The Funky Academic

  • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
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    8 months ago

    Yeah it kinda hit me during 2020 (and I’m ashamed it took that long) that black entertainers (not exclusively, but in particular) have been ringing the bell about this for decades. It really drove home that these are not recent problems, they are only recently (in my experience) getting mainstream coverage.

    I rewatched all episodes of Chappelle’s Show during 2020 (in between watching the daily livestream of police cracking skulls) - and realized that even where there wasn’t a skit about police brutality, there was at least a one liner in his monologue about it - without fail.

    I also recognize that police brutality is but one symptom and doesn’t really get at root causes, but it’s a symptom I admit to being blind to for a good chunk of my life, so it really tends to grab my attention now. I grew up in a bubble of “these problems were solved before you were born” and was definitely one of those “the cops must have a had a reason” folks for longer than I want to admit. Pretty sure I had members in my extended family who would have responded just like the woman in your clip from OP.

    Cutting myself short here before this becomes a novel. I’ll summarize as, it’s sad to see how little things have changed in some ways.

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      Pretty much the same as you. It happened to me while trying to understand the support for Trump. Now I’m overwhelmed and frustrated that this knowledge was suppressed for most of my life.