Atlanta - 35-Year-Old Transracial White Man
Atlanta - 35-Year-Old Transracial White Man - Black American Network interviews Harrison Booth, a transracial man planning to use an experimental procedure to turn white. Stream all episodes of #AtlantaFX on Hulu.
Atlanta Season 1, Episode 7.
Atlanta Season 1, Episode 7.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Harrison looks from the outside to be your average teenager.
00:04 He goes to school, plays video games,
00:07 even listens to music in his room.
00:09 But there's one difference.
00:11 I'm a 35-year-old white man.
00:13 Harrison, born Antoine Smalls, has transracial identity,
00:18 identifying as Harrison Booth,
00:20 a 35-year-old white man from Colorado.
00:23 And when did you know that you were a 35-year-old white man?
00:26 Well, I've always felt different.
00:28 I go to the store, the movies, and just be thinking to myself,
00:32 like, "Why am I not getting the respect I deserve?"
00:35 And then it just hit me.
00:38 I'm white.
00:40 And 35.
00:42 I just miss Colorado sometimes, you know?
00:44 Here I pretend the buildings are the old San Juan mountain range,
00:47 but, you know, the job's just here.
00:49 And where do you work?
00:50 I'm a systems engineer for Coca-Cola.
00:52 Oh, OK.
00:53 That boy don't work.
00:54 He go to school and that's it.
00:56 One day he said, "Call me Harrison."
00:59 I said, "Who's that?"
01:01 He said, "Me."
01:02 Do you believe that he is a white man?
01:05 I mean, he is it.
01:06 [Bleep] I'd love to wake up one day and say,
01:08 "Hey, everybody, I'm Rihanna."
01:10 But I ain't.
01:12 It's been pretty hard.
01:13 My family just doesn't get it.
01:15 I try to get them to go out with me, go on walks,
01:17 go to the farmer's market, chat with people, but, yeah.
01:22 So why don't you think that they get it?
01:24 I don't think they get it because they don't realize that race is just a made-up thing.
01:29 They grew up having labels, and me, I'm just not like that.
01:32 I see.
01:33 So how do you embrace your identity?
01:36 I dress a certain way.
01:37 Patagonia.
01:38 I wear a thick brown leather belt.
01:40 I like to envision myself after the surgery.
01:43 [Clears throat]
01:44 Hey, excuse me, what IPA do you have on tap?
01:48 Hey, did you see Game of Thrones last night?
01:52 Yeah.
01:54 So your surgery, that's later this year.
01:57 Right. I started working at Stonecrest Mall, so hopefully by then I have enough money to take the next step.
02:03 So you work at Coca-Cola and the mall?
02:07 Right. Correct, I work at both.
02:10 Harrison has been planning a full racial transition with a Dr. Samuel Vergara,
02:14 who guarantees Harrison can visually transition through an experimental procedure
02:18 that will allow Harrison to not only be a white man, but whatever race he chooses.
02:22 The procedure's absolutely 100% possible.
02:26 He's gonna look weird, though.
02:28 But before Harrison can fully realize his physical identity,
02:31 he still has the day-to-day that's filled with discrimination and ridicule.
02:35 It's pretty awful, you know?
02:37 You walk in the streets and black people, they see you, they nod to you like,
02:41 "Hey, good to see us."
02:43 And it's to the point where I've just given up.
02:45 I've stopped trying to convince them that I'm not us.
02:48 Gotcha.
02:50 Excuse me, this is definitely the guy.
02:52 He doesn't even live in the area. I've never seen him before.
02:55 I think we're taking slow strides.
03:07 But you have to believe things are getting better, otherwise you'll just die inside.
03:11 Is there anything you'd like to say to other black kids out there
03:14 who may be going through the same thing?
03:16 Just be you. At all costs.
03:19 But also, stop dressing so crazy.
03:24 Hmm.
03:26 Absolutely.
03:45 [silence]
03:47 [silence]
03:49 [silence]
03:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]