A young man, Aren, is recruited into a secret society of magical Black people who dedicate their lives to a cause of utm | dG1fV25wWFMzX3lpT00
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 The American Society of Magical Negroes is a secret underground society and their mandate is to eliminate white discomfort.
00:07 The name is a little updating, maybe like magical black people or I guess that doesn't have the same ring.
00:12 My name is Kobe Labie and this is the origin story of the American Society of Magical Negroes.
00:18 As a culture, I think we're pretty good at telling stories about overt racism.
00:23 Slavery stories, legal discrimination, because they're visual.
00:26 But the more common microaggressions are incredibly hard to pin down.
00:31 So the fact that you have it is proof that you deserve it.
00:33 Kind of.
00:34 One of the things I hope to do with this story is try to make that almost intangible, invisible quality of racism tangible and visible.
00:43 You'll use a white tears meter to let you know when their distress has returned to acceptable white person levels.
00:49 My inspiration for the story, it all starts with the magical Negro trope.
00:53 It's a black character who doesn't have his or her own internal life.
00:56 They're only there to support the white protagonist.
00:59 And I was always sort of agitated by them.
01:01 And the original inspiration for this film is just trying to respond to that trope.
01:05 Being a magical Negro isn't just about magic.
01:07 As long as there are fretful whites, we will be here.
01:11 Roger is definitely inspired by my dad, who with the best of intentions tried to give
01:15 me some lessons to survive in America.
01:17 See that cop over there?
01:18 Far as we know, he may be the next one to shoot an unarmed black man.
01:23 The classic example of that is talking to a cop.
01:25 You know, my dad sat me down very early and said, "This is how you need to talk to a cop to survive."
01:29 And the American Society of Magical Negroes takes that philosophy and hyperbolizes it.
01:33 It says, "What if being really good at making white people comfortable is a superpower?"
01:37 Can we get in?
01:38 Yes, it's good.
01:39 Actually, yeah.
01:42 Thinking about white people as well, there is a real shame in feeling accused of racism.
01:47 I'm not racist.
01:48 Oh, no, no, no, that's not what I'm saying.
01:49 I was just trying to tell you how I felt.
01:51 I think the best thing is to normalize that feeling because racism is very common and
01:55 I would say it's not the crime, it's the cover-up, right?
01:57 You're not a bad person.
01:58 Oh, not at all.
01:59 Right, right, yeah, no.
02:00 To use laughter as a way to look at some of the things that are broken about America without
02:04 turning away, to me that's part of the function of humor.
02:06 What's the most dangerous animal on the planet?
02:09 Sharks.
02:11 White people.
02:12 I think the most challenging part of filmmaking is being incredibly honest with yourself.
02:15 For me as a black person to raise my hand and say, "I feel like I over-accommodated
02:19 white people for my whole life," is incredibly embarrassing.
02:22 Watching you walk through a room full of white people is the most painful thing I've ever seen.
02:25 Humor is what makes it bearable for me to say that out loud and hopefully if other black
02:30 people have experienced things like this, will make it possible for them to look at
02:34 those behaviors in themselves and even laugh at those things.
02:37 Do you remember that white guy that just passed us?
02:38 Yeah.
02:39 You're blocking his way.
02:40 I'm so sorry.
02:41 At the end of the day, it's a story about a guy who has trouble speaking up for himself
02:44 who learns to speak up for himself and I think that's a pretty universal story.
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