Black Men Smile® founder Carlton Mackey and Atlanta-based photographer Melissa Alexander were interviewed by Georgia Public Broadcasting's On Second Thought.
In an emotional and deeply personal interview, Melissa and Carlton spoke about how they are each approaching their art right now, and answered uncomfortable questions regarding the insidiousness of racism — and the sincerity of white people to dismantle a system that has benefited them.
"So much of my body of work is about offering myself and my community reflections of ourselves as beautiful and as strong. But when people go and they Google me and they see my work and they see Black Men Smile and they see all these reflections: you cannot miss that that is an act of resistance. That is no more important than, but no less important than the radical acts of resistance that we're seeing in the streets, the radical calls for change," Mackey said in the interview.
Listen to the full audio here.