I have been advised never to offer advice about racial matters.
I don't have standing.
Regular readers of this blog know I am a moderately prosperous White male, born into the heart of the Boomer generation. I grew up in a stable, middle class nuclear family with great parents. I am healthy. I am the luckiest, most privileged person in America--if only I had been taller and better looking.
I make observations and give political advice to Democrats because I am one and feel entitled. I want Democrats to be better at politics and message. I give advice to Republicans, which they ignore, to their peril. They don't think I am one of them.
I am warned not to give advice to Black people, women, gays, Hispanics, young people, poor people, or anyone not like myself. People on the left tell me I cannot possibly understand them. There is no safe harbor of words or tone that won't come across as condescending. Or lecturing. Or "mansplaining." Or something-phobic. The messenger shapes the message. I get that. Marco Rubio can say things about the Cuban immigrant experience that Joe Biden cannot, even if it were the same words. Whatever Pete Buttigieg says is understood as coming from an intellectual elite. If Buttigieg began dropping the "g" in a word like "going" and tried to sound down-home casual, it would look as phony as John Kerry going duck hunting in camouflage.
Comedian Chris Rock can give advice to Black men. He made a funny video on how to handle police encounters: "How not to get your ass kicked by the police." He advises:
Don't break the law. What laws? Car-jacking, armed robbery, arson, armed robbery, selling drugs, buying drugs, stabbing, shooting. Don't jump over subway turnstiles, either.
Be polite, when talking to the police.
Don't let that friend be angry and obnoxious.
If you have to give a ride to a friend, make it a White friend. "A White friend can be the difference between a ticket and a bullet."
If your woman is mad at you, leave her at home. "A mad woman will say anything" to get you in trouble.
Rock doesn't deny or defend prejudiced policing and the potential for rough police treatment. He assumes it. In that sense the video is still current, even in this post-George-Floyd era.
But the video is dated in that Chris Rock is not making this about Black grievance against prejudiced and maybe-brutal policing. Chris Rock says something I am not entitled to say. He says Blacks have agency. They have the ability to obey laws. It is just common sense, he says. They also can shape events in an encounter with the police. They have the power to be law-abiding, polite, cooperative citizens. It is the smart way to handle the situation. He summarizes: "If you follow these simple pointers, you probably won't get your ass kicked."
But don't all citizens, Black, White, Hispanic, have Constitutional rights, including the right to be obnoxious and provocative? Yes. But it is foolish and dangerous.
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11 comments:
I don't presume to have any insight into the African American experience either. However, I am acutely aware of the subculture that evolved in parallel that is now firmly and deeply ingrained. Part of it involves the history of how African Americans have been treated and the resentment that persists.
Chris Rock's comedy is not intended to counsel how to interact with law enforcement. It exposes the hypocrisy and injustice for all to see. While ironic, it's not funny like a knock-knock joke, but a cry of rage against a system of oppression. We may see that irony, but it's a very uncomfortable laugh, if we laugh at all.
Rock's humor is not intended to entertain us, and if we think so the joke's on us.
Imagine how boring and robotic life would be if we were all the same. All the different cultures enrich our lives in countless ways. Diversity is a good thing, but up to a point. It’s also important for us to remember that there’s really only one race, the race of humanity. The advice given by Chris Rock – don’t commit murder, armed robbery, carjacking, arson, etc. – applies equally to all of us.
We all have different levels of melanin, prefer different foods, dress differently and have different jobs and hobbies, but in order for society to function, we’re all subject to the same laws – even the cops. Teachers of all races should be teaching these things to students of all races. Of course they have standing.
In the late 1960s, I was a long-haired hippie freak. My friend Larry had a red Corvair, and he painted white peace symbols on the sides of it. He got stopped and hassled by the cops all the time till he painted them over.
One time, he and I went to Philadelphia with two girls, looking for the Philadelphia Folk Festival (we were idiots; the festival was actually in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the 9/11 planes came down much later on).
The four of us got stoned in the car, and went to a park near Rittenhouse Square and started playing around.
Suddenly, two giant blonde robot cops came up to us. I immediately put my hands up, because that’s what you do when you’re stoned and you’ve seen all those movies. The cop had to tell me a few times to put my hands down before he broke through the movie. They searched us, but fortunately we had left the dope in the car.
I had a box of pretzels with me. The cop jammed his hand into it and violently, slammed it around, looking for dope. He didn’t find anything and handed me back a box of pretzel meal.
Five years later, I was a hippie freak computer science graduate student. You may already have seen the picture.
I was out in a park stoned with a friend one night. The sun was going down and we were watching the sunset. Two cops came up behind us and surprised us. They told us that the park was already closed and they said we should “stand over there” by the police car while they searched my car.
They weren’t watching us, so I took the opportunity to take two joints out of my pocket and put them on top of the rear wheel of the police car. But they found a small prescription medicine bottle with a belt a cubic centimeter of dope in it.
Luckily for me, they decided it wasn’t enough to bother with busting us, and told us to get out of there. They kept the dope. So we went back to my apartment.
Just as we got to the front door, a police car pulled up at the curb, and two cops jumped out of the car and grabbed those giant flashlights they could kill you with, and came running straight at us. My stoned mind fractured into tiny little pieces with the thought, “The pigs set us up; they followed us back from the park.”
They ran right past us and disappeared around the corner of the building. It was like a Cheech and Chong movie. We went up to my apartment, and I was so paranoid that I immediately flushed an ounce of dope down the toilet.
The point of these stories is that I remember what it was like to be a member of a cultural minority that the police hated, and we hated them right back. We called them pigs, and they called us freaks. I look back with some shame at my part in that hatred.
I was lucky; I never got arrested or beaten up. But I’m sure I came close, and my attitude undoubtedly didn’t help.
That’s good advice from Chris Rock. I hope people take it. It’s too bad that we are so siloed at this point that no one will listen to anyone unless they are from their same silo.
I don't understand the thinking that being difficult will make things easier or better for you.
I've been pulled over in Jackson County for things like a dim license plate light. It's annoying snd I know the deputies are fishing, but I act respectful and nothing further comes of it. And my license plate light has never been dim!
Another story about the Black experience. A black friend of mine was driving with his wife one night though Mississippi. He was a graduate of UCLA and an Army Major during the Vietnam War. A good citizen. Anyway, he was stopped by a white cop for speeding. The cop said he was doing one mile an hour over the limit. The cop said the fine was $100, but he would let him go if he handed over $50. Well, my black friend got all pissed off and refused. So, the cop said okay and he would have to sent the local court $100 if he wanted his license back. Of course, his wife yelled at him afterwards, "are you stupid or something? Give the man the $50." But he wouldn't do it because...well, he was stupid. Being Black is no fun sometimes.
There's no question, being Black is still far riskier than being White. In an ideal world, we would respect each other’s differences and justice would be applied equally to all, whether you’re a poor black man peddling cigarettes (the cops killed Eric Garner for that) or a rich president peddling insurrection (nothing has been done to Trump). That’s what ‘woke’ is all about – trying to bring the U.S. closer to realizing its founding principles. Too bad Republicans oppose it.
Whatever point Chris Rock is trying to make, his comedy bit doesn't seem funny to me when I think of, say, Philando Castile or Amadou Diallo. If memory serves, the police officers who killed these gentlemen were acquitted of criminal charges. What kind of person would make a joke out of this sort of thing?
Peter, careful what you use for. If your wish to be taller comes true, you might become vertically challenged, as I am. You’ll be unable to fit on buses, planes, trains, cars, beds, and some doorways. Even some ceilings cause knots sometimes.
I won’t counsel you on being better looking. Above my pay grade :)
I grew up in a totally segregated suburb down south. I often worked across the city boundary, so I became friends with a total of three black men. Great guys, but they didn’t need anybody’s advice. They had their shit together. And, as ditch diggers in the Dallas heat, humidity, and black clay soil, they were bad-assed, and nobody gave them grief.
Nice story, Larry’s friend. My only real MJ adventure was when a friend of ours , a real stoner got a job as a pig, and started busting his former pot-head friends. That’s why I call him a pig. After I was no longer a teenager, the cops began to treat me with respect, unlike when I was younger. I’ve actually only had two bad experiences with police in Oregon. I like it that way. Way different than in California. The stories I could tell…
What kind of person would make a joke out of this sort of thing?
A comedian?
So the guy who's being shaken down is called stupid for not taking the cops legal advice?
I think refusing to pay a bribe makes you a good person.
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