One week after launching Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, Emmanuel Acho continued the initiative of helping his white friends, to help his black ones with a second installment of the video series.
A former NFL linebacker, current ESPN contributor and soon to be FS1 analyst, Acho’s first video took the country and even the globe by storm, amassing more than 20 million views in one week. His second video again offered a safe space for uncomfortable discussions in an effort to promote change, but as Acho stated, the goal was to create a dialogue not a monologue. With the dialogue on display, episode two featured a conversation with fellow University of Texas grad, Matthew McConaughey.
McConaughey said he joined the show “to learn, share and listen – to discuss some common grounds between us, but also expose differences between us.” The first episode offered new context, it “made me think of the why, not the how,” McConaughey told Acho.
“How can I do better, how can I do better as a man, how can I do better as a white man?” McConaughey asked.
“You have to acknowledge there’s a problem, so that you can take more ownership of the problem,” Acho responded, noting the first step to acknowledging the problem is by having this conversation.
“Individually, you have to acknowledge implicit bias, you have to acknowledge that you’ll see a black man and for whatever reason, you will view them as more of a threat than you will a white man. Probably because society told you too,” Acho said.
“You have to acknowledge that if there are two people with equal resumes, studies show that the person with the white sounding name is twice as likely to get a call back than the person with the black sounding name. You’re a very successful man who probably has several people under you, are you a part of that statistical problem?” Acho asked McConaughey.
Acho also said the most accurate and least offensive term to call a black person is ‘black,’ not African American. “There’s some black people that don’t identify as being African because that heritage got stripped from them.”
During the back and forth conversation, the Oscar winner asked Acho about the definition of equality, “it’s been an American issue forever and we continue to work and grow and evolve and debate what the definition of equality should be,” McConaughey said.
Acho answered that he doesn’t believe there’s such thing as equality. “The wake of slavery is still hitting African Americans,” Acho said, pointing to issues of systemic injustice, poor school systems and voter suppression. “Don’t feel guilty,” Acho added, “just acknowledge.”
“What’s my responsibility, what’s your responsibility?” McConaughey asked near the end of the conversation.
“People should take the responsibility proactively to say – maybe I’m a part of the problem. Maybe I can fix this issue not just by being not racist, but by being anti-racist,” Acho answered. “Maybe I can level the playing field and make it a fair fight.”
