This is a country that was founded on racism. It was built on racism. It still continues to thrive through wealth disparity, and housing disparity is all built on the backs of racism.
In communities of color, such as Ferguson, it often feels like the police are protecting the white community from us instead of protecting our communities from the criminal element.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the tension between law enforcement and communities of color, suggesting a lack of protection and trust.
W. Kamau Bell's quote addresses the complex relationship between police and communities of color, particularly in areas like Ferguson. It underscores a prevalent sentiment that law enforcement prioritizes the safety of white communities over genuinely protecting marginalized populations, thereby fostering mistrust and a sense of abandonment among those communities. This observation points to systemic issues within policing and raises important questions about equity and justice.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about racial justice during a community meeting.
More from W. Kamau Bell
All quotes βWe really suffer from a hot-take disease, wanting to be the first one who has the hottest take.
People born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens - except for the teeny, tiny, mind-boggling fact that if you live in Puerto Rico, you are not allowed to cast a vote in the election for president. That tiny fact starts to get bigger when you realize that electing our own leaders is the whole reason that we have a country in the first place.
I've turned the annoying questions that white people ask into a career, so I understand that's where I live.
We can't throw the worst part of racism into the dustbin of history.
When we let cops talk about themselves as a separate community, then we are letting cops wall themselves off from the rest of us. We don't generally do that with any other jobs. We don't talk about the barista community or the Wal-Mart greeter community.
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A successful marriage is a decision. You decide it's going to work. You can't always be there, but you have to be there enough. And you have to make sure you are where you're needed most.
Don't wait for a funeral to pay a compliment. You may not make it in time.
I've always kinda been a little outcast myself, a little oddball, doin' my thing, my own way. And it's been hard for me to, to be accepted, certainly in the early years of my life.
He always apologized, and sometimes he would even cry because of the bruises he'd made on her arms or legs or her back. He would say that he hated what he'd done, but in the next breath tell her she'd deserved it. That if she'd been more careful, it wouldn't have happened. That if she'd been paying attention or hadn't been so stupid, he wouldn't have lost his temper.
When women's sexuality is imagined to be passive or "dirty," it also means that men's sexuality is automatically positioned as aggressive and right-no matter what form it takes. And when one of the conditions of masculinity, a concept that is already so fragile in men's minds, is that men dissociate from women and prove their manliness through aggression, we're encouraging a culture of violence and sexuality that's detrimental to both men and women.