Yes, we’re all about free speech. But is there some way that we can stop people who have misguided views and are well-known actors from going on national news shows with Don Lemon and then spreading the ridiculousness further? So was the case with actor Isaiah Washington when responding to a tweet from Chris Rock about getting pulled over by police for the third time in two months.
“I sold my $90,000.00 Mercedes G500 and bought 3 Prius’s, because I got tired of being pulled over by Police. #Adapt @chrisrock,” Washington tweeted in response. That comment set off a social media firestorm and prompted Lemon to offer the actor an opportunity to tell his side of the story. … As Lemon tried to turn the conversation back to Rock by asking if the comedian should be “driving a different car,” even though it is his right to drive whatever he wants, the former “Grey’s Anatomy” actor offered another suggestion. “He needs to look at the area he is in and visit with the local police officers in that community… and question them as to why they are pulling him over specifically,” Washington said.
So, if the police are bothering you for no reason, it’s up to YOU to go do something about it? Okay. Just because you’re famous doesn’t mean you’re right.
Team Blackness also discussed Patton Oswalt’s faulty logic and more backpedaling in Indiana.
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germy shoemangler
If certain police see a black guy in a crappy old car, they’ll assume it’s someone they can find drugs on. If they see a black guy in an expensive new car, they’ll assume it’s stolen.
boatboy_srq
I’m sure that would have helped Ennis Cosby.
/bittersnark
kc
@germy shoemangler:
And if a black guy isn’t wearing his seat belt, they’ll pull him over and then shoot him.
Yeah, the make of car doesn’t really matter; if a cop wants to pull a man over for DWB, he’ll fabricate a reason.
geg6
Who cares what well-known homophobe Isaiah Washington has to say about anything?
As for Patton Oswalt, I tend to side with him. It was the past and you can probably find terrible jokes in the past of any comic alive. I have no horse in this race because I quit watching the Daily Show when Jon Stewart decided that both sides do it-ism was the way to go, many years ago, and I don’t miss it a bit, so they could hire Jeff Foxworthy and I wouldn’t give a shit.
Keith P
Washington also added that his *front* windshield was tinted. My white ass would get pulled over for the same thing.
Waspuppet
I imagine Chris Rock could do that without getting his head beaten in; non-famous black people, not so much.
rea
He’s probably right that Chris Rock could go talk to the cops and get them to the point where they say, “Oh, he’s okay–he’s the famous Chris Rock,” and don’t pull him over. But of course, the ordinary black man can’t do that.
aimai
@rea: Right, this idea is absolutely the last word in solipsism. Rock is complaining that he has a real, personal, problem that is reflective of an endemic problem. He wants a solution to both his problem and the average black guy’s problem, not a solution which involves getting a free pass while the injustice is perpetuated.
slag
Every time I read about him, Isaiah Washington strikes me as a complete ass. Every time. Is there actually a non-ass side to him?
Patricia Kayden
Yes because confronting the police about why they keep stopping you should work out so well for a Black man. Right.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@slag:
He managed to get himself fired from a hit TV show because the rest of the cast got fed up with him and didn’t want to work with him anymore. So I’m guessing no.
Tree With Water
“He needs to look at the area he is in and visit with the local police officers in that community…”.
No one is that stupid. Conclusion: this guy is courting a pissing match with Rock for the publicity. What is coincidental is Rock’s episode of Getting Coffee In A Car with Jerry Seinfeld ended with him pulled over by a cop..
Citizen Alan
Wait, so Don Lemon found a black man as dumb and insulated as himself? Can they get gay married where they live and raise a bunch of dumb, insulated kids?
Uncle Ebeneezer
On Patton Oswalt: I’m afraid to inform you all that I’ve been warned on FB that criticisms of Trevor Noah’s tweets has put us on a slippery slope to a World Without Comedy!!1! So enjoy your laughs while you can because the end is nigh. Face palm…
Diana
In all honesty, one year when my (very white) father bought a foreign car and drove it around his native (and permanent home in a very white town in) Pennsylvania, when he was driving by himself, he was pulled over by a cop. He asked what he was doing wrong and the cop said, “Nothing. I just wanted to check out your car.” And then the cop let him go.
True story, I swear. Many years ago, to be sure, but true.