- 4 days ago
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🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Wondering soul, midnight's lonely.
00:22In any place where black people have been erased from the cultural history,
00:27is a place where we always have to start from scratch.
00:29We always have to prove we existed.
00:33The cultural heist is probably the most lucrative part
00:37of the death of the black cowboy.
00:39From the look to the hat, the music, even horse racing.
00:45All of that cultural treasure was taken, co-opted,
00:51and commodified by white people.
00:54Not only do they take it, they don't want you to have any part in it.
01:02Not only do they take it, they don't want you to have any part in it.
01:12This afternoon, 19 horses will run for the roses in the Kentucky Derby.
01:22It's America's most prestigious horse race.
01:24It was a very big wake-up call for me to attend the Kentucky Derby
01:33and to see this closed off culture.
01:36I mean, just blatant on the red carpet, someone came up and said,
01:42oh, Tina Knowles is next.
01:44And the other young lady walked up and said, oh, no, because we need a...
01:48and ran right into my face, and I said, a white person?
01:54She just went behind me, got the couple behind me, and brought them on.
01:58So it's racially charged there.
02:03It's a lot of racially charged energy, which is ironic,
02:06because we really started this stuff.
02:09That's unbelievable, man. Our history has been erased.
02:16When I came up, it was a whole lot of black jockeys.
02:19When we were... when I was a kid.
02:26Horse racing was a black tradition and a black form of competition.
02:33Black man was on top of the horse. The black man trained the horse.
02:38They did everything.
02:41Those who knew how to race were considered athletes.
02:45It was a vaunted position akin to what is now a LeBron James or Steph Curry.
02:55Thirteen jockeys of the first Kentucky Derby were black,
02:58and they ruled racing.
03:00Black jockeys won 15 of the first 28 editions of the Derby.
03:05These people started this sport, and now you look up,
03:07you don't see a single jockey that's black.
03:09What transpired in between time to get these people out of this sport?
03:16When horse racing became really popular,
03:18jockeys began demanding more money and more compensation.
03:23The white horse owners said,
03:26well, we can't let black people get all this money.
03:29So when the white jockeys unionized essentially,
03:32they excluded black jockeys from competing.
03:36It was hard to justify a black man winning when blacks were supposed to be inferior.
03:43Not only weren't they given credit for what they did,
03:46they were frequently excluded entirely.
03:48They were excluded entirely.
03:49They were excluded entirely.
03:55a little bit more.
03:56They weren't able to figure out how to play the wrong way.
03:58Then they did not help them to get ill.
03:59They were excluded every time.
04:00Then they were excluded every time.
04:01They were excluded every time they were excluded every time.
04:02So they could get ill if they were taken away from the wrong way.
04:04And then it would take out all the time.
04:05Mama, let's put these here by your D.
04:15Daniel Alexander was my great-great-grandfather.
04:19He is known as a horse breeder trainer for, initially, his enslaver.
04:26Daniel Alexander was well-known for racing and raising horses
04:31to the point that his name was even published in newspapers,
04:34which would have been unheard of.
04:37Great-great-grandfather, trained, handled one of the founding horses
04:41for the quarter horse breed.
04:46You know, a certain subset of Americans would have you believe slavery taught us something,
04:50that it gave us the opportunity to learn new skills.
04:53The rest of us would say that's a joke, and the same goes for cowboyism.
04:56In West Africa, horses are synonymous with spirituality and nobility,
04:59strength and high social status, and despite enslavement,
05:02black folks' connection to horses never faltered.
05:12The thought process has always been,
05:15black people like Johnny come late these in the horse world.
05:18I want to institute in these kids that this is my place, this is home, this is where I am me.
05:28And I don't have to fight for my place, I don't have to fight for a position, I just have to be.
05:35I thought when I graduated high school, that was it.
05:40But Ms. Kelly had a different plan for me.
05:43We had a farrier, aka blacksmith, coming to shoe our horse.
05:47Fred got interested in that.
05:49We sent applications out to every farrier in school in the country, including Cornell.
05:54Cornell, they only accept three students a year, and never really had a black farrier student.
06:03The minute I got there, it was like, hey, you sure you want to do this kind of work?
06:07This is hard work, this is real man work, like, you know, just experiencing comments like that.
06:13It was intimidating for me, you know, I felt outnumbered.
06:16And all the years that I'd been telling him about racism, and what it looks like, and how it operates, happened right there.
06:29All right, we're about ready to go.
06:32He fought his way through, and he was the first black farrier to graduate from this program.
06:38And he's a successful farrier today.
06:41Good girl.
06:42This isn't a common business for black people.
06:44As a matter of fact, when I show up to the barns, they're kind of like, you're the farrier?
06:48Like, man, who's this dude from the city thinking he's about to shoe my horses?
06:52But once they let me under their horses, I let my work speak for itself.
06:56The way I talk to their horse, the way I treat their horse, there's history from there.
07:02We have a special bond with these horses.
07:04When you do something so good, and you stand in it so deep, it will always leave an imprint through the end of time.
07:17You're about to take off the goods.
07:20In the 1850s, there were seven individuals here who successfully fled slavery on horseback.
07:27And the reason that that equates to great-great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather taught everybody how to ride.
07:40It's phenomenally exciting to think that we were on the same land, riding horses,
08:05in a place where so many people made their way to freedom.
08:10It's our land, and it's freedom.
08:14History has shown, not just for the black jockey.
08:18If you leave black men alone, their kingships will rise.
08:27And that's what's been the fear from the beginning.
08:31Everyone from the jockeys to the trainers, they got erased.
08:38They don't get their flowers, and it hurts.
08:43In the contemporary era, they named a horse Black Lives Matter.
08:47So that every time he won, his name would have to be announced to the viewing public.
08:55Black Lives Matter!
08:57Black Lives Matter!
08:58Black Lives Matter!
09:00Black Lives Matter!
09:01Black Lives Matter!
09:02Black Lives Matter!
09:03Black Lives Matter!
09:04Black Lives Matter!
09:05Black Lives Matter!
09:06Black Lives Matter!
09:07Black Lives Matter!
09:08Black Lives Matter!
09:09Black Lives Matter!
09:10Black Lives Matter!
09:11Black Lives Matter!
09:12Black Lives Matter!
09:13Black Lives Matter!
09:14Black Lives Matter!
09:15Black Lives Matter!
09:16Black Lives Matter!
09:17Black Lives Matter!
09:18Black Lives Matter!
09:19Black Lives Matter!
09:20Black Lives Matter!
09:21Black Lives Matter!
09:22Black Lives Matter!
09:23Black Lives Matter!
09:24Black Lives Matter!
09:25Black Lives Matter!
09:26Black Lives Matter!
09:27Black Lives Matter!
09:28Black Lives Matter!
09:29Black Lives Matter!
09:30That big mama right there.
09:33I gave him a little food for obeying me, you know?
09:39I'm definitely a cowboy.
09:40I was born into cowboyism, you know?
09:44So, uh, wearing boots, living on a farm.
09:49I think the story needs to be told
09:51that the first cowboys were black cowboys.
09:54But the cowboy has been taken away from the black community.
09:58The hands are gone.
09:59The skill.
10:00This Tay-Tay, so this is the famous everybody's horse here.
10:04This is what everybody rides.
10:06She's a great pet.
10:07She's got a good handle and good attitude.
10:09Mayhem is the roping horse that's in training.
10:12And then we go to the race horses.
10:19Horse racing was my favorite sport out of anything.
10:26This is what I grew up doing, you know?
10:28I saw my daddy and brothers do it.
10:29Tonight we're hearing the story behind a family who has made history here in the state of Texas.
10:34This is the Hatley family.
10:35And this is the first black family in Texas to race quarter horses.
10:40And that's my daddy and me.
10:41Man, where did my daddy get the gall?
10:45Where you was going to be the only black female horse racing and talk noise and fight and win?
10:50The biggest misconception is that it's not a black man's sport and he can't do it.
10:57We showed up at Black Lives Matter.
11:05Video of the horse winning his first race went viral.
11:10But it's the name the announcer calls.
11:12Far outside is Black Lives Matter.
11:15That's left an even bigger impression.
11:17We are black horse owners.
11:19Of course.
11:20We give our horses black powerful names.
11:23And he saw Black Lives Matter.
11:24He said, yo, that's Black Lives Matter.
11:25So he's from New York.
11:27I'm from New York, man. I know this.
11:28You know what I mean?
11:29That was the hardest, stiffest name I could think of to make him say it.
11:33So they had to say it.
11:34He had to call his name.
11:35Far outside is Black Lives Matter.
11:41That woke up the world.
11:42Everybody wanted to come see it.
11:43Everybody want Black Lives Matter shirts.
11:46But when they tried to officially change the horse's name to Black Lives Matter...
11:52They told me that I couldn't name him that.
11:54It's controversial.
11:55And I was like, have you seen what these horses were named?
11:58Nigger Tom and Bull Nigger and Nigger Nigger Run and Big Nigger.
12:09Are you kidding me?
12:11Honestly, like, I can't believe y'all worried about Black Lives Matter.
12:15But with such derogatory names like this, and you have no problem with it.
12:21The Hatleys say it took the threat of legal action to get the decision changed.
12:26That's where the shit hit the fan at right there.
12:29This is Black Lives Matter.
12:35He was elected during a routine veterinary procedure and unfortunately lost his life.
12:44They say they saw red flags instantly when the vet's behavior started to change.
12:55When they learned that BLM was named after the Black Lives Matter movement.
12:59The reason he had to go to the vet was to get sperm drawn from him and then get him castrated.
13:05Very simple procedure chances are 99.9% that nothing goes wrong.
13:10I just sat down there for a minute like this can't be real, you know what I mean?
13:29I just should have never left his side.
13:37It had to be some hatred.
13:38We told you don't name him that so we gonna find another way to stop you.
13:45Racism was the number one issue in his death there.
13:50You take a hit on the chin, I think about that, man, like, shh.
13:56But then, you hear my daddy say, get up.
14:01Hey!
14:03Let's try it again.
14:05I thought about naming him, Black Lives Matter 2, you know?
14:08And people told me, don't name a horse nothing like that no more.
14:11I was like, what?
14:13Whoo!
14:14Boy Cliff will take off.
14:15Going viral in the hills.
14:16All them years paid off.
14:17Had to lose a couple friends.
14:18Yeah, you bummed stay lost.
14:20Only bad mamacitas and they friends, of course.
14:22Whoo!
14:23Meet Black Wall, the newest member of our family.
14:28Each one of these names, we name these horses.
14:30It gives history lessons.
14:32The history that's been destroyed and taken away.
14:39So right there, something has been done to keep the culture
14:42the legacy living.
14:43Black Wall Street has won it.
14:45Pull up!
14:48If you want it faster, say the word.
14:57If you want it louder, make it hurt.
15:00I'm a black cowgirl.
15:01A true American cowgirl.
15:03If you want to ride the wave apart.
15:06That history tried to erase.
15:07Today, we're going to find the best horse, the fastest horse
15:11all the time.
15:12Tell you that.
15:14My whole goal was to have a derby horse and win the derby.
15:18When you erase history, there's another picture that comes
15:21after that.
15:22And that picture looks like me.
15:23Enjoy the ride.
15:24Enjoy the ride.
15:25Enjoy the ride.
15:26Enjoy the ride.
15:27Enjoy the ride.
15:28Enjoy the ride.
15:29Enjoy the ride.
15:30Enjoy the ride.
15:31Enjoy the ride.
15:32Enjoy the ride.
15:33Walking into that Kentucky Derby owner's box.
15:38Whoo!
15:39Seats you could only dream of.
15:41When cameras get to flashing, ended up on Vogue, Fox,
15:45local news.
15:50Looking out there, seeing my horse cross that finish line.
15:53Every derby I went to, my horse won.
15:59That's a good feeling.
16:00I represent people that have been left out,
16:03that have been kicked down off of that horse.
16:08That will be forever nameless until we let the world know.
16:13I just want to, like, you know, a feel-good record.
16:28Something with some soul in it, some blues,
16:30or something, you feel me?
16:31Right.
16:32So, like, that back-in-the-day vibe,
16:33but we put a twist on it.
16:34Okay.
16:35I'm feeling like, uh...
16:39I represent 3,000 years' worth of ancestors.
16:42I'm digging in my roots.
16:43I'm strumming my guitar.
16:45I'm letting the land talk to me,
16:47and I'm letting the music speak through me.
16:52We've always made this type of music.
16:54This is years of being overlooked.
16:56This is years of being undercooked.
16:57Feeling like you got to make a way out of nothing.
17:00It's a vibe, bro.
17:13It's important for me to show up and show out head to toe,
17:17because when I walk up in there,
17:18they know it ain't nothing to play with.
17:20You ain't gonna like how good Nashville looks on me.
17:25Some people don't like it.
17:26Some people ain't got no choice.
17:30Cowboy culture gives country music its aesthetics,
17:33its sound.
17:34It gives it its origin story.
17:37Hey, hey!
17:38Y'all gonna turn it up! Turn it up!
17:40How much of its cultural repertoire has the images of the West,
17:43of the cowboy.
17:46It comes with a history that's already whitewashed.
17:49All this right here, y'all gonna have to rewrite that!
17:51Rewrite that!
17:52The lie that is told about the origins of country music
17:55is that it is the authentic voice of white American identity.
18:01But that story doesn't reckon with the multiracial,
18:05complicated history of country music.
18:09It was music of the country.
18:10It was a combination of the Irish.
18:12The Germans bringing over the oompa of polka music.
18:15The recently freed slaves bringing the banjo into the world.
18:18All of that happening in negotiation with the peoples
18:21who were already here.
18:22So Native Americans are lending mythic storytelling culture.
18:28Music is the thing that all races share,
18:31and it's sort of better when it's everybody playing it together.
18:35Wherever it comes from is important.
18:37You gotta know your history.
18:38But whatever hands it ends up in,
18:40there's no telling what can happen.
18:42And the banjo's one of those things.
18:43The banjo has a deep history that I think has been lost.
18:49One of the greatest influences of country music
18:52has been the African American community.
18:54The banjo, the instrument, comes from Africa.
18:56They brought that with them here when they were enslaved.
18:59How did that music evolve into being claimed by one group of people?
19:10They have been shaming black people for playing the banjo.
19:14They had to separate this from its African origins to un-blacken it.
19:19So in 1841, Joel Sweeney, a white, black-faced minstrel performer,
19:24did what everyone has always done to anything that black Americans have brought to the table.
19:31He took the banjo out of our hands and put it in theirs.
19:35This award went to the Carter family, who basically invented country music.
19:42Oh, my God!
19:44The Carter family absolutely owes a lot of their musical repertoire to the black artists around them.
19:52Leslie Riddle transcribed the songs that we know and love for the Carter family to record.
19:58He also taught them his guitar style.
20:01You've got, from its founding days, black musicians lending country music its rhythms, its instrumentation.
20:09You can't sell black music directly to the growing white middle class,
20:13so you had to sell white artists' versions of that music.
20:17See, white folks, they like the blues just fine.
20:19They just don't like the people who make it.
20:21Originally, there was what they call race music, which was an actual billboard chart.
20:27And everything else was separate charts.
20:30The race music charts was just songs sung by black people.
20:40And so when you saw a country chart, it was white people singing the blues.
20:46But black people couldn't be on the country chart.
20:48They'd have to be on the race music chart.
20:51They'd have to be on the race music chart.
20:54And what was funny and sad at the same time is sometimes there would simultaneously be the same song on the race music chart sung by black people.
21:05And white people singing the same song.
21:11But it would be a country hit.
21:17Because black people could not be included in other kinds of music.
21:22All of our music was race music.
21:24And that chart existed until the 1950s.
21:30That's when they changed the race music chart to the rhythm and blues chart and then to the R&B chart and then R&B and hip hop.
21:39There's a new song that went viral in the last week or so that is, by all accounts, a banger.
21:44Billboard took the song off the country charts when it was just starting to gain popularity saying it didn't have enough elements from today's country music.
22:01Now they put it on the rap charts instead and that move prompted a whole lot of backlash.
22:05That decision earned one big hmm.
22:12Billboard responded by saying their decision had absolutely nothing to do with the race of the artist.
22:18In the 21st century, black people cannot find their way onto country charts.
22:24And I think that's absolutely stunning and an indictment of the industry.
22:27It is a multi-billion dollar industry and black people are excluded.
22:36How dare them close that genre off to us.
22:39It's just a great example of their erasure in this country.
22:52I'm Blanco Brown and I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.
22:55When I came into Nashville, I got introduced to songwriters and producers.
23:01Some of them laughed, said it wouldn't work.
23:04Some of them said, is this a joke?
23:09When you talk about country music, you have to talk about Nashville.
23:12Nashville is the machine that overwhelmingly controls the boundaries of authenticity.
23:20It's definitely challenging to get into country music and be successful at it.
23:23Not only are you fighting Nashville, you're fighting country radio.
23:28They told me they would never play my music.
23:31They said, what is these?
23:33They were talking about 808s.
23:34I said, those are drums.
23:36Country music radio almost unilaterally controls who gets to be a legitimate country music artist and who gets radio play and who can make money in the industry.
23:50I think of country music radio as being like the mob, right?
23:56Actually, I think the mob wishes it had some of the legal power that country music radio has.
24:01The gatekeeping in country music is unbelievable and the racism that goes along with that.
24:11And why do you have such fear?
24:13It's the only thing that makes you desperate enough to try to hold on to something and to stop other people from engaging.
24:20In 2016, Beyonce comes out with the Dixie Chicks and the CMAs.
24:29You know, it's a little bit of a bomb to go off in Nashville.
24:32Fans exploded with hatred for Beyonce and the Dixie Chicks for collaborating.
24:36It's just a sham.
24:38Beyonce did a self-serving song from her own album.
24:41Forget it.
24:42I hated it.
24:43The whole thing is fast-ackwards and I object.
24:46Oh, okay.
24:47Y'all don't have space for the biggest black performer of our time.
24:53What?
24:54He's not even country!
24:56It just feels as though the black southern community were being told that they didn't have a claim to the south in that one moment.
25:04Nashville has always been known to keep their music their music.
25:09You didn't grow up here in country music.
25:11So, kind of tell people how you arrived in Nashville.
25:14What brought you here?
25:15I did grow up in country music.
25:17I'm from Memphis, Tennessee.
25:19I got a scholarship for yodeling.
25:20That's how I paid for college.
25:26Hate mail has been a part of my life.
25:28That's just the way it is.
25:29I mean, we still get it.
25:30You know, there's still people that don't want me to be singing country music.
25:33It's ironic that when we started off, we were told all the time that we were too country.
25:38Here's some cow, girl!
25:39Here's some cow, girl!
25:40Here's some cow, girl!
25:42The label told me y'all look like country western girls because y'all are from Texas.
25:47Yeah!
25:48And now, you know, you're not country enough.
25:51Only in country music is it acceptable to have a litmus test for who can participate that hinges on not what kind of music they make, but who and what they are.
26:04Most would-be stars arrive in Nashville long on ambition and short on knowledge of the music business.
26:11Because America needs some place to sort of keep all of its ideas about what it means to be American.
26:21Forever near Grand Ole Opry
26:28It is a sonic safe space for whiteness to be nostalgic for the good old days.
26:35The face of the Grand Ole Opry audience is the face of America.
26:40And the music of the Grand Ole Opry is the heart beating out its hopes, its fears and its grief.
26:47Country music becomes country music only once it excludes black artists.
26:56But that's the story of making country music into the cultural juggernaut that it is today.
27:02It only becomes that if it can serve white interests.
27:05And that's been true from its inception.
27:08There were many clubs, many stages where you didn't appear because promoters were afraid for that face to be seen by audiences.
27:16I was blessed to have a conversation with Charlie Pryor meant the most.
27:21When it comes to some of the things he had to go through, the hatred, especially at the time he did it,
27:29and still be able to be great at what you do, that takes a lot.
27:33Black artists like Linda Martell were absolutely punished for trying to be authentic artists.
27:39They wouldn't let her sing in different venues.
27:41She couldn't really make a living from singing country music.
27:44She was driving the bus for schools, you know.
27:48I learned about Linda Martell through my daughter.
27:51She researches these artists and pays homage to them.
27:55People say, oh, well, she's rewriting it.
27:58No, you rewrote the history.
28:00We are just going back and straightening the story out.
28:03The Grammy goes to Cowboy Carter.
28:13We have his blessings.
28:18When Beyoncé dropped Cowboy Carter, people were gagged.
28:23The energy that she brought, you could tell the CMAs pissed her off.
28:28The storytelling is very aggressive almost.
28:30There's like a guttural insistence upon being heard and seen, and it's not asking, it's telling.
28:36She said, I am a girl from Texas.
28:39All of that culture belongs to me, and if I dare step into your arena, my shit gonna be better than yours.
28:46Cowboy Carter was amazing to work on.
28:49Beyoncé and I worked on that for a while.
28:51We put it out for the world.
28:52It really just shocked the world.
28:53It really just stopped the world.
28:54This woman was galloping on a golden horse across the air, just singing and waving to the fans.
29:00Them fans was popping.
29:01Them fans was popping out here.
29:03Searches into cowboy attire, cowboy decor all went through the roof.
29:13It literally was a break the internet moment.
29:23Cowboy Carter is now the highest grossing country music tour of all time.
29:28That's some black girl magic right there.
29:31That whole album is saying, who isn't country?
29:36Because I most certainly am.
29:38And if I am country, then other black people are country too.
29:43And we don't need permission to be here.
29:46I don't care if you didn't like the album.
29:48I don't care if you don't like Beyoncé.
29:49I don't care if you don't like black people.
29:51I really don't give a fuck, because tonight we won big.
29:54She's settling scores with the history of erasure.
29:58She loops in a lot of black artists, including Linda Martell.
30:02Other black country singers like Tanner Adele and Rayna Roberts received the Beyoncé effect,
30:07where their streams were up exponentially.
30:09Cast up, throw me in the saddle, spin me like a spark.
30:14Tanner gained thousands of new followers.
30:17Cast up, round them like cattle, looking like Beyoncé with a lasso.
30:22I'm a buckle bunny, got my own truck, got my own money.
30:28It just sent a whole momentum of young black artists to just live their truth and sing their song.
30:35And I feel like in this time and day, that's what we need.
30:38That's what people need to relate to.
30:40People was dressed up.
30:41They were suited and booted.
30:42Boots was on the ground.
30:43With social media, the truth can't be hidden anymore.
30:46I like that that shakes things up.
30:48Get up out your seat.
30:51I absolutely believe that social media is reversing what traditional media did in Erasing the Black Cowboy.
31:01I don't need to go to anyone in traditional media to get their permission to bring a story to the forefront.
31:07I don't need the traditional media.
31:28I've got my own audience and my ability to reach them and let them know the stories that are important to me
31:33and the activations that they should take to participate in the culture.
31:38And I think it's the same for a lot of the cowboys.
31:41Come on.
31:42These are power girls right here now.
31:44Three generations right here.
31:45Where y'all from?
31:46Mississippi.
31:47Wait a minute.
31:48Wait a minute.
31:49Wait a minute.
31:50Wait a minute.
31:51Wait a minute.
32:00This song right here to me is dark.
32:03It got that heavy drum pattern.
32:05It just sounds gangsta.
32:06And all the black cowboys from all the hoods that's all around the country that I've tapped in with over the last year or two years,
32:11like this is what they want to hear.
32:12Mm-hmm.
32:13Let it jump.
32:14Man, I'm booted up.
32:15Man, I'm booted up.
32:16Man, I'm booted up.
32:17Man, I'm booted up.
32:18Man, I'm booted up.
32:19Man, I'm booted up.
32:20They all listening to the trap.
32:21The street music coming out of mostly Atlanta.
32:23But for them to have that kind of sound, but it's like themed cowboy.
32:28So it's like the wordplay and the references and all the things that go into the music from my vantage point,
32:33they just like, man, this is where it's at.
32:35You know what I'm saying?
32:36Ain't I booted up.
32:37Ain't I booted up.
32:38A cowboy isn't just being on the farm and dealing with the horses.
32:41A cowboy is everything.
32:42You know how serious cowboys take what they wear?
32:46I've noticed very profoundly how people respond to me when I'm in my full ensemble of cowboy.
32:52It's a whole nother level of respect.
32:54The hat we choose to wear matters, bro.
32:56Every time I get a new hat, I get a new hater.
32:59Ooh-wee!
33:01Oh, this one hard right here.
33:03Look at the boots with the turquoise on it.
33:05Ooh!
33:06You going crazy!
33:07Come on, Eb!
33:08You know, this my hat lady, Jay.
33:10She do all my hats.
33:11But ever since I met Ebony, we just been taking off to the moon.
33:15My fashion is baggy rich.
33:18I mean, LV's done with $40, you heard?
33:20But most importantly, you got to be comfortable.
33:23That's when you a boss.
33:25You got to be comfortable.
33:26Black people are feeling comfortable to say, you know what?
33:30This is our style, and we're going to do it unapologetically.
33:34We make everything cool, though.
33:37All fashion trends that happen start right here, with Black women, Black men, our Black culture.
33:49The essence of the culture is not only about pushing fashion forward, but is about using fashion as a way to signal social change.
33:58We had to figure out ways to make something out of nothing.
34:04What we can't do as people of color is continue to try to find a seat at a table where we may or may not be welcome.
34:12Black cowboy fashion is so fire because we just took the power back in our own hands and shed the light on ourselves.
34:18It's amazing to see something like what Pharrell is doing with Louis Vuitton on such a grand stage.
34:24The fall and winter 2024 runway show was just in Paris.
34:27Set against the backdrop of the American Wild West, Pharrell said he wanted to model and feature what the original cowboy looked like.
34:34If you go back in history with anything, we always are at the start.
34:39And now that that is being showcased in a real way, I think that's beautiful.
34:44Pharrell's been a pillar in fashion since the late 90s, early 2000s.
34:49He's discovered some things about his history that he wanted to bring to the forefront.
34:53We export more culture than any other group in the world.
34:56African Americans do.
34:58Yo, what's up, man?
35:00What's up, how you doing?
35:01Amazing, I heard you were the one.
35:03Yeah, no, I heard you were the one.
35:05You're already in Nashville showing out.
35:06I just got to get these moves clear, you feel me?
35:08Because I'm just so used to freestyling.
35:10I got you.
35:11I'm going to show you everything you need to know.
35:12Okay, cool.
35:13We're going to go five, six, seven, eight.
35:17Go right, left, right, and left, left, right, left.
35:21One of the biggest misconceptions is that you line dance to traditional country music,
35:26the white country artists that we know.
35:28From the top.
35:29Five, six, seven, eight.
35:30Oh, he's teaching electric slide.
35:31I know that.
35:32Back.
35:33Back.
35:34Yeah.
35:35Front to the left.
35:36Oh, yeah, that's easy, baby.
35:37The electric slide is one of the most popular line dances.
35:40That's black culture.
35:42Black people were the originators of buckra dancing,
35:47which became buck dancing, which became tap dance,
35:49and then it became line dancing.
35:52Back, tap dance, huh?
35:54You can even trace back death to an incident called the Stono Rebellion
35:59and a black cowboy named Jemmy.
36:03Jemmy, an Angolan warrior, was the original cowboy who didn't give a fuck.
36:09On September 9th, 1739, he and 12 other enslaved cowboys gathered on the banks of the Stono River
36:17with an idea that they were going to set everyone free.
36:24Because Jemmy, as an Angolan warrior, communicated to the troops through these movements that looked like dance,
36:32the slave codes also banned dancing, playing instruments, because they knew that black people getting information was a danger to white people.
36:47Five, six, seven, eight, step, hit, and clap.
36:52Grab your sweetheart and spin out with them.
36:54Do the ho-down and get in.
36:56You can't stay down when you're here to get up.
36:58Take it to the left now and...
37:00I put up a song and the world spoke.
37:02Take a sip, put it out, lean back, put your head in.
37:06There's a lot of harmony in line dancing.
37:09It could bring people together.
37:10Wait, Wawa West has its own line dance?
37:12Does it have its own line dance?
37:15Oh, all right.
37:16Gonna do the two-step, then cowboy boogie.
37:19Grab your sweetheart and spin out with them.
37:22Do the ho-down and get into it.
37:26Take it to the left now and dip with it.
37:29Don't throw down, take a sip with it.
37:32Where did you learn to dance from?
37:34Because I say about TikTok and I learn them.
37:45So, imagine waking up one morning and...
37:53It's all gone.
37:59Anything that can be grasped once it is shown to be successful
38:03or something to be wanted or desired,
38:06Black people's possession of it
38:07becomes only an invitation for it to be grabbed.
38:15There's a cycle of theft that continues today.
38:22The deconstruction of Black Lives Matter Plaza is complete.
38:25Here we are again.
38:36But we're ready.
38:41Our story is a story of pride.
38:43And it's a story of love and action and fortitude no matter what.
38:52It's a showdown.
38:54It's a long time coming.
38:56Us being proud and happy to be Black takes nothing away from anyone else or their culture.
39:02It's just important for us to speak up and to remind the world who we are and that we have the right to be in any space that we choose to be.
39:11As a Black cowboy, you got to keep beating the drum for justice and you can't never give up.
39:21The minute you give up, all those people win.
39:25What's going to happen is we're going to stop settling for the cycle that we've been in for centuries.
39:32Which says that Black people are supposed to be subjugated.
39:35We're supposed to be second class citizens.
39:36We only deserve what white people tell us we can have.
39:40So I want to see more Black people participating in this take back era.
39:44Whether you're doing it through the clothes, the trap country or the food and the high on the hog type reclamation.
39:55We are including ourselves in the legacy and the culture of the music and the art that we created.
40:02The door is wide open. Everybody come on in, man. Let's have a good time down here.
40:06Look at you. Come on. That's joy. That's pure joy, man.
40:10I think everybody's starting to come out and go like, yeah, we proud of this, you know.
40:17I think at first we may have been shaming country music or horseback riding.
40:22You know, now that everybody's coming out and saying, we've been on this.
40:26Every story about a Black cowboy makes America a better place because that's our real history.
40:31This is how we roll. Roll it down.
40:34The Black American cowboy represents all of the noblest parts of that American archetype.
40:40Independence, grid, and uncompromising definition of self.
40:46In the Black cowboy, we all can see ourselves and see what we each want.
40:50And it's not that I want it at the expense of you. I actually want it for you, too.
40:54Long live Black cowboys.
41:06Long live Black cowboys.
41:09Long live Black boys.
41:29Two-stepping with a twist of fate
41:31Square dancing in a fancy place
41:34Smelling like those cookies from the scouts
41:37Sweetheart, you don't stand to change
41:41I got you spinning like a cellophane
41:43I can see you floating in the clouds
41:47One, two, step
41:49One, forty, forty next
41:52You're hopping out your chest
41:54Save a dance with me
41:57Oh, you do-si-do-ed your way into my heart
42:01Do-si-do
42:01Got me dancing up on it
42:04I'm touching stars
42:05Do-si-do
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