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  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • (SINGING) It's a kooky, wacky, crazy, loopy world

  • we're living in, so Craig decides to close

  • up shop to live in a cabin.

  • And while he's there, he talks to corn,

  • and birds become his friends.

  • A dolphin shares the keys to life, the fun will never.

  • It's a wild and rowdy, loud and shouty earth we're spinning on,

  • so Craig put down the payment on a quiet little home.

  • The home is far from quiet, it's a lot that's going on.

  • A wormhole opens up, and now, his twin is in his home.

  • Oh yeah!

  • You're going to want to stick around for this.

  • Your attention, please.

  • It's time to get Black, y'all.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • [VOCALIZING]

  • Your attention, please.

  • Your attention, please.

  • [CANNED LAUGHTER]

  • [SCATTERED APPLAUSE]

  • [CANNED LAUGHTER]

  • [CHEERING]

  • Greetings, what it dos, and hello--

  • (SINGING) is it me you're looking for?

  • Craig Robinson here, and I'm coming

  • to you live from what I like to call my productivity zone.

  • It's here that I keep meticulous notes

  • of all my intellectual doodads, idea thingies, and bladoodles--

  • oh, sorry, that's a Black dude doodle.

  • We've got an epic show for you today,

  • so I don't want to waste any more

  • time on my hopes and dreams.

  • Because around here, we're all about focusing on the hopes

  • and dreams of others.

  • Now, if you don't mind, I'm going

  • to get back to my bladoodles.

  • [HUMMING]

  • [FAX MACHINE TONE]

  • Why is someone faxing me here?

  • Weird!

  • Attention, Craig-- read the next segment.

  • Set up the next segment, bro, you tripping.

  • I feel like we've been through this.

  • If you're still reading this, why?

  • You really need to set up the next segment.

  • Who is that?

  • Good thing I didn't accept that offer

  • from my neighbor to trade his glove

  • collection for my fax machine.

  • End of the day, late, breaking updates

  • are worth more than the finest crafted

  • Corinthian leather gloves.

  • And let's see, how shall I set this up?

  • Got it.

  • Now, if you recall in season one,

  • I mentioned my extensive doll collection.

  • Well, did y'all know I also have an insanely intricate

  • celebrity wig collection?

  • As much as I love to go into very,

  • very specific detail about all of my wigs, I'd rather not.

  • That level of color will stay between me, the wigs,

  • and the celebrity skulls that they once laid upon.

  • Goochie, goochie, goo!

  • Pop quiz, hot shots--

  • when I say the name Annie, what's the first thing

  • that comes to mind?

  • Red dress?

  • Red hair?

  • Lots of white people in a hard knock life?

  • Or maybe, Annie, are you OK, are you OK, are you OK, Annie?

  • Annie!

  • Oh, you OK.

  • If all that is true, you wouldn't be wrong.

  • But after this next piece, you'll

  • see another Annie who is on her way to being on the Mount

  • Rushmore of Annies.

  • The short film we are about to peek

  • was created by a sister who I can

  • only describe as a legendary auteur in the making.

  • She writes, she directs, and she edits.

  • From SZA to Ciara, she's somehow finesses this all

  • while still being in school.

  • She's 23, y'all, and I'm in awe.

  • When I was 23, I was still trying to talk my way

  • into the [INAUDIBLE] Club.

  • Now, without further ado, your attention, please--

  • a short film by Annie Bercy.

  • [INHALES DEEPLY]

  • 1989.

  • I'll see you later.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • Your attention, please.

  • [JAZZ MUSIC]

  • I know you're not about to walk in this house

  • without saying hello to me.

  • Hi, mom.

  • Hey, baby.

  • How was school today?

  • Another great day of school, mom.

  • Well, good.

  • Get those school clothes off, get on your homework, wash up,

  • and I'll be ready with dinner in about an hour.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • [GIRL SNICKERING]

  • [PENCIL WRITING]

  • [GIRL LAUGHING]

  • [LAUGHTER]

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • Yes.

  • Excuse me?

  • Begone.

  • Begone.

  • So fly.

  • So free.

  • Yes, you can be beautiful, with Shine and Sleek.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING - CHRISTIAN RAMNATH AND ANNIE BERCY,

  • "LIONESS AD"]

  • When I'm not in my school uniform, I like to be fierce.

  • And I want my hair to be fierce, too.

  • That's why I use Lioness--

  • the permanent relaxer cream system

  • with constant conditioning.

  • (SINGING) So fly, so free.

  • So fly, so free.

  • Yes, you can be beautiful, with Shine and Sleek.

  • No more pain, easy to maintain.

  • Finally, tame that mane.

  • Lioness has successfully relaxed over 20 million heads of hair.

  • Ask your professional stylist for Lioness--

  • the premium, no-lye, conditioning relaxer,

  • available in your local beauty supply.

  • Are you ready to be fierce?

  • (MUFFLED) Riley, where are you?

  • Riley!

  • Oh, my bad, mom.

  • Dinner's ready.

  • Cut that off.

  • Now.

  • Riley!

  • You didn't remind me that Monday is picture day.

  • What?

  • Oh, I-- I forgot.

  • Well, pour something for us.

  • Let me get my purse.

  • Mom-- I want to perm my hair for picture day.

  • And ruin those precious curls of yours?

  • No.

  • Please?

  • I can pay for it myself.

  • I just want to try something different.

  • You don't perm your hair for a day,

  • and then rinse it out when you change your mind.

  • A perm means permanent.

  • Why not spend your money on a-- a wash and set instead?

  • Maybe because I want it to be permanent.

  • Well, maybe you don't know what you want.

  • And besides, you're too young to be putting those harsh chemical

  • products in your hair.

  • I don't want your hair to fall out because you

  • don't know how to manage it.

  • I mean, you managed just fine, mom.

  • Why can't you just teach me?

  • What's the rush?

  • Why now?

  • I-- I just want everyone to see a better version of me.

  • I want to be a better version of me.

  • Plus, you look so good with straight hair, mom.

  • Imagine how good I'd look.

  • [CHUCKLES]

  • Hmm?

  • Lord.

  • You want straight hair?

  • Well, you're going to have to take care of it.

  • You hear me?

  • It's a big commitment, and it requires a ton of maintenance.

  • Yes, of course.

  • Lord.

  • Tomorrow, when I'm at work, you go to the beauty supply store

  • for me, OK?

  • You know which box to get?

  • All right.

  • "I'd look good with straight hair"--

  • Lord, have mercy.

  • [DOORBELL]

  • Sir, what is this?

  • You don't see anything wrong here?

  • You don't see you're missing a shade here?

  • So this is the darkest shade of brown you guys have?

  • Really?

  • Might as well be the color of the bottom of my foot.

  • Right!

  • These are all the shades they have.

  • You have a problem?

  • Take it up with them.

  • Ooh, he did not.

  • Did you see that?

  • I saw that.

  • You saw that.

  • You know what?

  • I don't understand why you guys sell

  • all of these things in our neighborhood,

  • but you can't get the color of our skin.

  • And it is not that--

  • y'all assume every Black person here is stealing.

  • Right.

  • And I see your eyes glued to the cameras every time we come in.

  • Right.

  • You know, this one is better than the one on Beverly.

  • Right?

  • Because that lady be following us around.

  • She trippin'! So true.

  • She get on my damn--

  • Hey, so are you buying something, or?

  • No!

  • No, we're not.

  • And sir, watch us open up our own beauty supply store

  • and run all of you out of business.

  • You know what?

  • Let's go.

  • We're done.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • [MUSIC PLAYING - CHRISTIAN RAMNATH AND ANNIE BERCY,

  • "CHANGE THE WORLD"]

  • (SINGING) You can change the world, just the way

  • you are, you're perfect, worth it.

  • You were made just right.

  • No need for you to change a thing Look at all the light

  • you burn.

  • You will change the world.

  • Baby, you can [INAUDIBLE] perfect.

  • And whenever you're feeling down,

  • remember how far you've came.

  • You will change the world someday.

  • Are you going to buy something?

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • Next.

  • Next.

  • Next.

  • [GOSPEL CHOIR VOCALIZING]

  • Your attention, please.

  • That is how you paint a picture.

  • Black girl magic strikes again.

  • Keep killing 'em, Annie.

  • Maybe find a little part for you boy on your next one.

  • And by a little part, I mean the lead.

  • I want the lead.

  • Consider that my audition, Annie.

  • My assistant will send the footage.

  • Speaking of oceanic levels of Black girl magic--

  • cowabunga, sis.

  • Surf's up, queen.

  • Don't worry, I'm not getting into young adult novel naming,

  • even if I do have titles for my series, for days.

  • No, these are all things you'll likely

  • hear coming from the waves the ladies of Black Girls Surf

  • are making as they use surfing to break

  • the chains of the patriarchy.

  • Led by a fearless leader who calls herself

  • the original Dorothy, you're going

  • to be blown away by this one.

  • So let's do it.

  • Your attention, please-- meet Rhonda Harper.

  • Your attention, please.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • My connection to the water is very spiritual.

  • It's my church, it's my home.

  • It's a place where I get respite.

  • So when I go to the cove, I can go back to the time

  • when I was four, and my dad taught me how to swim.

  • It's a connection to my family.

  • And I am free.

  • [CHEERING]

  • I see the utopia that I dreamed about.

  • The lighthouse leads me home.

  • I know that's my place.

  • I know that's my space.

  • This is my journey.

  • [TRADITIONAL MUSIC]

  • [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

  • I created the Africa Surf International and Black Girls

  • Surf for lack of representation in the professional surf

  • industry.

  • Black people weren't being shown on a professional level.

  • If you can't see it, you can't be it.

  • [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

  • These girls are coming from a patriarchal system.

  • It's cultural, it's religion.

  • There's a lot of variables in it.

  • They come from disadvantaged homes, communities

  • without access.

  • We give them, through surf therapy, the opportunity

  • to express who they are, who they want to be,

  • how they see the future.

  • [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

  • Surf therapy is quite needed, especially if you're

  • a person of color, and you're coming into a sport,

  • and people aren't used to seeing diversity.

  • There's always some judgment.

  • [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

  • If you prepare emotionally, as well as physically,

  • then you have the perfect athlete, because they're

  • able to adjust easily.

  • We are?

  • Black girls surf!

  • You are?

  • Black girls surf!

  • You are?

  • Black girls surf!

  • You are?

  • [INAUDIBLE] surf! You are?

  • Black girls surf! You are?

  • [INAUDIBLE] surf! You are?

  • Black girls surf!

  • Yay!

  • They're working within themselves

  • to find their own agency, so that they

  • can go out and represent themselves, and excel.

  • [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

  • Relax, relax.

  • These are teenage girls, and it's very challenging, when

  • you don't know who you are yet.

  • And to put you in a spotlight, like we did with [INAUDIBLE],,

  • it's very difficult to be able to navigate who you are,

  • and who you think the outside world wants you to be.

  • So what we're trying to teach here is to keep who you are.

  • You can be who you are, and still rock a wave.

  • [APPLAUSE]

  • It's hard to believe that on this day,

  • or I have peace in the water.

  • Back home, I'm seeing riots, and racism.

  • And here I am in Africa, my second home,

  • watching all of this happen.

  • Where I am in this environment, and being on this island,

  • is not only very emotional, but it should remind people

  • of where Black people started, and how we maintained,

  • and survived through all of the injustice that has happened

  • since we left this rock.

  • My dad always says, learn a trade,

  • go back into the community, and help.

  • I came across the transatlantic slave route to do just that.

  • When I'm in Senegal, the entire village comes out to greet you,

  • and make sure that you're OK.

  • [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

  • I can breathe here.

  • [DRUMMING]

  • [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

  • These girls just watched me come to a country

  • that is not my own, and excel.

  • And now, they have a home.

  • I have a home.

  • [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Black Girls Surf.

  • [CHEERING]

  • These girls see that there's something

  • better out there if you just believe in yourself.

  • So my girls have seen the world in a different light.

  • And that is why we're here.

  • (SINGING) Every day, every day, every day,

  • every day, every time.

  • (TOGETHER) Thank you!

  • Every day, every day, every day, every day, every time.

  • (TOGETHER) Thank you!

  • Yeah, you move together, me for you.

  • (TOGETHER) Thank you!

  • For them, everyone, [INAUDIBLE]

  • (TOGETHER) Love you!

  • I love you, I love you, I love you.

  • (TOGETHER) We love you!

  • I love you, I love you, my baby.

  • (TOGETHER) We love you!

  • I love you, I love you.

  • (TOGETHER) Love you!

  • I love you, I love you, I love you.

  • (TOGETHER) I love you!

  • I love you, I love you, I love you.

  • (TOGETHER) I love you!

  • Your attention, please.

  • Oh-- this is me being instantly inspired, y'all.

  • Call it inst-iration.

  • Rhonda has singlehandedly just created

  • yet another Black surfer.

  • Wish me luck, y'all--

  • I want to help tear down the patriarchy, too,

  • one wave at a time.

  • Look what the tide flowed in!

  • It's my dolphin homie, Cedric.

  • Probably just swimming through, if I had to guess.

  • OK, cool-- shouldn't be a problem with that.

  • Take notes at a master of his craft.

  • For this last piece, I'm going to let

  • you in on a little secret--

  • Indiana Jones is real.

  • But he's not white.

  • And he doesn't steal stuff.

  • He's Black, and young, and cool as hell,

  • and is using the power of archaeology

  • to shine a light on our Black ancestry

  • and its profound impact on the world at large.

  • Plus, the dude may or may not have

  • discovered how to time travel.

  • I'm not legally permitted to go further with that one.

  • So without any more long talk, your attention, please--

  • meet Justin Dunnavant.

  • Hey, you wanna see a movie after this?

  • Bet.

  • What you want to see?

  • "Free Willy"?

  • [LAUGHS]

  • Your attention, please.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • Are you a time traveler?

  • I do travel through time.

  • That's one of the superpowers that we

  • as archaeologists possess.

  • My name is Justin Dunnavant.

  • I'm an archaeologist.

  • And I'm here in Nashville, Tennessee,

  • at Vanderbilt University.

  • Traditionally, I would be in [INAUDIBLE] right now.

  • I would be excavating.

  • We'd have a number of students.

  • Once we uncover what it that has been damaged, distorted,

  • or lost, we can begin to think about restoring

  • some of those things.

  • And for me, that's the exciting part.

  • I think, as researchers and academics,

  • we often get caught up in identifying problems,

  • but are rarely in a position to offer

  • solutions to the problems.

  • And I think that's the most exciting part.

  • I had two older brothers.

  • And so I was hanging out with them

  • and their friends most of the time.

  • So you know, by the time I hit middle school,

  • they were in high school.

  • So I started college when I was 16 years old.

  • So it was me, and another friend of mine,

  • that were the two youngest kids at Howard University then.

  • I wanted to travel.

  • I wanted to see the world.

  • Archaeology is really something that stuck out to me

  • and spoke to me when I got to college.

  • I wanted to study abroad my first year.

  • And the only trip that didn't have a prerequisite

  • was to go on an archaeology dig in the rainforest in Belize.

  • And so I had never been camping before, but I said, sign me up.

  • I lived in the rainforest for six weeks.

  • We were excavating a Mayan plaza.

  • I just thought, this is amazing.

  • I was traveling three times a month,

  • so at least within 10 days, I was on a plane going somewhere.

  • I was rarely home.

  • And actually, I explain to people

  • when I wrote my dissertation, I was

  • doing fieldwork in Ethiopia.

  • And I think I was home for maybe three months out

  • of the whole year.

  • So that's the life that we live as archaeologists, out

  • of necessity.

  • So you really start to value what it is that you

  • actually need, and you learn how to make

  • home wherever you end up.

  • The focus and theme of what I do is really

  • centered around Africa and the African diaspora

  • over the last 500 years.

  • Doing this work has really opened my eyes to the idea

  • that there's a whole other aspect of history.

  • Oftentimes, we think of pirates, we

  • look at Captain Morgan, and all these other pirates,

  • and Blackbeard.

  • But we rarely understand or interrogate

  • the fact that a lot of them were involved in the slave trade.

  • Blackbeard the pirate, his ship, the "Queen Anne's Revenge,"

  • was a slave ship that he captured with over 200 Africans

  • on board.

  • And he sold those Africans.

  • It's part of a much larger goal focusing on the slave trade.

  • It's twofold-- one of it is actually

  • understanding what happened during the slave trade.

  • We're talking about a large, large, forced migration

  • of people from Africa to the Americas.

  • And then you have to deal with the ramifications

  • on the US side--

  • Indigenous populations that have been displaced and actively

  • erased from many landscapes, people

  • having to make a new life in this place that

  • wasn't traditionally theirs.

  • I draw strength mainly from ancestors.

  • I know that I'm not doing this work alone.

  • These are the cabins where the enslaved people

  • would have lived.

  • Over time, they were rebuilt and repurposed.

  • These were actually lived in up until the 1960s.

  • One of the most interesting finds that we found,

  • and that you can actually see in this imagery,

  • is if you zoom in, we actually dug down to bedrock, which is

  • the foundation of the island.

  • And you can see what we call postholes in the bedrock.

  • So these were actual holes that would

  • have been dug into the bedrock to affix some sort of post.

  • So that leads us to assume that perhaps enslaved Africans were

  • repurposing these postholes that were

  • created by Indigenous people.

  • From that point, we have to completely reconfigure

  • and rethink how it is that we understand

  • Black history in America.

  • Understanding what they were up against, what they've been

  • through, what decisions they had to make

  • allows us to add a more humanized component

  • to their life, and their story.

  • Diving With a Purpose is a non-profit organization

  • founded around 15 years ago.

  • A group of Black scuba divers, they

  • got into these conversations with the National Park Service

  • and realized National Park Service has underwater parks,

  • just like they have land parks.

  • The problem is, they're vastly understaffed and underutilized.

  • These recreational divers said, well, we love scuba diving.

  • We'd love to help, and assist.

  • More importantly, one of the national parks

  • was actually looking for a slave ship wreck.

  • And at that point, National Association of Black Scuba

  • Divers said, well, we'll offer our talents to help you search

  • for these slave ship wrecks.

  • Part of my work now is also trying to not just understand

  • the events as they occurred, but the mentalities that

  • allowed them to occur, so that we can

  • begin to change some of those.

  • Afrofuturism allows us to think through

  • and explore what could have been if the past had been different.

  • Afrofuturism allows us to dream, to imagine,

  • to think about what can be.

  • I've got a few things in the works right now.

  • The main project is in Africantown, Alabama.

  • The last slave ship to enter the United States, the "Clotilda,"

  • was located recently.

  • And that created a whole new resurgence of memory,

  • of history, of excitement and exploration,

  • and then also an intensive sort of revisiting of the history

  • of the town of Africatown.

  • The town was founded by the people who came on that ship.

  • A few years after the ship arrived, slavery was abolished.

  • So those people who were brought on that ship

  • found themselves now, quote unquote,

  • "free" in the United States.

  • And they came back to the area where

  • the ship dropped them off at, and established

  • a community in Africatown.

  • I honestly think archaeology in Africatown

  • will be one of the most significant

  • archaeology sites in the 21st century, [INAUDIBLE]..

  • [MUSIC PLAYING - ESPERANZA SPALDING, "BLACK GOLD"]

  • I think "Indiana Jones" raised awareness about archaeology,

  • but didn't attract enough people to it.

  • When I talk to younger people today that actually get

  • into archaeology, a lot of them really get into it

  • for similar reasons that I did.

  • This idea that I'm constantly working on a new project,

  • and exploring new ideas that people either haven't

  • thought about, or that people are now

  • thinking about in a new way--

  • archaeology provides us with another archive

  • that we can use to explore Black history.

  • (SINGING) But you're golden, baby,

  • Black gold with a diamond soul.

  • I would just tell the future generation,

  • remember, remind, and restore.

  • (SINGING) Oh, Black boy, Black boy, you are Black, boy.

  • You have a responsibility to your community.

  • And you have responsibility to the world.

  • There's really nothing that's outside of your capabilities

  • as a human being.

  • Anything and everything is possible.

  • And I just ask you to tap into that,

  • and live your life to the fullest.

  • Your attention, please.

  • Justin is the man, and not just because of this gift

  • that just showed up.

  • If anyone else is feeling gifty, at the bottom of the screen

  • is my Cash App.

  • Gift away.

  • Now, let's see what we have here.

  • [ANGELIC CHOIR]

  • [GASP] (WHISPERING) Oh my god.

  • The history-- look at it!

  • The story-- glorio-o-o-us!

  • [STRAINING]

  • [PANTING]

  • Whew.

  • Whew.

  • Well, that's all the time we have for today, y'all.

  • I'm going to go find a place in the cabin

  • for this illustrious piece of history I was just gifted.

  • Remember, y'all, don't forget to find what you love,

  • share it with the world, and scream from the mountaintop,

  • your attention, please!

  • [WHISTLING]

  • Hey, football dummies, give me a hand in here.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

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