>> anthony: that's a good toast. >> serj: that's a badass toast. >> inna: thanks for your visit here, thanks for being here. ♪ on this episode of "united shades of america," i'm going to let my friend c.j. here explain. i couldn't have said it better myself. >> that's because you don't know sign language.

>> my name is w. kamau bell. as a comedian, i've made humor into learning parts that i don't understand. and now i'm challenging myself deeper. i'm on a challenge to reach out to accept the cultures in this crazy country. this is the "united shades of america." on this episode of "united shades of america," we're going to talk about disability. and if there's any episode where i'm 100% sure to screw something up, this is the one. why? because i'm new to all this. and the identity of people with disabilities is as complex as identity can get. so when we talk about disabilities, you ain't just talking about one thing. the word disabled covers a wide range of circumstances. some physical, some mental, some invisible to the outside world but just as real. and there's no way that i can cover every disability.

i mean, up only have an hour-long show. i need one of those seven-hour o.j. simpson documentaries just to get started because there are 56.7 million people in the united states with hundreds of different disabilities. so on this episode for the sake of clarity and also so i don't screw it up too often, we are specifically sharing stories about people with visible physical disabilities, vision loss and the deaf community. let's be honest, those are the three areas that people without disabilities think about the most. i'm willing to bet that most of us are afraid of ending up that way. and we often end up pitying the people who are that way. but think about it, those three nearing physical and vision apply to helen keller, stephen hawking and ray keller. stephen hawking was probably the smartest person ever. sorry neil. and ray charles wrote some of the best music from 1954 to 1977. facts! and who the hell can feel sorry for stevie wonder? he wrote the remaining 28% of the music that ray didn't write. he's rich, famous and at 67 he's

still pushing himself and us, too. who can feel sorry for him? he probably feels sorry for me. okay, wait, wait, wait, now i'm doing that thing that i hate when people do it to black people. the whole magical negro thing. i'm making people with disabilities into superheroes like professor x, who also happens to be disabled. >> this is so complicated. >> and there's another thing, when many of us talk about people with disabilities, we talk about them as if they are separate from us. like they are their own group. when, in fact, they are the one group on the planet that anyone can become a part of at any time. sorry, rachel. so this episode i'm going to try to learn something about living with disability in america. because i'm sure just in this brief intro i've already screwed it up several times. see you on twitter. ♪ so i'm going to start in the bay area where my friend, alex walt. he asked that i talk to him at the ed roberts campus. ed was an early rights movement

and this campus was given to disabilities rights. alex is the founder of the disability visibility project, an organization that focuses on collecting oral histories of disabled persons. it has already filed 140 personal accounts at the library of congress. and if that's not enough, and it should be, her work has been featured in "the new york times," she was a presidential appointee to the national council on disability and the first person to visit the white house by robot. maybe that's what i needed to get an invite. i really appreciate the work you do and have to be quite honest, you're one of the people in my life who has made me less dumb. i'm going to say. hopefully smarter but certainly less dumb. >> i don't know about that, but i'm just trying to show what i do and put it out there. >> yeah. i met you after stand-up shows that i did. >> yeah. >> on my podcast, denzel washington is the greatest actor of all time period.

>> yes, denzel. >> we did an episode, my co-host and i reviewed "the bone collector," and somewhere in the middle of the episode i said i feel like we should be talking to a disabled person about this or someone who has experience with this. >> i have heard that message a lot. because no typical disabled person lives in such a nice apartment. >> he's a 100% quadriplegic. >> most people with disabilities like myself may have to be on medicaid because medicaid provides home and community-based services. that allow people with disabilities to stay alive, stay in their communities and can't afford nursing homes. >> medicaid is for low-income children, adults, seniors and people with disabilities. it covers 1 in 5 americans. medicare is a federal program which usually covers people over the age of 65.

if you think this is confusing, maybe a better system would be free health care for everyone. >> but get this, i can't earn over two-and-a-half times the federal provety limit. that's not much. it's a benefits poverty trap. that's tough sew feast's choice. i would love to make more money. >> it's tough because you want to be productive in society as you want to be. oh, naive. >> they think we are not deserving unless we are poor. how dare we want to have a life better for ourselves. these multiple attempts to repeal obamacare, you see these attitudes, right? like, who's entitled to this free stuff? it's not free stuff. this is stuff that we as a society if we care about the

most vulnerable, why not provide that in? that makes all all better. >> i have talked about activism but people with disabilities need to participate in activism. >> yes. it's a huge history. in 1977 right here in the bay area people with disabilities occupied the federal building for over 27 days. >> that's right. 27 days, the longest ok bake of a federal building in american history. the success of the protest set the president with the americans with disabilities ability signed in 1998. this is a comprehensive civil rights law prohibiting discrimination. but now the law is being threatened by pending legislation which allows business owners to disregard the ada into a formally notified by an individual. what the [ bleep ]? >> disability for us is part of civil rights. disability of rights is human rights. >> what are your thoughts on hollywood as it relates to people with disabilities and

portrayals of those people or employment of those people? >> in front of the camera there's so many disabled characters played by non-disabled people. there are so many disabled artists we just have so many talents to share. and i think that to me is a huge loss. >> yeah. hollywood is a pretty track record of employing disabled people on the screen or behind the screen. yet as we all know, the fast track to winning an oscar is pretending like you're disabled. >> i hate trump but i don't him a him because i think he's crazy. all these so-called progressives who say that he's mentally ill. you don't know what he is. don't call him mentally ill. this is what ableism is. there's plenty of reasons to

protest him without going that route. resist! every community has work to do. >> i know i'm part of everyone. and to begin this conversation, i said something that is possibly ablist when i called myself dumb. >> we can rewind. that's how it works. it's like we all have got work to do. so don't feel bad about it. i [ bleep ] all the time. >> thank you for talking to me, alice. love you. >> united shades of america presented by an zecestor dna. only your dna can tell. ... commanded armies... yielded to no one. when i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. my name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story.

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boston, massachusetts, is known for many great things. the american revolution, the only clam chowder worth eating, passionate sports fans, but it is also known for many things that aren't so great like racism, obnoxious sports fans, the recent movies of ben affleck and boston is one of the worst cities in america with people with disabilities. >> hey, kamau. >> hello. i'm here to meet john kelly. no, not that john kelly. >> this sidewalk has been in a state of disrepair for ten years. >> wow, ten years. while every city has infrastructure problems, out of 150 american cities, for people with disabilities, boston ranks 124th. only slightly ahead of living in an empty live drawing because of things like the cost of living, lack of employment opportunities and too many streets like this. massachusetts is not great for disabled people. disabled people can't find

housing. how about better access to health care or in-home support? oh, we're so sorry, we don't have any money. >> yeah, yeah. one thing i've noticed recently is people with disabilities are on the front lines of the activism around the affordable care act. >> well, did you see all the disabled people getting arrested? at mcconnell's office and throughout washington and occupying offices? we're ready to put our sometimes fragile bodies in the way of the staff machine. there's a national movement to say that if you become disabled, dependent like me on other people for care, then the state would sponsor your death through a prescription overdose. assisted suicide is the cheapest treatment. i see it in the movies. did you see me before you?

that's a movie in which a handsome billionaire becomes a quadriplegic, even though he ends up with a beautiful girlfriend, danaris from "game of thrones. h he decides to get euthanized because he doesn't want his girlfriend to go to hospital appointments with him. and at the end of the film it shows danaris at a cafe in paris after she inherited money from him. and that is the positive ending to this story. >> oh, wow. or as my friend alice so eloquently put it -- >> so yeah, i constantly get a message that it would be better to be dead than like me. and that is why they insist on not calling it suicide. euphemism department. they call it aid in dying or end of life options. it's a total threat to us. and we say the answer is not to

allow people to kill themselves or have someone else kill them. why don't we fix the status problem of disabled people? >> yeah. yeah. >> and then people won't be so afraid to be like us. >> uh-huh. so john has a good point here. maybe the problem is not the physical limitations of disability. it's our society's attitude that is the real issue. the idea that if you're disabled you have no place in the culture. this is an idea that people with disabilities have continually fought against. meet my new bff, julian mercada. a fashion model shattering the image of the disabled as incapable while at the same time challenging society to redefine our area of what a fashion model is. go on, jillian. how different is your life now than you expected it to be? >> definitely did not picture this at all. so it's been really exciting. >> jillian has modeled for diesel and was named the face of img, one of the biggest modeling agencies in the world. she's also an activist for

disability issues. and on top of that, she was featured in one of beyonce' celebrated fashion lines. yes, that beyonce. >> i first thought that i never wanted to be a model. if you don't know something -- >> if you can't see it out in the world, it is hard for you to imagine. >> exactly. so i collect all the magazines and "cosmo girl" and "vogue," and the person didn't have to be a wheelchair but to have a physical disability. so i thought i was going to be an editor at the magazine. >>like merrill streep in "devil wears prada." >> that's such a good movie. >> i own it. let's talk about that for a moment. i love that movie so much. >> it took me, maybe, five years. and then i landed like my first gig as a model. i bumped into the artistic director of diesel. so i signed up. >> how do you sign up for -- what are you saying, sign up sounds like, i can't go sign up to be a model. >> it was a worldwide street

casting. >> oh, like a casting call. >> yeah, then a couple months later we were like, hey, you were chosen. and i was like, what? i was blessed to say that was my first modelling job. on a worldwide campaign. >> for a worldwide campaign. >> for a worldwide campaign. my face has been in tokyo even though i've never been to tokyo. >> you didn't start at the bottom, you started at the top. >> for beyonce, yeah. >> so, and then, what was it like the first day you were worked as a model? >> i'm like, oh, my god, i'm going to mess it up. >> so you're there going, what? did they get the right person? >> but up wasn't thinking, did they make a mistake because i had a disability. i was just thinking, did they make a mistake period. because i'm not a model. >> you're like movie player, it's not about a disability. >> i have to say that because some people will be like, they will assume. no, not at all. >> so i know you talk a lot about, in your writing, that you're still dealing with your insecurities, even though you're a fashion model. >> yeah, of course.

i think everyone does. i think if i didn't talk about insecurities i wouldn't be authentic. i would like to be saying fi didn't go through an episode where depression was real, but if i have a platform and the position that i am, i have to talk about it. >> yeah. and what is the response been like from people who have disabilities? >> it's been great. i mean, i've gotten so many responses of people saying, thank you. and if i can help at least one person, check. job done. >> no haters, no people out there that are like -- >> well, that's intermittent. of course there are haters. >> but as yourisability er affected your dating life in a negative way? >>oh, wow, oprah, okay. >> did you call me oprah? >> there hasn't been a case where i go home and am like, man, that could have happened but since i'm in a wheelchair -- damn it. >> that's so great. >> if someone's not going to, like, like me for everything,

then i'm like, bye, next. >> the great thing about fashion is that you can, that the point in your career, you can be a model on camera. and if you don't want to, you can still be merrill streep. >> totally. that's the goal. that's the goal. >> that's my goal. >> just like a copy of her. like latina. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. hey shrimp fans - this one's for you. it's red lobster's create your own shrimp trios. pick 3 of 9 new and classic creations for just $15.99. try new creations like savory crab-topped shrimp, and parmesan truffle shrimp scampi. but hurry, shrimp trios ends may 27th.

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disability is just another issue where we all need to come to grips with the idea that we don't live in a one-size-fits-all world. what works for one person doesn't work for everyone. we all learned that during "the fresh prince of bel-air." you tell me how to do this. >> okay. you're doing fine. >> which brings me to liz misfit who lives in worchester, massachusetts. we'll take a right and not cross the street because i'm not ready for that challenge yet. liz lost a portion of her eyesight due to retinal disease. >> i think of blindness not as something to run away from but something to embrace because we have things to etch too. we do our vision and have things to teach. >> liz is legally blind. while she has some vision, she's lived in the sight-in world and the visually impaired world. and since i only know one of them, she's got something to show me. >> are you ready for the challenge? >> i am.

>> i have a little blindfold for you there. >> the challenge is to close my eyes to learn about the disability community. one, i saw the tyra banks, i'm not trying on blindness. liz invited me to do this to get a tiny sense of her experience. i may have made a mistake. here we go. rest in peace my mentions. >> how are you feeling? feeling confident? >> no, it feels like -- i mean, sorta. yeah, i sound real confident. >> i'm pulling to the right. >> you're pulling to the right. >> like the first car i owned. >> now picture yourself up against something. what is that? >> i know before i put my blindfolds on, there are stones here, this is a wall. >> we learn as our hands and feet. use the blind cane but come up and feel. >> this is a sort of plaque to feel letters and stuff. >> so read it to me, will you? >> we are in the advanced class already. >> we are in the advanced class already. >> i walk already out into the

traffic that somebody from the crew will help me. because -- >> you don't think you're going straight, right? >> i don't -- wait. >> the sidewalk which is to your right, which is what i'm tapping on, is constructed of concrete or asphalt. where you are, that's grip. so what that signifies to us is, after the brick comes the curb, after the curb comes the street. >> after the street comes the season finale of my show. >> exactly. exactly. okay. so, i want you to take your cane and kind of tap it where i am. yep, that's me. that's okay. >> sorry. got a little canesy. >> and pick up your cane a little bit. do you hear that noise? what do you think that is? >> i'm going to guess that's a pole at the corner. >> well, put your hand out -- >> oh, wait. this is like a bench. >> there you go. feel, feel, feel. which side of the bench are you sitting on? >> i'm on the right side. >> very good. how do you know that? >> because the thing --

>> the arm. >> i'm losing my words, too. the arms. the arm of the bench. >> the arm of the bench. there are so many deterrents when you're visually impaired. there are so many activities that you think, i can't do that. and you have to push yourself. and you have to say, i can do it. and it is not just internal, it's having others believe in your as well. >> yeah. >> so you ready to experience another signal? >> sure. >> all right. >> yep. i'm going to bring you to -- i'm pointing and he can't see me. >> that's being insensitive. that's pretty insensitive. >> what do you feel? >> that's the button. >> okay, so push the button. okay, so the crosswalk is here. >> it's way up here? it feels so far away. >> it's so far away. and when that was pushed, there was nothing for us. so this kind of -- >> there's not the chirp thing that happens. >> it's not the chirp thing that happens, no. >> are we going to cross the

street? >> no, we are not going to cross the street. >> darn. >> how do you feel after this experience? >> i'm sort of aware of people with canes walking around by themselves all the time. and it's like, that had to take a lot of work. yeah. >> a lot of practice. >> a lot of practice. >> but everybody needs to be a participant. it can't just be, that's them and this is us. >> well, thank you for bringing me out here today. >> well, you're welcome. >> this is normally where i hug the person i've been talking to, but i don't want to grab the wrong part.

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so if boston is one of the worst places to live with a disability, let's go to the best. kansas. as a matter of fact, overland park, a suburb of kansas city, was ranked in 20 subpoe17 the n one city for people with disabilities thanks to affordable health care. and for a city with such delicious barbecue, you need affordable barbecue. tell me what is great about living here, i'm from california. >> everybody is nice to anybody. >> anything you want to do can

be done here. >> really? >> like indoor bowling. >> i like how uh you started there. you can do anything you want, like bowling. one thing i found out is this is also apparently one of the areas in the top parts of the country with disabilitiies to live. >> we do care about disabilities. we are not exactly spring chickens. >> it is part of k.c. we help everybody out. >> that's a good slogan. k.c., we help everybody out. now this is what i'm talking about. the cross signal with the audio and visual countdown. four, three, two, one. in kansas city, i'm headed to an organization called the whole person. an independent living center for people with disabilities that helps with independent living services to adaptive sports and job hunting. this organization is headquartered in a building that like the ed roberts campus features universal design. an idea that believes that people shouldn't have to adapt to the world, it should be the other way around. >> universal design takes

accessibility and we can walk this way and lets people with and without disabilities use this space more equally. >> adam lain is a community specialist for the whole person and is giving me a tour. this door for the conference room is a sliding door which makes it easier to open if someone has limited hand function. and also throughout the building, if there's a doorway, then we use the bright blue carpet to let somebody know that has a visual impairment that that is there. green of the walls includes people that that is the hallway that the elevators are on. >> so it has that feeling of we are trying to make this as simple on you as possible. >> exactly, yeah. >> the bathrooms, if i'm in an airport, i'm physically able body but i'm also a gigantic person. so when i see a bigger stall i'm like, more space. >> i was a paramedic prior to my injury and worked with firefighters a lot. and they used to refer to that as the cadillac of stalls. i totally get that. >> yeah. >> but, at the same time, it is really frustrating when i have 157 minutes between my flights

and the one stall take season the accessible stall. >> it's like, whoo. >> i was an at event yesterday and somebody was in there for a really long time. and i could hear them, like, changing clothes. >> treating it like a studio apartment. >> yeah, they have more room to do that sort of stuff. and meanwhile, my eyeballs are floating. >> i'm going to make a promise to you right now to never use the giant stalls again. >> i appreciate that. >> i guess i expected the universal design to be something fancy, but all the stuff like color-coded areas and buttons is not a futuristic thing. it's how the world should be. smart, bright, easy to understand. it's almost an invisible desin to make life better for everybody. it's universal. it's down to every detail. >> another thing that we have is to make things more accessible is a microwave. so you can set the timer and hit the --

>> 25 seconds. >> my mom would like that. she's 80 years old and a physically active person. but she would like that. although i'm saying that a lot, she would like that for christmas. i let me price this first, mom. cut this out. adam is not the one who appreciates this universal design. many employees have disabilities. i'm going to talk to leah, brian and rick. what do you do here? >> i organize and implement adaptive sports for people with disabilities. >> i work in the resource development program. >> i'm in cvs corrections. >> so you're on the tech side? >> yeah. >> so you don't mind me saying, you're pretty yolked. >> i try, i try. >> we offer sled hockey, softball, wheelchair basketball, snow skiing, water skiing. >> that's a lot of sports. that's a lot. i haven't done most of those sports. >> right? >> so i heard you're employee of the month, right? >> of the year. >> i'm sorry. i'm just trying to hide your light, i'm sorry. >> employee of the year, yes.

>> employee of the year. why did you get that? >> i don't know. >> no, you know. >> i'm a people person so maybe that's why? >> you also must be a good employee. >> i'm pretty good. >> if there's ever a chance for me to walk again, i want to be fit and ready to do that rehab on my legs. the only part of my spinal cord was damaged, so there are still signals getting down. >> any idea that you can walk one day? >> hopefully stem cell research or something. if it happens, i want to be ready. >> in my own life, i know the impact sports made on me. i was injured when 22 years old. didn't make the right choices and the choices i made took a friend's life and cost me my legs. while in icu, i made a promise to my friend that passed that something good would come out. i got involved in adaptive sports and coaching wheelchair basketball. and just being around kids with disabilities gave me something to look forward to every day. >> what do you think people who aren't disabled get wrong about people who are disabled? >> they are surprised we can

live independently and can do things. they are like, oh, good to see you out here. you're inspiring me today. and i'm like, well, i got to get groceries. >> i feel like they think we are delicate or fragile and it's like, no, we're not. >> no, no. >> we're steel reinforced, actually. >> what does the future hold for people with disabilities? new technology comes out every day. and that is where we get to a complicated subject, the future of disabilities. biotech is working to make the world more accessible. but biotech won't help everyone and some people with disabilities don't want it. but looking at new technology, i would love to live in a new store. this company is in the growing field of esko skeletons to give people extra strength. yep, that's what i said. this technology can give power boost to disabled and non-disabled people. as far as i can tell, they are basically working on the real iron man suit. >> okay, we are going to sit

this up to 90 degrees and just hold shane here. >> this is shane moscow who had a spinal cord injury and started to wear this six months later. >> i have a crushed interface here that allows me to hold to walk, hold to stand and hold to turn. ready? >> well, look at shane now. with him is jen, his physical therapist, who i think was also in charge of just making sure i didn't try the suit on. so what does this feel like? >> i mean, it's incredible to stand and to walk knowing that you're not supposed to stand and walk. it's an amazing feeling. you know, it's tough at first because you can't feel where your legs are, but as you use the device and get used to it, you know, you can anticipate where it's going to be. >> if i just walked and saw you doing this, i would think that you were testing this thing out. like, not that it was helping you walk, but i'm normal.

this is the perfect way to say this. >> is the goal for this equipment to, like, have people eventually have it in their homes? >> i think eventually to have it in their homes is what i think someone like shane ideally would want. right now it's a training device and we don't let people walk out the door with it as much as they try. >> yeah, i'm sure. going this way and -- >> she grabs it back. not today. shane is not the only one looking to sneak out of here with an ekso. tiffany adams is an athlete, speaker and model. tiffany is featured on the series "push girls" and appeared on shane's podcast and they are both -- >> can i ask how you were injuried? >> i was in the head-on vehicle collision caused from a drunk driver. >> when you were 17. >> a senior, yes, in high school. >> wow. >> i was actually drunk driving. >> oh, wow.

>> yeah. >> i went through forgiveness on multiple levels. >> i believe that this makes this friendship possible. >> very much so. >> i really look forward to the day when you can slip it on like your outfit in different colors and things. and going into the job market like, hey. because i'm so hopeful. like, i can't -- i can't put it into words because i know how many lives it's going to change. like, it gets me emotional because it's different when your eye level to somebody. there's something about that, that you can't put a price tag on that. >> i can't wait to take this to the club, man. >> yeah. >> where are we going? >> you should see him twerk. >> i won't be doing any of that. >> hold on, let me program that in.

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as we have heard already, problem rerms gs in tv and films a constant problem. one of my good friends has been featured on conan and comedy central. he's a child of deaf adults, a cona, and not what i thought, a cool yoda. this is an stand-up comic who is

deaf. last year he had his break through in the film "baby driver." when i met him, i knew him as a xhecomedian and then learned th his parents were deaf. >> that's why he invited me. i'm his black friend. >> yes. >> and i don't know your story as well. i just know my black friend story. so, first of all, we're all in showbiz. can you talk about your career and how you ened -- ended up sharing with me. >> i moved here to l.a., started looking for work and thought, why don't i do one-man comedy type shows, one-man stand-up shows. so i have been doing that for about 35 years all over the world. >> that was my bread and butter type of lifestyle. being a stand-up comedian. he's being humble, he's a legend, just so you know. he's a legend. really. i know who you are.

he didn't want to say it himself, the l-word, but i'm a humble guy. >> i'm a humble guy, i am. but you're not denying you're a legend. >> not a humble legend. >> thank you for adding that in, thank you. >> so how has it been to be in hollywood? everyone has a hard time breaking the hollywood -- >> as a jewish-american haas been very hard to be in america. you're asking me, right? no. of course, hollywood is not really ready, so to speak, having a deaf black actor in a role. but i've realized that many of those folks don't know about deaf black actors. >> and let's be honest, most of us don't know about deaf actors at all. think about it, how many deaf actors can you name that aren't c.j. jones that many of you just met? i got this, molly metland and marley metland. >> i've gone to many, many

auditions and tried my best. and the response i got was, oh, we love your work, but i still wouldn't get hired. and it was a very, very difficult time for me. >> i would imagine that you have auditioned for roles in movies or television and seen them go to people who were not deaf. what is that like? >> well, of course i was mipiss off. come on, not again. why? because it was easy to direct that actor and not pay for a sign language interpreter, was that the issue? that's one of the biggest negatives in the industry. but after seeing "baby driver," i'm sure people are now regretting and said, i should have hired him first. i should have hired him first. >> so i'm going to ask you, have you, because you have the skills to speak and bring sign language, been asked to produce a role in a movie? and don't feel pressure because you're sitting next to a legend. >> no, i would never -- i have.

i did a showtime show "shameless." it was a juicy role. it was an hiv-positive person on crack. >> you took several people's roles. >> yeah, you imagine being a deaf actor. yeah, you get one or two a year. and every one of them is, like, an inspirational deaf guy, you know, for a disney channel show or something. and then this juicy role comes in and i come in, take the role and bail. yes, i've done that. do i feel guilty about it? a little more now that i'm talking to you, c.j. it's interesting. it's sticky. it's really sticky. >> it really depends on the situation as well. you know, i'm not opposed to having codas, children of deaf adults in signing roles. anyone can audition and compete if they are really, really good

for the role. >> you know deaf people who don't want anything to do with the hearing community. and you have a little bit of hearing. so do you ever feel like they don't want anything to do with you because >> oh, yes. but asl is my first language, my world, my culture. i can't imagine living without it. it just so happens that i can speak. >> so are you then like the kind of the deaf equivalent of a light skinned black person? [ laughter ] >> yes. i'm pretty proud of that. >> bang! >> i would imagine sometimes you hear things about deaf people that people don't realize that you speak american sign language. >> well, the worst things i heard was, growing up right in front of my mother, one thing that disability and deafness does -- and race does this, too, it makes people become less than human to the other. i remember very clearly as a young boy driving into a national park and my mother's driving the car.

so, she clearly has a driver's license. and the ranger leans in, gives me the paperwork for the park and is like, now, can your mother read? i mean, she's there. i'm a boy, you know? it's like, what can you do with that kind of ignorance? it's complicated and it's no wonder that some deaf people become anti-hearing because every experience is like that. >> i was at the airport. there was a person with a sign that said c.j. jones and i said, yes. and i was asked, do you need a wheelchair? i swear to god, i swear to god. he's seen me walk with my luggage. i'm walking, i'm upright and i'm walking. i kind of looked at myself. no thank you. >> you should have taken the wheelchair. why not? [ laughter ] >> let the hearing guy push you. let's go. >> my friend duane wants me to ask, do sometimes black people sign to each other look like they're doing gang signs?

>> you know what, people have been shocked. deaf people have been shot. it's not a joke, baby. >> that's right, that's right. my mind is totally blown. it turns out this has happened multiple times. but then again, should i really be surprised? >> i'm just -- i'm deaf. i'm just signing and we'll get assaulted, you know. i'm just deaf, man. i'm just using my own native language. >> you tell your friend duane it was a very insensitive question. [ laughter ] >> duane, that was the insensitive question. [ laughter ] >> duane can be very insensitive question.

the more your wellbeing can get left behind. but there's a place that doesn't come with that compromise. a place designed to help you be your best. welcome to westin. where you're given a choice not just to get up ♪ but to rise. ♪

i thought after sandy hook, where 20 six and seven year olds were slain,

this would never happen it has happened more than 0 times in 5 years. dianne feinstein and a new generation are leading the fight to pass a new assault weapons ban. say no to the nra and yes to common-sense gun laws. california values senator dianne feinstein as i continue to learn as much as i can about the disability community -- and i know, this show can only cover so much -- i can't help wonder what it feels to be part of a minority group that covers every other minority group on the planet yet isn't treated that way. do you ever have moments where one is harder or more challenging than the other, black or deaf? >> i identify first as deaf, and second as black.

i'm proud as a black man. but i'm not black, i'm not deaf, i'm c.j. the comedian. and i'm a producer, writer, actor. that's my identity. you know, just like denzel washington. [ laughter ] >> now, that i understood. and that's what it all comes down to, people, identity and fairness and representation, which is why i asked this question to pretty much everybody i spoke to. what do you think about the word disabled? see what i did there? i think i touched a nerve. >> we who are disabled, we don't like the "d" word. >> that's good to know. that's good to know. >> for me it's almost like an accessory, but it's not who i am. >> when you say i'm a person

with a disability, i'm primarily a person and then i have a disability rather than a disabled person. >> it's no different than, you know, black people don't mind person of color, but don't say colored person. >> i'm a disabled person just like you're not a person with blackness. [ laughter ] >> we have relationships. we have families. so, being labelled as disabled, i don't see myself that way. i am deaf and hard of hearing, but no, in the bigger world of things you're looked on as you can't hear, you're disabled. but that's the medical world. i'm not a medical perspective. i'm human. i'm part of a social network. it's not just about the ear. it's about identity. >> it's like maybe the first

deaf person was disabled, but then the second deaf person showed up and they created a language together and language created a culture and culture became community and a society, and so maybe it was a disability, but now it's a culture, right? >> that's right. >> that is the sweetest least snarky thing you've ever said. >> it's called pandering for cnn. [ laughter ] >> so, in the end there is no one answer to the question of the word disabled, because in this country there are as many as 56.7 million answers. but every one of these are coming from the same place, the desire to be respected, because honestly, we can't be talking about ability here. i mean, able to do what? to be an activist for social change? to take on the powers that be? to become internationally renowned in their field or a legendary entertainer? there's no limit to ability here, but there is, however, limited understanding. understanding that everyone's needs are just as essential as

yours. the need for healthy living and safety, the need for care and human connection, and the need for a country willing to listen when you say, look at me. i'm here, and i live here, too. everybody these days is talking about how divided the country is, left versus right, black versus white, starkz versus lanisters. clearly i get my news from a variety of sources. on this episode of black shades of america, we're going to get our information from these people. not only do you survive, you thrive. if only those people had written a song about that. and if only that song was so famous if we played it now it would sound cheesy. ♪ kum ba ya my lord