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[Superface]

dangerous new trend

Actually, this sounds fucking fantastic. Why not do this? What would be wrong with blackfacing up and just seeing how often you get pulled over?

Why not do it so often in so many cities that the cops lose their habit of racial profiling? If you could do it in just your city alone, if you could at least stunt racial profiling with a dedicated crowd of individuals over a year or so, would it be worth it?

Wow, I want this to become a new meme so hard.

[Mongrel]

Alright class. Put up your hand if you can identify a problem with carloads of young white kids in blackface.

Hint: There is a possibility that not everyone will get the LAWLZ INTARNETZ memo.

[Transportation]

It would be better to keep it as a low-key candid camera thing. It'd be worth one ACTION NEWS special at least.

[Brentai]

You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him.  And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them.  And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people in three different places putting on blackface and getting pulled over, they may think it's an organization.  And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day putting on blackface and getting pulled over?  Friends they may think it's a movement.

[Mongrel]

You guys go first.

[Romosome]

Murphy's Law says your taillight will actually go out, and a black cop will pull you over.

[Thad]

...coulda sworn we talked about the NOLA cops shootin' up unarmed black civilians after the flood, but this thread's discussion of civilians shootin' up unarmed black civilians is the closest I can find.

Anyway, New Orleans Police Get Decades in Prison in Katrina Killings.  That's 4 convicted in the killings, getting 38, 40, 40, and 65 years, and and 1 convicted in the coverup, getting 6 years.

[Shinra]

Engelhardt said at the sentencing hearing today that he was restricted by federal guidelines or would have imposed shorter prison terms. He noted that Faulcon’s son was born after Katrina.

“He will never see his father outside a prison wall under this sentencing scheme,” Engelhardt said.

The judge said that five other police officers who pleaded guilty received much lower sentences. “One can only be astonished and deeply troubled by the plea bargains allowed in the Danziger Bridge matter,” he said.

“Using liars to convict liars is no way to pursue justice,” Engelhardt said, referring to cooperating officers who testified against the defendants.

It's good to know that the Judge took the time to let us all know how much of a piece of shit he was, even though he was forced to do the right thing by that pesky little judicial system he's a part of.

[Büge]

http://daughterofmulan.tumblr.com/post/33263747038/the-glorification-of-white-crime

[Healy]

I dunno, I can see their point, but 1) the point of most of those shows is the criminals are all awful, awful people and 2) including depictions of pirates just feels like cheating, somehow.

I agree that there aren't many nuanced portraits of criminals of color on TV today, but then there aren't many nuanced portrayals of regular old people of color, either. Seriously, name at least 5 shows made in the past 5 years that have more than one significant minority character. I can only name Community and maybe Parks and Rec? I dunno, I don't really watch TV. But still!

[TA]

I find it interesting they'd call out Breaking Bad, when ... fuckin' Gus Fring, man.  You want an awesome, compelling, badass criminal of color?  Gus Fring.  Walter White is consistently portrayed as a bumbling fool next to that guy.

[Ted Belmont]

Yeah, weird, it's almost as if someone on tumblr is ranting about something without actually knowing anything about it

[Healy]

...Aaand of course several hours after my first post here I remembered Turban Decay and Hollywood's penchant for depicting Arabs as bloodthirsty terrorists. Which, yeah, that's really bad no matter how you slice it. At least they seem to be backing down from it a bit lately! In favor of North Koreans. Ugh.

Edit: Re: Breaking Bad: I haven't watched the show, but isn't Walter White just a straight up villain now? He's still pretty complex, but a lot of the earlier nuance has been stripped away.

[TA]

Haven't seen season 5 yet.

But on the basis of 1-4, anyone who claims Walter was romanticized or presented as a good guy ... really hasn't actually watched the show.

[Ted Belmont]

Maybe they got confused by all the Breaking Bad fanart on tumblr.

(that's only partly a joke, there is a ton of BB fanart on tumblr)

[TA]

Man, there's Columbine fanstuff on tumblr.  Tumblr's no hallmark of anything.

[Ted Belmont]

Yeah, I had to unfollow this one blog because they started reblogging a bunch of arsonist fanblogs.

Tumblr is a weird fucking place.

[Büge]

Haven't seen season 5 yet.

But on the basis of 1-4, anyone who claims Walter was romanticized or presented as a good guy ... really hasn't actually watched the show.

When you see white people committing crimes on screen, you see a three-dimensional portrait of why someone might commit that crime, how criminals are people too, and how you should even love them for the crimes that they commit because they’re just providing for their families or they’ve wronged or they’re just people and not perfect. This is particularly a luxury given to white male characters, since there few white female criminals as protagonists.

Apart from where the author suggests the audience should love the characters, I think she's fairly on the ball. People may not love Walter, but I think many will assume his actions are justified in some way. Romanticization isn't just about making something seem good, it's about making something compelling. Rorschach is the most compelling character in Watchmen because he is decisive and uncompromising, not because he is right. A casual observer tends to confuse the two.

[Joxam]

As someone who is only 50 percent white I have to say the reason I stopped watching Breaking Bad is not because I thought Walt was playing like some sort of hero or anti-hero. I stopped watching Breaking Bad when I felt like they went out of their way to make sure all the terrible white characters were back dropped by even worse characters of color. Take the asshole racist brother-in-law, he's terrible right? Oh wait his partner is just as much of an asshole racist as he is but he's also brown? Fuuuuuck.

[Royal☭]

It's not about whether Walter White is a good or bad person. It's about that he is a full-realized, prominent lead role for a white character. Gus Fring is great, but really only develops for about a season and a half. In fact, Breaking Bad starts out by having its first two seasons full of one-note, violent Latinos. Which is strange, considering the show is like the white version of the 1983 Scarface.

I think the entry's title using "Glorification" is a poor word choice. Though it does reflect the tendency of anti-heroes to be viewed as role models or heroic figures, just by bent of being the protagonist. Often times this gets confused by audiences who think the bravado, machismo and violence are desirable traits. I'm sure everybody has met someone at some point who thought Tony Montana was a badass.

Ultimately, though, it's about the roles that people-of-color can get. We're no strangers to the whitewashing of roles here, and the high-profile, challenging and well-paid lead criminal roles tend to go to white actors, while most minorities get something that's only described as "Thug in the alley" on the role sheet.

...including depictions of pirates just feels like cheating, somehow.

Hollywood has made a point of making the popular image of pirate be the Anglo, gentleman pirate who is dashing, charming and has motivations for his actions. Which is pretty much an idea invented out of whole cloth. There are very few PoC gentlemen pirates, most are just violent murderers.