Strah me je. Trenutno, na ovoj bini, ja osjećam strah. Nisam upoznao mnogo ljudi u životu, koji bi jasno priznali kada se plaše. To je zato jer duboko u njima znaju kako se lako širi. Vidiš, strah je kao bolest. Kada se širi, širi se kao požar. Ali, šta se desi kada, u lice tog straha uradiš ono što moraš? To se zove hrabrost. I baš kao strah, hrabrost je prelazna. Ja sam iz Istočnog St. Luisa, Ilinois.
So, I'm afraid. Right now, on this stage, I feel fear. In my life, I ain't met many people that will readily admit when they are afraid. And I think that's because deep down, they know how easy it spreads. See, fear is like a disease. When it moves, it moves like wildfire. But what happens when, even in the face of that fear, you do what you've got to do? That's called courage. And just like fear, courage is contagious. See, I'm from East St. Louis, Illinois.
To je malen grad nasuprot rijeke Misisipi od St. Luisa, Misuri. Ja sam čitav život živio u St. Luisu i okolici. Kada je Majkl Braun džunior, prosječan tinejdžer, upucan od strane policije 2014-e u Fergusonu, Misuri, predgrađu sjeverno od Sent Luisa, sjećam se da sam pomislio, on nije prvo, a neće biti ni zadnje mlado dijete, koje je izgubilo život od zakonskih službenika. Vidite, njegova smrt je drugačija.
That's a small city across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. I have lived in and around St. Louis my entire life. When Michael Brown, Jr., an ordinary teenager, was gunned down by police in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri -- another suburb, but north of St. Louis -- I remember thinking, he ain't the first, and he won't be the last young kid to lose his life to law enforcement. But see, his death was different.
Kada je Majk ubijen, sjećam se da su službeni organi koristili strah kao oružje. Policijski odgovor zajednici u žalosti je bila upotreba nasilnosti, da nametnu strah; strah od oružanih snaga, zatvora, kazni. Mediji su pokušali da nas okrenu jedne protiv drugih na način na koji su okretali priču. Sve je to prolazilo u prošlosti. Ali kao što sam rekao, ovaj put je bilo drugačije.
When Mike was killed, I remember the powers that be trying to use fear as a weapon. The police response to a community in mourning was to use force to impose fear: fear of militarized police, imprisonment, fines. The media even tried to make us afraid of each other by the way they spun the story. And all of these things have worked in the past. But like I said, this time it was different.
Smrt Majkla Brauna i odnosi prema zajednici vodili su ka lancu protesta u Fergusonu, Sent Luisu i okolini. Kada sam otišao na proteste četvrti ili peti dan, nije bilo iz hrabrosti; bilo je iz osjećaja krivnje. Vidi, ja sam crnac. Ne znam da li ste primjetili. (Smijeh)
Michael Brown's death and the subsequent treatment of the community led to a string of protests in and around Ferguson and St. Louis. When I got out to those protests about the fourth or fifth day, it was not out of courage; it was out of guilt. See, I'm black. I don't know if y'all noticed that. (Laughter)
Nisam mogao sjediti u Sent Luisu, nekoliko minuta od Fergusona,
But I couldn't sit in St. Louis, minutes away from Ferguson,
a da ne odem, da vidim. I otišao sam da provjerim. Kada sam stigao,
and not go see. So I got off my ass to go check it out. When I got out there,
našao sam nešto iznenađujuće. Našao sam ljutnju; bilo je mnogo nje. Ali sam pronašao više ljubavi. Ljudi sa ljubavi prema sebi. Ljubavi prema zajednici. I bilo je prelijepo -- sve dok se policija nije pojavila. Tad se nova emocija uplela u razgovor: strah. Neću lagati;
I found something surprising. I found anger; there was a lot of that. But what I found more of was love. People with love for themselves. Love for their community. And it was beautiful -- until the police showed up. Then a new emotion was interjected into the conversation: fear. Now, I'm not going to lie;
Kada sam vidio naoružana vozila, i svu tu opremu i sve to oružje i svu tu policiju, ja sam bio prestravljen. Kada sam pogledao gužvu, vidio sam da je mnogo ljudi bilo u strahu. Također sam vidio ljude sa nečim u njima. To je bila hrabrost. Vidiš, ti ljudi su galamili, i vrištali, nisu bili spremni da popuste policji. Oni su bili prevazišli tu namjeru. Osjetio sam neku promjenu u sebi, počeo sam galamiti i vrištati, primjetio sam da svi oko mene su radili isto. Ne postoji ništa kao taj osjećaj. Odlučio sam da želim uraditi nešto više.
when I saw those armored vehicles, and all that gear and all those guns and all those police I was terrified -- personally. And when I looked around that crowd, I saw a lot of people that had the same thing going on. But I also saw people with something else inside of them. That was courage. See, those people yelled, and they screamed, and they were not about to back down from the police. They were past that point. And then I could feel something in me changing, so I yelled and I screamed, and I noticed that everybody around me was doing the same thing. And there was nothing like that feeling. So I decided I wanted to do something more.
Pošto sam umijetnik. Počeo sam praviti stvari namjenjene za protest, stvari koje bi bile oružje u duhovnom ratu, stvari koje bi dale ljudima glas koje bi ojačale njihovu budućnost. Uradio sam projekat u kom sam slikao ruke protestanata
I went home, I thought: I'm an artist. I make shit. So I started making things specific to the protest, things that would be weapons in a spiritual war, things that would give people voice and things that would fortify them for the road ahead. I did a project where I took pictures of the hands of protesters
postavio sam ih na napuštene zgrade i trgovine. Moj cilj je bio da podignem svijest i moral. Mislim, bar na minutu, da sam to i postigao. Htio sam uzdignuti priče tih ljudi čiju sam hrabrost vidio u tom momentu. Ja i moj prijatelj, filmski umjetnik i partner Sabah Folajan, smo uradili to sa dokumentarcem, "Čije ulice?" Ja sam bio povez
and put them up and down the boarded-up buildings and community shops. My goal was to raise awareness and to raise the morale. And I think, for a minute at least, it did just that. Then I thought, I want to uplift the stories of these people I was watching being courageous in the moment. And myself and my friend, and filmmaker and partner Sabaah Folayan did just that with our documentary, "Whose Streets?" I kind of became a conduit
za svu tu hrabrost, što mi je bila darovana. Mislim da je to dio posla, nas umjetnika. Prenositi hrabrost sa poslom kojim se bavimo. Mislim da smo mi zid između normalnih ljudi i ljudi koji koriste moć da prošire strah i mržnju, pogotovo u ovakvim vremenima. Pitat ću vas.
for all of this courage that was given to me. And I think that's part of our job as artists. I think we should be conveyors of courage in the work that we do. And I think that we are the wall between the normal folks and the people that use their power to spread fear and hate, especially in times like these. So I'm going to ask you.
Jeste li vi pokretači, oni lideri sa namjerom; Šta cete uraditi sa darom koji posjedujete da nas odvojite od straha za kojeg smo privezani? Jer mene je strah svaki dan.
Y'all the movers and the shakers, you know, the thought leaders: What are you gonna do with the gifts that you've been given to break us from the fear the binds us every day? Because, see, I'm afraid every day.
Ne sjećam se vremena kada nisam bio. Kad sam shvatio da strah nije tu da me hendikepira tu je da me zaštiti, kada sam shvatio kako iskoristiti strah, pronašao sam svoju moć. Hvala.
I can't remember a time when I wasn't. But once I figured out that fear was not put in me to cripple me, it was there to protect me, and once I figured out how to use that fear, I found my power. Thank you.
(Aplauz)
(Applause)