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Steven Willis, performing for #theoneactseries.
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Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)
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– According to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia,
0:08
more than 300 police dramas
0:10
have aired in the United States since 1950.
0:15
The boom coincided directly with a political appetite
0:19
for law and order, and a media-glamorized war on drugs.
0:26
Fact.
0:28
In order for any black male entertainer
0:31
to unsuspiciously enter into the homes of white audiences,
0:35
he must first be willing to play a cop on TV.
0:40
Nevermind how unlikely this is
0:43
for him to be typecasted as cop before convict.
0:47
This is for entertainment.
0:50
You are no longer black, but blue.
0:56
Before Pill Cosby became America’s favorite TV dad,
1:01
he was partnered to Robert Culp.
1:03
Secret agent
1:04
and the first accepted black face in primetime white gaze.
1:09
Three Emmys later, he will use his “I Spy” money
1:13
to purchase Spanish fly on the wall,
1:15
and become America’s most famous peeping Tom.
1:19
A year after wearing red jumpsuit on DC stage,
1:24
Eddie Murphy was in Beverly Hills
1:26
investigating the murder of a white man
1:28
the Detroit PD wouldn’t, and that’s all it took.
1:32
From SNL Steve Wonder skit
1:34
to badge, baton, blockbuster, boom.
1:38
Gangster rapper Ice-T traded in his Adidas that squeak
1:42
for a pair of boots worth licking.
1:45
America’s first OG turned NYPD,
1:48
now America’s most favorite story
1:51
on how the man who wrote “6 ‘N the Mornin'” became 12.
1:56
20 years later, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted” Ice Cube
2:00
will bring Kevin Hart for a ride along, and for two hours,
2:04
we will all forget to sing “Fuck tha Police.”
2:07
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence
2:10
will save the city of Miami thrice,
2:13
yet in the collective conscience,
2:15
we will know them as the “Bad Boys.”
2:18
Shawn and Marlon Wayans
2:21
were a white woman and a cop simultaneously,
2:25
yet remarkably, Terry Crews is the only nigga to get shot.
2:29
Denzel Washington’s only nod from the Academy
2:33
is when he was willing to show Ethan Hawke
2:36
how American policing is done the right way.
2:39
Don’t you get it?
2:41
This is war by copaganda.
2:43
Turn your favorite black radical into officer friendly.
2:47
Give them a seat in middle-class America
2:49
with a budget the size of a buddy cop film.
2:53
White wash them in blue blood.
2:55
Convince you Kamala Harris is Claire Huxtable.
2:59
Change dark skinned Aunt Viv to a white Virginia,
3:03
and see Clarence Thomas has always been the real Uncle Phil.
3:08
Now, give me 20 more years of “Law and Order.”
3:11
Replay the scenes on the nightly news.
3:14
Tell Abuelita Dick Wolf wrote it.
3:16
And these are all true stories.
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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