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After months of bbqs, Beckys and Cornerstore Carolines – viral incidents in which whites have called police about Blacks engaging in their lives – comedic legend Niecy Nash now plays in a satirical infamous titled "New! A hotline for racists. The award-winning actor at the Emmy Awards epitomizes the inventor and face of the 1-844-WYT-FEAR hotline, a phone line designed to revolutionize "the way racist whites manage the lives of blacks living close to home." from home "by encouraging people to call the hotline rather than the police in non-urgent circumstances.
In the video for The New York Times, Nash lists cases in which people should contact the hotline instead of calling the police, inspired by real events. The list includes people of color taking a barbecue, napping in a game room, mowing the lawn or waiting for a friend at a coffee shop. With musical clues and a delightfully 80s-inspired wardrobe, the video is a perfect reenactment of the infomercials of the late night of yesteryear. Only, instead of selling CDs or ShamWow, satirical advertising is a scathing commentary on the many incidents of white people calling the police on black people to do everyday things.
"You're scared, you're white, but with cell phones and social media, dialing 911 with your black or brown neighbors is not what it used to be," Nash intoned, looking directly into the room. 'camera.
The companion article under the video lists 39 publicly reported examples in which a person called the police to report black people performing daily tasks, since April 2018. One of the most recent includes a White woman, christened "Cornerstore Caroline" on the Internet, calling the police about a 9-year-old black boy who she said would have touched her in a Brooklyn grocery store. The viral video of the incident aroused public anger and the woman then apologized publicly to the child.
With the omnipresence of Internet memes created from such cases, including "Becky BBQ" and "Permit Patty," the phenomenon of Whites denouncing blacks to the police for acquitting themselves of their rout is not quite up to date. But the cultural shift to smartphones and social media has helped to shed light on this long-standing problem by revealing these injustices through videos broadcast on large platforms, letting the public judge the actors involved, regardless of the actual results of the events. police visits. .
If you're wondering, the hotline is very real, to the delight of Twitter users. And beyond the hilarious attitude of the video, the article ends with a request to people who have already heard someone call the cops on such cases of racial profiling to send their stories or their videos at the Opinion Video team of the newspaper at 844WYTFEAR @ nytimes .com.
In the blink of an eye at the end of the video, Nash is interrupted by two police officers who crush the advertising information, questioning what is happening in the call room. So hilarious that the infomercial is so far, it is a sobering note on which to close the video, reminding people that the problem persists outside the satirical world of the infomercial. The video has generated an extremely responsive response online and is expected to lead to broader and more concrete discussions on racial profiling in everyday life.
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