Original subtitles

Senior writers has hit the class of 99, and it's spreading like wildfire.

Something has to be done.

But what?

Hey, wait, I've got it. I'll create a fun news spot for Crenshaw High TV, and

can call it Mold Minutes.

I'll focus on things that matter to us things, like an extended lunch hour,

pepperoni pizza, more fine reading.

Oh, that's the last one.

You're gonna be down. Come on.

Again? Kim, you did it on him the last three years.

So, maybe this year I can get an egg.

Well, I guess if he had a dream, you can too.

So, Antonio, today's your big day, huh? Oh, you finally got your lab results in,

huh? And congratulations, I am your daddy.

should mention coming to you on tape but keeping it live.

People, what I'm about to report to you is no less than a travesty.

The girl's bathroom has been experiencing a shortage of toilet paper.

The bathroom insider tells me that the same is true for the boys' bathroom.

Thanks for the tip. My pleasure.

Until this problem is remedied, perhaps seniors should be allowed to use the

faculty restrooms.

I heard they even have...

To you, Peter.

Students,

may I have your attention, please?

Last month, Antonio Avila asked permission to paint a mural on what he

whack cafeteria wall.

Well, the school administration agreed that the wall was whack, so we accepted

his proposal.

So, Antonio, you ready to help me do the honors?

Good job, Antonio.

Thanks, Mrs. Mitchell. Just doing my thing, you know. Hey, hey, speech!

Speech! Speech!

Speech! Speech! Speech!

Okay.

Well, first, I would like to thank God, my mom, and Dutch Boy, and

Sharon Williams, and the people who gave my start, Crayola.

Miles, what were you doing outside? It's 6 o 'clock in the morning.

Oh, I went out to get your paper.

I know how you love to read about homicides with your morning coffee.

Oh, so I guess you didn't want this scratch -off coupon, huh? Hey, I didn't

all that.

Thanks.

I need to spell bike.

All I need is the I.

Well, son, why do you need another bike? We just got you one for Christmas.

Yeah, but, Dad, this was the Cannondale Raven, the ultimate riding machine.

All I need is that eye.

At least you don't buy it for me.

You'd have better luck asking Vanna for a vow.

Maybe Vanna left one in my pocket.

Antonio, hey, guys.

You didn't return any of my calls last night. No, don't act all desperate. He's

just playing hard to get.

It ain't even like that. I just wanted to talk. Talk?

Well, maybe that's why he didn't call you back.

Anyway, I'm sorry about not calling you, but I got in late last night.

Ooh.

I wanted to give you a heads up about my mom's minute. Oh, your dog. Listen,

before I forget, my mom said I can go off -roading with you this weekend.

Oh, cool. Then it's on.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Now, Hakeem, I understand Antonio going off

-roading in his Jeep, but, baby, how you going to get a city bus over a dry

creek bend?

Look,

Antonio, I need to tell you something. Hey, Moe, your minute thing is on again.

Oh, I need to tell you something. Hey.

I'm Alicia Mitchell coming to you on tape but keeping it live.

Yesterday was the unveiling of a mural done by fellow cougar Antonio Avila.

It is a stunning depiction of Cesar Chavez, a Mexican -American migrant

However, since it is Black History Month and 85 % of the student body is African

-American, maybe the administration should have considered signing off on a

mural that depicted us too.

Think about it.

Join me tomorrow for one more minute.

Back to you, Peter.

Oh, I get it.

One more minute.

More minute.

Pretty clever, Momo.

What was that about?

See, that's what I was trying to tell you. I wasn't trying to criticize your

mural. Yeah, I know, but you know what? That's what it sounded like.

But that's all right. I mean, I guess you're entitled to your opinion.

Oh, and by the way, you are no Connie Chung.

Yo.

Forget it, man. That mirror was deep, dog.

Thanks,

man. No, no, no. Thank you, dog. It's about time we got something around here,

man.

Hi. I'm Dolores.

Oh, yeah. I know. I sit next to you in civics. You do?

Your mural is beautiful.

I didn't know you were an artist. Hey, well, I'm an artist, too.

Yep.

Scam artist.

Moesha, your TV spot was on fire. Yeah,

it's about time someone spoke up. But who's Cesar Chavez, anyway?

Who's Cesar Chavez?

Please, don't you know anything about boxing?

Hey, Mo, listen.

A bunch of us met after school to discuss the mural.

These Mexicans are out of control.

They're taking over our neighborhoods, our jobs. Now they're trying to take

the school.

How? By going to class?

Look, Mo, we thought you had the right idea.

So we decided to pass around this petition and make Antonio put some

-American heroes in his mural.

What? If we don't check them, they'll walk all over us. They're trying to take

our power. Boy, if somebody could take it away, it's not real power.

And speaking of power, I like to keep mine on.

Can't judge a sister by her kente cloth.

Anyway, we got over 200 signatures. In fact, Kim was one of the first students

to sign it. I signed that?

I thought I was Richardson to vote. Give me that.

Oh, come on, y 'all.

Y 'all know Antonio's now caught up in that black and brown thing. He's an

artist. You know, I hear you, Hakeem, but what's wrong with having a mural

reflects us, too? Exactly.

Moesha, I'm not signing that.

Oh, so you can instigate, but you can't get involved, huh?

No, see, I spoke my piece about the mural, but I never said to change it.

There's a difference.

Guess you can't judge a sister by her braids, either. Come on, Eric.

Notices are your fault.

Antonio, you know me.

Believe me, I never meant for nothing like this to happen. I don't care what

meant. This is what happened.

Why don't you just calm down a little bit, please?

No, why don't you not tell me what to do right now, all right? You're okay, but

you need to, like, chill or something, though, homie.

No, you need to get out of my face.

Listen, Etienne, I'm one letter away from getting my new bike.

So why don't you just give me the eye?

But you can't even ride a bike unless it's got training wheels on it.

Hello?

Hello?

Miles,

where'd you get all those coupons?

Coupons? What coupons?

The ones growing out of your chest.

Oh, these.

From you, Dad.

Hey, guess what?

Etienne got the eye. Isn't that cool?

No, no, no. Wait a minute. I didn't give you all those coupons.

Start talking.

Yeah, I took these from the neighbor's newspapers.

Which neighbors?

All of them.

Moth, have you lost your mind?

Yes.

Can I see my therapist again?

No, what you can do is go and apologize to all the neighbors. Then you're going

to come back here, rake the yard, clean out the garage, and then wash Dee's car.

But I'll never see the seventh grade.

You want to finish the sixth?

No point.

I'll be in the back getting my rake off.

What happened the other day was a result of a complete lack of communication.

We're hoping that today's seminar on racial tolerance will help us brush up

those much -needed skills.

Now, please, give a warm welcome to our speakers, Tyrone and Carlos.

Hey, we've been invited here to talk about racial tolerance.

What the?

Looks like Cesar won a couple of rounds with Tyson.

I told you he was a boxer.

All right, who started this?

The blacks or the browns?

Moesha.

Moesha. It's one of yours, brah.

Where's Moesha?

Here she is right beside me.

Mo, straighten up so everybody can see you.

So, you're the one that set it off.

And I didn't do anything.

Mo, don't be modest.

See, Antonio, he's sitting with his Chicano brethren.

He painted the mural.

But Mo, whose acquaintance you've already made, she thought the blacks

included, too.

Next thing I know, somebody put paint all over the mural.

You know what I think? I think we need to erase the color line.

I'm sorry. What was the original question?

You're so crazy.

Do you know Jimmy Spitz?

All right.

Moesha and Antonio.

Front and center.

Holmes.

Somebody really jacked up your mural.

How long did you work on it, man?

A couple of weeks.

Now it's all messed up. Come on, man. What did your carnales think, man?

You know, they thought it was sweet.

Everybody did until my wishes started talking crazy.

You don't look crazy to me.

Now your girl, she crazy.

You crazy, too.

You know what? This whole thing is crazy.

God just didn't want our people to be forgotten.

This is Black History Month. At least y 'all get a whole month. We get one day.

Cinco de Mayo.

Well, if you want a few more days, go back to Mexico, home.

As soon as you go back to Africa, sin vergüenza.

Okay, okay, there you go speaking Spanish again. What's up with that?

This is America, right?

Speak English, yes, sir.

mad when we speak Spanish.

Then they turn around and try to legitimize Ebonics.

Si no les gusta que hablamos en español, pues que aprendan nuestra lengua, que

no.

Well,

you're lucky I don't know what the hell you just said.

You want some of this?

Bring it on. Let's go.

Now, can anybody tell me what just happened?

From my vantage point, it looked like those two gentlemen were about to engage

in some fisticuffs.

They were trying to make us riot.

No, you guys are a riot.

You guys take a seat.

Like taking candy from a baby.

Now, if you notice, we use words like us and they, and all your prejudices just

rose to the surface. How enlightening.

What's next? Should we sing Kumbaya?

Please don't. I hate that song.

They would have to hold hands, light candles, sway.

But wouldn't the world be a better place if we just erased all color lines? I

mean, we're all the same anyway, right?

Wrong.

We're not all the same.

So, what should we do?

I don't know.

Why don't we just agree to disagree?

Press on.

All this fighting isn't getting us anywhere.

The man in the blue T -shirt.

Moesha, why are you afraid of being forgotten?

I mean, 85 % of this school is black, and there's a picture of Martin Luther

King in just about every classroom.

Pictures are all good, Alejandro.

But we need to learn about our black heroes, like Charles Drew and Elizabeth

Eckford. Nah, what we need to do is start learning about our Latino heroes,

Dolores Huerta and Corky Gonzalez.

What did Alejandro say?

He said... He said something about... He was mad.

What did Moesha say?

Please, nobody's trying to listen to her.

Moesha said she wanted to learn more about black heroes.

Alejandro said he wanted to learn about Latino heroes.

But if someone is truly heroic, then he or she should be an inspiration to

everybody.

That's true, and...

I mean, I certainly don't agree with you facing Antonio's mural.

But learning about my people, about African -American heroes, that empowers

Okay, let me ask you guys a question.

Do you know who was a hero to Theodore Chavez and Dr. Martin Luther King?

Mahatma Gandhi.

And it's a good thing that Chavez and King looked at Gandhi's accomplishments

and not the color of his skin.

But we have to look at our hero's skin color because historians won't.

That's right.

That's right. Like, for example, Cleopatra and Beethoven are black.

All right? But the historians won't tell you that.

Mariah Carey, she's black, too.

Well,

when it's convenient.

Come on, not everyone in history was black.

No, I'm not saying everybody.

But some of the men who built the pyramids in Mexico, they were black.

Man, we don't got to listen to this.

Well, if you don't want to listen to us, We don't have to listen to that. Hey,

hold on. Come on, guys. Come on, guys. You can't just walk out. Come on, y

Y 'all leave.

We don't get paid.

You got that right.

Do something, guys.

Antonio, look,

I was so caught up in black people being forgotten that I

was looking at the mural for what it wasn't and not for what it was.

I'm sorry.

You know, when I was 10 years old, my dad said we were going to meet Cesar

Chavez, one of the greatest men to walk the earth.

I just thought my dad was the greatest man to walk the earth, so I couldn't

to meet him.

At the auditorium, I saw this tall, powerful -looking man holding court.

So I ran up to him and I said, Hi, Cesar Chavez.

The tall man laughed.

He said, hi, but I'm not Cesar Chavez.

He is.

I turned and I saw this short, worn -down -looking man without a muscle in

sight.

I thought, him?

It must be some mistake.

Right home, I said, Dad.

Cesar Chavez didn't look at all that great to me.

He said, mijo, it's because you're only looking with your eyes,

not your heart.

Now back to you.

Two weeks ago, this same cafeteria was a racial war zone.

Antonio wasn't trying to make a political statement with his mural.

Nevertheless, when he painted the mural white, the tension eased.

It's ironic that both groups with so much to offer would rather have nothing

than see the other group get just a little bit of something.

To me, that's the loudest, saddest political statement of all.