01x02 - You Don't Aioli a Black-Eyed Pea

[bunniefuu]

- Some people feel like,
"I was raised around n*gg*s.

And some people do n*gga sh*t."

- I hadn't even made it into the party,

and I was already called the *-word.

And where do you think
my white friends were?

a*s out, peeing...

...on the front lawn.

- Whoa!
- Doing some n*gga sh*t.

- Yeah.

- But is that n*gga sh*t
or is that them white folk sh*t?

Let's raise a glass.

All right, y'all,
we gonna get into the juicy stuff.

- I feel like I'm around royalty
with you walking into the room.

- Really?
- Yeah.

- Don't flatter me.

- What award did you get again?

- An Emmy, yeah.

Second Black woman
to win the best costume design

for a variety special
for Beyoncé's Black Is King.

Congrats.
- Congratulations.

- Thank you. Thank you.
Congrats.

- You like platinum rosé?

- Yeah, but you can point the--
Don't point the thing-- that--

I wouldn't do that to you.
- I-- I legit get scared of flying corks.

I know. It'll take your eye out.
Yeah.

- I got a little sparkling
by the McBride Sisters.

You know their story?
- No. No, no.

- So they're two sisters
who have the same father

but, uh, different mother,
and didn't know each other.

Ooh.

- Tell me about this sweatshirt.

- Oh, my God, so this is the names
of all of the Black female attorneys

on television.

- Wait, we got Clair Huxtable.
- Yeah.

- Maxine Shaw, attorney at law,
from Living Single.

- My grandmother taught me
how to sew in high school.

I started deconstructing clothes and stuff
and my friends started buying it.

And then, eventually,
kind of found my way to styling.

Yeah?
- Yeah, yeah.

- Yvesmark.
Wow.

- How'd you get into it?

- So my ex-girlfriend, she was modeling
since she was in the sixth grade.

- Ex?
Yeah.

Yeah, we-- we're gonna
have to emphasize that again.

Yeah, she was modeling.

She was very adamant on me,
you know, pursuing modeling.

And when I went to my first casting,
everyone was so encouraging.

And I actually had someone come up to me

and was like,
"Hey, I want your skin condition."

I said, "Slow your roll, buddy."

"Let-- Let's slow your roll."

- In general, I say,

look, six degrees of separation
is a real thing.

- Yeah.

- But I say, "In our world,
it's about three or four."

- Yeah-- Or maybe one, I don't know.
If it's Hollywood, it's one.

- Hollywood is-- Yeah, no more than two.

- Yes.

- That is actually how I was able
to create Being Bobby Brown.

- Can I geek out with you a little bit?

- Let's do it.

- About the whole Beyoncé Lemonade thing.

When you're in
that Lemonade environment, right?

And you, correct me if I'm wrong,
being held back a little bit.

- I wouldn't even
necessarily say held back,

I think, 'cause I started in,
like, the personal wardrobe closet,

and I was just doing
the day-to-day clothes.

And I knew that I could do more,
and I figured it out.

I squeezed in that one look.

That one look. The Formation hat look.
- Yeah.

- Yeah, that was
my kind of first big project look.

My issue with the McBride Sisters

is that I have a lot of half-siblings...
- Yeah.

...and we ain't done nothing together.

It's so hard.
- Look at the Wayans!

You see all this stuff they done built?

- I have half-sisters as well.

I went back for my mother's 60th birthday.

So I walked in the room,
my brother's there, my sisters are there,

and I see this woman
standing there in the middle of the room.

She looks just like my mother.

And my brother's looking at me
and starts laughing.

He's just like, "That's our half-sister."

What are you gonna say?
Yeah.

- On that note,
let's go into the dining room.

- Let's eat, man.

- I have in front of you,

a black-eyed pea cake
with a chipotle aioli on the bottom.

And it brings
a little Southernness to this.

We're gonna have
a, uh, brut rosé to go with our appetizer.

And I hope you enjoy.

- R-- Roy, is, uh, black-eyed pea cake
the bougiest Black thing

you've ever seen before?
Yeah.

When I saw the menu,
they said black-eyed pea cake,

I was trying to visualize it.

'Cause, you know, I'm from Birmingham.

Like, black-eyed peas, you don't--

You don't--

You don't aioli a black-eyed pea.

But then I was like,
"Oh, the chef is Black.

Okay, I will go on this journey."

- Baby, this is black-eyed peas
and cornbread.

- Exactly.

- I've only been to England
like two or three times in my career.

And I remember having
Southern-style fried chicken over there.

And it was nothing like
Southern-style fried chicken in the South.

But how much do you allow America
to influence your stuff versus Africa?

My family's background is from Jamaica.

We come with the same ingredients,
you know, uh, okra, peanuts.

And so we have very, very similar food.

I remember the first time I had grits.

And I'm trying the grits, and I'm like,
"Oh, this tastes like cornmeal porridge."

And they're like,
"What's cornmeal porridge?"

And I said, "It's a breakfast item
made out of corn, and we add sugar to it."

And so we have a debate about...

grits with sugar or salt.

So I would never eat my grits--
I would never eat my grits with sugar.

- Hold up, I think we need
to identify-- self-identify at the table.

Who are we sittin' around?

Do you put sugar in your grits,
or do you put butter in your grits?

- Butter.
- Butter.

Butter and lots of pepper.
And salt.

- I put a lot of things.
I put bacon. I put...

- Cheese.
Cheese.

Oh, yeah, cheese.
- But butter and salt, no sugar.

- Little green peppers in there.
Exactly.

- For me, I actually put syrup.

I-- I'm like the oddball.

- Is that some Gen Z stuff?
Is that like...

#Sweet.

Exactly.
- Sugar.

In Louisiana, they put sugar?

- It's a sugar thing, yeah.

Really?
Yeah.

- My mom would say,
"If you put sugar in your grits,

that ain't grits, that's cream of wheat."

- Hmm.

Or oatmeal.

- It's oatmeal, yeah.
Like, that's just not grits.

- I put butter and sugar.

And on a hot day,
I will put butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

I don't believe in quick grits.

Oh, no.

- If I'm gonna make grits,

my grits gonna cook long enough
for me to wash my a*s.

Like, I put the grits on the stove,

go take that shower, get me some cream,

come back, stir 'em again,

then go do something else,
then come back.

And then when you serve 'em,

I think it's a way of--
For me, especially with my children--

I made grits every morning

because I always wanted them to feel like
we had that bond in the morning

before they left.

And my mom instilled that in us.

She was like, "Now listen,

"if you go your a*s out there
and something happened to you,

your stomach gonna be full
when they open you up."

You know what I mean?

- Like, just because of--
The nature of my parents' schedules

did not allow
for a traditional morning breakfast.

So I was a school-lunch-for-breakfast
type of kid.

But Sunday mornings,

that was, for my family,
Sunday morning was the joint,

where you get the full breakfast spread

and the Sunday paper
and we all share and talk about our week.

But, like, the idea
that food connects so much back

to family and memories,
like, it's just important.

- We've been in kind of, like,
a rush to learn recipes.

Like, just a couple of my aunties
and now from my grandma.

I mean, she's still alive,

and God bless her,
and she cooks every Sunday.

This Thanksgiving was so special.

She-- She stood up
and cooked the whole Thanksgiving.

Every year, she's like,
"I ain't cooking no more.

I ain't doing that again."

It's like a--
It's like a tradition at this point.

- I grew up in a household
with both of my parents,

and I have five other siblings.

It was definitely
a low-income housing that we had.

But just seeing my mother,
you know, go to work,

you know, come home at 12:00,

wake up at, uh, 6:00 a.m.
to get my siblings and I ready for school,

you know, cook us that meal.

Just seeing her work ethic,

you know, I apply
that work ethic every day

to, you know, not only my career
but just in other things in life.

So, you know...

- That's cool.
Yeah.

- I find that interesting

because, a lot of time, people say
Black people are lazy or they--

Where did that come from?

Because to be very honest,

if we all went around the table
and talked about our parents

and our own work ethic,

and to be where we are today

and the success of many other generations
of Black people,

the Oprahs
and, you know, everyone else's,

no, we come from
really hardworking people who were--

- And we have to overcome...
Yes!

- ...way more to get half the respect.
Major!

- There's this weird generation gap too.

My grandmother, she worked two jobs,
whether it was in food, nursing homes,

and eventually, she became a bus driver.

What's that weird gap between
the grandmothers and the grandkids?

Because I was raised
by my aunt and my grandma.

It was almost like

either it was, "We had to work so hard
so you don't have to..."

So there's a lot of young kids
in my family that don't.

Especially the boys, for some reason.

They're all kind of babied and, like,
just weren't really kind of pushed.

Like, the women really,
I think, pulled my family

and kind of, you know, really hold us up.

- The reason why our sons appear
to be lazy and spoiled or very entitled

is because
we felt the need to protect them.

- Mm.

- You see, we saw what it was like
when the-- the young boy was out there

and he didn't have the mother
that showed up late at night,

the mother that embarrassed him,

the mother that came
and showed up at the party.

Like, I've showed up places--

Like, I showed up
in stretch pants with holes in it.

He's like, "Oh, my God!
I can't go there no more."

Good!

Yeah, there are some lines
that you do need to draw.

You know, and every now and then,
he will get a little boisterous.

He will, you know,
raise his voice a little bit

and then I have to pull him to the side,

like, "Yo, listen,
you m*therf*cking forget."

- Right.

- He was like, "Ma."

I was like, "Don't Ma me now!"

You know what I mean?

But I think I felt the need
to have to defend Black mothers

with the relationship with their sons,

because if he gets a job
and his job is a night shift,

I'm gonna worry all night.
- Exactly.

- And he only bringing in
15 goddamned dollars.
- Exactly.

- So I'ma give him the $15
so I can get me some sleep.

- As a new mom
to a Black son who's only 10 months old...

- Ooh, nice!

- ...I feel like I'm sitting here
just absorbing parenting wisdom.

A lot of what we're talking about
is a necessity to kind of introduce,

especially Black sons,
to tough love early on

so that they're prepared for the world.

But then there's this conversation
about gentle parenting.

- As a mother to a Black son
whose world was not very Black--

Growing up, his father
was a professional baseball player,

lived in the suburbs.

But my son, when he went to college,

was at a friend's,
they were having a party

and the police came.

And the five, tall,

Black young men were arrested.

My son was one of those.

First of all, the kids called--

You know, 'cause I-- We were--
'Cause I am one of those parents,
"safety first."

And I had his friends' numbers,
and they had mine.

Call me about mine, okay?
- Right away.

- Yes.

And they called, "Ah, Jacob was arrested."

And I called his dad,
and his dad just blew up.

And then I was like,
"Okay, stop being Mr. Baseball

"because I don't want them
to do something to our kid.

"So let's dial this back
and figure out how we work this out

before they even get
to the police station."

So he was like,
"I just wanna come home for a minute."

Like, he didn't sleep for a few days.

But then I looked at his dad and I said,

"Oh, we forgot to tell him
about being Black."

I mean, "You a 6'2" Black man.
They gonna see you as a threat all day."

- So I have a six-year-old Black son.

And so, it's a similar scenario

where I grew up in Birmingham
with two super Black parents.

My father was a civil rights journalist.

My mother is 40 years higher education
at a Black college.

So the Blackity-Blackness
was always in the house.

So when I was 19 and I did get arrested
for stealing credit cards,

and I did get called "n*gg*r" by the cop

all the way from-- from my apartment
all the way to the police station,

and I did get
called "n*gg*r" from the jail
all the way to the arraignment,

and I did get called "n*gg*r"
all the way back to fingerprinting

and getting released on recognizance.

Like...

In a weird way, I was prepared for it.

But then the question becomes,

how much do I prepare him
for things that he may not see

as often in New York City,
where we currently live?

But I know when he's an adult,

the game is gonna be different.

And it cannot be the first time
that he's learning about that.

And so my plan
is to prepare him for the world

and be honest
about the horrors that are out there,

but also have the concept of intimacy.

Male intimacy is a huge problem.

I had a Black father.

He wasn't really about them hugs.

Black fathers from that era,
"You know I love you, boy.

The heat on."

- Exactly.

- This is what we call
a seafood bouillabaisse.

It has a little saffron in it
with a saffron, uh, rouille,

which is a mayonnaise
that you kind of mix in with the sauce.

Adds a little more depth
to the sauce itself

and thickens it a little bit.

And then I brought in some Carolina rice,

which is a short-grain rice
that has a unique and nutty flavor to it,

and you can eat with it on the side.

- This looks delicious.
Doesn't it look good?

- All right. Moment of truth,
we're taste-testing it.

- I don't know
why y'all playing with this man.

You know it's gonna be good.
Yeah.

- Everyone, please continue eating.
Let me tell you this story.

Roxanne Shante, eight years old,
Roots just played on television.

I was the only Black child in my class
from first grade to sixth grade.

Now P.S. 11,
located in Woodside, Queens,

decided to do a time capsule.

- Mm!

- Thirty years from now,
they're gonna open up this time capsule

and everybody's gonna have
something in it.

I'm standing on one side
of the hole that they dug

and across from me
is my archnemesis, Alex.

He wrote on a piece of paper,
"Lolita--" 'Cause that's my real name.

"Lolita's a n*gg*r."

- No, he did not!

- For the time capsule?
- I'm in the third grade.

My teacher's name is Ms. Weinstein.

And I can remember this
like it was yesterday.

So I'm raising my hand erratically
because I wanted her to know

Alex is getting ready
to throw into the time capsule,

"Lolita's a n*gg*r."

He folds it up.

Slowly.

So they're getting ready
to close the time capsule

and he tossed it in the time capsule.

- Damn.

- I damn near felt like
how, uh, Whoopi did

when Shug Avery was leaving
on Color Purple.

I just stood at the top of the pile

like, "Oh, I can't believe
he just put in there that Lolita's--"

- Damn.

- So I get home.

So I'm crying and I'm crying
and I'm crying-- Come in the house.

My mother's in the house.

She was smoking her little joint.

And she says, "Hold on."
'Cause she was on the phone.

So she said, "Hold on, somethin' wrong."

And she put the phone down.

So she said, "What's the matter?"

And I'm crying like
as if something bad done happened.

Me now, as a mother,
I'm thinking she's thinking the worst,

like they done pulled me in the bathroom,

they done did something to me,

'cause I'm crying hysterically now.

So she's like, "What's wrong?
What's wrong? What's wrong?

What's the matter? What's the matter?"

And I can see the fear.
And I told her, I said...

"They wrote a note."

She said, "sh*t, a goddamned note?

What kind of note?"

'Cause now she glad
to just know that it's a note.

"Well, what did the note say?"

I said, "The note said,
'Lolita's a n*gg*r.'"

So she said, "So you mean to tell me,
you came in here crying

because he wrote on a paper,
'Lolita's a n*gg*r'?"

I said, "But it went in the time capsule.

And 30 years from now,
somebody's gonna read that."

And she said, "Thirty years from now,
you still gonna be a n*gg*r though.

I just-- I wanna let you know that."

She said, "But the catch is,

what type of n*gg*r
are you gonna be in 30 years?"

- Wow. Yes.

- Yeah.

- Well, I've been called lots of names.
Zebra, tiger, things like that.

My first experience
with being called a n*gg*r,

I was about 14.

Basically, it didn't affect me.

I do use the word n*gga.
- With a "a."

- Yeah.
I find it as a term of endearment.

You know,
I use it with my other Black friends.

And, uh, the one thing that I find ironic

is that this word
that was created with mal intent,

we, as a Black people...
- Yeah.

- ...twisted that
and turned it into something positive.

And now there are,
you know, white folks saying,

"Let's not use this word, both,
you know, with the 'er' and with the 'a.'"

But you can't take that away from us if--

- If we want to.
- You know, exactly.

- I've been--
I've been called n*gg*r b*tches.

I just remember not reacting.

It was me and my roommate.

A taxi driver, here in New York,
"Ah, you nig--"

He enjoyed it too. He enjoyed it too.

And she caught me, she grabbed me.

Like, "Uh-uh, don't--
Don't go off. Don't go off."

But n*gga, n*gga, n*gga.
Damn, it feel good coming out my mouth.

I'm sorry-- It feel so good.

It's like the period to a sentence.
n*gg*s and b*tches.

- You know,
I come from an interracial family.

My mom is Black and my dad is white.

And my dad was in a kind of mixed group

where he overheard Black people
using the *-word, with an "a."

He felt like
no one should be saying that word.

It's like he's gotten
this message his whole life

that this is the worst thing
that you could ever utter.

And what he didn't understand

is that he is in no position
to police the use of a word

that has been used by white people
to oppress Black people for generations.

And the reality is,
we need you to understand

that you should never use that word
under any circumstances.

- I don't think we should just limit it
to white people.

I've been places where I've heard
Asian kids or...

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- ...Hispanic kids.

- Non-Black people.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I was doing a show,
and some of the kids were Dominican

and they said, "We're not Black."

And then I said, "Okay, well,
then don't say the *-word another day

in-- in this space, with me."

And they said, "What-- Why?"

I was like, "Because only Black people
can use the word.

And now you're gonna get check
like someone who cannot say it."

- The time where I'm more paranoid
about saying "n*gga"

is around OG Black folks.

- Mm!
- That's when I-- Like, on some respect.

Because the word
might be traumatic and triggering

to Black people of a certain age, so...

- Wow. Repeat that, man.

- But if they say it first, it's on.

Yeah, yeah, you right.

My grandmother said it,
God rest her soul,

and thank you for those curse words,
'cause it does relieve tension.

Absolutely.

- But my husband will say like,
"We should just get rid of the *-word."

And I'm like, "Oh, yeah.
I'm really trying. I'm trying."

But, no, I don't use the word
in mixed company.

No Caucasian better ever call me that.

And I grew up feeling and believing

and knowing that I was empowered
to say that among my white peers.

- But I do think white people get confused
when they hear us use it

in mixed company.

- I went to a Kanye West concert one time.

I can't remember the name of the show.

And-- Where he did the Confederate,
uh, merch, Confederate flag on the merch.

- You caught Kanye right before.

- Yeah. This is pre-cancel Kanye.

- But Kanye had been kind of in need
to be canceled for a long time.

That part. Say that louder, yeah.

- He was cringey.
Right, right, right.

- I watched as all of the--

Everybody in the front row
that had the floor seats,

they were all white.

"You know that n*gg*s can't read.
Y'all n*gg*s can't f*ck with Ye."

And I was just like--
- Wa-- wait. Who said that?

- Everyone in the--
That was the-- Those are the lyrics.

You know, people just,
"You know that n*gg*s--"

Anyway, he's wearing the Confederate flag.

And that's when I just, like,
looked at him in a very different way.

- I almost feel like
saying the *-word in your music

comes with a responsibility

in which you need to educate your fans
on how they can or cannot use that word.

- When you hear it in hip-hop,

nine times out of ten,
it is a description.

And when you listen to real hip-hop music

or you listen to someone
who is expressing where they grew up,

what they've been through,

rather than try to tone down and rethink,
"Oh, well, I can't say that word,"

when some people feel like,
"I was raised around n*gg*s.

"And some people do n*gga sh*t.

So let me tell you what this n*gga did."

You know what I mean?

Now, that's a big difference
than me saying, "You n*gga."

That's the reason why
when it comes to using the *-word,

I can't say
that I will never, ever say it.

I'd be lying.

- I actually wanted
to say something that you stated before

in terms of the cancel culture.

I feel kind of ambivalent towards it

because I understand
holding someone accountable.

But where do we draw the line

and say, "Okay, this person actually
learned from their mistakes"?

- Do you have an example
of somebody you think changed?

- Or somebody who deserves grace?

That didn't get it.
- Like not Kanye, I hope.

- Oh, yeah.

- I think Kanye definitely deserves grace.

- Ooh, I wanna hear that perspective.
Absolutely.

I think Kanye deserves grace.

You know, mental health is an issue.

I think that's a known issue for him.

And I think that he's still a regular man
living an irregular life.

- Here's the thing too
with the-- with the platform.

It is a responsibility that you have

when you have a voice
that the masses can hear.

It's very dangerous what he's done.

For him to say that sl*very wasn't real...

Yeah, I know there's certainly
some mental health involved

but at some point, man,
somebody turn off the mic.

Do I think
that he deserves grace? Absolutely.

But I think
he also deserves a lotta help.

See, what we're really seeing
is a young Black man break down.

But because he's breaking down
in front of so many people,

there's so many people to judge him
and very few to help him.

- Mental health
has to account for part of it.

I cannot speak
to the anti-Semitic side of what he said,

but I do know, as Black people,

nine times out of ten,
all we want is an apology.

- But would it be sincere?

- We don't know. But if we don't have it--

- Yeah, 'cause at some point,

sometimes when you do get people
who say sorry,

the main reason why they're saying sorry
is 'cause they caught.

- He offended us.

And we can choose
not to listen to his music,

not to show up at his concert--

We can turn him off.

- Which is what I've done.

- The solution to missteps cannot be,
"Screw you forever.

You go away forever, forever."

'Cause there's a lot of people
that are pro-cancel culture

that are also supporting prison reform.

And to me, those two things
go against each other.

Prison reform is there because
there was once a system in place

that also told people, "f*ck you forever."

- Still is.
Still is.

Especially if you're a Black man.

- So I cannot support
figuring out a system of atonement

and... recidivism for that,

and then on this side of society,
go, "Nah, but y'all-- Forever."

- Look, as humans,
we always have contradiction.

- Yeah.

- It gets into that space
of the art versus the artist.

I mean, Michael Jackson--

There's so many people
and we're just not God--

- Allegedly. Ma-- Michael Jackson.

- Yes, alleg-- Yes. He was not con--

- You still caping for Mike.

- Aw, yeah, see, he caping for Mike.
The contradiction.

- So, the dessert
is an Italian-style panna cotta,

which is a-- a cold mousse--

A pudding that we call in England.

And it has maple syrup around it.

So you see the little maple syrup
on the bottom

and the crystals of maple syrup in there?

And combined together,

I think it's a great way
to finish this discussion.

- Oh, I already started eating it. I was--

- I-- I noticed that.
I didn't say a word.

- I was sitting here
like, "This sh*t is good."

- It's good, man.
Delicious.

Yeah, I trust it, I trust it.

- Every generation thinks that
every issue starts and ends with them.

I feel like with George Floyd,

we had this temporary surge
of empathy for Black people

and we became popular to be an ally.

It became profitable for companies...

- To partner with Black people.
...to partner with Black people,

to do the "right thing" by Black people.

And literally, in less than two years...
Now it's less than two years.

- ...the pendulum has swung so hard
in the other direction

and now white people
are victimizing themselves,

saying that cancel culture--
that they're a victim of cancel culture.

- And that's why I say
we have to be careful

when we count corporations
bending to our demands

as a victory... morally.

They canceled
a lot of them super Black TV shows

that were by-products of-- of that era.

Like, I know we had--
- On George Floyd.

- Yeah, we had talked about Underground,
we talked about Lovecraft Country,

the shows that were--

I don't even think
would've gotten green-lit before.

- Yeah.

- I saw the same thing in '92
with Rodney King

how the TV became very much Blacker
with In Living Color and shows where you--

- The WB. Fox.
WB came on.

- Def Jam.

- And then after a few years,
they just faded away.

And is this happening now?

- That historical perspective
is so important

for people in my generation
and younger to hear,

because I think some people thought

that, like, 2020 really was going to be,

like, a definitive change
in our culture for the better,

and we were on a better trajectory.

But I think older generations
who saw Rodney King,

saw what happened
after this temporary response.

They did the "right thing"
for a little while

until we took our foot off the pedal.
- Yep.

- We launched
Black Owned Everything in 2020

as a response to the unrest, right?

Black Owned Everything
is a platform and marketplace

where we highlight, feature,
give visibility to Black-owned businesses.

So we sell products from fashion,
beauty, home, things like that.

I always use the--
the sort of slogan almost,

"For when the trend is over."
You know?

And now it means something
so, you know, special almost.

- Are you seeing the same type of support
for Black Owned Everything

as you were back in 2020,
when you first started it?

- Yes and no.

I think people still acknowledge it
and respect it

because of what it was
and what it became so quickly.

But in terms of, like, partnership,
people aren't paying as much,

if anything, to partner with us.

But, for us, it was always our people.

It's almost like
the industry quietly uses us.

I went on set for a sh**t the other day.

And I usually will style myself.

But they sent me pictures
that the stylist had,

and I was like "Oh, okay. This is cute.
I'll wear this. I know this brand."

And I got there and the girl was like,

"Yeah, I used Black Owned Everything
to find a lot of these brands."

So regardless, for me, that's the success.

That energy that we were using in 2020

to call out the Guccis and the Chanels
and all these people,

I just thought, like, "Well, what if
we took 20% of that same energy

"and put it into our own community,

highlight our own creators,
how far would it go?"

Like, literally, it's immeasurable.

You know, for me,
the work is still there, you know?

I think there's still a space for us.

It's just now, it's up to us
to continue to push it forward.

- Chef, this dessert was good.
- Thank you, all.

This wine was good.
- Thanks for coming by.

- I usually like to do a special toast,
but I'ma pass it

to the legendary Ms. Roxanne Shante
in honor of your mama.

Praise to her on her life,
her beautiful life,

and what she's done for you.
- Absolutely. Thank you.

- So if your mama was here
giving the toast...

...what would she tell us?

- Put your glasses up.

And, in the words of my mama,

You see that feeling
that you feeling right now?"

- Yeah.

- "That's what it feels like
to be loved and respected.

Let's keep doing that."

I love that!

- Cheers.
- Cheers.

I love that.

- So basically, the dance that we're doing
is called the Milly Rock.

- The Milly Rock?
- The Milly Rock, yeah.

- Who's this Milly?

- It's actually an artist from New York,
he made a song.

So a lot of New Yorkers,
this is their go-to dance,

you know, the Milly Rock.

You wanna loosen up real quick?

You wanna stretch it out?
You need to stretch or anything?

I don't want you pulling anything.

- Whoa! It's already pulled.

- So we gonna start out
with a basic one-two step.

- I got that.

- One, two. One, two.

Yeah, all right. I see the rhythm.

Lift your hands up.
Oh, yeah.

- As you start swinging--
One, two. One, two.

- Hey, slow that down.

- It's-- It's like someone's getting you
a little angry so you gotta--

- I think I need
to put the glass down for this one.

You might have to.
- Okay. I'll try.

- Oh, you gonna try?
Yeah, yeah.

- All right, cool.
So we going one, two, the basics.

- One, two.

- Okay. You feeling it?
- Yeah, I'm feeling it.

Okay.
- I'm feeling it.

- And then we're gonna--

Oooh!
Put some stank on it.

- And then go back to the--
Oh.

Put some swag on it.

- Yeah. Uh-huh.

This is good. This is good!

- Oh, you can even--
Oh! Whoa! Hey!

- I need to sit down. I need a drink.

You got me on that one.

For my own satisfaction,

I need to know that I still got it.

But I'm gonna also need,
like, a proper lesson.

But you gotta do it with me.

You gotta do it with me.
- Oh, really?

- Come on, do it with me.

- One, two. One, two. One, two.

You can bend your knees as you come over.
One, two. One, two.

Then you're gonna incorporate your hands.

One, two. One, two.
- I like this.

- Then you could add some spice to it.
Ooh!

- Ooh! You really--
You're throwing me off.

I'm like half white
so I can't really be around off rhythms,

'cause it kind of, like,
starts pulling me over that way.

He's on the one and three.
Oh, is it--

I try to be on the two and the four, okay?

I'm the five and the six.
That was good!

I'm so proud of you. This is amazing.
Oh, good job.

You're amazing.
Thank you so much for being here.

It was so much fun.