Comments

  1. says

    Each time I laughed it was immediately followed up with the thought of how fucked up it is that people have to live like this. Yes, it’s exaggerated for comic effect, but it’s not exaggerated that far off the reality.

  2. rrhain says

    My understanding is that, unfortunately, even black cops are more likely to escalate interactions with black citizens. The “training” that police go through all-too-often inculcates racist stereotypes.

  3. Saganite, a haunter of demons says

    Don’t look at the comment section, if watching the clip itself was already exhausting to you. Because… fuck.

  4. redwood says

    I laughed and then, as I was meant to, I started thinking about it. Then I got angry at every goddamned racist thing I see every day in the real and cyber worlds.

  5. redwood says

    @Chigau #12. From the many years I’ve lived in Japan, I know that’s a common sentiment–“Oh, well, it just can’t be helped.” Maybe it’s similar to Islam’s “It’s God’s will.” Both are fatalistic and mean “There’s nothing I can do about it,” but I’d like to think there is something we can do in the case of out-of-control police officers killing people without good reason.

  6. jrkrideau says

    13 Redwood
    Inshallah really should not translate as fatalistic. It is more “I have done everything humanly possible, let’s hope God is with us”.

    My boss gave me a lecture on this.

  7. secondtofirstworld says

    For long, long years, even after I shed my bigoted and otherwise insensitive teenage persona, I’ve never noticed how I took something for granted, mainly under the influence of American movies.

    It’s when white people say I was born or I live in big city X, heck action movies, romantic comedies use big cities as backdrops. Except… most Americans are suburban white, they don’t actually live in cities, and they may have been born in big city hospitals, they learned to walk in the green.

    This is also the reason why I don’t like to use racial terms when describing law enforcement violence. The background for cops of color to be as equally vary of people of color is social status and wealth, not race. With statistics alone, even if most of crime happens for monetary gain, the major ethnicity will always outweigh minorities, i.e. most criminals will be white as long as white is majority, which is corroborated by arrest statistics.

    The difference comes from lack of choice and access, and I’m sorry to disappoint American exceptionalism, ain’t that different from anywhere else. Case in point, even if the proposed wall will be built, it will stand close to a high end gated community on the Mexican side built and paid for by rich Mexicans. If highways would access non-white cities, if actual capitalism would bring business there (as did the Koreans and hating them for it is a faux pas by the black community), if school funding wouldn’t rely on property tax and most of all, if white people had to compete in a double bind job application clinical test, cops would embrace a new fear of white looters out of a job with AR-15s.

    Maybe there’s some truth to the legend that the Groundhog Day happened because of a curse, because it seems America has a 25-year warranty on memory recall when it comes to a recurring issue that was seemingly solved said 25 years ago. Last but not least… I know, people of color battled disenfranchisement with faith but it’s high time to replace Sharpton for Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Oh, and racism by white people… if it were funny, it would bemuse me that when it comes to sexual assault allegations (most accused are obviously white) suddenly due process is king, but switch to a black man and suddenly he’s Greedo.