United Shades of America

Kamau is thrown into the strenuous work of independent farming in Oklahoma. As he travels across the state, he examines the once-thriving history of Black farmers who through racist economic and social practices, have been largely lost to time. He also talks to independent farmers who now face that same fate at the hands of international consolidation, political posturing and economic disparity. He discovers that the power of land ownership and representation is critical in the efforts to provide safe, reliable and accessible food for our nation.

Kamau is thrown into the strenuous work of independent farming in Oklahoma. As he travels across the state, he examines the once-thriving history of Black farmers who through racist economic and social practices, have been largely lost to time. He also talks to independent farmers who now face that same fate at the hands of international consolidation, political posturing and economic disparity. He discovers that the power of land ownership and representation is critical in the efforts to provide safe, reliable and accessible food for our nation.

W. Kamau Bell explores inequities in the public education system through two very different school districts near Cleveland, Ohio. He sees how one district strives for students to rise above their economic circumstances while the other confronts the U.S.-wide racial achievement gap. In both districts, Kamau hears from students and teachers who are having these difficult conversations.

Kamau takes a look at the state of working America today. Across the U.S., the fastest-growing category of new jobs is gig work, spurred on by tech companies and their never-ending stream of apps. In the gig economy, low and uncertain incomes have replaced benefits, health care, and all the other worker's rights the labor movement fought for.

Kamau heads to New Orleans to explore the topic of reparations. He learns that while there is a popular assumption that reparations means doling out a check, many scholars and activists believe the first step is an unflinching acknowledgement of the scale and scope of slavery and the systemic oppression that followed with Jim Crow laws, redlining and Black Codes.

Kamau heads to South Florida, home of the largest number of Venezuelans in the United States. He meets with newly arrived Venezuelans, as well as established Venezuelan-Americans in the community, to better understand the complicated crisis that displaced millions from their homes. It’s a story of loss, hope, and how the U.S. system’s actions regarding Venezuelans here and abroad, has political implications for us all.

Kamau spends time on LA’s notorious Skid Row. This large area of downtown LA is the epicenter of the nation’s devastating housing crisis and home to a community of thousands of houseless individuals whose tents have become the marker of failed policy and economic inclusion in our country. Here, Kamau explores the racial, socio-economic and statistical dynamics that drive this national crisis. He meets with those who call “The Row” home and those compelled to help.

Within the conventional American imagination, Iran is too often associated with little that is good: the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Iran hostage crisis, and its nuclear program. But the United States and Iran are as connected as they are oppositional––deeply intertwined through culture and politics. Kamau visits New York City to talk to recent Iranian immigrants and those who came here decades ago, to learn about their American experience.