. I can't talk about Mack 10.
-I can't talk about-- I don't know-- -Waiting to Exhale.
Waiting to Exhale. You know, I can't talk about, "Kenneth!"
-So it shrinks to this. -You talk about Jamal.
Denise!
You don't like it?
Ask me the question again.
Everyone, five Malcolm-Jamal Warner pitches.
And then… Oh, you get in an all-Black show, baby.
The weights come off, and you can say anything.
And you can be your full self.
So work harder.
I operate like this:
I want people to feel less gaslit.
And that's my main goal.
So, when the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict came in,
you know, it really broke my little heart.
And I thought, "Well, if I'm feeling this way,
I don't want you to feel this way, and I'm gonna come get you."
Now, just a few minutes before we started taping the show,
Kyle Rittenhouse, the man accused of shooting three people
during a Black Lives Matter protest, was declared not guilty on all charges.
I-- I didn't even let the verdict touch my brain and heart yet.
And as I was saying the words, I just was so sad.
I don't care about Kyle Rittenhouse. I don't care about that racist judge.
And I don't care about how up that jury must be.
White people have been getting away with murder since time began.
I don't care about that. I care about you.
And I can't believe I have to say this, but you matter.
The world we're in now, and the three of us know this,
you know, speaking out, speaking up, carries threats and dangers.
And that makes it very h-hard to keep coming back
and educating, informing, making people think.
But you keep going. H-How do you do that?
It's in your nature to help people and make sure they feel good.
Well, it's in your nature.
It's not in everyone's nature to try to help people and make people feel good.
It's the vast majority of us want, hugs and kisses and pats on the back.
Okay, so, we wrote some sketches, but we wrote a special one for you.
-Oh, yay. -Do you want to read it with me?
I would love it.
-And Chelsea… -Yes, ma'am.
…would you mind auditioning for the role of Chelsea?
I'm just really trying to make myself indispensable.
"I'm joined today by special guests, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.
We have so many exciting things to get to and--
Wait a minute. W-What is that?"
-"W-What's what?" -"That."
Cut to a beautiful and glimmering pantsuit on a mannequin torso.
"Why, that's the most glorious pantsuit I've ever seen.
This is too much, but thank you. I love it."
"What are you talking about? This isn't a gift."
"Well, as someone who famously wears pantsuits all the time,
it's kind of my thing and I'm sure no one would object
if I claimed it."
"Well, hold on. I also famously wear a lot of pantsuits."
"I hate to pull rank, but I was Secretary of State."
"Right. 'Was.'"
"We can settle this like the reasonable adults we are.
You each stand on either side of the room and let the suit decide.
Ladies, take your positions."
"Come on, pantsuit! Come on to mama!"
"Who's a good little pantsuit?
Get over here and get on these legs, you little stinker!"
"You want a treat? I got a little treat for you!"
-"Come on! Come on!" -"Come on!"
"The mannequin wavers indecisively for a beat
and then suddenly darts out of the studio."
"No!"
"She's gone.
All we can do is hope she finds a loving home."
"Cut to the pantsuit standing in front of an office door.
The door opens to reveal Rachel Maddow."
"Look at you! Get over here and get on these legs, you little stinker!"
Yeah!
That was great.
Painful, but great.
I can't thank you guys enough. I mean, what an incredible experience.
I've always heard about a writer's room.
It's this!
I don't think Amber likes to toot her own horn,
but as a Black female comedian,
seeing her do what she's done is so inspiring.
Like, she-- she is literally breaking down barriers.
Right? That--
-It's like really cool. -It's really gutsy.
That's why we're here!
A-plus to me.
Okay, so here's the rest of our day.
We're going to cut up all these limes and make margaritas.
That's the only reason I have these limes.
It's such a fun afternoon, wasn't it?
Oh, my gosh. I think it was one of the more fun afternoons that we've had.
We had a great time.
And we learned so much. We laughed a lot.
We did.
Humor is definitely an interesting way to make change.
And it makes me curious about
the other ways people who step up keep their emotional balance.
I heard we could get some dance lessons here!
Yeah!
Ms. Hillary. First step--
I'm putting my daughter up in the main place.
-I'm standing behind. -Put me in, Coach. I'm ready.
Dancing genes in my family skipped a generation.
Don't test me on it.
Line dancing is always my outlet.
I've been a nurse, for 40-plus years.
Since 1979.
I'm from the Philippines.
But you know when you're young, you want excitement,
you want to get out of the country. So, why not go to Iraq?
Belinda has worked in combat zones.
She's cared for people at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
And in 2020, she found herself at the epicenter of COVID-19 in Queens.
Talk about stepping up.
Belinda, you have comforted people, and you've saved lives.
But even with everything you've experienced as a nurse,
didn't you say that COVID was by far the toughest challenge for you?
I've seen death, you know.
But not as much as this one, the volume of them.
-And the ceaselessness. -Yeah.
Just that it didn't stop.
Well, I-I read somewhere
that 4% of the nurses in the United States are Filipino.
-Are Filipino nurses, yeah. -Yeah.
And 30% of the nurses who died from COVID were Filipino.
Well, and-- and some of your colleagues got sick with COVID.
Yeah, one of our nurses died.
I think I still have that PTSD from this.
This is the first time that I thought I was not in America.
I'm back to the war zone.
And it's worse.
I got COVID myself.
The thought of my patients-- You know, like when they cannot breathe,
and then they are turning blue.
And then you just see them, like, dying in front of you.
And then I got the shortness of breath, and I was so scared.
Well, I just think about, you know,
all of you who are on the front line as being incredibly gutsy.
And I'm just so grateful to you
and to everybody like you who's out there working
-to keep us healthy and take care of us… -Yeah.
-…when we're sick. -Right.
Well, grateful, and also I'm just so sorry that we continue to ask so much.
What nurses have been through over the last two years is so difficult.
And are still going through.
But there was also good thing about it. You know?
This restaurant, all the restaurants around,
they were sending us food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner.
And then we-- we'd receive letters from everywhere.
As soon as I come out of the hospital,
I heard the-- the people in their cars beeping.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
They were saluting us.
And it made me feel so good. "Okay,"
I said, "They're-- They're with us." You know?
We're-- I'm not alone. We're not alone.
We thought we're alone, dealing with this, right?
But we're not alone.
Should we do some more dancing?
-We should. Let's do it. -Yes.
Okay.
One, two, three and four.
Back, six, seven and eight.
I need to do this every week.
-Right? -You're such a good sport.
I really admire people
who invent things that further our common humanity
and help solve problems and answer questions for us all.
And we need more people like that.
And so many more women.
I'm still struck that less than a quarter of all patents in the United States
go to women.
I don't often get to meet somebody
who is so motivated to make a difference
that literally in her kitchen, she makes something that can help people.
It does look like a meth lab, but it's really not.
You know, normally we cook food in the kitchen.
But today it's going to be a silicone mask.
I met Alice in Puerto Rico after the terrible hurricane there.
I vividly remember talking to my mom
when she was in Puerto Rico five years ago.
And I think she answered my question of, like, "Hi, how are you?" with like,
"I just met the most amazing woman!"
"She's created these SolarPuffs!"
People were literally doing surgery in the streets
and there was no light except for flashlights.
And Alice created collapsible and easily transportable solar light.
They were so sensible and really ingenious.
That kind of stepping up-- I mean, she just embodies it.
Oh, my God!
-Can you believe it? -Oh, my God.
It's so good to see you!
-I'm meeting you finally! -Hi!
Welcome to my humble abode.
-Oh, we're so happy to be here. -We're so excited.
How does an idea in the mind of an inventor,
a designer like you, end up here?
You know, there's a saying,
"A worried mom does better research than the FBI."
So, my son was born with asthma,
and I did my research,
and back then, it was one out of four kids had asthma in New York City.
That's like 300% higher than the rest of the country.
That's when I focused on solar energy.
You were worried about the respiratory…
-Absolutely! -…effects of,
you know, the pollution that comes from fossil fuel creation. Yeah.
Seventy-five percent of the pollution in New York comes from the buildings,
not from the cars.
Because they're so old and inefficient.
Yeah!
You know, cooling systems, lighting systems, they're on all the time.
The sun is the most powerful source of energy
that comes to the earth every day.
So why not just use a simple solar light and design it beautifully?
How many versions until you got to this?
Like, 168.
-Wow. -This is the mega-puff,
which is the bigger version of that, but it also has phone charging.
Now you're just showing off.
We're still evolving.
But it kind of got on hold, because with the pandemic,
I-- I guess you could call this a pivot.
But the doctors were having these terrible wounds on their faces.
The doctors, nurses and others in hospitals--
Exactly.
You could see the black and purple.
And then there were the deaf,
because the deaf need to see people's mouths and faces.
We're basically faceless now.
I feel like our humanity has been cut off.
Like, walking past your neighbors and you don't even recognize them.
And then they were throwing these masks away,
and they're made out of plastic.
They're made out of air-spun polypropylene,
which is deadly to the oceans and the landfills and aquatic life.
They last 450 years in the ocean.
Like, billions of masks per country get thrown away.
I had no idea the number was so large.
But it makes sense that it would be up in the billions.
This is the 21st century. Why--
Why the hell are we still wearing masks that were designed cheap for utility only?
During lockdown, I turned my kitchen into a lab.
So, instead of cooking a chicken,
we're gonna be doing a very preliminary prototype of the mask.
Part chemistry experiment, part, you know, Julia Child's kitchen.
-I like both chemistry and cooking. -Thomas Edison.
This is the curing solution.
Look at that syringe. Okay.
-I'm ready. -And this is the silicone.
-Pull. Mix them together. Stir slowly. -Okay.
-Because if you stir fast… -What would happen?
…there's too many bubbles.
Sing to yourself John Lennon, you know…
I'm just thinking "Wheels on the Bus."
-You're not-- -That's 'cause my kids are little.
The wheels on the bus Go round and round
You can see it's getting thicker.
Make a puddle in the middle.
You just follow the edges until it just, you know, drains off.
Oh, you're good. Look at that!
Am I?
So when did you first start working on your mask?
Like, how soon into the pandemic?
It was, like, in March, April.
-So, at the very beginning? Wow. -2020, yeah.
But it took a freaking year to finally get a mass-producible prototype.
Why did it take so long, do you think?
Well, you wouldn't believe how many people tell you that it can't be done.
It's never been done before, so you can't do it.
And then trying to find someone that would try to do it is incredibly hard.
Right, now what happens?
We put it in the oven.
I mean, just the regular oven?
-Just your kitchen oven? -Yeah. Yeah.
One of the reasons we really wanted to talk with you
is because you're trying to figure out how to make something better
or how to make what you wanna do,
your vision of what you wanna create possible.
I've had times where I was rolled up in a fetal position on the bathroom floor.
But with every single failure,
then you're at a point where you can see around corners.
And that's through experience.
Trim them all off so we can dislodge it.
Doesn't that look yummy?
It's so overwhelming and so daunting, but if you can just, you know,
take that one step--
-Solve that one problem… -Yeah.
…for that one person.
The whole reason why I started all of my inventions
was because of my son.
And what little I do now will have an effect
or have some sort of impact later on for his kids and his grandchildren.
Do you see what she sees?
That is exactly what I want young girls and young boys to see.
That somebody is really laboring day in and day out,
failing over and over again, but so motivated to creating inventions
that's gonna help people.
So, Hillary, I think you decimated this thing.
I think I did decimate it.
I think I pulled too much of it off.
Oh, my God, look at her.
-Look at her! -Look at you, girl.
Look at-- Chelsea did this.
Thank you, Alice.
-Which one did a better job? -See!
-I'm just saying. -It's not even close.
So this is the final product.
The silicone is recyclable, and the filter is biodegradable.
-Should I try to put it on? -Yeah.
That is really cool.
Also, you can wear lipstick too.
I have to take my camera out.
Great mother and daughter!
And we are smiling, and you can even see it.
One of the just indomitable and certainly gutsy women is Jackie.
-Amazing. -Like, she's a New York City firefighter.
And for years, she's made it her personal mission
to get more women into the fire department.
Where are they going? And their radio wasn't on.
And I'll tell you, if I ever had to be in a foxhole,
she'd be, like, the first person I would want there with me.
As a little girl, I wanted to help people in their darkest hour.
But I didn't even think there were female firefighters.
Jackie!
Here's the honest truth.
When I called, a male firefighter answered the phone.
He hung up the phone on me.
He didn't want me here.
That didn't deter me.
-How many did Jackie do? -More than you!
I needed to change the mindset that men have of women on this job.
So, any woman that came on after me that needed help,
drilling, support, a mentor, I'm going to do it.
The exam is very competitive. Over 40,000 people actually sit for them.
-Wow. -How many people make it
from the exam to training?
Depends on the class. You know how I know?
Because you have to say this mantra.
-What's the mantra? -You remember your mantra?
-Yes! -Oh, my God! Okay, here I go. You ready?
-Be loud! -Okay.
Okay. Ma'am, the count on deck is 311 highly motivated,
truly dedicated FDNY probies, ma'am!
A lean, a mean, a blue machine!
Hoorah, hoorah, hoorah!
-I'm like, I wanna stand up! -Yeah, yeah!
I have to yell or else it's not done right, so…
Yeah. Yeah.
It's the same standard for a male and a woman.
Thirty push-ups, 30 sit-ups, everybody has to do them.
Mile-and-a-half run under 12 minutes.
-Four pull-ups… -You lost me at pull-ups.
I was like, "Oh, I could do that. I could-- I could not do that."
I want every firehouse in the city of New York--
-That was my goal… -Yeah.
-…to at least have one female firefighter. -Right.
-And in '06, I was the 29th woman. -Yeah.
We got to maybe 30. It took us like six or seven years.
I'm like, "This is ridiculous."
I wanted to change that paradigm. So how could I recruit?
I said, "I will go to every sporting event,
every school, every college,
and offer orientation and exposure to my career."
And in doing so, the number has quadrupled.
-That's a good feeling, isn't it? -It's a great feeling.
I wouldn't have become a firefighter if it wasn't for Jackie.
Before her, I've never met a female firefighter.
You know, as a medic, an EMT,
I just watched the firefighters go inside the buildings.
And I'm standing there thinking, "I wanna go in there. I can do that."
But it wasn't really until you saw a woman firefighter…
-Right. -…that you said, "Oh, wait a minute.
-I could do this." Right? -Yes.
Y-You run into any lingering questions like,
-"Are you really a firefighter?" -All the time.
When you wear your gear, you're doing the same job.
They can't tell if you're a male or a female.
But when it's all said and done, every so often,
you take off your helmet, and it's always the same reaction.
It's the cell phones out, and they're always like, "That's a girl!"
-We're like unicorns. -Yeah.
They're like, "Girl power!"
The guys I work with, they're like, "Yeah, yeah. Girl power."
They get a little jealous.
Listen, if I'm lucky enough to get the nozzle,
and then there's fire all in front of you,
nobody can say you're no good then when you put it all out.
"She put out that fire? She put it out?"
-"Yes, I did." -That's always a good reaction.
I'm not happy your house is on fire.
I'm just happy I could be at that emergency helping you
during that time of need.
During that time of need.
Quick roll call before we get started.
-Jackie, take the can. -10-4.
There's a self-respect that you get when you work hard at something.
You put your whole heart in it, every fiber in your being to get it.
When you get it--
Excuse me. Give me a second.
There's nobody who can take it away.
You know how hard it was for me to get here?
I'm the fourth woman ever on this job to be in Squad.
They didn't want me, and now I represent the fire department.
So when I tell a young girl I got your back,
I will stay late tutoring, running, training.
I will do everything in my power to get you.
I'm in Squad 270. Come find me.
But now, here it goes, Chelsea. And you're gonna just…
I feel like I'm teaching my kids to tie their shoes.
-Exactly. Just gonna scrunch these down… -And you'll be ready to jump in.
-Then I gotta shimmy. -All right, yes.
-Put on your helmet. -Yes, ma'am.
Right. So, now, here's the test. Something called black mamba.
Reach in, and hand over hand, and you're gonna pull.
-Move some hose. -This is not gonna go as you hope.
-Yes, it is. -Move what you got.
-It's kind of like a dance move. -Yeah.
Okay.
-We have faith in her, right? -Yes.
-Totally. I'm ready. -Come on. You got this. Reach.
Come on. You can do it on your own.
-See, look at that. Pull. -Not really.
-E-plus. -I got an E-plus? I didn't even get a D!
You gotta walk faster.
Faster. You're sashaying. This is not the Champs-Élysées.
-Urgent. Urgent. -Let's go. Walk, walk, walk.
See how fast-- There we go. Come on, quickly. Urgency.
Boom! You got this.
-Come up one more. Right. All right. -Okay.
Now hold with both hands.
-Put your body in front of my body. -All right. I'm ready.
Ready? Circle, circle. Like me.
One step forward. Go.
-Good work. -Y-- Well, yeah.
Mama's like, "You don't know my baby."
I mean, I already had a lot of respect for our firefighters.
Especially our fierce female firefighters, including Jackie.
But after kind of putting on all that gear and attempting to lift the hose,
-my respect, like, skyrocketed. -Yeah.
And you didn't even have on all the heavy stuff they have to wear.
I know. I had on about half of what they have to wear.
-It was deeply humbling… -Yeah.
…and left me so much more in awe and full of gratitude.
Well, I mean, at least they thought you could do it.
-That's true. -They took a look at me, and they said,
"Well, you can watch."
You were a great cheerleader.
Now, we get to meet Kimberlé.
-Talk about a gutsy woman. I mean-- -Oh, my goodness.
She coined the term "intersectionality"
and she is one of the founders of what's called critical race theory.
You know, that starts with the idea that in our history,
racism is woven, going back to slavery,
into our public policies and our laws,
which therefore does have a broad impact on our society.
She's someone who has helped so many people understand
the ways in which racism and inequality are entrenched and perpetuated in America.
She's a pioneering legal scholar, a law professor and a fierce advocate.
Some have tried to drum up controversy about her work
as a way to prevent actually teaching about our real history in America.
You are not teaching my children
that they are racist just because they're white.
Shame on you!
Despite all this, Kimberlé continues to step up.
-Hi! -Hey, Kimberlé!
-How are you? -Hi!
-Nice to meet you. -Oh, my God. I'm so happy to see you.
I'm so honored.
We're so happy to talk to you, Kimberlé.
Because, I mean, you've been literally on the front lines
of standing up and speaking out now for years.
-And it's gotten harder in current times. -Yeah.
In our lifetimes, only 8% of high-school students
could correctly articulate the cause of the Civil War.
And that's before this most recent effort to erase history.
So, we weren't starting with a deeply literate public
about these issues.
Critical race theory isn't an assault on white people.
No.
This isn't saying America's the worst country ever.
It's saying these are the specific things that happened,
this is the way that law helped facilitate it.
And so, being able to give people a concrete example of critical race theory
helps people understand what needs to happen now.
So, that's why we're here.
I sometimes talk about critical race theory like archaeology.
You know, 200 yards away,
there's a story about Black people that doesn't get told.
Seneca Village was a thriving community
of predominantly land-owning African Americans
that was destroyed to make way for what is now Central Park.
Did you know about Seneca Village before?
I had only heard a little bit about it, right?
Because it had been buried.
There were no confirmed photographs of Seneca Village.
So what we know about the vibrant community that lived here
comes from archaeological digs.
"Before Yesterday We Could Fly" is an Afrofuturist exhibit
that brings together artists
to reimagine what a home in Seneca Village would've looked like
had it been passed on through generations.
And I really couldn't quite figure out how the transition
from history to current times to the future was gonna be laid out.
And this is really fascinating.
This structure of an old fireplace is almost like a portal
transporting you into the future on the other side.
This evokes for me the loss of property
over the centuries.
There were three churches, fifty homes,
two schools, and burial grounds
by the time Seneca Village was destroyed by New York City in 1857.
The artist has taken some of the survey and included it
in this magnificent wallpaper that surrounds the exhibit.
Such a story about how if you lack political power,
if you lack enforceable rights,
even if you play the game, you work hard, you acquire,
you do all the things that you're told,
but you're part of a group who are always available to be dispossessed.
I love the Harriet Tubman piece
because what a lot of people don't recognize
is that the wealth of the United States,
the thing that makes us most, you know, powerful, came from Black women.
In 1790, there were 700,000 slaves.
By the eve of the Civil War, there were four million.
Where did all that come from?
And that was after the end of the Slave Trade.
So how did that happen? How did that happen?
When you really think about who the mothers of the country really are,
they're Black women.
But nobody talks about it, 'cause that history is buried as well.
There's so much of this that's hair.
This one is about Bantu knots.
The hair piled high. The inspiration.
And then my favorite one is this Afro pick and the hot comb.
It so captures my complex relationship with my mother around hair.
My mom was a radical in almost every way, except when it came to hair.
My mother was a schoolteacher.
She still was of the mind that natural hair, Black hair in particular
was not as professional.
-She wanted to protect you. -She wanted to protect me.
She wanted me, you know, obviously t-to have all the opportunities
and not be underestimated
because of the way my hair was styled.
So when I see this, the Afro pick,
I think of when I finally was able to wear the Afro.
I adored Angela Davis,
and I just remember seeing so many of the clips
of her coming out during the trial.
She would always go like this, so I was like,
"That's what I want. That's what I wanna be."
There are places right now in the United States
that I would get fired for wearing my hair like this.
-There's now the CROWN Act in some states. -Yes.
But in most states,
you can discriminate against people for wearing locs, braids…
So it just happens to coincide with Black women.
It just happens to grow out of Black women's hair.
And to say that that's not professional is basically saying
that we're not used to people like you being in this space.
I then sort of broadened the view and saw that it wasn't just the law.
It was also feminism.
It was also the way that the particular experiences of Black women
weren't always imagined within the scope of feminism.
And a-a lot of that has been kind of lost, right?
It's just race discrimination.
So a lot of what I try to do with critical race theory
is to kind of dig that stuff up.
You know, it's kind of like an archaeological tool. Right?
We wanna look underneath where we're standing
and uncover the stories that haven't been told.
A lot of people did not know that the first plaintiffs
in most of the sexual harassment cases were Black women.
They didn't know that Rosa Parks really got her start
by defending a Black woman who had been gang-raped.
So I often want to reimagine moments like Rosa Parks,
not when she first showed up in the scene, in most people's consciousness,
but what happened before that, right?
I want to make sure that 200 years from now,
Sojourner Truth and Angela Davis, and hopefully, something I wrote,
people will have access to rather than having to uncover it
like we had to, you know, uncover Seneca.
Part of the reason why we think you're a gutsy woman
is not just because you created some incredibly useful tools
for thinking about our history,
but because you didn't write and then retreat to the mountaintop.
The way that you're trying to excavate people's stories
so that they can be seen and appreciated, understood,
that's hard work, Kimberlé. That's really difficult.
Are you still hopeful?
-I would say I'm a stubborn person. -I like that.
I will not be told, "No, you cannot speak."
I will not be told, "No, the experience that you are talking about is not real."
I will not be told that it doesn't matter.
Now, what people do with what I write about,
that's something that I can't control.
But when people have a concept that allows them to name their experience,
that they will value those concepts,
and fight to sustain them, that-- that's where I'm most hopeful.
Talk about somebody stepping up.
You gotta.
We're living through a really tumultuous, difficult time.
And there's lots of stuff going on.
"According to a recent poll, 10% of Americans
don't believe in climate change."
"Boy, what is wrong with you?"
And yet, you've got to be able to trust the people you're with.
There you go.
Let's go dance.
And be willing to try things that might not work.
That's what I was supposed to be getting off.
You're hilarious.
What you do is fun, and it's a great show, but it's bigger than that.
Do you ever feel that? Like it's part of something bigger?
I like to hope-- I like to think that that's true.
And every once in a while, someone will message you and be like,
"Oh, my gosh. I'm glad you said this out loud
'cause I felt that way, and thank you for validating how I feel."
And then I think, "That's important."
They keep on telling me to retire, but I said, "No, I can still help out."
You're not alone, and come find me. If you need me to pep you up, I will.
Take one s-- little step. Just 1% every day is-- is enough.
Then in hindsight, you'll see the progress.