Atlanta - 35-Year-Old Transracial White Man - video Dailymotion

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Atlanta - 35-Year-Old Transracial White Man - Black American Network interviews Harrison Booth, a transracial man planning to use an experimental procedure to turn white. Stream all episodes of #AtlantaFX on Hulu.  Atlanta Season 1, Episode 7.

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00:00 Harrison looks from the outside to be your average teenager.

00:04 He goes to school, plays video games,

00:07 even listens to music in his room.

00:09 But there's one difference.

00:11 I'm a 35-year-old white man.

00:13 Harrison, born Antoine Smalls, has transracial identity,

00:18 identifying as Harrison Booth,

00:20 a 35-year-old white man from Colorado.

00:23 And when did you know that you were a 35-year-old white man?

00:26 Well, I've always felt different.

00:28 I go to the store, the movies, and just be thinking to myself,

00:32 like, "Why am I not getting the respect I deserve?"

00:35 And then it just hit me.

00:38 I'm white.

00:40 And 35.

00:42 I just miss Colorado sometimes, you know?

00:44 Here I pretend the buildings are the old San Juan mountain range,

00:47 but, you know, the job's just here.

00:49 And where do you work?

00:50 I'm a systems engineer for Coca-Cola.

00:52 Oh, OK.

00:53 That boy don't work.

00:54 He go to school and that's it.

00:56 One day he said, "Call me Harrison."

00:59 I said, "Who's that?"

01:01 He said, "Me."

01:02 Do you believe that he is a white man?

01:05 I mean, he is it.

01:06 [Bleep] I'd love to wake up one day and say,

01:08 "Hey, everybody, I'm Rihanna."

01:10 But I ain't.

01:12 It's been pretty hard.

01:13 My family just doesn't get it.

01:15 I try to get them to go out with me, go on walks,

01:17 go to the farmer's market, chat with people, but, yeah.

01:22 So why don't you think that they get it?

01:24 I don't think they get it because they don't realize that race is just a made-up thing.

01:29 They grew up having labels, and me, I'm just not like that.

01:32 I see.

01:33 So how do you embrace your identity?

01:36 I dress a certain way.

01:37 Patagonia.

01:38 I wear a thick brown leather belt.

01:40 I like to envision myself after the surgery.

01:43 [Clears throat]

01:44 Hey, excuse me, what IPA do you have on tap?

01:48 Hey, did you see Game of Thrones last night?

01:52 Yeah.

01:54 So your surgery, that's later this year.

01:57 Right. I started working at Stonecrest Mall, so hopefully by then I have enough money to take the next step.

02:03 So you work at Coca-Cola and the mall?

02:07 Right. Correct, I work at both.

02:10 Harrison has been planning a full racial transition with a Dr. Samuel Vergara,

02:14 who guarantees Harrison can visually transition through an experimental procedure

02:18 that will allow Harrison to not only be a white man, but whatever race he chooses.

02:22 The procedure's absolutely 100% possible.

02:26 He's gonna look weird, though.

02:28 But before Harrison can fully realize his physical identity,

02:31 he still has the day-to-day that's filled with discrimination and ridicule.

02:35 It's pretty awful, you know?

02:37 You walk in the streets and black people, they see you, they nod to you like,

02:41 "Hey, good to see us."

02:43 And it's to the point where I've just given up.

02:45 I've stopped trying to convince them that I'm not us.

02:48 Gotcha.

02:50 Excuse me, this is definitely the guy.

02:52 He doesn't even live in the area. I've never seen him before.

02:55 I think we're taking slow strides.

03:07 But you have to believe things are getting better, otherwise you'll just die inside.

03:11 Is there anything you'd like to say to other black kids out there

03:14 who may be going through the same thing?

03:16 Just be you. At all costs.

03:19 But also, stop dressing so crazy.

03:24 Hmm.

03:26 Absolutely.

03:45 [silence]

03:47 [silence]

03:49 [silence]

03:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Atlanta - 35-Year-Old Transracial White Man

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