(gentle music) I had a draw to Boulder.

Boulder's a beautiful city.

I came to Naropa University to begin my life.

This is the spot.

Did one semester and then, you know, 2019 came, and that was when, you know, everything had happened with Boulder police.

I was work study at the time.

You know, part of my duties was in the mornings I walk around my campus and pick up garbage.

- I couldn't help but notice you sitting on the patio behind this building.

- Yeah.

- There's signs for no trespassing, private property-- - I live here.

- That kind of thing.

Yeah, I wasn't sure what you're doing, if you lived here or you worked here.

-Yeah.

- It looks like you're working, doing something - Okay, gotcha.

What's the actual address then?

- Okay.

What unit are you in?

- The first thing that came to my mind, was like, - Well, I'm just checking to make sure that you have a right to be here, that's all.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- Well, I, I gotta verify it, just so I know that - Why-- - That you do in fact live here.

- If you have an ID with your address on it, that'd be great.

- I just didn't want any trouble at that point.

'Cause I could tell he wasn't gonna just leave me alone.

- I'm just doing my job, just making sure you belong here.

And if you do, then great, and I'll be on my way.

- I was like, okay, this is my school ID, which is also the pass to get into the building.

- Zayd, do you have anything with your address on it?

- Just relax.

The history that I have leading up into that moment is the only thing that really kept me from just being oppressed.

- Mr. Atkinson, right now you're obstructing a police officer, which is a jailable offense.

I'm asking you one more time to sit down.

- Last chance, sir.

- The City Manager and Police Chief say this March 1st incident does not reflect the City's values.

The City has been working on racial equality for a number of years.

- [Group] Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

- I am appalled.

I'm horrified by that video.

I've been fielding phone calls and emails from all over the country of people going, "What the heck is wrong with Boulder?"

And what do I tell 'em?

- We create the reality in which we live.

The absence of diversity promotes isolation, and that isolation promotes exclusivity of mind, exclusivity of spirit, of body, and space.

(gentle orchestral music) - At National Geographic, we did an index.

We surveyed 1.5 million Americans.

- Where do we move?

Colorado?

Is that what I heard?

The happiest place in America is Boulder, Colorado - Boulder, Colorado.

And it has nothing to do with weed.

Nothing.

(all laugh) Boulder is a complex oddity.

It passes itself off as the Republic of Boulder, the liberal town.

I'm telling you, "with liberty and justice for all" it's not every African-American's reality.

- Almost every friend that I've had growing up here, I've had to tell them specifically, they can't say the n-word, they can't say certain things.

It's just like a constant, steady flow of light racism.

- I don't think policymakers in Boulder meant to exclude based upon race, but that is what happened in many respects.

- If Boulder wants to live into the highest ideals and to be the place that it professes to be, you've got work to do, just face it.

Just face what's in front of you and use the tools that you have to live into it.

(lighthearted orchestral music) (deep wind whipping) (jazz horns music) (jazz horns music) - Boulder is enchanting.

The mountains are inspiring.

The greenery is inviting.

Summer's here, there's magic in the air.

(car horns honk) - Yeah!

(people cheering) - For me, coming here at 18, it was so exciting.

I remember my first time going to Pearl Street and being really shocked at how many people were looking at me.

Didn't really feel like curiosity, but just like, "Oh, there's a Black person."

People will say that Boulder is diverse, and you know, Boulder's so liberal.

I definitely see another side of Boulder.

(smooth jazz music) I've been curious about the history of Boulder, the foundations, and you know, what's the groundwork for what African Americans have experienced?

Why are there so few Black people in Boulder?

How can we find a sense of belonging?

When sitting with Zayd and interviewing him, I had this burning question.

What was it that made you say, "I'm standing up to this guy."

- Sit down.

- I'm not sitting anywhere.

Sit down.

Now.

- Why?

There's a reason why I behaved the way that I did when I had the encounter with the police officer in Boulder, I was fed up.

Why?

- I'm detaining you to investigate.

For investigating what?

- Investigate a trespass.

I live here.

I live here.

You saw that I'm a student here.

- You haven't confirmed that.

Sit down.

- I'm a student.

I was just like, well, I'm not gonna back down now.

I knew I didn't do anything wrong, so there's no need for me to be afraid.

I'm not sitting down.

- Then you're probably gonna get tased in a second.

- Why?

- 'Cause you have a weapon.

Put that down.

- I have a weapon?

- Put it down.

- I walk around the building and at that point I look back and I notice that he had his taser in his hand.

I saw what you're doing, officer - Do it!

A video of a man and Boulder police getting into a confrontation took the internet by storm this week.

Sunday, Boulder residents took to the streets to speak up for diversity and demand more police oversight.

- [Group] Whose lives matter?

Black lives matter!

- Welcome everyone.

Tonight is about us listening.

This incident has already caused a lot of pain in our community.

It underscores the gap between the welcoming, inclusive community that we aspire to be, and actually what it feels like for people of color living in this community.

- I'm offended by you.

I've been here long enough to say that to you.

I'm strong enough to say that to you.

I'm a business owner.

I own property.

I did everything you've asked of me and you gave me nothing.

Because you shovel it under the rug.

Racism doesn't matter.

And, it's horrible.

- It goes back to our founding.

We took all the Arapaho land, breaking that treaty.

Boulder was established with building lots costing a thousand bucks, to make it an exclusive place.

- The cabins had to be built in nice orderly rows.

Eaves had to be at least eight and a half feet tall.

Chimneys had to be inside.

But most importantly, they charged for the lots.

Boulder wanted to have a select group of people living here.

(gentle horns and piano music) - There's been a long history of dehumanization, and that dehumanization hasn't simply taken place in the South, in Mississippi or Alabama or Texas, or wherever.

It hasn't simply taken place elsewhere, but also here.

It just may look different than it does in the South.

(gentle guitar music) - The first record we have of an African American in Boulder is 1870.

African Americans did live throughout the community, usually on the fringes of the community or in the Little Rectangle neighborhood, because it was the cheapest land in town.

The northern boundary was the south side of Canyon Boulevard.

Those folks are living on the railroad tracks.

Not a very pleasant place to live, especially when it flooded.

(gentle acoustic guitar music) - There was no employment for Negroes.

The Negro man either was a shoe shine man in the barbershop, if he felt like he could stand the degradation of that.

The other job that the men could get was on the railroad.

They would hire Negroes to maintain the tracks and walk the tracks.

Our men who couldn't find work had to leave Boulder.

Women could get only two jobs, and that was washing and ironing or working in homes.

(ragtime jazz music) - Even if they weren't being hired by whites, a few of Boulder's Black residents found success by going into business for themselves.

Boulder's most famous businessman of the era was O.T.

Jackson.

In 1894, he took over management of the Stillman Hotel on Pearl Street.

Jackson was also the first manager of the Chautauqua Dining Hall, in 1898.

- Texas school teachers from Houston were looking to have a place for in the summer where they could come and recreate and learn.

Boulder said, "We will give you the land.

We will build you an auditorium and a dining hall and a street car."

♪ And I wish I was in Dixie ♪ Hooray, hooray - At Chautauqua's opening, Jackson's staff served strawberries and cream to over 5,000 guests who were treated to a rousing rendition of, "I wish I was in Dixie."

♪ Away, away, away down ♪ South in Dixie (somber piano music) - But by Chautauqua's second year, Jackson and his employees were replaced by an all-white staff.

- "A special corps of waiters, composed of undergraduates of colleges and universities, will be employed to wait on tables.

These young men and women will relieve the Chautauqua of an element of discord, and is expected to gratify parents who would not be pleased with mere servile labor.

The Boulder Chautauquan."

- These people brought their own way of life, and that way of life, as far as the Negro was concerned, was that you stay out of our way and we'll see that you don't have any contact with us whatsoever.

You couldn't get a doctor to come to you.

My grandmother almost died, and I called every doctor in town and I never got a doctor at all.

- In what they call the Jazz Age, Boulder was very much super- structurally influenced by the pervasive American apartheid that was going on.

There are a lot of people that make it seem like Boulder was untouched by time or, you know, it's really sort of insular, insular, insular.

But, Boulder's often a microcosm of what's going on in the larger society.

- You have a weapon.

Put it down and comply with my orders.

- No, what are you gonna do?

I said, "What are you gonna do?"

I said, "How are you gonna shoot me?

For what?

So now I have a weapon, right?

'Cause you got nothing else on me, you're gonna try to tell me you feel threatened so you can shoot me."

And I knew that that's where it was going.

And you have a camera on you.

- It's filming right now.

- You're an idiot.

- Have a seat, please.

- Why would you think that you could tase me?

I'm freaking picking up trash on my property.

- I need to confirm it.

- This is where I live.

- There's a sign-- I'm not doing anything illegal-- The more that I look at the video of that day, the more it feels like Zayd was fighting for his right to belong.

Who belongs in Boulder has been a struggle for a long time.

(gentle somber music) - African American citizenry in the 1950s was less than in 1910.

(soft somber music) Boulder policymakers enacted policies that discouraged diversity.

Since the very earliest days, Boulder had made decisions that quality of life is gonna be important.

Quality of life equates to higher prices for land, it equates to many other types of things that folks starting at the bottom don't have and will not have without the ability to work up, in a variety of types of jobs.

And we really never had that to a great extent.

(smooth jazz music) - I'm working at the coffee shop that I've been going into since I was literally six months old.

It's such a small town but also I'm so recognizable that everybody, I can't hide.

People literally will be like, I see that Afro over there.

Who else could it be?

(laughs) You're right, who else could it be?

It's for sure me.

We're in Boulder.

Sometimes the things that people say, I'm just like, "Oh my god, did that really just come out of your mouth?"

Hello.

How's it going?

- This is the favorite.

Only the best.

- I'm the favorite?

- She's my favorite.

- Don't tell the rest.

You're gonna start a fight.

- She knows what I want.

- I do.

I had a lady walk in the other day, she was like, "That was so funny.

I was just listening to the song, 'Black Magic' in my car, and then I walk in and here you are."

- You must really love me.

- I didn't know how to react.

Did you really just say that?

OK, yeah, you're listening to a song, "Black Magic" and then you walked in and saw what?

One of the three Black people here in Boulder?

She comes back a couple days later and was like, "I just, I hope I didn't offend you the other day.

It was a compliment."

And I just, once again, don't even know what to say.

- What was that?

- So, now I'm working, I'm on the clock.

Am I gonna take time, and I have customers behind you, to explain to you why you are so not there?

No, I'm gonna smile and say, "It's fine."

(smooth jazz music) (people chattering) Throughout all of high school, I'm the friend who got into all of the trouble.

I'm not stupid, I have a good head on my shoulders, probably better than a lot of my friends.

I didn't go out there living, doing the craziest things, or violent things or anything like that, but I was always the one to get in trouble, and not caught, but actually prosecuted, going to court, paying fines, paying tickets, consistently, for things that my white friends would get caught for the same thing and just let off, time and time again.

So yeah, from a very young age, I've also felt like, (scoffs) we really are just destined to get screwed.

- So you can't-- - 290, we're now behind 2333 Folsom, subject still failing to comply.

- By the time we get to the back of my building, that was when I realized that he had actually put his taser away, and at that point he actually had his gun out.

I live here, not you.

- Sit down, so I can-- - Not you.

I live here.

- Continue my investigation.

- Because you just, you just-- - Sit down.

- Threatened to tase me.

It was a real eerie moment, you know, because I remember at that point it was, you know, behind my building, it's like you can't, you can't really see anything.

Your weapon.

And you're gonna shoot me?

That's what you're gonna do, officer?

There wasn't really anything else I could do besides make noise.

You know, I was trying to get through to his consciousness.

I was trying to get through to his mind.

I was trying to get through to his heart.

- I asked you several times-- - Use your intelligence.

Are you gonna kill me?

- Several times I've asked you.

- Hand is on your weapon-- - Yes it is.

- Are you threatened?

- I feel threatened-- - That's a gun.

- Because you're not putting that down.

- That's a gun.

- Yes it is.

- I have a, I'm picking up trash.

- Put it down.

I told you many times-- - I'm picking up trash.

- To put it down.

- And you're holding a gun.

- Put it down.

- And you're holding a gun.

- Sir, put it down.

- And you're holding a gun.

How do you feel?

- Put it down, sir.

- How you feel, officer?

(gentle somber piano music) - We came down to Boulder in 1917.

When grandma tried to find a place to live.

They told her that all Negroes in Boulder lived between 19th and 23rd, and Goss and Water.

We couldn't buy, rent, or go anyplace else.

- We did not have covenants or redlining, but there were Realtors who were aware of the situation.

If you look at the census records, you can see that the Blacks were increasingly living in Goss Street, and there were back houses built.

You know, the son got married or the daughter got married, no place else that they really could buy in the community, so they built tiny little houses on what was already a small lot with a small house in front.

- By the 1920s, a culture was in place.

Boulder didn't need Jim Crow or redlining or restrictive covenants to keep Black folks living in just one small section of town.

Money, and people's attitudes, were enough.

(slow somber music) - The Ku Klux Klan was the result of the effort to keep the Negro in his place.

I don't see where else he could have been.

You couldn't even go and get yourself an ice cream cone.

- There were several businesses on Water Street, aka Canyon, Black-owned businesses.

Some white men from Texas and Oklahoma said, "What are you doing letting these Colored people own these businesses?

That's not what you do."

And they ran them out of town.

They put them out business and ran them out of town.

The Black-owned businesses.

♪ I wanna tell ya that ya can't get in ♪ ♪ Have you been a gamblin' honey, did you win?

♪ ♪ What's that ya tell me, coon, you lost your friends ♪ ♪ I hope you freeze to death.

♪ - Remember they finished off Billy Bailey, hm?

Get wise, you you hear me, hm?

Hah!

♪ Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown ♪ What you gonna do when the rent comes 'round?

♪ ♪ What you gonna say, how you gonna pay?

♪ ♪ You'll never have a bit of sense ‘til Judgment Day!

♪ ♪ You know, I know - Colorado had a Klan governor for two years, that was due to the large Klan turnout in Boulder and Larimer Counties that he was elected.

(tense somber music) There were cross burnings on Flagstaff Mountain as late as the 1940s.

(gentle somber music) (gentle somber music) - But after World War II, America began to change, and Boulder changed with it.

(upbeat jazz horns music) - The university started growing.

The scientific industry was locating into Boulder.

Then IBM to the north brought a certain type of educated person here, much more educated in general than the pre-World War II population of Boulder.

- With all these new jobs, Boulder's population almost quadrupled in size between 1950 and 1980.

And the number of Black people increased too.

But the pace of cultural change did not keep up with the technology.

(lively banjo music) - When we moved to Boulder in '67, you could literally go days and not see another Black person in Boulder.

I met people who had never seen a Black person face to face, in the flesh before.

So on the one hand, they didn't have a lot of stereotypes that they necessarily bought into.

On the other hand, there were active efforts to resist teaching Black history and talking about Black historical figures.

You know, my first year in Boulder was the year Dr. King was assassinated.

The teachers had announced it, and it was big news, obviously.

And one of my classmates just came up to me and said, "My dad said it's just another dead nigger."

And he turned around and walked away.

That was Boulder.

(deep somber music) One other kid in school used the n-word and I punched him, and we got in a fight and I went to the principal's office.

My dad sat me down, and I remember he told me, he said, "You know, you're gonna face racism your entire life, and you can't go around punching every racist you meet."

And, you know, I'm 11 years old so my reaction is, "How come?

I'm doing pretty well so far.

I'm a hundred percent, I'm punching 'em all when I get confronted with ‘em, I think I can keep this up."

And he's like, "No, you know, it's not sustainable.

You've gotta come up with another way of of dealing with things and there are some things you need to just kind of ignore or let them roll off of you.

And there are some things that you have to respond, but it can't be in a violent way because, you know, you're always gonna be outnumbered in this country, and it's not the most productive way to get a final resolution."

(gospel piano music) - My church, Second Baptist Church, has always been known kind of as a community center for African Americans.

It was the only Black church between Cheyenne, Wyoming and Denver, Colorado.

♪ We're depending on you ♪ To see us through ♪ Jesus, Jesus ♪ We're depending on you ♪ We're depending on you ♪ To see us through (hopeful piano music) - I came to Boulder to get a degree.

Our plan was, when I got the degree, we would move on.

However, I experienced opportunities here that were incredible.

(upbeat jazz music) There was a small but strong, very vibrant African-American community here in Boulder.

There was the United Black Women of Boulder.

There was Boulder Black Action Committee.

There was a Freedom School for the children.

We called it Black School, where during the summer, all the Black families would come together.

It was actually somewhat considered controversial.

It was, you know, "Why do these Black people need their own school?"

(upbeat jazz music) - This was my home, this was my community.

You were not anonymous.

You had a presence, you had a name, you had a history.

Young African Americans that I have encountered during my 50 years in Boulder have left Boulder, including my children.

My son just told me last month that he was not able to grasp who he was until he left Boulder.

(upbeat music) - I had never really dealt with any type of racism or prejudice, up until fifth grade when I moved to Boulder.

I've been coming to Boulder my whole life, even when like, when I didn't live here, I would still spend summers out here.

My mom, she's from Colorado.

Like, my grandma lived here, really big mountaineers.

I feel like you don't meet a lot of people who've been in Boulder as long as our family has.

My parents got divorced while I was in Boston, fourth grade.

So, I just like stayed here with my mom.

(upbeat jazz music) I was called the n-word, right to my face, like fifth grade.

I went to middle school, it just got way worse.

My dad, whenever I'd ask him like, how to handle a situation regarding race, he was like, "If someone disrespects you 'cause you're Black, you have to punch them."

And because my dad wasn't around, I cherished his words.

(upbeat jazz music) Very mad at that stage of my life.

Before I came to school, I would just like think about being Black, like, what's gonna happen today?

Like, am I gonna get in another fight?

Like, am I gonna get suspended?

Like, there were times where I'd just be suspended, like back to back, back to back, back to back.

Every single time I got suspended, the principal was like, "I don't know what to do."

And they would make me just sit in a room.

Like, after everything would happen, they'd just make me sit in a room for the entire day.

- People are always shocked when they meet my kids, you know, they don't expect me to have biracial kids.

And they're sort of, you know, a little bit taken aback, but then they act all cool, like they are down with it or whatever, you know?

(laughs) It's just, watching my son suffer has been terrible.

The principal would call me and she would say, "Hey, you know, it's me again.

Hey, Laura.

Some kid insulted Vaughn, and Vaughn, you know, retaliated, which I don't blame him for, but school regulation says that we have to do this."

They didn't seem to punish the person who was doing the hate speech, as opposed to punishing the victim.

(gentle somber music) And getting him sort of emotionally ready for the day, after one of those events, was extremely difficult.

You know, motivating him to say, you know, "It's gonna get better.

You're gonna get older and people are gonna realize that this behavior is, you know, like, unacceptable and they'll realize the error of their ways."

And that, you know, "You just have to kind of power through this really difficult period of your life."

It was awful.

I mean, awful.

- You go to school and you suffer in silence.

You pretend like you're okay with people saying the n-word because you don't want people to think that you are uptight.

You don't want people to think that you're not cool because you're not okay with that.

There is this app right now, it's really viral, it's called TikTok.

And there's a trend on the app that you, you know, screenshot these pictures of kids from your school that use the n-word and you post it.

And, my sister and I decided that we were gonna partake in this trend, you know?

And the next morning I get a text from this kid that was in the video, and he's like, "So, what's up with that video that you posted?"

And I was like, "Is it untrue?

Like, if it's untrue then I'd be happy to take it down."

And he's like, "Well I have said that but so has everyone."

These guys that contacted me would say, "You know I'm not racist.

You know I'm not this, you know I'm not that.

I'm an ally, you know, I take pride in not being racist."

I really don't know that.

And that was just an interesting experience to talk about it so publicly and have people be so angry for being exposed.

(deep strings music) The school that I used to go to in Boulder Valley School Distric there was a person and she started to like, really, really badly bully me.

She like posted a picture of me, like a video, and it was like, "Satan's daught was like my contact name.

And then the picture was like of a Satan thing.

It was really weird.

And then she like sent me a picture of me, I think that she made the photo black and white and said, "I hope you die.

I hope you die.

I hope you die.

I hope you die."

And like, made it look like I was like, dead.

And, yeah, that was really, really hard because I was also the only Black girl.

She would like, in the hallways, all of a sudden she would be like, "What's up my n-word?

You're my n-word, you're my n-word."

And I was like, "Could you stop?"

And she was like, "Yeah."

And then she just kept on doing it.

There was also a video that she posted.

- When she made that video she was like, "I'm just gonna eat my chips and chill because I know that nothing's gonna happen."

She probably felt like, "She's scared of me.

She won't tell."

When she was calling me the n-word, I didn't tell anybody for like, started in fourth grade and then I didn't tell until like the middle of fifth grade, so like a year and a half.

I was probably just thinking, oh I'm fine.

She doesn't do this all the time.

I'm fine, I'm strong.

I can do this.

She wasn't even like, really sorry.

Like, she was just kinda like, "Oh I can go on with my life and I can do whatever I want to anybody and I'm never gonna get in trouble."

(upbeat marching band music) - I was on the Boulder Chamber Board of Directors.

My husband and I got to go to all the football games.

(upbeat marching band music) And so for the pre-game shows, for the boosters, it was a sea of white people.

(upbeat marching band music) You always have a Chancellor addressing the crowd.

And then there was a question and answer period.

And this lady raises her hand and she is so concerned about the campus is changing, everybody's talking about recruiting more Blacks and all of that, and what's gonna happen to our campus?

And that man stood there and said, "Don't worry.

Don't worry.

Nothing will change ♪ Sweet Caroline ♪ Bah, bah, bah ♪ Good times never seemed so good ♪ So good, so good, so good ♪ I've been inclined ♪ Bah, bah, bah - You drive into the parking lot on Euclid and it says "diversity and inclusion," and then you look around the campus, and you don't see diversity and inclusion.

(crowd murmurs) We've been very successful in finding them for the football team.

How is it that we are unsuccessful in finding them for the Physics Department, for the School of Engineering, for all of the other schools that we have that now say that their goal is diversity and inclusion?

- Going to the CU's campus, I was shocked at how white it was.

Like, I kept waiting.

Like, when am I gonna see more Black people?

I felt like it was really hard to make friends, and I felt like maybe it was because I was a little too different.

I put on some khakis, I put on some tank tops, I got myself a pair of Birkenstocks.

I didn't even own jeans when I got here.

(smooth jazz horns music) It didn't work.

But, you know, I gave it an attempt.

I didn't feel like I was being myself.

But when I look back on it now as an adult, it really breaks my heart that I tried to change who I was to try to make people like me.

No one should ever have to do that.

(smooth jazz horns music) - Suddenly, the property on Goss Street and Canyon Boulevard became very valuable.

The real estate people have come to me over and over again to sell my house, which my grandmother and I built in 1921.

- Wow, 1.49 million.

(bluesy jazz music) - There are no more Black homeowners in the Little Rectangle.

- It is sort of the law of unintended consequences.

When Boulder passed the zero growth initiative, it immediately began to escalate the price of housing in Boulder, which made it difficult for people on the margins to live and work in Boulder.

And, neither the City nor the County were ahead of the curve and they hadn't really planned on affordable housing opportunities.

Conversations about equity, inclusion, weren't had.

The attitude in Boulder was, we don't wanna grow too much, we don't wanna grow too big, we wanna keep other people out.

So let's figure out a way to keep 'em out, and one way to do that is to limit growth.

(uplifting jazz music) - People like it here.

It's not like people are like, "Wow, it really sucks how white it is," because they don't think about that.

They're comfortable, everyone else looks like them.

Everyone else perceives the world the way they do.

- We have such a homogenous population.

Kids are growing up in a place where they just, they don't see minorities.

And so, if people don't see it as a problem, then there's gonna be no efforts to change something they're fine with.

- I think that we have to call into question the conception of beautifying Boulder.

Even if it's not conscious, if we keep raising the prices, if we keep raising the taxes, if we keep doing all these kinds of things, you're obviously gonna box some folks out.

So, then it becomes institutional racism, even if it didn't start out that way.

(uplifting jazz music) (uplifting jazz music) - More than anything, we wanna be good people.

It's like, "I'm a good person," and this idea of being a good person, sometimes it keeps people from being a better person.

I thought I wasn't gonna be a minister, even though I'd gone to seminary.

Long story short, I ended up here.

It's gonna be five years, and the church is mostly white.

And when I say mostly, I mean like more than 98.8%.

And so I told myself, well while I'm here, I'm gonna just be as honest with them as possible.

(uplifting jazz music) It is easy to blame yourself for the pain.

It's much harder to open to the possibility that you're in this painful and prolonged predicament simply because the world is unjust.

Because the world is against you, because the world is unsafe, and the very people who are paid to protect you are the ones who are shooting at you, and stopping and frisking you, and arresting you and charging you and imprisoning you.

Where is the hope in that?

Where is the divine in that?

And we see that tension every day.

- Can I talk to you ladies?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Back up a little bit.

Okay.

Does he live here?

- Yes.

- Okay.

Okay.

- Hey, Zayd?

- What?

- Zayd, these nice people here told me that you are a resident here.

- Oh wow.

- So, Zayd-- - What a freaking surprise.

- That's what we were trying to find out.

- The most outlandish thing to me was the thing that really deescalated the situation was when, you know, another white male, the one who I was working for, he said, "Oh he does live here.

That's Zayd."

Instantly, you know, within a couple a seconds, they all backed down.

- And so is this one of your properties right here?

- Absolutely, yes.

- Okay.

So he is a contractor, or you goes to Naropa or is part-- - He's our student-- - Student.

- He's a student work study.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- So he has permission to be here, he has permission to be doing whatever he's doing here?

- Absolutely, he's picking up tr - Let's uh, you got his information, in terms of his name and all that?

- I just have his name.

- Okay, then give him his ID back-- - Jackass.

- And we're outta here.

Yeah.

'Cause we already confirmed-- - Jackass.

- He's there, and this gentleman here just said, "Yeah, he works here and lives here."

He lives here, so.

- Okay?

- Yeah.

- After all the protests and stuff started to happen, then I really realized like, wow, this is what's happening right now.

And like, I just kinda like took that all in all at the same time.

And then like, I watched a video about Zayd, and I was like, wow, I'm really, really happy that he didn't like, end up being shot or killed by a police.

I definitely feel like I could definitely like, just all of a sudden, be shot.

(gentle emotional music) (girl crying) (gentle music) (girl crying) (gentle music) - What Zayd did, I wouldn't be able to do.

I can't be in jail.

I can't be murdered by the police, because I'm thinking of more than just myself.

I'm thinking of my children, and how I need to be around to take care of them.

They are the only Black people in their classes.

They don't even really know how to identify another Black child.

(children chattering happily) - Do you see Mama?

- I think it's really important to give them a sense of confidence in who they are.

(gentle horns music) - There was definitely a call from the community for a community oversight group of the Police Department.

We are asking that the NAACP be responsible for the selection of the Task Force.

- Oh, good gosh, we have to start with a hard one first.

Okay.

How should Task Force members be selected?

- I really like to appoint people that want to collaborate.

- The ability to play nice with others may not be the primary criteria.

because there might be some people who really feel like things need to change and they wanna talk about that.

- I appreciate the expertise of the NAACP, and I want to make sure that they're very integrally involved.

But, the buck has to stop at the City.

- It does.

- Thank you.

- Sir, what's your name?

- Littering.

What's your name?

- There's trash everywhere.

What's your name?

Hey, I'm not talking to you man, back up.

- Where's my trash?

This is not trash-- - Hey, hey, you, back up.

- I'm standing here recording this issue of him saying that these people are littering.

There is literally, they literally have their stuff out here.

- Hey man, I'm gonna tell you again and you're goin' to jail for obstruction.

You understand me?

- Let me go ahead and get my camera back here.

- Okay.

- When my partner's here, you're gonna be under arrest.

- He's not obstructing.

- I'm not obstructing anything.

- You are, man.

- I'm very firmly aware of my rights.

- Nope, you need to move farther away and you're holding a weapon, so put it down.

- No, I'm not.

And I have a right to hold this and use this to walk for my seizure disorder that I have, sir.

I would gladly step back, because I'm not trying to impede you.

But what I am doing is recording this, which is my right to do.

I'm just making sure that this is being done properly, sir.

- Why can't you move over there?

- 'Cause I wanna be able to witness this.

- Yeah.

- From everybody.

- This is my walking aid, sir.

Sir, this is my walking aid.

Sir, you are, sir, you are harassing me.

You are harassing me!

You are harassing me.

Get off of me!

This is my walking aid.

You took my walking aid off of me!

Stop it!

You are assaulting me!

You are assaulting me!

You are assaulting me!

You are assaulting me!

(gentle melancholic music) - The NAACP says the man in that video, Sammie Lawrence, was just at one of their meetings prior to this incident.

Lawrence posted online that this was his first experience with what he calls police violence.

Lawrence was taken to a hospital before being jailed on suspicion of obstructing a police officer and resisting arrest.

- You would hope one month after Zayd Atkinson putting Boulder on the map, first you would hope that police would be a little more sensitive to doing things like that.

- Your next item is recommendations for appointments to the Community Police Oversight Task Force.

- And we wanted Sammie Lawrence to be on there because he was formerly homeless, Black, and disabled, and had been, you know, had problems with the police just recently.

- We include people from the community, people that can relate to typically the people that would be victimized.

- Mr. Lawrence should not be appointed to the Task Force.

And the reason is because his participation in this Task Force could be counter to the objectives of being collaborative.

- Sir, you're harassing me, you're harassing me.

- I had an opportunity to watch the body cam video, and I saw, at least what I felt, was quite a bit of theater coming from Mr. Lawrence.

- Most of counsel voted not to allow Sammie on there.

So the very voice of the community that you're trying to address their bad experiences, was not included.

(determined orchestral music) - We can do better.

We are better than that person-- - So, when you start talking to youth today, they know things that are going on with race, and its impacts on them, in a way that we have never even thought of.

It's not even microaggression level anymore, it's just flat out disrespect.

-Call!

- Respond!

- Call!

-Respond!

(upbeat music) - Black lives matter.

Black lives matter.

Black lives matter.

- When my friend asked me about participating in a protest after George Floyd was murdered, I was so raw from everything that I felt like I couldn't take another heartbreak in that moment.

And if I showed up with some people and there were like a hundred people, and they were just like the same, you know, cast of characters, then I would just be like, you know, people don't care.

You know, we haven't gotten enough murders yet.

(upbeat rhythmic music) But I did show up because of divine intervention, from my perspective.

And when I saw how many people were there, I knew that the capacity is here to be able to do this thing if we stick with it.

- No peace.

- [Group] No sleep.

- No peace.

- No sleep.

- You need to use your privilege and your voice.

Speak to the people in power, sign the petitions, donate.

- This entire world has changed.

Like, there is no going back.

Any thought of, I wish we could just get back to, it's a waste of a brain cell.

(upbeat music) (group applauds) - [Group] This is what democracy looks like.

- Show me what democracy looks like.

- [Group] This is what democracy looks like.

- Show me what democracy looks like.

- [Group] This is what democracy looks like.

- George Floyd!

George Floyd!

- Seeing so many people on the Mall that day, it felt like, maybe things are changing.

Of course, I wonder, is this just a flash in a pan?

- So John Smyly's actions against Zayd Atkinson were not deemed racially motivated.

- A scathing internal affairs investigation finding [News anchor quoting text] Boulder police claimed there was no evidence that Atkinson was racially profiled.

- Largely that's because he never used any racial epithets.

But, anyone else in the community would've not even been looked at twice.

But Zayd Atkinson, for the color of his skin, was.

(gentle somber music) - You know, I plan on probably just going straight through and getting a PhD.

- Ah-ha.

- I came back to finish my degree and finish my career, and you know, I'm probably gonna end up staying here for a while too.

(exhales sharply) I feel like that's how racism has always been overcome.

It's not like I'm just gonna be like, "Oh, now I'm gonna leave because you think I don't belong here.

You know, it's like, no, I'm here."

And you know, subconsciously that might have been some reasons why I remain.

(upbeat synth music) - I wanted to transform my hurt, my experience of racial trauma, into a racial triumph, into a kind of healing.

When I came here to University of Colorado-Boulder, I came here with this idea.

Most of our public universities, peer institutions, they've had these centers since the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s.

But here, it had not happened yet.

So the Center for African and African American Studies, commonly called the CAAAS.

- Our name will go there at the top.

- We're building community, we're building Black community on a predominantly white campus.

- When the students came in here, one of 'em broke down and just cried to have our own space on this campus.

I don't think some people know what this means to us.

- We're talking about repairing relationships.

How does CU repair its relationship to a community that has consistently been marginalized, that has been rendered invisible?

There's something afoot in Boulder that is allowing us to not simply focus on what's been done wrong, the wrongdoing, but what about the right doing?

What about when you use your power, your privilege, in a progressive way?

The ordinance before you outlines the following.

The City will hire an Auditor Monitor to accept complaints and improve police services and policies.

- This is a long journey.

This is one step that we're taking tonight I think it's an important one, but we have many more steps.

- Okay, this is a roll call vote.

- You have to undo discrimination that occurs whether it's intentional or not.

If you adopt a policy and you see it doing harm towards people of color or people of a certain economic strata, and you do not respond to address that impact, the question becomes, is that racism?

Is that discriminatory?

- That is discriminatory.

At a certain point, your inaction becomes intentional action to perpetuate the disparity that you know the policy is creating.

You have to talk about the fact this policy works adversely towards Black people or Latinx people.

We have to change the policy to get the result we intended.

(upbeat modern jazz music) - If you really had the good intention, you'd step back and let us lead, and then you would play a supporting role.

(upbeat modern jazz music) Because when you lead and dictate the movement from your perspective of whiteness, it happens that your solutions aren't necessarily what is most beneficial for us, because you haven't had the lived experience.

- My mom's dad is very, very conservative.

And, I don't know if you guys noticed, the front lawn is sort of a shrine to Black Lives Matter.

So, my grandfather was supposed to come over for this dinner and we were telling my grandfather about how our neighbor really hates these signs.

(hammer banging) And he was like, "Oh, that sounds like my type of guy.

You know?

Like, I totally agree with him."

And, in like the 40 years that we've all known him, we just stayed silent.

We all knew that we disagreed politically, but we just made this rule within my extended family that we weren't allowed to talk about it.

And we just broke.

Like, we just got so mad at him.

He was like, "I'm so sorry for saying that."

And I was like, "Well, you're not gonna be sorry until you change your vote.

You're not gonna be sorry until you actually take the time to change your ways and see things, at least try to see things from my perspective, the way that I'm looking at the world right now."

(deep eerie music) - One of the things that I confront is when people say, "You know, I wish we could just get back to the time when we were civil.

Isn't it nice how people didn't complain?"

And I'm like, "Stop lying.

We never have ever, not a day, been a society that was able to do that."

There've been times when people were afraid to talk.

You know, "I didn't wanna lose my job.

I didn't wanna get killed."

But we've never lived in those times.

And so, if we want to live in those times, we can choose it.

And right now, we are starting to pay attention and it's like, "Ah, bummer.

Why do I have to pay attention?"

(electronic strings music) There's been moments when I've been up in that pulpit, scared about what I know I'm about to say.

And, I'll look out at a community and I'll hear, not like an audible voice, but essentially a spiritual voice that says, "Look how many more people you get to love."

And then I start crying when it comes up inside of me.

And, all of us could say that.

All of us could say, "Look at how many people I get to love.

Look how many people I get to forgive.

Look how many people I get to be in gratitude for."

And we could change everything.

(deep somber music) All of us could learn to love people more deeply by learning their stories, instead of just taking our perspective on the limited amount that we know about their stories, and thinking that that's enough.

Because it's not enough.

If you wanna love me, then you need to hear my story.

If I wanna love you, I have to hear your story.

And maybe they may be different perspectives on the same thing, but it's a part of who we are.

And I believe that if you get into any conversation with any person that's different than you, and you come out of that conversation the exact same as you did when you went in, you were not participating in the conversation.

♪