Disclaimer: This video can be a bit confusing at first. What’s going on is that they are both delivering the whole speech, however their mics are intentionally cut off periodically so only one of them can be heard speaking. Every time you see that only one of them is speaking it means the other just can not be heard
Both: The first day I realized-
Woman: I was black. It was 2000. We had just learned about blacks for the first time in second grade, at recess all the white kids chased me into the forest chanting “slave”. My mother said I refused to come out for three hours. Said she thinks I was lost in the trees, but I just needed to be closer to my roots.
Man: having a boyfriend is a battle. If 70% of us are abused in a lifetime, what is the number of men doing it? The answer is not one man running faster than light to complete a mission, and that, is what leaves me sick.
Woman: The second day I realized I was black was in a gas station. I only had 25 cents so I searched what to spend it on. The cashier floated from isle to isle, eyes fixed on my hands.
Both: That was the first time I realized skin color was a crime
Man: My body has become cause to write legislation, cause for ass smacks in the back of the class. My body has demanded everything except respect. I’ve been asked, “what makes you feel unsafe?” and I struggle not to yell
Woman: The third day I realized I was black was in an all white cafeteria. I’d gathered my legs under me, made rockets of my feet and approached a girl. She told me she was not into “my type of guy” I felt the words shoot daggers into my melanin, I have never wanted to disappear so bad.
Man: As a woman I’ve learned to answer to everything except my name. “Little Lady” is not said to mean equal, but to make sure I remember my place. I battle between wanting to own my body, and accepting that there is a 1 in 4 chance a man will lay claim to my skin, a plot of land for the taking.
Woman: The last day I realized I was black was in an elevator in California. To the white woman who told me she knows what it feels like to be black because she grew up poor
Both: I would tell you to think before you speak but-
Woman: Your mind has got to be bacteria infected, and any filter through that labyrinth of nothingness might be worse than no thought at all
Man: There’s a group of women going around the room sharing their personal definition of feminism. He is the only man in the room and all of a sudden the tone switches to destroying the patriarchy by annihilating all men.
Woman: Do you know what it feels like to be black? To pop lock your way in and out of hugs? It is not a problem you want to sympathize.
Both: But to tell me you know my pain
Woman: Is to stab yourself in the leg because you saw me get shot. We have two different wounds and looking at yours does nothing to heal mine.
Man: Never will I turn away an ally
Woman: But when I man speaks on my behalf, it only proves my point.
Man: Movements are driven by passion, not by asserting yourself dominant in a world that already puts you there.
Both: You speak to know pain that you only fathom because we told you it was there. You know nothing of silence, until someone who can not know your pain tells you how to fix it. Every day is a crucifixion, where there is not regards for lines crossed.
Woman: I fight so my voice can be heard. I fight for the voices you silence, all in the name of what is right.
Man: You assume the struggle’s attached to a social class. I am black, and bold, and beautiful by nature, ain’t no income that can change that.
Woman: The problem with speaking up for each other
Man: Is that everyone is left
