Thread by @JasonKirell

Okay, time to talk about what happened on my second day of classes.

This isn't nearly as funny or absurd as what happened on the first day.

So at the end of last semester I signed up for a class that sounded interesting - Cultural Awareness.

I only found out on Monday that this class falls under the criminal justice program and is required for all those who are going to pursue a career in criminal justice.

On Monday we did the usual first day thing of introducing ourselves and saying why we are here and what we hope to get out of the class.

Literally every person in the class other than me was taking it because it was a requirement.

A few people were planning on being CSI or doing some work in a crime lab, but the overwhelming majority were people who wanted to be detectives.

And for those who don't know, before you can make it to detective you have to first be a regular beat cop for a few years.

So once class started the professor talked about some volunteer work assignment that was due later in the semester, basically 20 hours at any number of charities or organizations that fell under the United Way banner.

Cool. I picked volunteering at the local legal aid society.

Then we watched a movie that was supposed to be relevant towards racism in society.

And what movie did the professor select to teach a room full of future cops about racism?

Crash.

Crash - the 2004 Oscar-winning film that tackled racial issues with about as much subtlety as Donald Trump talking about dating.

Okay. Fine. Whatever.

It's not the movie I would have gone with, but I guess for the second day of classes you want to ease people into racial sensitivity.

But here's the thing, once the movie started you woulda thought Crash was a comedy.

Almost everyone watching this burst out laughing at every single utterance of racial slurs.

The Asian lady whose car got rear ended & whose accent was made fun of by the white lady?

Laughs.

The two black guys who complained about not getting served properly at a restaurant?

Laughs.

The gun store clerk who insulted the Muslim guy and his daughter for speaking another language?

Laughs.

The black female call center operator who got insulted by the white cop bc her name was Shanequa?

Laughs.

We only watched the first half hour or so of the film, right up to the part where Ludacris and the other guy run over the lady with the stolen SUV.

The only scene people weren't laughing at was when the white cop sexually assaults Terrance Howard's wife.

Even the scene where Sandra Bullock berates her husband for allowing Michael Pena to change the lock on their doors got laughs.

And I'm sitting there wondering at first if it was just nervous laughter, but after a while it became clear it wasn't.

A dude literally got up after the film was paused to say how funny he found the call center operator scene.

I was stunned.

And then when it hit me that this was a room full of mostly white people who are going into law enforcement I was angry.

I'm not sure how this class is going to go throughout the entire semester, but holy shit does this tell me a lot about the type of people for whom law enforcement is an attractive career field.

And I'm genuinely worried about what could be done to change things. If law enforcement attracts people who find racism funny, how is it ever going to not be an inherently racist institution?