Tuesday, April 7, 2015

ADAPT?
ISAIAH WASHINGTON TO CHRIS ROCK

Isaiah Washington's Tweet To Chris Rock



Unlike some others, I don't think what Isaiah Washington tweeted to Chris Rock qualifies as "respectability politics." I think what Isaiah Washington's call to "adapt" is plain old caving in.

Black people shouldn't  have to "adjust" into expecting white supremacy to be norm, especially when they have the material goods associated with extreme success  Black people shouldn't have to and they shouldn't do because white policemen should collectively be trained to believe that they are not entitled to harass any black person they see.

But maybe Chris Rock could make an adjustment in response and decide to seek justice. He's been stopped 3 times.  I think a little less forgiving it; a little less taking a selfie each time and making a tiny point about racial profiling; and a little more making the police pay for their mistakes is in order.

Isaiah Thomas doesn't have the same money Chris Roch does through his own foolishness (Grey's Anatomy fiasco) But Chris Rock has enough money to buy himself some justice.

Unless the police have been giving him tickets for some sort of real violation like doing 60 in a 35 mile an hour zone, then he should sue them and have a lawyer ask them 'What's up with that?' and 'What is it about me that makes you pull me over for nothing?'

He can afford to sue the police department, sue them again, and sue them a third time. He can afford to go on a fishing expedition and ask them to crack open their records and see what percentage black people are getting tickets for dumb stuff like 40 in a 35. He can afford  to spend a few million dollars training the mostly white run police department to behave better.

We don't have to wait for things to get as bad as they did in Ferguson and then have the Department of Justice go in and investigate racial bias in a police department.

The rich among us can chip away at some of the "little things" Because if this is happening to Chris Rock, you know doggone well the same thing is happening to the middle class black person. And if this is happening to rich and middle class black people, then worse things are happening to poor black people.

But Chris Rock and other rich only going to be able to do something like this when they decide to make a donation to the black community. It's quite possible that someone like Rock would have to give up his career, as far as it depends on a white audience and white power structure in Hollywood.
I would think that he, Denzel Washington, and up-there-in-age Music Mogul x already have more money than they can spend in 20 lifetimes. Why not set aside x millions for self and family then invest the rest in straightening out just one little, wide spread thing out for the black community?

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