All language subtitles for Origin (2024)

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I know you want to say it.

- Go ahead.
- I'm not going to say it.

- But you want to.
- Yeah, I do.

I know. Go ahead.

I told you so.

See, always with the "I told you so."

Uh, because I told you so.

You was right this time.

Uh, what do you mean this time?

I'm always right.

All right, all right, all right.
Calm down.

- Calm down.
- So, get your little candy

- or whatever and call me back.
- All right.

Hey.

Three-fifty.

Like, uh, I don't know, some…
Ooh, ooh, ooh, you know I like breakfast.

Okay, breakfast.

- I might need some eggs.
- Rice, bread, berries,

- I got you.
- Oh, you got me?

I don't know if I want--
You like berries?

What, you be eating berries with pancakes?

Yeah, I eat berries
with pancakes.

Like, blueberry pancakes?

- They're so bomb.
- See, okay, okay.

We gotta have fun.
We gotta do our own thing. I feel like--

We gotta do our own thing.
It's gonna be… it's gonna be amazing.

I'm really excited.

Yeah, I mean,
we have all kinds of breakfasts…

Hey, I think…
I think this car is following me.

- What? For real?
- It keeps looping around the block.

Dang. Uh. Try going another way.

- Call me when you get home, okay?
- All right.

Mama?

Mama?

Afternoon.

Afternoon. Are you sleeping or kinda?

Kinda.

Hey, sleeping beauty.

- Hi.
- Hello.

- Hi, hi.
- Hello, hello.

Wanna sit up?

Let's sit up. There we go.

All right. Come on, one more time.

- Okay.
- That's good. That's good.

- Okay.
- How's that?

Yeah. There we go.

- Sweetie with you?
- He's bringing the trash around back.

Oh, yeah, garbage day.
Everything in its right place.

Well, of course you know how to do it,

but you don't have to do it.
Not while I'm here.

Take my job from me, please.

There's only so much joy
left for me in this world.

You gotta let me have it now.
Okay.

You ready?

Come here.

Okay. Go slow, okay? Come on.

I got you. Okay.

Could you tell me
how many apartments are in this?

Oh yeah, we have 200 units.

- Two hundred, okay.
- Two hundred units,

- yes.
- And everything…

- Kitchen, full kitchen.
- Full kitchen…

- Mm-hmm.
- …and a-- yeah, that's a…

- Well, everyone looks really nice here.
- Yes.

- It's a great place.
- You know, Mr. Mayhew,

- my husband was a Tuskegee Airman.
- Oh.

- Fought for America in World War II.
- Oh.

Oh, this is the gym here, yeah.

Beautiful, open 24 hours.

Oh.

Oh. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hey.

- At least there's good light.
- Hmm. Yeah.

Oh.

Look at that cloud.

I see a swimming pool
with boys jumping in.

- Where?
- There. Look.

- There's the arms.
- Oh, yeah.

I see it. I see it. I see it.

They're a Little League team.

- Hmm.
- Just won the big game.

Celebrating and having a ball.
See the splashes?

- Oh!
- Mama. Little League team.

- Oh.
- Splashes.

- It's true.
- Mm-hmm.

You and your imagination.

You gonna be all right?

Yes.

I'm gonna be all right, honey.

I'm gonna be all right.

Okay.

If anybody can maneuver,
it's your mom, okay?

Um, what she say all the time?
"My husband was a Tuskegee Airman."

Listen…

…I know keeping elders at home
is supposed to be a noble thing and all,

but there's something to be said…

…for keeping her as independent

as she can be.

Where'd you find them?

Next to the lamp,
under a scarf with the ringer off.

You gotta use the hook.
That's what it's there for.

- Is that Mr. Brett?
- Oh.

- Are you ready to go out?
- Miss Marion. How's Teddy?

You know, working my nerves.
But what else is new?

- Did you say paper towels?
- Yeah.

Please do not miss this flight, okay?

I love you. Please be safe, okay? Okay.

You got your boarding pass?

- I knew you had it.
- Hell yeah, you knew it, huh?

- You got it.
- Bye.

Bye, baby.

Shipyard workers
at Blom and Voss gather for a ceremony,

celebrating the company's
new 295-foot vessel.

Heil!

Adopted by the Nazis,

a "heil" salute was mandatory
for German citizens.

But if you look closely,
you'll find someone who defied this.

His name is believed
to be August Landmesser.

He had joined the Nazi party two years
before this day, but in that time,

August met and fell in love with a woman
unlike any he'd ever met.

Unlike any he was supposed to have met.

Irma Eckler, a Jewish woman.

An unexpected treat. You're early.

- I'm a surprise.
- That you are.

A handsome one.

Although a member
of the dominant class,

August saw in Irma
what others like him chose not to see.

Her humanity, her beauty, her love.

On this day…

he folded his arms

rather than salute a regime
that deemed that love illegal.

On this day, he was brave.

He couldn't have been the only one
who felt something tragic was happening.

So, why was he the only one among the men
to not go along that day?

Perhaps we can reflect
on what it would mean to be him today.

I'll leave you with that.

Thank you.

- Yeah, goodbye.
- Thank you, Isabel.

Earpiece.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

- Water?
- Oh, I'm fine. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

- Isabel. Isabel. Hey.
- Amari!

I didn't know you were speaking.

Oh, no, no, no, no.
One of my reporters is.

Hey, can you guys give me a minute?
Okay. You were solid.

Nice work.

I am a better writer than I am speaker.

Yeah, well, you're a better writer
than most people do anything.

So, listen.

I was gonna reach out to you on something.

Uh, so,
I'm gonna take seeing you as a sign.

- This… this… this Trayvon Martin case.
- I know.

- Have you heard the tapes?
- No. Of what?

Not the murder.

911 calls.
This killer called 911 before he did it.

And tapes of people
that heard the boy screaming out

and called the police.

Is this public?

No. Well, it's being released. Slowly.

But we got him.

Are you interested in listening
to consider writing something for us?

Amari, you have a stable of writers.

They don't have Pulitzer Prizes.

Some of them do, actually.

Yeah, well, then they're not
as brilliant as you on things like this.

You know what I do.

Yeah,
and I know what you used to do.

Some of the best reporting
I've ever edited.

I write books now.

So, that one book you wrote
took way too damn long.

It was a masterpiece and whatnot,
but… it took too long, Isabel.

If you ask me, writers write.

So, write.

I don't do assignments anymore. I…

I want to be in the story,
really inside the story.

Mm-hmm.

And yes, that takes time.

Okay.

Maybe after you hear the tapes,
I'm gonna send them to you.

- Okay.
- Okay, no… no pressure.

Sanford Police Department.

This line is being recorded. This is Sean.

Hey, we've had some break-ins
in my neighborhood,

and there's a real suspicious guy. Uh…

This guy looks like he's up to no good,
or he's on drugs or something.

Oh, he's just walking

- around the area?
- Looking at all the houses.

It's raining, and he's just
walking around, looking about.

Okay.

And he's a Black male.

Now, he's just staring at me.

Did you see what he was wearing?

Yeah, a dark hoodie,
like a gray hoodie,

and either jeans or sweatpants
and white tennis shoes.

Shit, he's running.

He's running?
Which way is he running?

Down towards the, uh, other entrance
to the neighborhood.

These assholes, they always get away.

- Are you following him?
- Yeah.

Okay,
we don't need you to do that.

Okay.

All right, sir,
what is your name?

George. He ran.

All right, George,
what's your last name?

Zimmerman.

911, what do you need,
police, fire or medical?

Uh, maybe both. I'm not sure.
There's just someone screaming outside.

Um.

Okay, what's the address
that they're near?

1211 Twin Trees Lane.

And is it a male or female?

It sounds like a male.

- And you don't know why?
- I don't know why.

I think they're yelling "Help,"
but I don't know.

So, you think he's yelling "Help"?

Yes.

I can't see him.
I don't wanna go out there.

I don't know what's going on, so…

- Help!
- What did you--

There's gunshots.

- You just heard gunshots?
- Yes.

- How many?
- Just one.

All right,
is he right outside 1211 Twin Trees Lane?

Yeah, pretty much.
Out the back, yeah.

- Brett.
- Isabel. Hi.

Hi.

- Hey.
- Hi!

Looking gorgeous.

- Oh, Brett. How are you? You well?
- Hi. How are you?

Great to see you.

- Okay, and you.
- Yeah.

- And he is wearing that tux very well.
- Very well.

He can hear you.

Well, he can, but he's grateful.

- Thank you.
- Hello.

Uh, Amari Salvin…

…asked me twice if you were coming.

Okay? He wants something for the paper.

He's made that very clear.

All right. Are you interested?
We can tie up the audio book.

Right.

You listen?

Yeah. Yeah.

- It's a lot.
- Yeah?

Uh, it's a lot. There's a lot there.

But longer-form stuff,
questions that I don't have the answer to.

- So, ask them in a piece.
- I don't write questions.

I write answers.

Questions like what?

Like, why does a Latino man
deputize himself to stalk a Black boy…

- Hmm.
- …to protect an all-White community?

- What is that?
- The racist bias…

…I want you to explore.

- Excavate for the readers.
- We call everything racism.

What does it even mean anymore?
It's the default.

- When did that happen?
- Hey, Brett.

- How are you?
- How are you doing, man?

So what, so you…
you saying that… that he isn't a racist?

No, I'm not saying that he's not a racist.
I'm questioning why is everything racist?

- This feels like a setup.
- I've been there.

- Okay. Home ownership.
- Okay.

Covenants written into land deeds,
barring Black people from having wills.

No… no generational wealth allowed.

We could not pass on
what we earned to our kids

for almost 500 years.
Every time, we'd have to start from zero.

So, if we are not allowed
to pass on the fruits of our labor

to our family,

is that the same racism
that took Trayvon's life?

- Systemic racism, yes. Same.
- Are you sure?

Are you sure?

What does it mean?

Murders of Black people by the police.
We call that racism.

- Everything's the same.
- Uh. I… I get it.

Being followed in a department store
and being lynched

shouldn't be called the same thing.
I get that.

Racism as the primary language

to understand everything… is insufficient.

- See, this is good.
- That's all.

This is good.

Look, I need a piece
delving into what the Martin case means.

Set the context with these questions.
It's what you do best.

Make the hard stuff digestible.

And this is a hard one. I mean,
what… what does it all mean?

These questions are the piece.
Hey, we'll make it splashy.

Prime placement. Sunday.

- Maybe even a cover.
- You're terrible.

- You're terrible.
- I'm just saying.

- Your face on the cover?
- Terrible.

There's a lot there. There's a lot there.
But I am on hiatus.

- Isabel, come on.
- I am.

- Come on.
- I am. I… I…

I have family responsibilities.

Yeah.

All right, well,
good for you for taking time.

- We'll talk again. All right.
- All right.

- Hey, you two take care. All right?
- Good to see you, Amari.

Yeah. All right, bye.

- I'm on hiatus.
- Okay. Okay. Okay.

She's wrong.

She just said the only movie she knows.

- Die Hard is the only movie she knows?
- Oh, she deserves to lose that money.

…speak to an issue that obviously
has gotten a lot of attention

over the course of the last week, uh,

- the issue of the Trayvon Martin rule.
- Oh.

That poor child's mother.

Wish he'd answered the man right.

What was that, Mama?

I wish he had answered the man

when he asked him why he was there
in the neighborhood.

Maybe he'd still be with us.

Are you saying it's the boy's fault?

No, of course not. Don't be silly.

I'm saying you got to act
in a way to keep you safe.

He was…

he was too young to know it.

And he shouldn't have had
to answer to anyone.

Should have and real life
are two different things, darling.

You know that.

You can't be walking around at night
on a White street and not expect trouble.

That's intimidating to most Whites.

True or not?

Yeah.

Yeah. Unfortunately, I think it is true.

But I also think
that you can't live your life

based on what's intimidating to people.

Sure you can, sweetie.

So, you're going on hiatus, huh?
That's what you're doing?

Huh?

You told Amari
you were going on hiatus.

You told me that you were gonna
be traveling less for work,

so I'm just trying
to figure out what exactly it is

that you're gonna do, because…

I said I wanted to focus on her.

Okay.

People are asking you

to write because they…

Because of your voice, because they…
they… they-- The way you think.

- I just-- I don't know.
- She--

I… I don't know what you're doing.

- She doesn't belong in that place.
- Oh, right.

She should be at home.
She moved because she was lonely. I…

I… I should have spent more time with her.

Daddy would want me to fix this.

I think your father
was pretty clear that what he wanted

was for you to be happy.
For you both to be happy.

Sacrificing your work,

well, that's gonna accomplish
exactly the opposite, so…

Your mother was very clear
about what she wanted.

It's not that, so…

- I don't see it, baby.
- Maybe it's checked out.

In 1933,

two African-American anthropologists
were studying in Berlin.

There are no books here at all by him.

At the premier library in the city.

The country.

Beautiful library, though.

I could get lost
in all these books forever.

All these ideas.

Your library card.

Good afternoon. Of course.

And your passports.

Can you tell us
when Erich Maria Remarque's

All Quiet on the Western Front
is due back?

They witnessed events
that would change the world.

Baby.

Brett.

Brett Hamilton was a mathematician,

a financial analyst.

By heart, he was a passionate champion
for those he loved deeply.

He played classical guitar,
was an enthusiastic cook,

and volunteered his time and efforts
to those less fortunate.

In college, he joined
Phi Kappa Tau Delta Chapter,

and with his friends,
enjoyed caving trips,

watching thunderstorms…

and debating the big stuff.

Recently, he traveled extensively
in Europe,

accompanying his beloved
in her professional activities and causes…

I'm… I'm Mrs. Copeland
from across the street.

- How is Isabel?
- She's… she's resting right now.

I can't believe it.

Thank you so much for coming by.

Give her my love, please.

- Isabel Wilkerson's office.
- Hello. Hi.

This is Kate. I'm Isabel's editor.

Yeah, I… I know who you are.
Hi, Kate. This is her cousin, Marion.

Marion. Marion, hi, uh,

my… my condolences
for your family's losses.

I… I don't… I don't have the words.

Um, it's unfathomable, unthinkable.

I… I just… I… I can't--

Two of the closest people
to you in a year…

Who… who can withstand it?

How is she?

No, no.

I'm right here.
I'm right here. I'm right here.

Stay. Stay. Stay.

- Stay.
- I'm right here.

Stay. Stay. Stay. Stay.

- Hey. You made it in okay?
- Yeah, I'm here.

How are you?

Tell me how you're feeling.

How does it feel to be back there
with all of her things?

I'm here, Marion. That's all I am.

You know what? I… I got to go.

I've got to get this house packed.

I could come this weekend
and… and… and… and help you.

- We could take it slow.
- Thank you.

I've got to get these things packed up,

so I can start back work.

What? You're starting back to work?

Of course.

What am I supposed to do?
How am I supposed to live?

- Okay.
- Here you go.

What is the work you have to do
and when do you need to start?

Marion, I have to go.
I'm already behind. I… I…

- I'll talk to you later, okay? Bye.
- Okay.

The HVAC guy got the sump pump
working and got most of the water out.

This had never happened before.

I'm never down here.
My husband was always the one down here,

changing the filter in the furnace
or shaking the fuse box, but…

- But he died last year, so…
- Uh-huh.

- There's where the water's coming in.
- Where?

The sink.

The sink doesn't overflow.

I mean, is it… is it a pipe
that's… that's clogged, or…

Probably the pump needs clearing out.
I'll write an estimate.

My mother died a few months ago.

What about you?

Is your mother still alive?

No. No, she's not.

Died in 1991, 52 years old.

Goodness.

That's not old…

at all.

Sure ain't.

Your father?

He's 78.

Hmm.

You're lucky to have him.

He's mean as they come.

Well…

I guess in the end, we miss them
no matter… no matter what they were like.

No, not him.

You know what? Uh…

- You see something?
- Well, maybe.

I have an idea.

- Yes.
- You do?

I thought that might be
why you came.

- Tell us.
- Tell us.

Well, I didn't explore
the Trayvon Martin case.

I know it's been a while,
but I think there's a lot to unpack.

I've been thinking about my mother
and how she insisted we be polite

and buttoned up around White people.

And there's all this Nazi symbolism
all over the place.

You heard about what happened
in Charlottesville?

- Yes. Neo-Nazis.
- Yeah.

Drove his car through a crowd
at a protest for Black lives.

Killed a White woman.

Heather Heyer.

All these idiots
walking around with tiki torches,

evoking imagery from the KKK
and Nazi Germany to stoke fear.

There's this terrific Indian scholar.

Uh, I've been…
been wanting to… to read his work,

but I… I haven't. Um.

He's a Dalit professor, and he won a--

- Sorry. A Dalit professor?
- He… he's a Dalit.

And a professor.
The Dalits are untouchables of India,

beneath the lowest caste.

Have you ever heard of them?

- No. No.
- Have you ever heard of them?

- No.
- No. Me neither. Why?

There's connective tissue here.
There's connective tissue there.

There is connective tissue here.

I… I could… I could… I could…

I could build a thesis that… that shows
how all of this, all of it, is linked.

Well…

- Well, that's the writer's journey, right?
- Mm-hmm.

Sorting all of that out.

There's a lot going on
in that big brain of yours.

I love that. I love it.

But I gotta be honest with you.

I don't understand how the woman
that killed by the neo-Nazis…

Heather Heyer.

- How that connects to the Dalit professor…
- Mm-hmm.

- …connects to Trayvon Martin…
- Mm-hmm.

…connects to your mom.

I don't see it… yet. I don't see that yet.

But if you can make people see it,
then that is an incredible book.

Thank you.

Come here.

I love you. Please be safe, okay? Okay.

Hello, excuse me.

- Um, this is the book you ordered.
- Oh, yes.

- Yes, of course. Please sit down.
- And the list we talked about.

Um, this is a list from 1935, October.

- A little bit later than the first list.
- Yes.

Yeah, Remarque Erich Maria.

Sämtliche Schriften,

that means everything he wrote
is to destroy, to burn.

- To be destroyed.
- Yes.

Excuse me.

I heard you inquire about Remarque.

But couldn't hear the librarian's answer.

I'm Kästner.

I'm from here.

How long have you been in Berlin?

About five weeks.

You have no idea what's happening.

- Pardon me?
- I'm sorry, I didn't catch that.

You have no idea what's happening here.

Everything is being torn apart.

The age of superior

Jewish intellectualism has come to an end.

The German soul can unfold again!

No to decadence!

And moral corruption!

Yes to decency and morality

in family and state!

In Germany, there's memorials

to nearly everyone
victimized by the Nazis.

And there's no entry sign, no… no gate.

- It's just open, both day and night.
- Yes. Yes.

Just standing to bear witness.

Twenty thousand books
were lost that night.

Books filled with imagination
and ideas, and history.

Leave here, my friends.

Leave Germany.

Go to your home as soon as you can.
You'll be safer there.

I deliver to the flames the works of…

Sigmund Freud…

Heinrich Mann…

Ernst Glaeser…

Erich Maria Remarque…

Georg Bernhard…

Erich Kästner…

"Where you burn books,

you end up burning men."

That's a quote by Heinrich Heine.

He was a poet, German and Jewish.

No, you are not changing
the subject anymore. Mm-hmm.

- Okay. Done this Christmas?
- Yes.

- And then?
- Ah.

Jawohl, sweetheart?

No, I still have a couple sips left.

You're basically in danger
when you're visiting your family.

- Yeah, always.
- It's the American way.

I mean, we know. We know. It's ridiculous.

That is what I'm looking at
with the article.

You have 900 shootings a week,
it seems, in America.

- And you keep giving people guns.
- I don't understand it.

Dear, we don't even
understand it ourselves.

We don't understand.

You know, I, um…
I heard here that displaying

the swastika is, um, a crime.

- Hmm.
- Hmm.

- Three years in prison?
- Yes. Yes, that's true.

I mean, it's not tolerated.

Well, in America, um,

the Confederate flag,
which is like your swastika,

the flag of murderers and traitors,

it is a part of the official flag
of one of our states.

- No.
- Mississippi.

Men who wanted to wage war for the right
to own other human beings?

Statues of them sprinkled
all over the country right now.

- Madness.
- Hmm.

You know, it's not perfect, but Germany
has no monuments there

to celebrate Nazis.

I mean, everything Hitler's got,
paved right over it all

and built new things.

I mean, you can literally walk

right over Nazi places
and never know they were even there.

- And the bunker.
- Yes, the bunker. It's long gone.

- It looks like nothing.
- Yeah.

I mean, it was 30 feet underground.

It was protected with reinforced concrete.

And now, it has, like, a Volkswagen

or something parked on top
of it at any given time of day.

It is very different than the States.
Very different approach.

Well, there are so many differences
between here and there.

We're talking about the systematic murder
of six million Jews.

That's the official number.

So, it's just very different
than monuments to soldiers and whatnot.

- What? What are you saying is different?
- All of it.

We're talking about
deliberate extermination over many years.

Yeah, but wasn't slavery
for, like, hundreds of years?

Right, Isabel?

Slavery lasted 246 years.

That's 13 generations of people.

Plus another 100 years
of Jim Crow segregation,

violence, and… and murder.

It is, of course, horrific.
I am not downplaying any of it.

There were so many millions
of African Americans who were murdered…

from the Middle Passage until the end
of legal segregation that it goes

beyond the realm of an official number.

- There is no number.
- I didn't know that.

- Stunning.
- It is.

And I understand you're trying
to make sense of American racism.

It is noble.

But your thesis linking caste in Germany
with the United States is flawed.

Uh, maybe it's not
exactly the same, but the thesis

of structural similarity
certainly gives context for a framework.

Right, but a framework
is not a book, my friends.

She is trying to connect the United States
to Germany, but it doesn't fit.

It's as if you're trying to fit a square
inside the circle, as they say.

I would just like you to note for yourself
that American slavery is rooted

in subjugation, dominating Blacks
for the purposes of capitalism.

Using bodies and labor for profit.

But for the Jews, during the Holocaust,
the end goal was not subjugation.

It was extermination.

Kill them all.

Wipe them off the face of the earth.

There is no need for them here.

It's different.

I say, leave Jewish folks alone.
They're fine. They don't need you.

Write about us, Isabel.

I am writing about us.

I just…

I couldn't fully explain
what was in my head.

You better than me.

Because I would have had words.
She was rude.

I had words. I had a ton of words.

Well, none of them were,

"I'm the right one
on the wrong day, baby."

Yeah, well, I'm still my mother's child,
and that wouldn't have happened.

I know.

You never could back back,
even when we were kids.

Always thinking about your comeback
the next day.

"Oh, I know what I should have said was."

What if Brett had been there last night?

Oh!

Poor lady.

He would still be there, confronting

- Afternoon.
- Hi, afternoon.

Some unwanted visitors, huh?

Looks like they even built a guest house.

Yeah, putting these out
in the backyard to empty out.

Just have your gardener
pick them up in a day or two.

Sir, sir, sir, I… I don't want that--

I'd rather not have
those nests in my yard.

I have dogs, and… and that spray
can't be good for them.

It's fine. Won't hurt them.

Hey, can I help?

- Could I just?
- Yeah, it's…

Excuse me. She doesn't want it back there.
Did you… did you not hear what she said?

Yeah, but I can't take it with me today.
My bins are full.

Okay, well, I guess
we're just going to have

to figure something out then, right?

I mean, you didn't…
you didn't remove that for free, did you?

No, right?

No, I didn't.

So look, if this is your treat,

you go ahead and you leave that
wherever you'd like.

But if you do want
to get paid for your work,

you're going to have to finish the job.

Appreciate the cooperation.

Did I just mansplain?

Well, you asked for permission, so…

- Right.
- And if you hadn't…

- I'd be in, uh, White savior mode, right?
- What do you know about that?

Oh, hey, don't break bad habits,
you're never going to get broke, right?

Well, you asked for permission,
so we'll just call it being neighborly.

Okay, let's, uh… let's do that.

I haven't seen your mom and dad

on their walks for a while.
How they doing?

You know, they're slowing down, thank you.

Um, but, uh, they're having
the conversation about moving to Florida.

But they're…
they're hanging in, you know.

- My mom, too.
- Hmm.

I get it.

My mom made me promise I'd come by today.

It's, uh… it's my birthday, so…

- Wait.
- Uh…

- Today is your birthday?
- Yeah.

- Today is your birthday?
- It is.

- Yeah, she, uh…
- Oh.

She made me a cake,
like I was a little kid.

'Cause she still thinks you're her baby.

- I think it's sweet.
- Hmm.

Um, happy birthday.

Uh, um, it's… it's Brett.

- I'm Isabel.
- Yeah, I know.

And I think birthdays are… are a big deal.

- Do you?
- Yes, I do.

Wow. Not me, honestly, but…

- They should be.
- Really?

- Yes.
- Okay.

Will you come over?

Come have a slice of cake with us.

You know, that would make my mom so happy.

And… and… and you know,
it would make the birthday a big deal.

Because I… I don't have
any idea how to do that.

Well, I haven't seen your mom
and dad for a while.

- There you go.
- Yeah.

- I'll come in and say hi.
- Yeah?

- Yeah.
- Wow.

- God!
- What?

- What?
- Come on, let's go eat some cake.

She makes a mean cake, too.

- Really?
- Oh, yeah.

- She's got the layers…
- What kind we talking about?

Oh, oh, we're talking about,

I mean, hopefully…
hopefully there's not going to be,

like, a fire engine on it,
like when I was seven.

You never know with my mom.

These are the minutes
from the meeting in 1934.

Fifteen months after the meeting,
they become law.

Jim Crow laws.

- Yes.
- The American race laws.

Yes.

It's mind-blowing.

The American model is useful.

Very surprising.

American racial segregation
could be a possibility.

German Jews…

"Our problem is different."

"Their problem is…

Negroes with nothing to build upon."

"A problem that plays no part
for us here in Germany."

"Our problem is the Jews
who must be kept enduringly apart."

- What is this?
- That is a transcript…

of a meeting that I saw a picture of
where Nazi lawyers

were studying American law
and customs to figure out

how to pull off the Holocaust.

Our problem is the Jews
who must be kept enduringly apart,

since there is no doubt
that they represent a foreign body

in the Volk.

And segregation
will never achieve the goal

as long as the Jews have economic power

in our German fatherland
as they do have now.

As long as they have
the most beautiful automobiles,

- the most beautiful motorboats.
- Mm-hmm.

As long as they play a prominent role

in pleasure spots and resorts
and everywhere that costs money.

This can only be achieved through measures
that forbid sexual mixing

of a Jew and a German
and imposes criminal punishment.

We must answer the question today
as to whether laws

that the Reich will institute
should declare only

the separation of races
or if it should declare

the superiority of one,
and the inferiority of others.

In the fall of 1933,
Allison Davis and his wife, Elizabeth,

cut short their advanced studies
at the University of Berlin

and fled Germany when Hitler took power.

Well, we finally got proof

that one landowner named Bailey
has been whipping sharecroppers.

Bailey's wife told me
that's the way to manage them

when they get too uppity.

We heard about a tenant farmer,
one county over, who was beaten so badly

by a store merchant,
he can't bring in a crop.

We're heading over there tomorrow.

- Do you know what sparked that?
- The Negro man asked for a receipt.

Beat him right there in the store.

It inspired him to study
the process of injustice.

This gave Dr. Davis new insight
into the nature of hate.

The other half of their team
was a White couple named Burleigh

and Mary Gardner,
also Harvard anthropologists.

The mission was quietly revolutionary.

Together, all four would embed themselves
in an isolated southern town

from both sides of the caste divide.

One breach of the social order
could cost them all their lives.

And this was exactly what
they were doing in Natchez, Mississippi.

Reaching a social order to study
the social hierarchy of the South.

A mission that would render them
undercover investigators

in order to fit into the community.

This would be one
of the first studies of its kind.

Neither couple fully knew what
they were getting themselves into.

Out in public, they had to remain
in character at all times.

With the Davises required
to show deference

to the Gardeners and never
give the appearance that they were,

in fact, colleagues in the trenches.

They had to keep
to their own cast performance.

Everyone had to play the part
expected of them.

They don't need
to be out on these streets.

You seen them around before?

Oh, yeah.

The monkey's getting too big
for his britches.

- Hmm.
- Might have to train him.

Come on.

I don't see
how we stay much longer.

Our neighbor practically invited us
to a lynching yesterday.

And, Allison,
there have been some…

some unkind things said about you.

I can't be sure these folks
don't get a mind to do something.

We're seeing similar suspicion.

- We should consider.
- Not yet.

- Allison.
- You're getting into the wide

- inner circle of this town.
- It's not where there's safety.

And that is what we need to observe.

We're close.

The two couples
kept on the move,

constantly changing
clandestine locations for safety.

They couldn't go
to each other's homes.

Mixing of races was not allowed publicly
in any form except subservience.

The most striking tenet
of their embrace of supremacy…

is deference.

That should be the core
of the chapter, don't you think?

Maybe you're right.

Deference goes beyond mere observance
of certain formalities.

We call them sir,
and they call us boy and gal.

Exactly. Never contradicting whites.

- Always agreeing with them.
- Evening.

Hey!

Y'all eat?

Been out here reading
and writing for hours.

Greens with fatback gonna get cold.

Hey, now.

- Ain't gotta tell me twice.
- Oh, yes, ma'am.

Can't wait to try them greens.

We'll be there.

All right.

Hey.

Hi!

The American material
gives us a path to an answer.

Well, America has succeeded here.

Their legislation does not base itself
on the mere idea of racial difference.

But to the extent this legislation
is aimed at Negroes,

it bases itself absolutely
on the idea of inferiority.

Well.

Germans are already convinced
that the Jews are an inferior race.

German laws should reflect that.

Precisely.

I am of the opinion that we can

proceed with the same primitivity
as the American states.

Such a procedure would be…

crude, legally, but…

it would suffice.

The Nazi blueprint…

for the extermination
of millions of people

was directly patterned
after America's enslavement

and segregation of Black people.

America taught the Nazis.

Caste in America, in Germany.

It functions the same.

The outcomes may be different,
like Sabine said.

But it is the same.

I think that the caste system in India,

I… I think that
there is a connection there too, but…

The interconnectedness.

That is my point.

That is what I'm saying.

We proudly bestow this Amedgar Award
to Dr. Suraj Yengde,

postdoctoral fellow
at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Come on, win it! Come on, win it!

Nathaniel, I know
it's gonna be worth the wait.

Give that to me.

Carolyn, can you finish
uncovering this one?

All right, I got it, baby.

This chicken looks good.

What?

- Respectfully.
- Yeah.

We and everybody
are just wondering about an ETA.

The ETA is when I say it's ready.
Respectfully.

Yes, ma'am.

- Hi, Isabel.
- Hello.

- How you been?
- I've been all right.

Yeah, how are you holding up?

All is well. How are you two?

- We're good. Everything's good.
- Starving.

I wanted to ask if you knew
one of my professors, Dr. Montgomery.

I think he studies the same things you do.

Uh, no, but I'm not keeping up
like I used to, so.

Of course. Well, he is a smart man,
a nice older gentleman.

I thought you might like to meet him.

He is handsome for his age, Black.

Why don't the two of you take this over
to the UNO table

and tell them we're startin'?

Okay.

Boy.

They mean well.

You know, Brett always looked
forward to these.

You and Mama were
the only ones that let him in.

Folks weren't mean.

I know, but there was always that.

"When is she going to leave him
and find herself a good brother?"

You know, these containers.

These containers we're in,
we… we maybe the…

maybe the label says Black woman,
maybe the label says white man,

- or Asian.
- Hey, fix your face.

You too young for all that.

We read the label, and we think
we know what's on the inside.

Y'all can eat now. Mm-hmm.

We trust the label, we put the container
on the shelf, and that's it.

That's it.

Who need a kiss for good luck?

- Me.
- Because that hand is trash.

Come on, mama,
give me some sugar.

Thank you, baby.

- Okay, so now go ahead. I'm listening.
- I think that's what my book is about.

Oh, okay.

I forgot. Which one is yours?
Which one is mine?

This one is mine.

There you go.

So, your book is about
interracial relationships.

Hmm. No. No, it's about…

it's about caste.

It's a phenomenon of placing
one group above another group…

in a hierarchy.

And the consequences to its victims
and presumed beneficiaries.

Um, one more time in English.

A little Pulitzer Prize-less, if you can.

I can.

Okay, well, then do it. Make it plain.

Because the stuff you were saying about
the Nazis got me all twisted around.

How is that in the same book
about Brett? I don't get it.

Do you think slavery was a system
of terrorism and torture

that the Europeans used to profit
off the labor of Black people

who they considered inferior?

Yeah. Hell, yes, it was.

Don't shake your head.

- It was.
- No, they made it all up.

Your girl Toni Morrison said,
"Why would you give your child

to be nursed and raised by people
who you think aren't human,

who are animals?"

- Yes, Toni.
- Yes, Toni.

It was all lies.
They knew we weren't inferior.

But they magnified,
they magnified the myths.

They codified them, set them in stone.

In… in systems.

In our laws, in our healthcare,
in where we lived, how we learned.

The kind of work that we do,
even our food.

- Racism at its finest.
- Mm-mm.

No.

It's caste.

Everything you just said was racist.

Well, that… Well, if it's racist, then why
is the same thing happening in India?

They're all brown. They're all Indian.

Marion. Right now, to this day…

there is a system in India
where generations of people are forced

to clean sewers with their hands.

Their shit. With their hands.

They are beneath the lowest
of the hierarchy. They're called Dalits.

At one point, they were forced
to tie brooms around their waists

because their shadows
were supposedly polluted.

- Hmm?
- Their shadows.

They had to sweep
behind themselves when they walked.

How is it racist
if they're all the same race?

Okay, do you think that…
that Jews are white?

- Definitely.
- The majority are.

But the same thing happened to Jews
in Germany during the Holocaust.

The Nazis wanted
to create an all-white republic.

But they hated, they hated the Jews,

so they said,
how do we make the Jews not white?

So, they put them
at the bottom of a hierarchy.

They said that they were greedy.
They said that they were dishonest.

They blamed them for Germany
losing the First World War.

They blamed them for everything bad
that happened in Germany.

They were dogs, kill them,
gas them, wipe them out.

The Jews and the Nazis
were the same color.

We have to consider oppression in a way
that does not centralize race.

We do it here in America, yes,
because racism is all we know.

But these containers…

the Dalits in India,
Jewish people in Germany,

uh, Black folks in America,

all these containers
have something in common.

Race is not one of them.

It's caste.

Only took you ten minutes
for that comeback.

Figure out how to say more
of what you just said.

Make it plain.

Talk to real people
like you just did to me.

Real people, real things.

You know we met in college.

So one time she comes up
and saying, can I borrow a pen?

You are making--
That is not true.

He didn't know the day of the final.

So, he's like, "I've seen you in my class
before, and I'm just wondering,

do you know exactly
what the day of the final?"

And I, mm, see,
I think you were trying to get to me.

- Let me let you in on a secret.
- Okay.

I knew when the final was.

- See ya.
- That's my baby.

Night, night. Night, night, sweet dreams.

Isabel, come by more often, will you?

We seem to only get
the lasagna when you around here.

I'm hearing that she's stingy

- with the lasagna.
- I don't know what it is.

Stop. You are lying
too close to Sunday. Come on.

Love you.

- Good to see you. Good night.
- Good night.

Good night.

Make sure they bathe
with water, real water.

- Yes, ma'am.
- And a washcloth.

I'll do my best, baby.

Do I, what, do I just…
Do I talk slow? What do I…

- Okay, so I was in tenth grade.
- Mm-hmm.

And we had just moved to Texas.

And my friend and I had this,
uh, these walkie-talkies,

which, you know, we would use
in between classes to talk or whatever.

And this was, you know, pre-cell phone,

- of course.
- Right.

- Right.
- Late eighties.

And the principal called me to his office.
He was all suspicious.

Because he wanted to know why all these
people were gathered around my locker.

So, I showed him the walkie-talkie.

And he asked my name.

And I said, Miss Hale.

And he said, "What is your first name?"

"It's Miss."

"I said, what is your first name?"

"My name's Miss."

He said, "I don't have time
for all this foolishness, gal."

"What is your real name?"

I… I repeated my damn name four times.

That's a direct defiance of caste.

- The most personal I've heard yet.
- Can you imagine that?

A young Black man plotting to force
the respect of white people.

Your father tore a loophole
through the hierarchy.

It's brilliant.

Brilliant. Go on. Go on.

So, the, the principal was furious,

so he tells his secretary
to check my records, and of course,

they confirm that
my legal name is Miss Hale.

So, he says to me,
"Hale, I don't know any Hales."

"You're not from around here.
Where's your father from?"

And I said, "He's from Alabama."

He said, "I knew you weren't
from around here."

"Know how I knew?"

And I said, "No."

And he said, real cold…

"'Cause you're looking me in my eye."

"Colored folk around here know better."

I was…

I was scared.

- You know, I was a kid.
- Yeah.

I had never felt…

that, that cold glare.

You know, he was looking me
right in the eyes.

Demanding that I not look him in the eyes.

You know, my…

You know, Daddy would…

It's okay. It's okay.

Daddy would tell me again and again,

"Always live up to your name."

He say, "Miss."

"They don't have the corner on humanity."

"They don't have
the corner on femininity."

"They don't have the corner
on what it means to be a whole,

noble, honorable person."

Far from it.

Thank you.

You okay?

Most relationships end.

Friendships, romances, divorces,
I mean, separations, people grow apart.

They break.

But we didn't break.

We fought that night.

It was about something so silly, Miss.

I should have spent more time with her.
Daddy would want me to fix this.

For Christ's sake, would you stop, Isabel?
Just stop.

It's her idea. She made a choice.
She's a grown woman. Let her make it.

It's like you hide behind this thing

- with your mother. I just don't get it.
- Hide?

- Hiding.
- Hiding? I'm not hiding.

- You're hiding.
- I'm not hiding.

So silly.

And then…

he offered me some pasta to apologize.

You want some of that pasta?

- Save me some.
- Okay.

And then, that was it.

But we didn't break.

We did not break.

We were together.

Till the end.

He should be here, Miss.

He should be here.

And the one person
that I could talk to about it.

She's gone too.

What the hell am I supposed to do now?

You're okay.

I just want to scream.
I just want to scream.

- I just want to scream.
- If you wanna scream, then scream.

I wanna scream.

Hmm.

Roomy, fantastic light.

Will you update or sell as original?

I was thinking a fresh coat of paint.

Vintage it is.

Yeah.

There might be water damage there.

Yes, with everything going on, I just…

I just basically locked up the house.

I have to deal with it.

It's a process.

Isn't everything?

So, what is the price difference
between fixing it up and selling it as is?

- As is?
- Yeah.

You're basically giving
this little jewel away.

The area is hot right now with hipsters.

And these older homes,
when they're fixed up,

can sometimes double in value.

If you could put a few thousand
towards getting it fixed,

you would have a competitive situation
on your hands with multiple bidders.

You write books, right?

A book.

I'm writing another one, but…

books don't pay as much as people think.

I get it.

Sell as a fixer
and don't even worry about it.

Let someone else do the work.

So, let's discuss the contract.

Once the property is clear, we'll go ahead
and do an open house.

That way people can come in
and view the property

and see what they're willing to offer.
Like I said, we'll get multiple bidders…

Who is that?

They didn't want to get in trouble.

She sucked her thumb and peed in the bed
till she was twenty years old.

I'm not, I'm not…

Stop. So cute. So cute.

- Mm-hmm.
- Look at Mama.

She cute.

- So fine.
- Yeah.

- How much is it?
- Ugh.

All four estimates
are over 10,000 dollars.

- Damn.
- Yeah.

- You can't sell a roofless house.
- Well.

- It'll have to wait till I get back.
- You leave when again?

Next month.

I have so much research to do here,
and I have to start a new draft soon.

- Do you even know anybody in India?
- Marion. Here's Uncle.

That's the point of traveling.
Meeting new people.

Traveling to places where you are warmly
welcomed by familiar faces…

is underrated.

Well, I might have
found an Indian professor

who can help me navigate.

Might?

No, no might.

There you go. No, no, no.

- Thank you.
- Thank you, madam.

Okay, good. Good.

Isabel!

- Isabel!
- Dr. Yengde. Suraj!

- So good to see you.
- Hello.

Allow me to introduce my esteemed friend…

- Yes.
- …Professor Ram Kamble.

- The pleasure is mine.
- Thank you.

- Thank you.
- You know what we're gonna do?

We're gonna go straight.
We're gonna walk right there.

- That's where we're gonna go.
- Oh, we're doing that.

We're gonna do that.

- You excited?
- Yes, I am.

Welcome to India, Isabel.
So good to have you.

I'm happy to be here.

There are signals
on all the corners.

And this is one of the…
This is not four-way, this is five-way.

It's five-way?

And if you add a person
like me, I make my own way.

- So, it's like six-way.
- Six-way?

One, two, three, four, five.

Oh, a bus!

It's a beautiful market.

- I like this one.
- You like this one?

She would like this.

- For my cousin.
- Oh, that'll look gorgeous.

Thank you.

Why is… why is the statue caged?

Ah. Quite observant.

He's Babasaheb, the leader of Dalits.

Isabel, he's Dr. Ambedkar.

This is the time when
he had just completed the task

of drafting India's constitution.

There, he's holding it and standing tall.

You will find his statues
all across the country.

From a busiest street, square,
parks, railway stations, bus stations,

even in people's private properties.

Him standing is an affirmation
of our existence.

To us, he's revered.

To others, they defile him.

Dr. Ambedkar's statues are one
of the most vandalized in the country.

The cage is to keep the vandals away.

Dr. Ambedkar
is more than a champion

and a hero to the Dalit people.

He's the hope that lives within us.

He went into the heart
of the problem of caste

and he saw purity was lying
beneath the artifice of our caste.

And where the human population,

uh, was chopped into what he called
fixed and definite units.

In America, you have, uh,
what you call the Blacks,

the browns, the Asians,
the whites, and et cetera.

Similarly, we have in India

where the Dalits are supposed
to be at the bottom

and the Brahmins at the top.

And between,
there are various units of caste.

And what maintains this unit
into continuing of caste system

is the unending violence in the form
of rape, mutilation, and murder.

In India, a Dalit person is attacked
every 15 minutes.

Every day, ten Dalit women are raped.
And these are only the reported cases.

Rohit Vemula's friends, family,
and the wider Dalit movement

called it an institutional murder.

And they called it this because
it was not simply a case of suicide.

They said that this was an institution

that was systematically discriminating
against a young Dalit student.

And this was important because
for a lot of us, as young folks,

uh, who were looking for a life
of dignity and respect,

and were looking to education
and the university to give us that life,

it showed that the specter of caste,
uh, was still haunting us.

In a world where
Dalit people are brutalized

simply to keep us in our place,

Dr. Ambedkar remains our shining light.

Our guardian, our hero, our father.

The site of Dr. Ambedkar's last home
is a museum now.

- Ah.
- Quite magnificent.

As you can see, it's an open book concept.

While he is a giant among Dalits…

the world has failed
to acknowledge his genius.

Dr. Ambedkar was separated
from the kids of high caste

so as not to pollute them.

As a child, young Bhimrao Ambedkar
was not allowed to touch

many of the things
his classmates would touch.

He was not even allowed
to touch water at the school.

This is because he was
considered an untouchable.

That was the term used
for Dalits at the time.

Young Ambedkar
was not allowed to touch

or sit at a desk during class.

But he persevered.
He continued to study and break barriers.

Dr. Ambedkar earned two PhDs.

One at Columbia University and the other
at the London School of Economics.

After obtaining his PhDs
and passing the bar…

…Dr. Ambedkar returned to India

as a heralded scholar.

We have been
carrying on with untouchability

for the last 2,000 years.

Nobody has bothered about it, you see.

Yes, there are some, some disabilities
which are very harmful.

For instance, people can't take water,
people can't have land,

you see, to cultivate
and earn their livelihood.

There is an insistence
on conflating caste with race.

- Oh, yeah.
- If I brought you

to the family reunion, what would you say?
What would you say to them?

My cousin Mary, my… my mother…

What would you say to them

that's important for them to know…

about you, about India,
about caste and our connection?

Our heroes found the connection
and it is up to us to find it again

and build upon it in sibling solidarity.

When Bhimrao Ambedkar
was a young Indian graduate student,

he found himself in New York City.
Harlem, to be exact.

He saw kindred spirits
among Black people in America.

Both in the oppression they faced
and in their survival.

He immediately
recognized the similarities

between how African Americans were treated
and the treatment of Dalits.

Asha, you've been doing
some work on this all, right?

Yes. Oh, my thesis centered
on Dr. King's visit to India.

He saw many of these things firsthand
while he and his wife toured the country.

I found the way in which he wrote
about India

to be fascinating as someone afflicted
by caste in their own country.

I used his essay in the magazine
of United States

as the core of my research.
Do you know Ebony magazine?

Yes.

Yes, I know Ebony magazine.
Dr. King wrote about

- India in Ebony?
- Yes.

July, 1959.
It is quite extraordinary.

And so,
there is a connection between us.

The African-Americans, the Dalits,
the indigenous people around the world.

Palestinian people, the Roma people,
the Buraku people.

- Yes-- Mm-hmm.
- The outcasts of Africa

are still fighting for their rights,
be it Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal.

You go to Latin America, you find outcasts
within the Mexican society

- or Brazilian society.
- Mm-hmm.

And if we think about our histories
through the vulnerability of love,

the symbols of hate
and diets of violence will be replaced

by compassion, care, and solidarity.

This is the world that we have to imagine

for ourselves and for others

who have not yet seen the beauty
that human beings have to offer.

One afternoon, I went down
to speak in the southern part of India,

and I remember that afternoon
that the principal

got up to introduce me.

He said, "I would like to present to you

a fellow untouchable
from the United States of America."

And for the moment I was peeved,
I was shocked

that I would be introduced
as an untouchable.

Pretty soon my mind ran back
across to America.

And I had to say to myself,
"I am an untouchable."

Segregation is evil and sinful because

it stigmatizes the segregated
as an untouchable in a caste system.

This is why I'm convinced
that we have a moral edict,

a moral mandate, to work to get rid
of this unjust and evil system.

I'll put the phone near her.

Okay.

Baby?

You're on speaker, um, she's, uh,
she hasn't been responding to folks.

I understand.

Marion, it's Isabel.

Hi, cousin.

I called to say goodbye.

I believe you can hear me.

You mean so much to me.

I remember everything
you have ever said to me.

From the time that we were kids…

until the last time I heard your voice.

I'll never forget it.

I'll never forget you.

You will walk with me.

You will live in me
for as long as I'm here.

Watch over me.

Cover me, okay?

I won't see you but…
…you'll see me.

There's more to life than…
…than what you can see.

You're going to experience it all.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

I could stay around for a bit.

Don't you dare. You go.

So, you can come home
and you can write your stories.

Folks need to know about this.

The pillars are working.
You know, it gives it shape.

Good. Good.

And how many of them will there be?

Six or seven, maybe eight.

- And you are going to make this deadline?
- I am going to make this

- deadline.
- This self-imposed deadline.

Well, I don't have anyone to push me
anymore, so I have to push myself.

A caste system needs scaffolding
in order to maintain its hierarchies.

Dr. Ambedkar wrote,

caste is an artificial chopping up
of the population into fixed units.

Each unit is prevented
from fusing into another

through the custom called endogamy.

Our rehearsing has paid off.

It's only taken six months
to get that twirl down.

But… completely worthwhile.

Let's go again.

Yeah,
let me powder my nose first.

Yeah, yeah.

In showing
how endogamy is maintained,

we can prove the genesis
and mechanism of caste.

Endogamy is defined as restricting
marriage to people within the same caste.

have you heard
they're asking for names and addresses?

They won't.

They're looking
for artists and people who like jazz.

I don't believe it.
It's all blown out of proportion.

No. This happened
at the Wonder Room last month.

This is an ironclad
foundation of any caste system.

From ancient India, to the Nazi regime,
to the American colonizers.

Laugh, dear.

Laugh, right now.

Endogamy enforces
caste boundaries by forbidding marriage,

sexual relations, or even the appearance
of romantic interest across caste lines.

It builds a firewall
between certain people.

No, no, no.

By closing off
legal family connection,

endogamy purposely blocks
a sense of empathy

and shared destiny between people.

- Mama!
- Stop!

Stop!

Mama!

It was the caste system,
through the practice of endogamy,

which essentially regulated
people's romantic choices

over the course of centuries,

that created and reinforced
the idea of races.

By permitting only those with similar
physical traits to legally mate.

Endogamy laws written
and enforced by white men

designed the population
of the United States.

If you were not a white man,
and you violated that…

An unknowable number
of lives were lost due to endogamy.

The defining pillar of caste.

It triggered the most publicized cases
of lynchings in America.

A protocol strictly enforced
against Black men and white women.

Front row seat, darling.

Isabel] One of the foremost scholars
of caste in America once wrote,

"Tied to what one looked like,

membership in either the upper
or the lowest caste is immutable."

"Fixed from birth to death,
inescapable,

one may neither earn
nor wed their way out."

That scholar was Dr. Allison Davis.

The Davis and Gardner team emerged
with perhaps the most comprehensive study,

to this day, of the American caste system.

Their book, Deep South, is a quietly
revolutionary landmark experiment

in interracial scholarship.

The Davises and the Gardners
remained lifelong friends.

Nazi Germany, the United States,
and India all reduced Jews,

African Americans, and Dalits
to an undifferentiated mass

of nameless, faceless scapegoats.

Millennia ago, Dalits
were called the untouchables of India.

And forced into the degrading work
of manual scavenging.

The practice of cleaning excrement
from toilets and open drains by hand

in exchange for leftover food.

The only thing that they have
to protect their bodies is oil,

each other, and their prayers.

To refuse is to invite
severe punishment or death.

This persists to this day.

The trade and sale of African people
demolished communities,

obliterated families,
and tore flesh from spirit.

Human beings were tortured
to death and thrown overboard

on slave ships during the Middle Passage.

Upon their arrival
at the concentration camps,

Jews were stripped of the clothing
of their former lives.

Their heads were shaved.

Distinguishing features like sideburns
or red hair were deleted from them.

They were no longer
personalities to engage with.

They became a single mass,

purposely easier for SS officers
to distance themselves from.

Indian activists explained

that the manual scavenger
is not a form of employment,

but an injustice akin to slavery.

It is one of the most prominent forms
of discrimination against Dalits,

and it is central to the violation
of their human rights.

To their dehumanization.

Through violent storms at sea,
starvation, mutilation, and rape,

Black people were stacked
and squeezed into the hulls of ships

to be sold into further
unfathomable terror.

Their bodies
did not belong to them

but to the dominating caste
to do with however it wished.

No longer daughter of a fisherman
or nephew of the midwife.

Loving mothers…

…headstrong nephews,
dedicated bakers and watchmakers,

all merged into a single mass
of undifferentiated bodies,

no longer seen
as humans deserving empathy…

but as objects over whom
control could be exerted.

They were no longer people.

They were numbers.

Dehumanized.

Now a soulless animal.

Not human.

It is harder to dehumanize
a single person standing in front of you.

Harder to dehumanize an individual
you've gotten the chance to know.

Which is why people and groups
who seek power and division

don't bother with dehumanizing
an individual.

Better to attach a stigma,
a taint of pollution, to an entire group.

Dehumanize the group,
and you've successfully dehumanized

every individual person within it.

Racism is not the same as caste,

because race does not matter
in order for the system to work.

Little League team
wins championship.

Mama,

- Little League team, splashes.
- Oh. It's true.

Go! Go, go, go!

It was a hot day like today.

We were pretty excited because
we had just won the city championship.

And the coach told us
he was bringing us to this park.

And, uh, we were going to get to
eat and go swimming.

And we were quite excited,
as you can imagine.

And then the park ranger
came over and pointed out Al.

Hey, boy.

- Yes, sir.
- You can't be in here right now.

- You know better. Who you with?
- Everything okay here?

- This boy with your team?
- He's one of my players.

You know how long it'd take
for our maintenance crew to clean this up?

Disinfect it?

- Disinfect what?
- This is a whites-only pool.

We didn't know, being young kids,
we didn't understand what was going on.

- Yeah.
- And, um…

yet we wanted to go in the pool
because it was so hot that day, too.

And then, the park ranger, he said,
"If he goes in, nobody goes in."

*

So, they took Al outside
to a blanket out there.

But you know, we kept looking back at Al
and seeing, why was he over there?

Mm-hmm.

So, a few of my friends
and I went over to talk to him

and to make sure he was okay.

So, it felt strange when that
happened, that he was over there

- and you guys were here.
- Yeah, it felt separate.

- He was on our team.
- Right, right.

And he was a big part of our team.
And then they wouldn't let him in.

Some of the parents
brought him over some food to eat.

Mm-hmm.
He was out there by himself.

By himself.

And then, the coach talked
to the park ranger again and said,

"Hey, you got to let this kid
in at least for a little swim."

- Yes, yes.
- So, he…

talked to the coach and he said,

"There's only one way
I'm going to let this happen."

Mm-hmm.

Everybody out. Come on now.

Come on.

Come on out now. Come on.

You cannot touch that water, boy.
You hear me?

Keep your balance.

Do not touch that water.

Stay still.

Real still.

Don't touch that water.

It really affected us,
and we didn't know what to do.

Right.

And it still bothers me today.

As a kid, just want
to play baseball and swim.

We didn't know what to do.

And I wish I could do it over again.

Because I don't think I did enough.

How old were you?

I was nine.

Nine years old.

Albright went on
to become an artist and educator.

He was the first
full-time Black faculty member

at his alma mater,
Youngstown State University.

I missed talking to him
for the book by a matter of months.

He passed away at age 82.

But a part of him died
that afternoon in 1951.

You're going to be fine.

You're going to be just fine.

The tragedy of caste…

is that we are judged on the very things
that we cannot change.

Signposts on our bodies of gender
and ancestry, superficial differences…

that have nothing to do
with who we are on the inside.

The goal of this work
has not been to resolve issues

of a millennia-old phenomenon.

But to bear witness to its presence
in our everyday lives,

to shine a light on its history,
despite those who would deny it,

despite those who would
withhold it from us, even.

Who try to convince us
that we don't need to know.

We need to know.

You don't escape trauma…

by ignoring it.

You escape trauma by confronting it.

When you live in an old house.

You may not want to go
in the basement after a storm

to see what the rains have brought,
but choose not to look at your own peril.

We're all like homeowners
who've inherited a house

on a piece of land
that's beautiful on the outside,

but the soil is unstable.

People say I had nothing
to do with how this all started.

I never owned slaves.
I didn't mistreat untouchables.

I didn't gas Jews.

And yes, not one of us was around
when this house was built.

But here we are.

The current occupants
of a property with stress cracks

built into the foundation
and a roof that must be replaced.

We are the heirs to whatever
is right or wrong with it.

We didn't erect the uneven pillars,
but they are ours to deal with now.

The cracks won't fix themselves.

Any more deterioration is on our watch.

Caste is not simply hatred.

It is the worn grooves
of routine and expectation,

patterns of a social order
that have been in place so long

it looks natural when it isn't.

Caste is everywhere, yet invisible.

No one avoids exposure to its message,
and the message is simple.

One kind of person is more deserving
of freedom than another kind.

Freedom to love whoever you want to love.

Freedom to go wherever you want to go.

Freedom to express yourself
however you want to express yourself.

Freedom to resist and fight
for your human right to do so.