VICE Does America (2016) s01e07 Episode Script
The Village & The Nation's Capital
1 Yeah.
So we pumped water into the tank.
But it basically flooded the sink.
And we've damaged some of our gear.
I'm gonna try to use this little, uh, coffee cup to get the water out of the sink.
I'm gonna operate under the assumption that it's not pisswater so that I feel comfortable and And don't freak the fuck out 'cause I'm kind of a germophobe.
You know, it's weird, too, 'cause it's like, we're all from, like, the city.
So when we look at people in trailers, or we look at people roughing it, we're like, "Oh," like, "Whatever.
" Oh, go ahead.
Sorry.
Have you The tab was put on.
Now the water is going down.
That's it.
This was in.
[Drain gurgles.]
That's it.
[Laughs.]
Yo, Abdullah! Yeah.
Whatever's whatever's you're doing, just keep doin' it.
Yeah, we just did it.
Definitely doin' this shit makes me realize how little I know about, like, real shit outside of just, like, video games and rap music and, uh, politics and porn.
My name's Abdullah.
I work at "Vice" as a writer and reporter.
- Ah! - I'm traveling from L.
A.
to D.
C.
with my two co-workers, Wilbert and Martina.
As the country gears up for the most polarized election in our lifetime, we're zigzagging across America, meeting people [Woman screams.]
and exploring the issues they care about, until we reach our ultimate destination - Hey.
- the White House.
[Cheering.]
We're traveling north through South Carolina, still 500 miles from our goal of Washington, D.
C.
And for the last stop on our tour of the American South, we're heading to an area called Point South.
Wilbert: So, we're going to a small village that was set up by some black people in like, the '60s and '70s to kind of get back to their roots.
It's called the Oyotunji Village.
And it's focused on, uh, the Aruba culture of West Africa.
In order to partake with these folks, we need to bring their chief a present of some kind.
- I think we take this.
- The horse? - Yeah.
- What do you think about the tree? No.
I like the horse much better.
All right.
[Imitates neighing badly.]
[Laughs.]
Yo, I never heard a horse make that sound before.
What what is sound of a horse? I don't know, man.
[Imitates horse neighing.]
[Imitates horse neighing.]
[Laughing.]
Wilbert: Goin' through this trip, we've learned about so many different other cultures.
I realized that I don't know much about my own African culture.
So, this is a really important moment for me.
I hope that, you know, I'll be able to go into it and walk away with something valuable that I can share with other people.
- Hello.
- Oh, what's up? We used to give hugs on both sides.
- Okay.
- Okay.
All right.
Welcome to Oyotunji, oldest authentic African village - in North America.
- Thank you so much.
Good to be here.
Sangoma: Now we're at Ile Oba, the house of the king.
Oh, Carol, Your Grace.
- [Speaks native language.]
- Thank you.
- Uh-huh.
- Welcome to Oyotunji.
As we always say, "We were expecting you.
" The purpose of Oyotunji is to supply, for African descendants in North America, a snapshot the grand, intricate, long history of our people, whose culture was tragically taken from them during the trans-Atlantic slave wars.
So when my father founded Oyotunji back in 1970, he sought to construct buildings and institutions based on African culture, so that African descendants in America would not just have to read about it in books.
They can come and experience it in all of its grandeur and style.
What was it that motivated him to actually establish this place? My father preached alongside Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, a lot of those early visionaries of the Civil Rights Movement.
After he saw the riots and the bombings, he realized that African people have to have their own territory, their own towns that they can govern, based on their traditional culture.
How many people lives in the village? At the height, there was 125 people, maybe.
It goes up, and it goes down.
Everyone is not meant to stay.
However, the ancestors made sure that now, the culture sprawls.
What can African-American people get from Oyotunji? And how can that help us move forward and get through this period of time in America? Adegbolu: There are so many parts to one becoming fully acculturated as an African descendant.
In Africa, we go by tradition.
Seven days after you're born, you're given a naming ceremony.
And so for African descendants who were not afforded that at birth, we offer that here at, uh, Oyotunji.
You're washed in the river as a sort of spiritual cleansing or a washing-away of post-traumatic slave stress.
And the priest will then consult the spirits to find out what your name will be.
And so your name is not just given.
Your name is, uh, divinely, uh, ordained.
You are somebody.
And you do have a culture.
We will take the young man to the river to be given a name.
So shall it be.
Oshun is the goddess of the river.
Oshun is the deity of birth.
That is why Oshun is the goddess who we venerate when we go to the river and wash.
This is the journey Africans had to take to freedom: mud, swamps, water moccasins.
Alligators are here.
Everything is here.
Martina: Alligators? [Rattling.]
[Chanting in foreign language.]
Adegbolu: Water brings you in the world.
And water will continue to purify you.
So now you will take one step into your traditional African culture.
[Chanting and rattling continue.]
- - [Rattling.]
Wilbert L.
Cooper, [Speaks foreign language.]
Awokoya: When we went through slavery, it was real steady on how they could take us away mentally, physically, spiritually, everything.
So this bath is to, uh, cleanse all of that, wash it all away.
They put you in the water and pulled you out of the water to sell you.
We'll take you in the water and pull you out the water to be free.
[Chanting in foreign language.]
[Chanting continues.]
Wilbert L.
Cooper.
What we are giving is coconut.
The precious water that's inside the coconut is the magic that's in our head.
We also add honey for the sweetness because he went through a very harsh time going from Africa to here.
You have to go through the different eras of racism, Jim Crow through slavery, all of these persecutions.
And we ask that from now on your life will be sweeter.
Refreshing.
Hold your hands up.
Adegbolu: At this particular time, they are going to dress him in white clothes, white being the symbol of purity and peace.
And so he's going to be a blank canvas to begin to understand the history of his ancestors.
We would like to say congratulations and, um, welcome to your new life.
Thank you.
[Speaks foreign language.]
Come on.
[Singing in foreign language.]
About to meet a new Wilbert.
Wilbert L.
Cooper has done his river bath, his introduction into, uh, becoming himself again.
The river also gave him a name.
His river name is Olugbemi.
Olugbemi.
- Olugbemi.
- Olugbemi.
Thank you, guys, for bearing witness.
[Indistinct talking.]
Every moment after that ceremony, things felt better and better.
Every time I said the name, it felt more fitting and more comfortable: Olugbemi.
Olugbemi.
Before this moment, I would define myself as a descendant of slaves.
And there's a certain empowerment in that.
But to only say that you're a descendant of slaves is a misnomer.
We're more than just descendants of slaves.
We're also descendants of kings and gods.
I don't know, necessarily, if it's an answer to a lot of the questions that I have.
But it opens a new door to look for who I am.
Olugbemi.
Olugbemi.
[Engine sputtering.]
Oh, whoa.
Whoa.
The engine's not on.
Pushin' my foot on the gas pedal.
It's not even workin'.
I might've totally lost power.
Man: Pull off.
[Truck horn blares.]
Uh, yeah.
We're very low.
It wasn't even touching the part where it starts measuring.
So we fucked up.
We probably should've checked the oil.
Forgot that this thing needs frequent maintenance.
And I mean, we've been driving it so much.
Let's, uh, see if it starts.
[Engine stalling.]
Sounds like the starter.
I don't know.
Maybe we just killed the engine by runnin' Ridin' it without oil.
Yeah.
Maybe that's what we did, actually.
So we walkin' to D.
C.
? After thousands of miles and dozens of states, the RV has finally failed us.
It died on the side of the highway in North Carolina.
So we gotta give it up.
What do we wanna salvage? There's a whole box of unfrosted strawberry Pop-Tarts, my favorite thing.
Should we have a moment of silence for Cindy? Martina: Yeah.
Let's have a moment of silence.
[Laughs.]
I still need to process that we are at the end of this trip 'cause a lot of thing happened.
And it's been great.
And I'm pretty sad.
The tow-truck guy is here.
He's gonna haul Cindy off to the scrapyard, tear her to shreds.
Bye, Cindy.
Martina: How are we getting to D.
C.
, by the way? You'll see.
[Laughs.]
Wilbert: This is where we need to be, though, Yeah, this is where there's people.
We're about a mile down the road from where our RV broke down.
We're in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and we're basically just looking for people in the parking lot of this shopping center who might give us a ride to D.
C.
for the right price.
Wilbert: We would pay you.
We could give you 500 bucks cash for a ride to D.
C.
I don't know if I can 'cause me and her are both in the Army.
Basically, like, they call us, you have to be ready to deploy in, like, the next, like, 14 hours.
- Right.
- So Martina: Hi.
Hi, excuse me.
We'll give $1,000, man, to help us get to D.
C.
I just had a baby on, uh, August 1st.
Oh, yeah.
$1,000 for 12 hours, man.
- Yeah.
- Dang.
What's up, dudes? I'll give you guys $1,000 to give us a ride from here to D.
C.
- Three of us.
- Today? - Tonight.
- You gotta be What? I don't got no ride.
Oh, you guys don't have a car? I'll pick you up on my back and get it moving.
[Laughter.]
- All right.
- Hey, excuse me.
- I'm good.
- All right.
We need a ride to D.
C.
Would you be down to We'll give you gas.
We'll give you $1,000! Abdullah: At this point, I don't know if we're ever going to get out of Fayetteville.
- Excuse me.
- Hey.
When you guys tryin' to go to D.
C.
? - Tonight.
- Yeah.
Oh, tonight? Wilbert: If you've got a day for $1,000, and we'll pay for the gas too.
Seriously? - Swear to God.
- And we are three people.
- Three people.
- Sweet.
Okay.
Would you be would you be down? Yeah.
Let's do it.
- Yeah! - Can we do it right now? - Yeah.
- Can we just get in the car and go? Just give me one second.
Let me call my job and let them know that I'm not comin' back in tonight.
- Okay.
- Yo! We did it! We did it! - Oh, don't leave me hangin'! - [Laughter.]
Wilbert: We're feelin' really good about this.
She's got a nice, big car.
So I feel like we can kick our legs back a little bit, finally get the fuck out of Fayetteville.
Abdullah: All right.
Let's go.
Let's go.
Next stop, nation's capital.
This is so weird and random.
Like, I've never encountered anything like this, you know? I used to work at that restaurant.
- Oh, really? - I didn't like the environment that they had goin' on there.
You know, you're standing up all day, serving customers.
But yet I feel like you can't even pay your employees, you know, a fair wage.
You would think that they would try to take care - of their employees.
- What's your passion? Photography and film! - Oh, really? - Yes.
Believe me, I've been doin' a lot of music videos.
I had traveled to Africa.
I was just doin' a bunch of videos and photos.
- That's pretty cool.
- If you could have the The perfect president, would it, like, what would What kind of qualities would they have? Just someone who really wants to better the nation.
- Somebody who's really gonna - Someone giving.
Britne: Yeah, give.
Just tryin' to really help the communities.
Everybody's out for theirselves.
Nobody wants to look out for the next person.
I feel you.
Oh, shit.
Hey, guys.
Wake up.
Yo, we're in D.
C.
Martina, how does it feel? Feels great.
- Abdullah.
- Mm.
How's it feel, man? We made it to D.
C.
, bro! We just passed the Pentagon.
- Get the fuck out.
- Swear to God.
We're in our nation's capital.
Abdullah: So, after a solid 6 hours in the car with Britne at the helm Took us, I don't know, about 30 days.
We actually made it to our destination to Washington, D.
C.
How you feelin', Martina? [Yawning.]
Uh, I feel really fantastic.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
I'm so tired, though, right now.
- Are you happy we made it? - Yeah.
I can't believe that we are here, at the end of the of our trip.
[Soft music plays.]
Abdullah: After a month eyeball-to-eyeball in the RV, losing our minds, we finally made it to the White House.
We're here! That's it, right there.
Man: [Over intercom.]
Can I help you guys? Uh, yeah.
We're here for the White House press briefing.
We're from Vice Media.
Uh, last names are Saeed, Cooper and De Alba.
Did you say did you give them Martina de Alba or Martina Boyeras? De Alba.
It's not my real name, De Alba.
Oh shit.
Boyeras.
B, O, Y, E, R, A, S.
De Al De Alba.
Martina is now stuck over there because De Alba is not her actual last name.
Her last name is something else.
I don't know.
Whatever.
Okay.
I'm gonna explain this.
My real name [laughs.]
is Martina Boyeras, which, Boyeras, in Spanish, means lesbian.
So, um, I I changed to Martina de Alba, which is my existing name.
And it took forever until my real name got into their system.
So, uh, Martina the lesbian is going to the White House.
- We're at the White House.
- Supreme relief.
I'm very excited.
[Laughs.]
I wonder, "What the fuck am I doing here?" - Hey.
- Hi.
- Hello.
- - [Laughs.]
- Will Cooper.
- Will? Nice to see you.
Pleasure to meet you.
- Hi.
- Martina.
- Martina, nice to see you.
- Abdullah.
Abdullah, I know you.
It's nice to see you.
- [Laughs.]
- Thanks.
So, Josh, thank you so much for, uh, - for takin' out the time.
- You bet.
To us, it seems like there's liberal people with liberal ideals and conservative people with conservative ideals.
But, you know, as we crossed the country, when we ask people what their greatest strife is or who's responsible for it, many of them will say, "The government.
" And my question to you is, how would this administration reconcile that for the people who feel like they're ignored by the federal government? Well, I think you've, uh, touched on something that's really important for people to understand about our political system, which is that Washington, D.
C.
and our federal government, principally our Congress, is far more divided and polarized than the rest of the country is.
I think that is pretty frustrating and even distancing.
But that's one of the reasons that, I think, people feel like Washington is out of touch.
And it's only by more deeply engaging in the process can people send a clear message to their representatives in Washington about what they should actually be doing.
And there is an opportunity for the American people to say that some of the partisan gamesmanship that we see in Congress is not something that voters are gonna tolerate.
And in some ways, it actually illustrates the power of what all of you are doing, that when people have an opportunity to hear, firsthand, these stories, uh, in some cases, it motivates them to act, to correct injustices and to right some wrongs.
Or at least to try to make progress toward the kind of just society that I think we all want to live in.
Martina: I know I think that there is a tendency to idealize America through what you see on the movies, which is everything is really fucking cool.
You come here because you want to have more opportunities, if your country's in crisis.
Whatever it is, you come here.
And then you're so absorbed by finding a job, by speaking the language, you don't really, uh, understand What is the real America? Wilbert: Maybe there's another country that's better or has more to offer a black man than this country today.
Like, my family didn't chose to come here.
They were brought here in chains.
I have a choice.
But traveling across this country, I realize how much I love it.
It's a cauldron.
It's bubbling with all these different people who have all these different interests.
But that's also kind of what makes it exciting and fun.
And I I like the challenge of trying to make it better.
You know, we don't cut and run.
Abdullah: I feel like I understand the country that I live in just a little bit better.
It's mind-blowing and beautiful and wonderful and exhausting.
Despite spending a month getting the views of all the people in America, we still missed huge chunks of the population, people who really matter.
I really wish that we had another month to pick up the perspectives that we missed.
Now, we got one last thing to do before we go, and that's go bowling.
All over my face - I'm useless now that I got what I wanted - Oh, shit! All of my friends are useless Now that I got what I wanted I got what I wanted I got what I wanted
So we pumped water into the tank.
But it basically flooded the sink.
And we've damaged some of our gear.
I'm gonna try to use this little, uh, coffee cup to get the water out of the sink.
I'm gonna operate under the assumption that it's not pisswater so that I feel comfortable and And don't freak the fuck out 'cause I'm kind of a germophobe.
You know, it's weird, too, 'cause it's like, we're all from, like, the city.
So when we look at people in trailers, or we look at people roughing it, we're like, "Oh," like, "Whatever.
" Oh, go ahead.
Sorry.
Have you The tab was put on.
Now the water is going down.
That's it.
This was in.
[Drain gurgles.]
That's it.
[Laughs.]
Yo, Abdullah! Yeah.
Whatever's whatever's you're doing, just keep doin' it.
Yeah, we just did it.
Definitely doin' this shit makes me realize how little I know about, like, real shit outside of just, like, video games and rap music and, uh, politics and porn.
My name's Abdullah.
I work at "Vice" as a writer and reporter.
- Ah! - I'm traveling from L.
A.
to D.
C.
with my two co-workers, Wilbert and Martina.
As the country gears up for the most polarized election in our lifetime, we're zigzagging across America, meeting people [Woman screams.]
and exploring the issues they care about, until we reach our ultimate destination - Hey.
- the White House.
[Cheering.]
We're traveling north through South Carolina, still 500 miles from our goal of Washington, D.
C.
And for the last stop on our tour of the American South, we're heading to an area called Point South.
Wilbert: So, we're going to a small village that was set up by some black people in like, the '60s and '70s to kind of get back to their roots.
It's called the Oyotunji Village.
And it's focused on, uh, the Aruba culture of West Africa.
In order to partake with these folks, we need to bring their chief a present of some kind.
- I think we take this.
- The horse? - Yeah.
- What do you think about the tree? No.
I like the horse much better.
All right.
[Imitates neighing badly.]
[Laughs.]
Yo, I never heard a horse make that sound before.
What what is sound of a horse? I don't know, man.
[Imitates horse neighing.]
[Imitates horse neighing.]
[Laughing.]
Wilbert: Goin' through this trip, we've learned about so many different other cultures.
I realized that I don't know much about my own African culture.
So, this is a really important moment for me.
I hope that, you know, I'll be able to go into it and walk away with something valuable that I can share with other people.
- Hello.
- Oh, what's up? We used to give hugs on both sides.
- Okay.
- Okay.
All right.
Welcome to Oyotunji, oldest authentic African village - in North America.
- Thank you so much.
Good to be here.
Sangoma: Now we're at Ile Oba, the house of the king.
Oh, Carol, Your Grace.
- [Speaks native language.]
- Thank you.
- Uh-huh.
- Welcome to Oyotunji.
As we always say, "We were expecting you.
" The purpose of Oyotunji is to supply, for African descendants in North America, a snapshot the grand, intricate, long history of our people, whose culture was tragically taken from them during the trans-Atlantic slave wars.
So when my father founded Oyotunji back in 1970, he sought to construct buildings and institutions based on African culture, so that African descendants in America would not just have to read about it in books.
They can come and experience it in all of its grandeur and style.
What was it that motivated him to actually establish this place? My father preached alongside Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, a lot of those early visionaries of the Civil Rights Movement.
After he saw the riots and the bombings, he realized that African people have to have their own territory, their own towns that they can govern, based on their traditional culture.
How many people lives in the village? At the height, there was 125 people, maybe.
It goes up, and it goes down.
Everyone is not meant to stay.
However, the ancestors made sure that now, the culture sprawls.
What can African-American people get from Oyotunji? And how can that help us move forward and get through this period of time in America? Adegbolu: There are so many parts to one becoming fully acculturated as an African descendant.
In Africa, we go by tradition.
Seven days after you're born, you're given a naming ceremony.
And so for African descendants who were not afforded that at birth, we offer that here at, uh, Oyotunji.
You're washed in the river as a sort of spiritual cleansing or a washing-away of post-traumatic slave stress.
And the priest will then consult the spirits to find out what your name will be.
And so your name is not just given.
Your name is, uh, divinely, uh, ordained.
You are somebody.
And you do have a culture.
We will take the young man to the river to be given a name.
So shall it be.
Oshun is the goddess of the river.
Oshun is the deity of birth.
That is why Oshun is the goddess who we venerate when we go to the river and wash.
This is the journey Africans had to take to freedom: mud, swamps, water moccasins.
Alligators are here.
Everything is here.
Martina: Alligators? [Rattling.]
[Chanting in foreign language.]
Adegbolu: Water brings you in the world.
And water will continue to purify you.
So now you will take one step into your traditional African culture.
[Chanting and rattling continue.]
- - [Rattling.]
Wilbert L.
Cooper, [Speaks foreign language.]
Awokoya: When we went through slavery, it was real steady on how they could take us away mentally, physically, spiritually, everything.
So this bath is to, uh, cleanse all of that, wash it all away.
They put you in the water and pulled you out of the water to sell you.
We'll take you in the water and pull you out the water to be free.
[Chanting in foreign language.]
[Chanting continues.]
Wilbert L.
Cooper.
What we are giving is coconut.
The precious water that's inside the coconut is the magic that's in our head.
We also add honey for the sweetness because he went through a very harsh time going from Africa to here.
You have to go through the different eras of racism, Jim Crow through slavery, all of these persecutions.
And we ask that from now on your life will be sweeter.
Refreshing.
Hold your hands up.
Adegbolu: At this particular time, they are going to dress him in white clothes, white being the symbol of purity and peace.
And so he's going to be a blank canvas to begin to understand the history of his ancestors.
We would like to say congratulations and, um, welcome to your new life.
Thank you.
[Speaks foreign language.]
Come on.
[Singing in foreign language.]
About to meet a new Wilbert.
Wilbert L.
Cooper has done his river bath, his introduction into, uh, becoming himself again.
The river also gave him a name.
His river name is Olugbemi.
Olugbemi.
- Olugbemi.
- Olugbemi.
Thank you, guys, for bearing witness.
[Indistinct talking.]
Every moment after that ceremony, things felt better and better.
Every time I said the name, it felt more fitting and more comfortable: Olugbemi.
Olugbemi.
Before this moment, I would define myself as a descendant of slaves.
And there's a certain empowerment in that.
But to only say that you're a descendant of slaves is a misnomer.
We're more than just descendants of slaves.
We're also descendants of kings and gods.
I don't know, necessarily, if it's an answer to a lot of the questions that I have.
But it opens a new door to look for who I am.
Olugbemi.
Olugbemi.
[Engine sputtering.]
Oh, whoa.
Whoa.
The engine's not on.
Pushin' my foot on the gas pedal.
It's not even workin'.
I might've totally lost power.
Man: Pull off.
[Truck horn blares.]
Uh, yeah.
We're very low.
It wasn't even touching the part where it starts measuring.
So we fucked up.
We probably should've checked the oil.
Forgot that this thing needs frequent maintenance.
And I mean, we've been driving it so much.
Let's, uh, see if it starts.
[Engine stalling.]
Sounds like the starter.
I don't know.
Maybe we just killed the engine by runnin' Ridin' it without oil.
Yeah.
Maybe that's what we did, actually.
So we walkin' to D.
C.
? After thousands of miles and dozens of states, the RV has finally failed us.
It died on the side of the highway in North Carolina.
So we gotta give it up.
What do we wanna salvage? There's a whole box of unfrosted strawberry Pop-Tarts, my favorite thing.
Should we have a moment of silence for Cindy? Martina: Yeah.
Let's have a moment of silence.
[Laughs.]
I still need to process that we are at the end of this trip 'cause a lot of thing happened.
And it's been great.
And I'm pretty sad.
The tow-truck guy is here.
He's gonna haul Cindy off to the scrapyard, tear her to shreds.
Bye, Cindy.
Martina: How are we getting to D.
C.
, by the way? You'll see.
[Laughs.]
Wilbert: This is where we need to be, though, Yeah, this is where there's people.
We're about a mile down the road from where our RV broke down.
We're in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and we're basically just looking for people in the parking lot of this shopping center who might give us a ride to D.
C.
for the right price.
Wilbert: We would pay you.
We could give you 500 bucks cash for a ride to D.
C.
I don't know if I can 'cause me and her are both in the Army.
Basically, like, they call us, you have to be ready to deploy in, like, the next, like, 14 hours.
- Right.
- So Martina: Hi.
Hi, excuse me.
We'll give $1,000, man, to help us get to D.
C.
I just had a baby on, uh, August 1st.
Oh, yeah.
$1,000 for 12 hours, man.
- Yeah.
- Dang.
What's up, dudes? I'll give you guys $1,000 to give us a ride from here to D.
C.
- Three of us.
- Today? - Tonight.
- You gotta be What? I don't got no ride.
Oh, you guys don't have a car? I'll pick you up on my back and get it moving.
[Laughter.]
- All right.
- Hey, excuse me.
- I'm good.
- All right.
We need a ride to D.
C.
Would you be down to We'll give you gas.
We'll give you $1,000! Abdullah: At this point, I don't know if we're ever going to get out of Fayetteville.
- Excuse me.
- Hey.
When you guys tryin' to go to D.
C.
? - Tonight.
- Yeah.
Oh, tonight? Wilbert: If you've got a day for $1,000, and we'll pay for the gas too.
Seriously? - Swear to God.
- And we are three people.
- Three people.
- Sweet.
Okay.
Would you be would you be down? Yeah.
Let's do it.
- Yeah! - Can we do it right now? - Yeah.
- Can we just get in the car and go? Just give me one second.
Let me call my job and let them know that I'm not comin' back in tonight.
- Okay.
- Yo! We did it! We did it! - Oh, don't leave me hangin'! - [Laughter.]
Wilbert: We're feelin' really good about this.
She's got a nice, big car.
So I feel like we can kick our legs back a little bit, finally get the fuck out of Fayetteville.
Abdullah: All right.
Let's go.
Let's go.
Next stop, nation's capital.
This is so weird and random.
Like, I've never encountered anything like this, you know? I used to work at that restaurant.
- Oh, really? - I didn't like the environment that they had goin' on there.
You know, you're standing up all day, serving customers.
But yet I feel like you can't even pay your employees, you know, a fair wage.
You would think that they would try to take care - of their employees.
- What's your passion? Photography and film! - Oh, really? - Yes.
Believe me, I've been doin' a lot of music videos.
I had traveled to Africa.
I was just doin' a bunch of videos and photos.
- That's pretty cool.
- If you could have the The perfect president, would it, like, what would What kind of qualities would they have? Just someone who really wants to better the nation.
- Somebody who's really gonna - Someone giving.
Britne: Yeah, give.
Just tryin' to really help the communities.
Everybody's out for theirselves.
Nobody wants to look out for the next person.
I feel you.
Oh, shit.
Hey, guys.
Wake up.
Yo, we're in D.
C.
Martina, how does it feel? Feels great.
- Abdullah.
- Mm.
How's it feel, man? We made it to D.
C.
, bro! We just passed the Pentagon.
- Get the fuck out.
- Swear to God.
We're in our nation's capital.
Abdullah: So, after a solid 6 hours in the car with Britne at the helm Took us, I don't know, about 30 days.
We actually made it to our destination to Washington, D.
C.
How you feelin', Martina? [Yawning.]
Uh, I feel really fantastic.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
I'm so tired, though, right now.
- Are you happy we made it? - Yeah.
I can't believe that we are here, at the end of the of our trip.
[Soft music plays.]
Abdullah: After a month eyeball-to-eyeball in the RV, losing our minds, we finally made it to the White House.
We're here! That's it, right there.
Man: [Over intercom.]
Can I help you guys? Uh, yeah.
We're here for the White House press briefing.
We're from Vice Media.
Uh, last names are Saeed, Cooper and De Alba.
Did you say did you give them Martina de Alba or Martina Boyeras? De Alba.
It's not my real name, De Alba.
Oh shit.
Boyeras.
B, O, Y, E, R, A, S.
De Al De Alba.
Martina is now stuck over there because De Alba is not her actual last name.
Her last name is something else.
I don't know.
Whatever.
Okay.
I'm gonna explain this.
My real name [laughs.]
is Martina Boyeras, which, Boyeras, in Spanish, means lesbian.
So, um, I I changed to Martina de Alba, which is my existing name.
And it took forever until my real name got into their system.
So, uh, Martina the lesbian is going to the White House.
- We're at the White House.
- Supreme relief.
I'm very excited.
[Laughs.]
I wonder, "What the fuck am I doing here?" - Hey.
- Hi.
- Hello.
- - [Laughs.]
- Will Cooper.
- Will? Nice to see you.
Pleasure to meet you.
- Hi.
- Martina.
- Martina, nice to see you.
- Abdullah.
Abdullah, I know you.
It's nice to see you.
- [Laughs.]
- Thanks.
So, Josh, thank you so much for, uh, - for takin' out the time.
- You bet.
To us, it seems like there's liberal people with liberal ideals and conservative people with conservative ideals.
But, you know, as we crossed the country, when we ask people what their greatest strife is or who's responsible for it, many of them will say, "The government.
" And my question to you is, how would this administration reconcile that for the people who feel like they're ignored by the federal government? Well, I think you've, uh, touched on something that's really important for people to understand about our political system, which is that Washington, D.
C.
and our federal government, principally our Congress, is far more divided and polarized than the rest of the country is.
I think that is pretty frustrating and even distancing.
But that's one of the reasons that, I think, people feel like Washington is out of touch.
And it's only by more deeply engaging in the process can people send a clear message to their representatives in Washington about what they should actually be doing.
And there is an opportunity for the American people to say that some of the partisan gamesmanship that we see in Congress is not something that voters are gonna tolerate.
And in some ways, it actually illustrates the power of what all of you are doing, that when people have an opportunity to hear, firsthand, these stories, uh, in some cases, it motivates them to act, to correct injustices and to right some wrongs.
Or at least to try to make progress toward the kind of just society that I think we all want to live in.
Martina: I know I think that there is a tendency to idealize America through what you see on the movies, which is everything is really fucking cool.
You come here because you want to have more opportunities, if your country's in crisis.
Whatever it is, you come here.
And then you're so absorbed by finding a job, by speaking the language, you don't really, uh, understand What is the real America? Wilbert: Maybe there's another country that's better or has more to offer a black man than this country today.
Like, my family didn't chose to come here.
They were brought here in chains.
I have a choice.
But traveling across this country, I realize how much I love it.
It's a cauldron.
It's bubbling with all these different people who have all these different interests.
But that's also kind of what makes it exciting and fun.
And I I like the challenge of trying to make it better.
You know, we don't cut and run.
Abdullah: I feel like I understand the country that I live in just a little bit better.
It's mind-blowing and beautiful and wonderful and exhausting.
Despite spending a month getting the views of all the people in America, we still missed huge chunks of the population, people who really matter.
I really wish that we had another month to pick up the perspectives that we missed.
Now, we got one last thing to do before we go, and that's go bowling.
All over my face - I'm useless now that I got what I wanted - Oh, shit! All of my friends are useless Now that I got what I wanted I got what I wanted I got what I wanted