She's Gotta Have It (2017) s01e05 Episode Script
#4MyNegusAndMyBishes (ALL WORDS MATTER)
1 [HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYING.]
One, two, one, two, three Where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn at? [SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYS.]
Can I be honest? When Opal cut me off, it hurt like a motherfucker.
I thought we had a connection.
Well, I lit up a joint, finished some work for the diastopian show and decided to end my man-cleanse.
Admittedly, I'm still learning the meaning of commitment and what it means to trust someone, even if that someone is me, and learning how to trust my intuition and not just my impulses.
I'm a work in progress.
Your girl is back in the saddle, though.
[CHUCKLES.]
I know.
I'm buggin'.
But I wouldn't say it like that.
I would say it in a way that empowers me.
Instead of saying I was buggin', I'd say I'm multitasking.
Excellent work, everybody.
It seems you've really dug deep to depict the images of your lives with these album covers.
Very interesting work, class.
Very provocative.
Yes? What's that mean, Ms.
Moss? "Provocative.
" "Provocative," in the way that I was using the term, Hassan, means just what I said.
The work the class has done is interesting.
Yeah, Hass.
"Provocative," like interestin'.
Like the time when your mom's big-ass titties fell outta that low-cut top when she was chasin' your ass down the street last summer.
- [STUDENTS CLAMORING.]
- All right, Kervon! - Class! - No, Kervon.
It's provocative, like interesting, like your mom.
You know she got one leg with a kickstand rockin' one Jordan 12.
[LAUGHTER.]
- Nice one, nice one.
- Just jokes, my nigga.
[NOLA.]
No, it's not just jokes.
You guys were playing the dozens.
Anyone know what that means? "Playing the dozens" was a term derived from African enslavement, when anyone with a physical disability was sold in a group of 12.
And they often got those disabilities at the violent hands of their slave owners.
- So, it's never just jokes.
- It's a very good point, Ms.
Darling.
Right now, we need you to pull focus.
We are here to work.
Reggie.
This piece is, um well, it's provocative, in the best sense of the word.
- The strongest sense of the word.
- Thank you.
Wouldn't you agree, Ms.
Moss? Uh, Ms.
Darling, this is your class.
I'm not here to impose my views.
I'm just here to observe.
But, yes, Reggie's work is very powerful.
- [SCHOOL BELL RINGING.]
- All right, that's the bell! Walk, don't run, ladies and gentlemen! - See you next week, everybody! - [OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
You really think my work is dope like that? - Absolutely.
- Cool.
[CHUCKLES.]
See you next week, Ms.
Darling and Ms.
Moss.
See you next week.
Thank you for your focus.
I want to commend you on your work with the students.
You seem to have developed a real rapport.
However, I would like for you to stop by my office - [PHONE DINGS.]
- so we can discuss a few things.
Uh say, tomorrow afternoon, Ms.
Darling? 3:30? - [PHONE DINGS.]
- Ms.
Darling, 3:30? Sure! 3:30, no problem.
Got it! Okay.
Sorry, I gotta run.
[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING.]
[GASPING, MOANING.]
[CHUCKLING.]
- Yo, yo, yo, Mars! - [R&B MUSIC PLAYING SOFTLY.]
- Ah! - Mars? Damn, I've been told I take the ladies to the moon.
It must be my interplanetary tongue game! [CHUCKLES.]
Um yeah.
[SNIFFLES.]
Yeah, Jamie.
Your tongue game sent me flyin' to Mars.
It was like Stanley Kubrick 2001: A Space Odyssey good.
- Mm.
- [SIGHS.]
You know, even without the wood, I knew I could.
[BOTH CHUCKLING.]
- So, you forgive me now? - But, for real, though, what was that? Like, why am I crying? That was some transcendental, like [SIGHS.]
I don't even know what to call it.
Shit.
It's moments like this lets me know that I wanna be with you all the time.
Well, I'm honored but bewitched, bothered, and bewildered.
So, you're saying I'm the one, the only one.
No.
I'm still gonna see other people.
[SIGHS.]
What Nola gets, Nola doesn't want.
[GROANS.]
You sound like Stokely.
- Mm-hm.
- One of them dudes you're seein'? Stokely is my dad.
- Your dad? - Mm-hm.
Is this some oedipal shit goin' on? I think you mean Electra, and I hope that's not why I wanna see you, Jamie.
Your father lets you call him by his first name? Not really.
But musicians are free spirits, or, at least, they're supposed to be.
But enough about him.
Who are you, Mr.
Overstreet? Hmm? Who am I? The man that wants to wake up with you when the sun kisses the side your face in the mornin', and the man that wants to lay down with you when the moon softens the furrow of your brow when you close your eyes to sleep at night.
Well, I am a woman who needs to sell some damn paintings! - Slow but steady wins the race.
- Ugh! No, I need to win the race now, okay? I need that red dot "sold" sticker, that blood on the wall under my work, a hundred stacks piling northward.
I feel you.
I'll buy more of your artwork.
I'm not looking for a handout.
It's not a handout if I love your work.
What's going on? Talk to me.
[WOMAN.]
Hey, Nola! [NOLA.]
It's my gig as a teaching artist at Harriet Tubman Middle School in Crown Heights.
Kids that have been labeled "at risk.
" I've even had to go into my own pocket to get supplies for my students.
- Horrible, but I like your commitment.
- Thanks.
[NOLA.]
Everybody [NOLA.]
And in all honesty, Harriet Tubman Elementary is seriously underfunded by the Department of Ed.
Because art is just not a priority for these black and brown kids at Tubman.
And why do we think that is? Take a guess.
- Thank you, Ms.
Darling.
- You got it.
Thing is, there's this project I assigned to my students.
- Mm-hm.
- I wanted them to recreate album covers that they thought depicted their life stories.
Okay, I like that.
One that stood out to me, though, was by this young girl named Reggie.
She recreated Lil' Kim's Hard Core promo poster and put herself in the same provocative pose.
Wow.
She is a gifted artist, but she's only 12 years old.
Life is severe in the hood.
Yeah, I guess.
[JAMIE.]
It only takes one great teacher to impact a life.
Reggie's a very lucky girl.
[CHUCKLES.]
- Really? - What? - That little routine again? - What? You know I don't smoke cheeba.
- [SCOFFS.]
- I mean, yes, I will let you give me a shotgun.
It's the same damn thing! - No, it's not.
- Yes, it is.
And why do you keep callin' weed "cheeba," huh? - It's kush, trees.
- [LAUGHS.]
- I love your passion for life.
- You say that like a man - who's been deprived of it.
- I plead the fifth, Your Honor.
There's nobody like you [COUGHS.]
You know why I stopped smokin' weed for the last 20 years? I grew up in the Howard projects, Brownsville.
I didn't know that.
Well They used to call my, uh They used to call my building "Little Beirut.
" A fucking war zone.
Yeah, 1572 East New York Ave.
Dudes be gettin' murked every day for drugs, money.
Over real estate they didn't even own.
You know, stupid shit.
And I had to fight every day because, you know, dudes be testin' me.
I won those fights, and I won their respect.
Hmm.
I'm sorry, babe.
Sometimes, I feel like a walking time bomb of undetonated memories.
What does that mean? [SIGHS.]
It means my son Virgil goes to one of the best prep schools in the country.
Heights Prep in Brooklyn Heights.
Teachers there, they don't have to come out-of-pocket - because of lack of supplies.
- Hm.
I just want to say that I empathize with you and your kids because I grew up in that world.
I don't want my son to be a part of that, and I believe Virgil understands that too.
He's an amazing student.
Straight A's across the board.
His mom and I pay the big bucks to ensure his place at the top.
We get high, we dip low, okay You know how we roll Yeah, skirt, yeah, skirt, yeah, skirt I got these girls callywaggin' Say what? You see my pants, they saggin' From all these bans in my jeans Check the Vans, how they clean It's all zeroes and hundreds Ain't no future in frontin' But I'm frontin' for a future Check out how I'm struttin' Call me "Sauce God," Sauce God I lean in the 'lac With a 40-ounce of that bong Watch, our ball's hard Westbrook with the flow Number one, not a two guard, A1 [WOMAN.]
Hey, are you still up for lunch with me and Kirk at Walter's? - It's my treat.
- No, Judith.
- Not today.
I'm sorry, Kirk.
- [KIRK.]
I'm sorry too.
- [SIGHS.]
- [JUDITH.]
Sorry, Cheryl.
I mean, I don't mean to brag, but that boy, he's gonna do big things in life.
He is a natural-born leader.
All the kids look up to him in Heights Prep.
- The white kids, Hispanic - Mm-hm.
Asian too.
Even the older students.
- My son, Virgil, he is a winner.
- [PHONE VIBRATING.]
- [PHONE VIBRATES.]
- [NOLA.]
Wanna get that? Uh, it's probably Phil and Don at the firm, wondering how long is my extended lunch.
They're just trying to break my balls.
They'll be fine.
- [VIBRATING CONTINUES.]
- [CHUCKLES.]
I wanna see you again, soon.
I think you should check it.
I think you're trying to get rid of me.
[MESSAGE ALERT.]
Shit.
What's wrong? I have a family emergency I gotta deal with right now.
- Okay.
Text me later if you can.
- Shit.
Shit.
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Oh, shit.
I gotta go too.
[POP SONG PLAYING.]
Rude complex, mint up checks Yeah, what's your name? Um Shemekka.
I have an appointment with Lady Maye? Mm-hm.
Okay, get to it.
Why you care? I don't care I'm Lady Maye.
Hi.
You got the money? Cast a spell, gloom and hell Is what you get for loving me Here, count this.
You can put your jacket and purse there.
- All here.
I'll wait outside.
- All right.
Okay.
Pants off, lie down.
Don't go and tear yourself apart Looking for my heart You're never gonna find it Hold your hand out.
- What's that? - Hydrocodone.
Drive yourself insane You're never gonna stand it Don't go and tear yourself apart Help it go down smooth.
Looking for my heart You're never gonna find it Don't go and [GROANS.]
Drive yourself insane for me My heart is sink, sink stones Dried up bones That wouldn't wish to land You must be some kind of crazy And your wanting reach don't hurt me You won't sucker me 'Cause I am super free You're some sort of man A backwards scale - Ooh! That's cold! - It's just alcohol.
- Is this gonna hurt? - No, you won't feel a thing.
Save yourself, save yourself - [SCREAMING.]
- Wake up the whole damn neighborhood! - You told me that this wasn't gonna hurt! - Pretty hurts.
[GROANING.]
Save yourself Hear your pain and misery - Just relax.
- [WHIMPERING.]
Trying to love me Hear your pain and misery [SCREAMING, CRYING.]
You scream like a little bitch! Don't go and break your little brain Drive yourself insane You're never gonna stand it The sins of the hood visited to the next generation, Jamie.
What the hell's that supposed to mean, huh? - What you tryin' to say, Cheryl? - I'm saying this is your fault.
This is your hood rat genes coming out in my Virgil.
Ah, here we go again.
This is your This is your default position, Cheryl.
Things go wrong, you blame Jamie, right? I don't like what's happening to my Virgil.
So, yes, that's how I feel.
Your Virgil? He's my son too.
You know, that's the problem.
You're always coddling him, trying to make him into a mama's boy, always sending him away to Sag Harbor to spend the whole summer.
Me and your pops, we be cool, we post up, but your mom who low-key hates my guts Stop talking so ghetto! "Low-key" this, "post up" that.
You're not in the projects anymore, so stop talking so ignorant.
You are a most articulate man.
I hate it when you slip back into ratchet-speak.
You know why? Because I don't want my Virgil talking like that.
I don't want him to struggle like you did.
Hey! Don't get it twisted.
I was born in the struggle.
So was our son.
Just because you don't like to hear it out of my mouth doesn't mean it's not true.
You don't look for solutions, just problems.
We need to find a solution.
Virgil's trying to be something he's not, he's acting all hood, trying to get his Brownsville on, - imitating you.
- The boy doesn't know who he is because you're raising him like race doesn't matter.
He might be light-skinned like you, but the boy's black.
Are you telling me I don't know how to raise my black son? Virgil can see you're halfway out the door.
You pushed me out! You got me sleeping in the fucking basement! Because you're fucking other women! [BABY CRYING NEARBY.]
We fell out.
We can't hide it.
How do you think our son is taking it? By putting on a modern age minstrel show.
I've been doing everything I can to figure out how to be separated and still live under the same roof.
But it's taking its toll on Virgil.
We at least have to be a united front for him.
Cheryl, I'm here, aren't I? I'm here.
This video is Virgil crying out for our attention.
Yeah, well, you best believe I'mma talk to him.
[SNIFFING.]
What is that? One of your new colognes? I don't like it.
It's called Ocean Wave.
What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you trying to be cryptic? If I was, would you even care? We're gonna be late.
Did any other parents complain about the outrageousness of this music video? The other parents never called me.
You and your husband are the only ones to take issue with this.
I almost think that you don't understand the gravity of the situation, Mr.
Howard.
My wife and I aren't paying this elite school $45,000 a year to see our son degrade himself using the word "nigger" and to see other white and non-black students use an incendiary and dangerous epithet so freely.
- It was an assignment.
- An assignment? Virgil and his classmates were given a class assignment to create something that would go viral and their music video did just that.
Their "'N-word' For Love" music video has racked up over 500,000 YouTube views.
I wonder if the other parents would have felt it was an issue if this song was entitled "Kikes For Love.
" Or "Chinks for Love" or "Micks For Love," "Spics For Love," "Pollocks For Love," "Spaghetti Benders For Love," "Red Skins For Love," or even "Faggots For Love.
" Would they pivot on their opinion on just how vile this song is? [CHERYL.]
Mr.
Howard, I was just thinking.
I have a former classmate of mine from Yale Law School, class of 2002, and she is white, by the way, who is an esteemed columnist for The New York Times.
I wonder how she would frame this story about Heights Prep's subtle endorsement of white and non-African American students' liberal use of the Not even going to use the politically correct term, "N-word.
" Let's just call it what it is.
the word "nigger" for a school project.
Mr.
and Mrs.
Overstreet, you are absolutely 100 percent right.
I fell asleep at the wheel in my duties here, and I can only offer my own apology and an apology on behalf of Heights Prep.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
I will have the "Nigger For Love" music video deleted immediately from YouTube, and this kind of insensitivity will never happen again on my watch.
You have my word.
Oh, by the way, um My late father marched side by side with Dr.
King in Selma, Alabama.
# BlackLivesMatter.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
[EXHALES.]
[DOOR OPENS, CLOSES.]
- What are you doing here, Ms.
Darling? - What do you mean? You told me you wanted to meet with me at 3:30.
It's 3:30, right? Oh! As a matter of fact, I am ten minutes early.
You are 24 hours and ten minutes early, Ms.
Darling.
Our meeting is not until tomorrow afternoon at 3:30.
- Can I have a seat, please? - Please be my guest.
- Thanks.
[SIGHS.]
- [CHUCKLES.]
I know how it is when somebody got you sprung, trust me.
But that ain't none of my BI.
All due respect, Ms.
Moss, you're right, that is none of your business.
I agree.
But you know what is my BI? These students and their personal welfare.
That's Raqueletta Moss' BI.
I care about them.
Are you saying I don't care? Because I do.
I care about these students more than you know.
Oh, Ms.
Darling, on the contrary.
Raqueletta Moss knows that you care.
Raqueletta Moss admires your work and your love for the children.
But you don't know the level of trauma the level of sexual trauma some of these students have experienced.
But I Excuse me.
Raqueletta Moss knows that kind of trauma.
And Raqueletta Moss believes, despite your noble intentions, Ms.
Darling, that using art to confront personal dysfunction is a self-fulfilling defect.
A broken record that never stops skippin'.
You mind if Raqueletta Moss shares something personal with you? Okay.
Raqueletta Moss comes from that same environment that Reggie was born into.
Raqueletta Moss was one of those chicken-heads cluckin' in the back rooms, fuckin' grown-ass crack monster men when she was just 13 years old.
Raqueletta Moss is the product of a cracked-out single mom, who pimped her overdeveloped daughter in dark project hallways.
Raqueletta Moss was shuffled like a deck of marked cards in the foster care system.
Raqueletta Moss thanks God every day that she was adopted from a group home by Albert and Tina Lewis, who lived in Canarsie, and put Raqueletta Moss on the straight and narrow.
After graduating with her master's in education from LIU on the corner of Dekalb and Flatbush, across the street from Junior's, Raqueletta Moss vowed to help kids succeed with love, compassion, and discipline.
Raqueletta Moss would like to help Ms.
Darling deepen her empathy for students like Reggie and realize that emotional scars are like still waters, but they run deeper than deep.
Do you understand what Raqueletta Moss is Sorry.
Do you understand what I'm trying to say to you, Ms.
Darling? I think I do.
Quick question, do you often refer to yourself in the third person? We all have our ways of coping, Ms.
Darling.
Have a good afternoon.
Save yourself, save yourself Save yourself, save yourself [WHIMPERING.]
Hear your pain and misery Trying to love me Hear your pain and misery Trying to love me Save yourself Did you and Mom really have to come to the school, Dad? Son, the world's on fire right now.
And that word you were using so carelessly, that word "nigger," it's the gasoline igniting the flames.
There's nothing cool about using that word, especially a young black man using it so freely around young white kids who have no historical reference.
Everyone calls each other "nigga" at Heights Prep, whatever race you are.
It's not a big thing.
But you don't.
I taught you that word isn't something to play with.
We say it because we're cool with each other.
- [SCOFFS.]
- It's all love between us.
My generation is different.
Different like that white boy, Dylann Storm Roof, in Charleston, who walked into Emanuel AME Church and murdered nine innocent people? Different like him? 'Cause he used that word too.
You're too smart for this.
You're so talented with your music.
Whose idea was this video? It was just a cool thing to do.
I got mad views.
I was recognizably black for a change.
You are black, Virgil.
You don't have to act no kind of way to prove it.
I know, but my friends don't.
Are your friends all that's important to you right now? There's something more important.
These white and Asian kids, are they down for you as you are for them? What do you care? You're getting divorced and leaving.
- Right? - Wait, hold up.
Slow your roll.
Mind how you talkin' to me.
I will never abandon you, Virgil.
Never.
You understand me? Do you understand me? I understand.
What's happening between me and your mom has nothing to do with you, know that.
You walk around the house like a ghost.
We don't even play Madden anymore.
That's because you kept whooping my butt at NBA 2K.
You told me I had to be ten times better.
Than your white friends, yeah.
But you gotta take it easy on your old man.
I've got arthritis.
[BOTH CHUCKLING.]
- Dad? - Yeah? I don't fit in at Heights Prep.
I do, but I don't.
You and Mom should've just sent me to public school instead.
When I was at private school, I felt like I didn't belonged either.
It was the same thing, going home every day from school to the projects.
So, I understand your double consciousness, living between both worlds.
But that's what it's like being black in America today.
Today? Dad, it's always been like that.
That's why you don't do what they do.
You find folks who do what you do.
- A'ight? - All right.
You remember, I love you, sun.
S-U-N, 'cause you shine like one.
- That's extra cheesy but thanks.
- [CHUCKLES.]
I love you too.
- Cheesy, huh? - Yeah.
- Let's go for a walk by the promenade.
- All right.
[SHIP HORN BLOWING.]
[SOFT MUSIC PLAYING.]
Wow! Oh, it's such a crazy world - Wow! Look at this one! - I love this, these brush strokes.
Oh, those are so nice.
I like the dots of paint over here.
This one's so cool! I love this one.
- Oh, man, this is even better.
- [CHUCKLES.]
This work, it's so dope.
I love it! You have real talent, Reggie.
I mean it.
You have this ability to take your inner voice and blast it on speaker phone through your images and your art.
You know, the terminology of the words "bitch," "slut," "ho," as cool as it may seem that you can re-purpose them to empower you, it doesn't actually increase your currency in the world.
In fact, if you're not careful I already know what you're gonna say.
It can cheapen my own personal value.
That's if I let it.
Don't you know that I know that girls like Nicki Minaj and Amber Rose are playing a role? I'm not stupid.
Men call them sluts, hos, every dirty thing you can name.
Yet Nicki and Amber have near 75 million followers on Instagram combined.
Being a ho can be a great business.
Do you understand what you're saying? Yeah, I understand what I'm saying.
This is America.
That's what works for them.
That's not what works for me, though.
Thank you, Ms.
Darling, for the books.
- See you in class next week.
- Okay.
As you grow The troubles seem to change Hola, Nola.
How you's at? You know, stayin' black, stayin' alive.
Hey, honey, why don't you go to bed? - All right, Mommy.
- Okay? Okay.
Gonna be right over there to tuck you in.
Don't take long, Mommy.
I won't.
I'm just gonna finish talkin' to Godmommy Nola.
Hurry up, Mommy.
[GASPS.]
Oh, my goodness! That's your butt now? Evidently.
She's been screaming to get out.
I don't even know what to say.
Say "congratulations.
" Congratulations.
- [SIGHS.]
- Uh, what does Nadia think? She thinks that it's pretty, like Nicki.
Don't you go away Thank you, Mr.
Overstreet.
[KISSES.]
Wow! Oh! - [KNOCKING.]
- [ELLA.]
Nola! - I slid your mail under the door! - Thank you, Ms.
Ella! Con Ed got no love for starving artists.
They will cut your shit off.
Fuck.
[PHONE DINGS.]
[MOSS.]
Dear Ms.
Nola Darling Sister, I wanna give you a chance, as I feel you have a real purpose.
Let's work together to serve these students.
As my personal role model, the first African-American woman elected to Congress and the first African-American woman to run for president of the United States of America, the late great Shirley Chisholm from BK, once said, "Service is the rent you pay for room on this Earth.
" Raqueletta Moss speaks in the third person because she survived her own personal Holocaust by stepping out of her body and saying, "I am not here.
I am not here.
You cannot hurt me, because Raqueletta Moss is not here.
" To quote one of Brooklyn's finest, the late Notorious B.
I.
G.
, "And if you don't know, now you know.
" Don't let me down, my sister.
Sincerely, Ms.
Raqueletta Moss.
[SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYS.]
One, two, one, two, three Where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn at? [SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYS.]
Can I be honest? When Opal cut me off, it hurt like a motherfucker.
I thought we had a connection.
Well, I lit up a joint, finished some work for the diastopian show and decided to end my man-cleanse.
Admittedly, I'm still learning the meaning of commitment and what it means to trust someone, even if that someone is me, and learning how to trust my intuition and not just my impulses.
I'm a work in progress.
Your girl is back in the saddle, though.
[CHUCKLES.]
I know.
I'm buggin'.
But I wouldn't say it like that.
I would say it in a way that empowers me.
Instead of saying I was buggin', I'd say I'm multitasking.
Excellent work, everybody.
It seems you've really dug deep to depict the images of your lives with these album covers.
Very interesting work, class.
Very provocative.
Yes? What's that mean, Ms.
Moss? "Provocative.
" "Provocative," in the way that I was using the term, Hassan, means just what I said.
The work the class has done is interesting.
Yeah, Hass.
"Provocative," like interestin'.
Like the time when your mom's big-ass titties fell outta that low-cut top when she was chasin' your ass down the street last summer.
- [STUDENTS CLAMORING.]
- All right, Kervon! - Class! - No, Kervon.
It's provocative, like interesting, like your mom.
You know she got one leg with a kickstand rockin' one Jordan 12.
[LAUGHTER.]
- Nice one, nice one.
- Just jokes, my nigga.
[NOLA.]
No, it's not just jokes.
You guys were playing the dozens.
Anyone know what that means? "Playing the dozens" was a term derived from African enslavement, when anyone with a physical disability was sold in a group of 12.
And they often got those disabilities at the violent hands of their slave owners.
- So, it's never just jokes.
- It's a very good point, Ms.
Darling.
Right now, we need you to pull focus.
We are here to work.
Reggie.
This piece is, um well, it's provocative, in the best sense of the word.
- The strongest sense of the word.
- Thank you.
Wouldn't you agree, Ms.
Moss? Uh, Ms.
Darling, this is your class.
I'm not here to impose my views.
I'm just here to observe.
But, yes, Reggie's work is very powerful.
- [SCHOOL BELL RINGING.]
- All right, that's the bell! Walk, don't run, ladies and gentlemen! - See you next week, everybody! - [OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
You really think my work is dope like that? - Absolutely.
- Cool.
[CHUCKLES.]
See you next week, Ms.
Darling and Ms.
Moss.
See you next week.
Thank you for your focus.
I want to commend you on your work with the students.
You seem to have developed a real rapport.
However, I would like for you to stop by my office - [PHONE DINGS.]
- so we can discuss a few things.
Uh say, tomorrow afternoon, Ms.
Darling? 3:30? - [PHONE DINGS.]
- Ms.
Darling, 3:30? Sure! 3:30, no problem.
Got it! Okay.
Sorry, I gotta run.
[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING.]
[GASPING, MOANING.]
[CHUCKLING.]
- Yo, yo, yo, Mars! - [R&B MUSIC PLAYING SOFTLY.]
- Ah! - Mars? Damn, I've been told I take the ladies to the moon.
It must be my interplanetary tongue game! [CHUCKLES.]
Um yeah.
[SNIFFLES.]
Yeah, Jamie.
Your tongue game sent me flyin' to Mars.
It was like Stanley Kubrick 2001: A Space Odyssey good.
- Mm.
- [SIGHS.]
You know, even without the wood, I knew I could.
[BOTH CHUCKLING.]
- So, you forgive me now? - But, for real, though, what was that? Like, why am I crying? That was some transcendental, like [SIGHS.]
I don't even know what to call it.
Shit.
It's moments like this lets me know that I wanna be with you all the time.
Well, I'm honored but bewitched, bothered, and bewildered.
So, you're saying I'm the one, the only one.
No.
I'm still gonna see other people.
[SIGHS.]
What Nola gets, Nola doesn't want.
[GROANS.]
You sound like Stokely.
- Mm-hm.
- One of them dudes you're seein'? Stokely is my dad.
- Your dad? - Mm-hm.
Is this some oedipal shit goin' on? I think you mean Electra, and I hope that's not why I wanna see you, Jamie.
Your father lets you call him by his first name? Not really.
But musicians are free spirits, or, at least, they're supposed to be.
But enough about him.
Who are you, Mr.
Overstreet? Hmm? Who am I? The man that wants to wake up with you when the sun kisses the side your face in the mornin', and the man that wants to lay down with you when the moon softens the furrow of your brow when you close your eyes to sleep at night.
Well, I am a woman who needs to sell some damn paintings! - Slow but steady wins the race.
- Ugh! No, I need to win the race now, okay? I need that red dot "sold" sticker, that blood on the wall under my work, a hundred stacks piling northward.
I feel you.
I'll buy more of your artwork.
I'm not looking for a handout.
It's not a handout if I love your work.
What's going on? Talk to me.
[WOMAN.]
Hey, Nola! [NOLA.]
It's my gig as a teaching artist at Harriet Tubman Middle School in Crown Heights.
Kids that have been labeled "at risk.
" I've even had to go into my own pocket to get supplies for my students.
- Horrible, but I like your commitment.
- Thanks.
[NOLA.]
Everybody [NOLA.]
And in all honesty, Harriet Tubman Elementary is seriously underfunded by the Department of Ed.
Because art is just not a priority for these black and brown kids at Tubman.
And why do we think that is? Take a guess.
- Thank you, Ms.
Darling.
- You got it.
Thing is, there's this project I assigned to my students.
- Mm-hm.
- I wanted them to recreate album covers that they thought depicted their life stories.
Okay, I like that.
One that stood out to me, though, was by this young girl named Reggie.
She recreated Lil' Kim's Hard Core promo poster and put herself in the same provocative pose.
Wow.
She is a gifted artist, but she's only 12 years old.
Life is severe in the hood.
Yeah, I guess.
[JAMIE.]
It only takes one great teacher to impact a life.
Reggie's a very lucky girl.
[CHUCKLES.]
- Really? - What? - That little routine again? - What? You know I don't smoke cheeba.
- [SCOFFS.]
- I mean, yes, I will let you give me a shotgun.
It's the same damn thing! - No, it's not.
- Yes, it is.
And why do you keep callin' weed "cheeba," huh? - It's kush, trees.
- [LAUGHS.]
- I love your passion for life.
- You say that like a man - who's been deprived of it.
- I plead the fifth, Your Honor.
There's nobody like you [COUGHS.]
You know why I stopped smokin' weed for the last 20 years? I grew up in the Howard projects, Brownsville.
I didn't know that.
Well They used to call my, uh They used to call my building "Little Beirut.
" A fucking war zone.
Yeah, 1572 East New York Ave.
Dudes be gettin' murked every day for drugs, money.
Over real estate they didn't even own.
You know, stupid shit.
And I had to fight every day because, you know, dudes be testin' me.
I won those fights, and I won their respect.
Hmm.
I'm sorry, babe.
Sometimes, I feel like a walking time bomb of undetonated memories.
What does that mean? [SIGHS.]
It means my son Virgil goes to one of the best prep schools in the country.
Heights Prep in Brooklyn Heights.
Teachers there, they don't have to come out-of-pocket - because of lack of supplies.
- Hm.
I just want to say that I empathize with you and your kids because I grew up in that world.
I don't want my son to be a part of that, and I believe Virgil understands that too.
He's an amazing student.
Straight A's across the board.
His mom and I pay the big bucks to ensure his place at the top.
We get high, we dip low, okay You know how we roll Yeah, skirt, yeah, skirt, yeah, skirt I got these girls callywaggin' Say what? You see my pants, they saggin' From all these bans in my jeans Check the Vans, how they clean It's all zeroes and hundreds Ain't no future in frontin' But I'm frontin' for a future Check out how I'm struttin' Call me "Sauce God," Sauce God I lean in the 'lac With a 40-ounce of that bong Watch, our ball's hard Westbrook with the flow Number one, not a two guard, A1 [WOMAN.]
Hey, are you still up for lunch with me and Kirk at Walter's? - It's my treat.
- No, Judith.
- Not today.
I'm sorry, Kirk.
- [KIRK.]
I'm sorry too.
- [SIGHS.]
- [JUDITH.]
Sorry, Cheryl.
I mean, I don't mean to brag, but that boy, he's gonna do big things in life.
He is a natural-born leader.
All the kids look up to him in Heights Prep.
- The white kids, Hispanic - Mm-hm.
Asian too.
Even the older students.
- My son, Virgil, he is a winner.
- [PHONE VIBRATING.]
- [PHONE VIBRATES.]
- [NOLA.]
Wanna get that? Uh, it's probably Phil and Don at the firm, wondering how long is my extended lunch.
They're just trying to break my balls.
They'll be fine.
- [VIBRATING CONTINUES.]
- [CHUCKLES.]
I wanna see you again, soon.
I think you should check it.
I think you're trying to get rid of me.
[MESSAGE ALERT.]
Shit.
What's wrong? I have a family emergency I gotta deal with right now.
- Okay.
Text me later if you can.
- Shit.
Shit.
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Oh, shit.
I gotta go too.
[POP SONG PLAYING.]
Rude complex, mint up checks Yeah, what's your name? Um Shemekka.
I have an appointment with Lady Maye? Mm-hm.
Okay, get to it.
Why you care? I don't care I'm Lady Maye.
Hi.
You got the money? Cast a spell, gloom and hell Is what you get for loving me Here, count this.
You can put your jacket and purse there.
- All here.
I'll wait outside.
- All right.
Okay.
Pants off, lie down.
Don't go and tear yourself apart Looking for my heart You're never gonna find it Hold your hand out.
- What's that? - Hydrocodone.
Drive yourself insane You're never gonna stand it Don't go and tear yourself apart Help it go down smooth.
Looking for my heart You're never gonna find it Don't go and [GROANS.]
Drive yourself insane for me My heart is sink, sink stones Dried up bones That wouldn't wish to land You must be some kind of crazy And your wanting reach don't hurt me You won't sucker me 'Cause I am super free You're some sort of man A backwards scale - Ooh! That's cold! - It's just alcohol.
- Is this gonna hurt? - No, you won't feel a thing.
Save yourself, save yourself - [SCREAMING.]
- Wake up the whole damn neighborhood! - You told me that this wasn't gonna hurt! - Pretty hurts.
[GROANING.]
Save yourself Hear your pain and misery - Just relax.
- [WHIMPERING.]
Trying to love me Hear your pain and misery [SCREAMING, CRYING.]
You scream like a little bitch! Don't go and break your little brain Drive yourself insane You're never gonna stand it The sins of the hood visited to the next generation, Jamie.
What the hell's that supposed to mean, huh? - What you tryin' to say, Cheryl? - I'm saying this is your fault.
This is your hood rat genes coming out in my Virgil.
Ah, here we go again.
This is your This is your default position, Cheryl.
Things go wrong, you blame Jamie, right? I don't like what's happening to my Virgil.
So, yes, that's how I feel.
Your Virgil? He's my son too.
You know, that's the problem.
You're always coddling him, trying to make him into a mama's boy, always sending him away to Sag Harbor to spend the whole summer.
Me and your pops, we be cool, we post up, but your mom who low-key hates my guts Stop talking so ghetto! "Low-key" this, "post up" that.
You're not in the projects anymore, so stop talking so ignorant.
You are a most articulate man.
I hate it when you slip back into ratchet-speak.
You know why? Because I don't want my Virgil talking like that.
I don't want him to struggle like you did.
Hey! Don't get it twisted.
I was born in the struggle.
So was our son.
Just because you don't like to hear it out of my mouth doesn't mean it's not true.
You don't look for solutions, just problems.
We need to find a solution.
Virgil's trying to be something he's not, he's acting all hood, trying to get his Brownsville on, - imitating you.
- The boy doesn't know who he is because you're raising him like race doesn't matter.
He might be light-skinned like you, but the boy's black.
Are you telling me I don't know how to raise my black son? Virgil can see you're halfway out the door.
You pushed me out! You got me sleeping in the fucking basement! Because you're fucking other women! [BABY CRYING NEARBY.]
We fell out.
We can't hide it.
How do you think our son is taking it? By putting on a modern age minstrel show.
I've been doing everything I can to figure out how to be separated and still live under the same roof.
But it's taking its toll on Virgil.
We at least have to be a united front for him.
Cheryl, I'm here, aren't I? I'm here.
This video is Virgil crying out for our attention.
Yeah, well, you best believe I'mma talk to him.
[SNIFFING.]
What is that? One of your new colognes? I don't like it.
It's called Ocean Wave.
What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you trying to be cryptic? If I was, would you even care? We're gonna be late.
Did any other parents complain about the outrageousness of this music video? The other parents never called me.
You and your husband are the only ones to take issue with this.
I almost think that you don't understand the gravity of the situation, Mr.
Howard.
My wife and I aren't paying this elite school $45,000 a year to see our son degrade himself using the word "nigger" and to see other white and non-black students use an incendiary and dangerous epithet so freely.
- It was an assignment.
- An assignment? Virgil and his classmates were given a class assignment to create something that would go viral and their music video did just that.
Their "'N-word' For Love" music video has racked up over 500,000 YouTube views.
I wonder if the other parents would have felt it was an issue if this song was entitled "Kikes For Love.
" Or "Chinks for Love" or "Micks For Love," "Spics For Love," "Pollocks For Love," "Spaghetti Benders For Love," "Red Skins For Love," or even "Faggots For Love.
" Would they pivot on their opinion on just how vile this song is? [CHERYL.]
Mr.
Howard, I was just thinking.
I have a former classmate of mine from Yale Law School, class of 2002, and she is white, by the way, who is an esteemed columnist for The New York Times.
I wonder how she would frame this story about Heights Prep's subtle endorsement of white and non-African American students' liberal use of the Not even going to use the politically correct term, "N-word.
" Let's just call it what it is.
the word "nigger" for a school project.
Mr.
and Mrs.
Overstreet, you are absolutely 100 percent right.
I fell asleep at the wheel in my duties here, and I can only offer my own apology and an apology on behalf of Heights Prep.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
I will have the "Nigger For Love" music video deleted immediately from YouTube, and this kind of insensitivity will never happen again on my watch.
You have my word.
Oh, by the way, um My late father marched side by side with Dr.
King in Selma, Alabama.
# BlackLivesMatter.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
[EXHALES.]
[DOOR OPENS, CLOSES.]
- What are you doing here, Ms.
Darling? - What do you mean? You told me you wanted to meet with me at 3:30.
It's 3:30, right? Oh! As a matter of fact, I am ten minutes early.
You are 24 hours and ten minutes early, Ms.
Darling.
Our meeting is not until tomorrow afternoon at 3:30.
- Can I have a seat, please? - Please be my guest.
- Thanks.
[SIGHS.]
- [CHUCKLES.]
I know how it is when somebody got you sprung, trust me.
But that ain't none of my BI.
All due respect, Ms.
Moss, you're right, that is none of your business.
I agree.
But you know what is my BI? These students and their personal welfare.
That's Raqueletta Moss' BI.
I care about them.
Are you saying I don't care? Because I do.
I care about these students more than you know.
Oh, Ms.
Darling, on the contrary.
Raqueletta Moss knows that you care.
Raqueletta Moss admires your work and your love for the children.
But you don't know the level of trauma the level of sexual trauma some of these students have experienced.
But I Excuse me.
Raqueletta Moss knows that kind of trauma.
And Raqueletta Moss believes, despite your noble intentions, Ms.
Darling, that using art to confront personal dysfunction is a self-fulfilling defect.
A broken record that never stops skippin'.
You mind if Raqueletta Moss shares something personal with you? Okay.
Raqueletta Moss comes from that same environment that Reggie was born into.
Raqueletta Moss was one of those chicken-heads cluckin' in the back rooms, fuckin' grown-ass crack monster men when she was just 13 years old.
Raqueletta Moss is the product of a cracked-out single mom, who pimped her overdeveloped daughter in dark project hallways.
Raqueletta Moss was shuffled like a deck of marked cards in the foster care system.
Raqueletta Moss thanks God every day that she was adopted from a group home by Albert and Tina Lewis, who lived in Canarsie, and put Raqueletta Moss on the straight and narrow.
After graduating with her master's in education from LIU on the corner of Dekalb and Flatbush, across the street from Junior's, Raqueletta Moss vowed to help kids succeed with love, compassion, and discipline.
Raqueletta Moss would like to help Ms.
Darling deepen her empathy for students like Reggie and realize that emotional scars are like still waters, but they run deeper than deep.
Do you understand what Raqueletta Moss is Sorry.
Do you understand what I'm trying to say to you, Ms.
Darling? I think I do.
Quick question, do you often refer to yourself in the third person? We all have our ways of coping, Ms.
Darling.
Have a good afternoon.
Save yourself, save yourself Save yourself, save yourself [WHIMPERING.]
Hear your pain and misery Trying to love me Hear your pain and misery Trying to love me Save yourself Did you and Mom really have to come to the school, Dad? Son, the world's on fire right now.
And that word you were using so carelessly, that word "nigger," it's the gasoline igniting the flames.
There's nothing cool about using that word, especially a young black man using it so freely around young white kids who have no historical reference.
Everyone calls each other "nigga" at Heights Prep, whatever race you are.
It's not a big thing.
But you don't.
I taught you that word isn't something to play with.
We say it because we're cool with each other.
- [SCOFFS.]
- It's all love between us.
My generation is different.
Different like that white boy, Dylann Storm Roof, in Charleston, who walked into Emanuel AME Church and murdered nine innocent people? Different like him? 'Cause he used that word too.
You're too smart for this.
You're so talented with your music.
Whose idea was this video? It was just a cool thing to do.
I got mad views.
I was recognizably black for a change.
You are black, Virgil.
You don't have to act no kind of way to prove it.
I know, but my friends don't.
Are your friends all that's important to you right now? There's something more important.
These white and Asian kids, are they down for you as you are for them? What do you care? You're getting divorced and leaving.
- Right? - Wait, hold up.
Slow your roll.
Mind how you talkin' to me.
I will never abandon you, Virgil.
Never.
You understand me? Do you understand me? I understand.
What's happening between me and your mom has nothing to do with you, know that.
You walk around the house like a ghost.
We don't even play Madden anymore.
That's because you kept whooping my butt at NBA 2K.
You told me I had to be ten times better.
Than your white friends, yeah.
But you gotta take it easy on your old man.
I've got arthritis.
[BOTH CHUCKLING.]
- Dad? - Yeah? I don't fit in at Heights Prep.
I do, but I don't.
You and Mom should've just sent me to public school instead.
When I was at private school, I felt like I didn't belonged either.
It was the same thing, going home every day from school to the projects.
So, I understand your double consciousness, living between both worlds.
But that's what it's like being black in America today.
Today? Dad, it's always been like that.
That's why you don't do what they do.
You find folks who do what you do.
- A'ight? - All right.
You remember, I love you, sun.
S-U-N, 'cause you shine like one.
- That's extra cheesy but thanks.
- [CHUCKLES.]
I love you too.
- Cheesy, huh? - Yeah.
- Let's go for a walk by the promenade.
- All right.
[SHIP HORN BLOWING.]
[SOFT MUSIC PLAYING.]
Wow! Oh, it's such a crazy world - Wow! Look at this one! - I love this, these brush strokes.
Oh, those are so nice.
I like the dots of paint over here.
This one's so cool! I love this one.
- Oh, man, this is even better.
- [CHUCKLES.]
This work, it's so dope.
I love it! You have real talent, Reggie.
I mean it.
You have this ability to take your inner voice and blast it on speaker phone through your images and your art.
You know, the terminology of the words "bitch," "slut," "ho," as cool as it may seem that you can re-purpose them to empower you, it doesn't actually increase your currency in the world.
In fact, if you're not careful I already know what you're gonna say.
It can cheapen my own personal value.
That's if I let it.
Don't you know that I know that girls like Nicki Minaj and Amber Rose are playing a role? I'm not stupid.
Men call them sluts, hos, every dirty thing you can name.
Yet Nicki and Amber have near 75 million followers on Instagram combined.
Being a ho can be a great business.
Do you understand what you're saying? Yeah, I understand what I'm saying.
This is America.
That's what works for them.
That's not what works for me, though.
Thank you, Ms.
Darling, for the books.
- See you in class next week.
- Okay.
As you grow The troubles seem to change Hola, Nola.
How you's at? You know, stayin' black, stayin' alive.
Hey, honey, why don't you go to bed? - All right, Mommy.
- Okay? Okay.
Gonna be right over there to tuck you in.
Don't take long, Mommy.
I won't.
I'm just gonna finish talkin' to Godmommy Nola.
Hurry up, Mommy.
[GASPS.]
Oh, my goodness! That's your butt now? Evidently.
She's been screaming to get out.
I don't even know what to say.
Say "congratulations.
" Congratulations.
- [SIGHS.]
- Uh, what does Nadia think? She thinks that it's pretty, like Nicki.
Don't you go away Thank you, Mr.
Overstreet.
[KISSES.]
Wow! Oh! - [KNOCKING.]
- [ELLA.]
Nola! - I slid your mail under the door! - Thank you, Ms.
Ella! Con Ed got no love for starving artists.
They will cut your shit off.
Fuck.
[PHONE DINGS.]
[MOSS.]
Dear Ms.
Nola Darling Sister, I wanna give you a chance, as I feel you have a real purpose.
Let's work together to serve these students.
As my personal role model, the first African-American woman elected to Congress and the first African-American woman to run for president of the United States of America, the late great Shirley Chisholm from BK, once said, "Service is the rent you pay for room on this Earth.
" Raqueletta Moss speaks in the third person because she survived her own personal Holocaust by stepping out of her body and saying, "I am not here.
I am not here.
You cannot hurt me, because Raqueletta Moss is not here.
" To quote one of Brooklyn's finest, the late Notorious B.
I.
G.
, "And if you don't know, now you know.
" Don't let me down, my sister.
Sincerely, Ms.
Raqueletta Moss.
[SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYS.]