Sampson said he co-founded BLD PWR to “create safe spaces for Hollywood to organize, to change the culture from oppression to liberation.”
Prison and police abolition has been a steady topic amongst activists and community members, especially in light of the police-involved killings of Black people and the constant heavy hand of mass incarceration.
Instead of institutions like police and prison, abolitionists work towards a world where resources are reinvested into the basic needs of the community (such as housing, employment and healthcare) and issues are resolved in ways that are less punitive and more transformative.
Even Sampson got his start on an episode of CSI in 2010, and the roles on such shows often diminished the reality of police and prisons in communities.
Sampson went on to say that he appreciates movies like “Miss Juneteenth” because it doesn’t focus on Black people being extraordinary in the most polarizing sense of the word — they’re not villains, geniuses, etc.
