90's Black Sitcoms Warned Us | Renegade Cut 

I feel that even with the full context it is wrong. Because it is not the other apples that are spoiling the bunch; rather, it is the barrel holding the apples.

Thank you! It annoys me so much that people forget that.

I think they realize it, they just think that they can unspoil the bunch by removing the bad ones, which isn't how apples or police work.

@@Garland41 I like to say "The orchard and it's trees are diseased."

Let's be fair, they think they can ignore the bad apples because they don't matter and there will always be bad apples. That it's just an unavoidable condition.

@@scapegoatmiller9110 I really need to finally watch that movie. Never heard of that aspect being in there.

@@MrSoopSA Iran-Contra. This is why I hate the CIA and the Bush family. At least, Reagan was in hospital (supposedly) while it happened...

Prescott Bush was a fascist, by the way.

Yeah, as a teen, I moved from a majority Black school to a majority white school on a scholarship, and the difference in how the police treated each student body was really stark. The school I moved to had a really big drug problem, but there were never police around the campus and there wasn't really any kind of community policing. The few people I knew who did ever run into trouble at that school were the few students of colour or white students (like me) who were migrants or children of migrants who "sounded" or "looked" foreign

@@bigooft9521 I had the opposite experience. When I started attending all white suburban schools I was surprised about the police presence and zero tolerance policies. Fights and violence was normal in my prior inner city schools and mostly went unpunished. Typically no one was arrested unless weapons were involved, but it was the exact opposite in the suburbs. There was at least a police liaison in the suburban schools while my prior schools had private unarmed and armed security. In general the suburban schools came down a lot harder for everything and things tended to follow you which didn't happen as much when you were just a head in the crowd.

ye I can agree to that! Had a similiar expierence growing up

@the jack only after I know someone for awhile and they know what I'm about. The look on their face after I tell them is interesting.

@the jack I'm on the lower end of middle class and I've never been able to explain it to people who think differently. I told them about how I get profiled for the way I dress and I think because of my poor social skills and they tell me about how that is justified. idk. I got questioned by police because I went to a park in a rich neighborhood. They asked us why we wouldn't go to a park in our own neighborhood and implied that we should leave.

That's a class issue not a system of police issue. Everyone targets those beneath them regardless of profession

@@robertogurrola7465 that's why we want police to have less power and fix the community through non lethal efforts. We want to fix the root of the problem, but can't do that when police abuse that power

Same disillusionment happened after WWII when African American war heroes came home to a racist nation after fighting against another racist regime. That's part of why the Civil Rights movement happened.

@@21centuryg This is why black people should not join the military/navy. Not only do we deal with racism here in the "united states" but we deal with it when we serve a country that never accepted us from the very beginning.

​@@qurranreynolds4385I heard a street free style on TikTok not too long ago from a black dude who's name I didn't get who was formerly in the Marines and that shit was so fucking brutally honest. I don't remember the rhyme he used but he made the point of being thanked for his service while he was in uniform by the same white men who would justify his murder and call him a thug if he was killed by a cop in his own front yard with his hands up and that shit stuck with me.

Not just another,the have state power

I'm Brazilian so my experience is different but here the police became literal militias in some places, some areas are controlled by them, people have to pay for "protection" and services, so at least to my experience, it can become the thing it is trying to combat.

He is sadly right. -Chicago native

The WORST gang.

Which I've been saying that since the 90s

That is an amazing analogy.

Yeah, I've seen stories of cops trying to do the right thing getting punished for it. There *are* cops who try to be fair and good, but they end up getting chased out.

Better Call Saul addresses this as well through Mike Ermentrout's back story.

Well, the full idiom is "a few bad apples spoil the bunch, so it's actually saying the same thing. Conservatives are just stupid.

Exactly, apologists love the "only a few bad apples" line but forget another apple idiom, "one bad apple ruins the bunch." It's not just a problem with individual cops, when bad cops are allowed to exist it means the whole system is flawed.

tbh i respectfully argue at every cop now who pulls me over with no cause. i do it to let them know i'm not scared because the one time i showed fear they tried to search my car and they said my license plate light was out but it wasn't.

@@amokdax1125 please be careful

Right

@@amokdax1125 please be careful. All it takes is one cop with a vendetta to end up in the hospital or a casket.

This truth is heartbreaking. I appreciate you laying it out.

It's the same thing in the Netherlands with black people but honestly it's even weirder here and it baffles me to some extent. Our two biggest minority groups are from our former colonies, which were Indonesia and some countries and islands in the Caribbean. The reasons and time when there were big migrations from there to the Netherlands differ because for example Suriname and Indonesia gained their independence in different decades, but as someone from an Indonesian family with friends from Surinam families, I can see how similar they are. They're both cultures around the tropics that were colonized by the same country for centuries and similar mixing of cultures has taken place. But now here comes the kicker: black people from former Dutch territories are treated WAY worse than Indonesians. I should really look this up because it's so bizarre. Indonesians are really regarded as fully Dutch, even though they had a way bumpier ride integrating when they first came here, while people from Suriname are not. They absolutely get racially profiled, there was a big thing not so long ago about one of our most famous rappers who is black and whose parents are from Suriname, and he was pulled over just because he was black and driving an expensive car (you know, because he's rich as shit from his extremely succesful rapping carreer). That would never happen to a person with an Indonesian background. There's also still a huge problem with all kinds of systemic discrimination against Turkish and Moroccan people, but that's easier to explain, because they come from people specifically invited to come work here when we had worker shortages and were not supposed to stay for very long but you know how it goes. But they had their entirely different cultures and they've only been here for like 3 generations, in contrast to Suriname and Indonesia where their and the Dutch culture had been mixing for centuries. It's a very interesting puzzle to see how all these things work differently in different countries and circumstances.

The reality is that not many people know about African culture or Africa so they often base their assumptions off the slave trader's point of view. Africa is often seen as a continent that is ravaged by strife with little influence on the world stage thus those of African descent don't get taken seriously by many. Indonesia has political and economical power, if the Netherlands does something that discriminates against the Indonesian community there will be a backlash.

Deep bro. Big truths

The AWFUL treatment of darker skinned, indigenous & aboriginal peoples is worldwide. It has infected this entire globe. If the so called white or “almost white” people want to help, y’all must call it out and tell your ilk to stop their oppression of us. It’s that simple.

I'm Haitian living in the US, thank you for sharing

Would have been "gunned down by a senseless gang attack" or suddenly found with a trunk full of coke then Epsteined after being arrested.

Gotta love double standards.

So is a taser Lethal when a Cop uses it, and not Lethal when a guy steals it?

@@tanith117 Nope. It's the other way around.

Reminder that American cops break Geneva convention laws every single day when they load their weapons from the state with state purchased hollow points. Because it can't be a war crime if it's against citizens of your own freaking country, apparently.

As a white kid from the midlands who loved the fresh prince I remember that episode being a powerful one. I'm amazed at how many people don't know about the Rodney King beating to this day, it was on telly loads at the time and really affected me as a kid.

Interactions with the police are fatal much less often in Britain, that's true, but there's still plenty of instances of black people ending up dead after interactions with the police. Christopher Alder, Smiley Culture, Cynthia Jarrett, Mark Duggan, Sheku Bayoh.

Yeah and they don’t believe you belong in “nice” neighborhoods it’s bullshit.

@D. A-Y Productions London is one of the most if not the most one of the most multicultural cities ever. In my neighbourhood we have loads and loads of whites, some blacks and chinese Asians, those of the Indian subcontinent and some Jews.

I live in Germany, and while profiling is an issue (especially with people who look muslim, but also for blacks), it is nowhere near the levels of the US. Still, the Fresh Prince episode seemed spot on to me when I saw it as a young teenager. Germany had enough of the same problems that I could relate and at the same time be disgusted by the dimensions this issue has in the US. This was easily the show's episode that stuck with me the most over the years and probably the only one I can really think off when I try to remember any of the plots in greater detail.

Yes, and it only keeps the bunch unspoiled if every “bad apple” is removed, along with any farming practices that produce “bad apples” are changed. I know this is a bit literal for the phrase, but when applied to law enforcement I think it’s applicable.

Keep in mind, the "bad apples" is usually a strawman more than an actual argument. It's only used by people defending police due to the extreme similarity and the rough double standard that is racism. Fact is if I said a few bad apples spoiled the whole bunch about black people, you'd call me racist and be done with it. Why is it suddenly acceptable to say about the police, because they chose to protect and serve?

if the market you're buying apples from consistently sells you bunches of apples with rotten fruit, and excuses that _oh well the rest are fine_ maybe you gotta shut down and reform that whole foods

@@SherrifOfNottingham because they absolutely DO NOT protect or serve the public, only themselves.

It's also used to deflect from actually addressing systemic problems, like it will get better if we just ignore the problem.

That's how it is here in the US.

that's the funny thing here in Argentina. Most police members come from poor backgrounds. I think it's worth a particular analisis.

Also known for squeezing bribes out of people, truly the city's finest

@@meinthecorner5979 It was a similar situation in South Africa where a majority of the population was black, Apartheid had members of the black community working as police who helped to uphold that system for years. If a member of an oppressed community can bypass that system early enough in their life by getting a "good" job they can sometimes convince themselves that it doesn't exist and that they are doing nothing wrong.

@@fighterck6241 I still remember that photo of the guys at the academy and their instructor

Lol right? As though media exists in a vacuum and isn't affected by current events or the experiences of it's creators.

TheMightyShell don’t forget All In The Family. No politics there!

Television has been used as a political device since it's inception.

There is no such thing as apolitical. There never was. People just have a way of not-seeing politics that they agree with.

Blair Buskirk Media has been used as a political device since it’s inception. Regardless of the form.

oh shit

And also that neighbor harassed his daughter for a decade....this show hadn't aged well

And he just walked into their house, uninvited...

STEVE

@@tanyavs1 oh wow that show hasn't aged well. As soon as this video started, knowing how thoroughly researched these videos generally are I thought to myself "he's going to say something about Family Matters."

You could almost say, a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.

WHOOOOOOO thats that fire bro PREACH!!!!!

People on the spectrum are discriminated against all their lives

This doesn't get talked about enough and is a huge part of the reason that cops need tons of more training if we have to keep them around.

Of course butt the idea behind specifically black shows is it doesn’t require the small degree of “commitment “ other genres kinda require: You might have to invest in a rap album for that source or coincidentally tune in when a black comic or movie is showing on television whereas a typically weekly show is leagues more likely for one to tune in as a source of (a) black perspective(s) on a multitude of topics especially policing & profiling thereof|

Facts

But how can we believe you when you are so uhhh black? Jk but there is a weird/sus amount of propoganda/media/discourse saying poc are liars.

What that other guy said You gotta like certain music or like a certain comedian and such in other cases But with a sitcom it's usually just something you'd stick on idly in the morning while you're doing something It will come on passively Or will have before the internete

"black *everything"* made me think of Pharrell saying " black tie, black suit, black black black black" or w/e at the Lion King premiere lol

Even most Americans didn't know about the Tulsa massacre. It was buried because of course it fucking was. Can't have blatant racism make headlines right after WW1.

People who live in Tulsa, Oklahoma were not taught the Tulsa Massacre and state history is required in most secondary schools in the U.S. They’ve worked diligently to hide years of oppression and cruelty inflicted on nonwhite persons in the U.S. They don’t want to acknowledge the hurt they inflict by building over Black cemeteries or desecrating of Native American land.

Yeah Australians don’t even cover their own genocides they don’t have time to cover others

"to be even more crazy religious" I didn't really get how true this was even as an American atheist in the "Bible belt" at that, until I saw the queen biopic when one of the guys says something along the lines of "what do you expect, it's America, a nation founded by puritans" or something of that nature. I was like....fuck dude, the fact that we're not too far off from the days of burning women for "being witches" is extremely depressing....especially when you then realize that the "satanic panic" legit ruined several lives just over 40 years ago, and that alot of it was started by an overly religious woman who would literally go on to be diagnosed with schizophrenia. Cannot make this shit up, and it is truly embarrassing.

Funny, that's the only one of these I never heard of. I watched all the others but they never managed to pierce my casual racism. My family tended not to watch anything, 'too black,' so I just had the other stuff and Family Matters.

Are you in support of malcom x or are you not?

Facts. So underrated

Roc was ground breaking show depicted low middle class Black experience. I still remember the eps In they talked about the H.W Bush, Clinton & Perot election. That definitely didn’t shy away from stories on serious issues.

"Roc" was real. It was "The Wire" of 90s sitcoms.

It's not misconduct, it's the job. This was what they were always meant to do. Historically speaking, the institution of policing cannot be corrected, it can only be ended.

Ignored? Ignored by who?

I think you may have a point, it would be very difficult to collect quality data on this but I suspect not being held down by work as allowed some the time to analyse and reflect.

Not working and working from home (which may allow more flexibility) has absolutely freed people to participate in protests. The pandemic itself has also brought into focus systemic inequality that has to have contributed to the moment.

That, and people being agitated and scared of losing income and worries about making ends meet. It's a perfect storm.

Correct, the material conditions for a proletarian uprising have been met in the wake of mass unemployment under covid. Many people are being radicalized daily. We are building towards a people's revolution.

Very true. And what's also fueling these protests is the extreme economic conditions we're finding ourselves in and the fact that our entire government (including the entire democratic party, who have only enriched themselves in this pandemic) is going above and beyond to maximize the damage done to the working class. All political leaders have grown silent and become entirely irrelevant and ineffective (including Bernie Sanders). We are all we have left. Evictions are going to be starting up in the next few weeks, and we're all readying ourselves for a great depression that will inevitably be magnitudes worse than the previous depression. Suffering hasn't even begun yet and society is feeling the dread. On top of that you have illegal wars that dwarf the Vietnam war in cruelty and suffering, all to enrich our oligarchs who crush us (Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, the list of illegal wars continues). Riots and protests were inevitable. And thank god for them, it's time we dismantle this sham country that pretends to be a democracy. Starting with dismantling the state's dogs, the cops. Voting will do nothing. Direct action is our only path forward. People are seeing that now..

I'm so sorry that happend to you. I remember cops just making stuff worst any time someone call them to stop some fight or when searching for drugs. Im not black, but they are so violent when checking on poor neighborhoods.

That's terrible. I remember jaywalking with a black friend. An unmarked cop car pulls up, and the cop gets out and starts getting up in the face of my friend. I tell him it was my idea to jaywalk. The cop just tells me to shut up and continues screaming in the face of my friend. He said that he'd haul his ass to jail if he saw it again. This was in the suburbs. His family was way richer than mine, and just like you, he was a skinny nerd who was not intimidating at all. If it's not too much to ask for, I'd like to hear the aftermath of your story. Did you get taken to jail? How long did it take to get out?

A Van Called Rupert yeah but regardless of them also targeting working class white people, black people, no matter your social class, are always going to be a target & i’m speaking from experience of living in the UK

you don't need to be black to deal with shitty cop.. and i was a son of a cop.. trust me when power getting over their head.. they become dick..

That's by design. Hello 👋 we see you.

Still doesn't stop them. I heard this from a report. They said, the only thing a camera does is put your death or incident in HD. Cops are still getting off with lying 🤥. Cameras won't stop them. It's just giving them something else to explain away.

Those shows used what is called sweetener which is used in accordance with the laughs from the studio audience but all those shows were done in front of actual audiences. They still use live studio audiences to this day too and while it's not the heyday of the family sitcom, they still exist to a smaller degree.

Yet, the whole 🌎 😪 is still afraid of us 🇺🇸 😕 😔 😪 😞 😢

Paper Mario you’re right. People here get belligerent and even proud of their ignorance. Its maddening.

When you're at the top of the heap there's really no motivation to shake up the status quo for the benefit of the people at the bottom. It's wrong but that's just how it seems to work in the US.

That's just not true. Structures of power don't last hundreds of years on a well informed electorate... there's a reason why police lie, and why there is so much money in a propaganda system to keep the majority of the electorate from finding out the truth... it works. You can only see something that is in front of you, to be seen, and there is a lot of money spent keeping it from being seen by many people. You can't fairly judge people for not knowing what they have never been exposed to.

Where did you get that profile pic?

Probably shouldn't be admitting this but my own dad who by all accounts was truthfully kinda pretty racist at times started to come around to cops bullshit towards the end of his life. Of course having gone to prison himself and having mixed grandbabies later in life probably softened his prejudice a little bit but still. You know it's fucked when even a formerly pretty racist dude starts to see that there's something even EXTRA fucked up with the way cops treat black people.

I SHOT A KID!

No one is saying Black women and children don't face police brutality, but no where near as much as Black men

@@moniqueloomis9772 Says years of hard backed data and stats in context. Get off it.

His name was Duncan Lemp. If you think that your skin color is a shield against the state’s goons I have a beach front property in Arizona to sell you.

@@v78michel You have just proved what a lot of black women have been thinking/saying about Black Lives Matter Movement, it's only for black men. Thank you!

Preach!

I think it was Will who was hospitalized after getting shot

wolfmantheimpaler You’re right, it was Will. They’re being robbed at an ATM, when Carlton reaches for his wallet and it makes the robber jumpy. He fires a shot at Carlton but Will steps in front and takes it instead. Later on, Carlton gets a gun and brings it to the hospital, where Will persuades him to hand it over. Very good episode (that is put in motion all because Will knocked over and broke a lantern that Carlton was going to take camping).

Carlton was incredibly lucky to have avoided that treatment for so long.

George Carlin had a stand up bit that was banned where he called racist thugs used by the rich to keep Poors in line.

You meant since slavery. Police were used to catch run away slaves

Incorrect. The information has always been there for everyone to see. This isn't new. This is just an old issue with a new name.

Theres also the Mothers Day/Dept Store episode where the security guards overdo racial profiling to the point that the one white security guard get suspicious of his black coworker.

I remember an episode where Chris and his brother were presumed missing by their parents (can't remember what they were doing but the situation was that they took longer than usual come home). Chris' mother calls 911 and gives their descriptions and hangs up rest assured something will be done, but when Chris' father hears what she did he insists she calls 911 again but this time to tell the dispatcher their sons are white. *Immediately* she hangs up there's a knock at the door and it's two police officers saying they're responding to a call about two missing white boys.

Prison guards are a whole 'nother level of in-human.

Fuck that sounds like shit you'd expect of crazy movie mafioso.

Trips me out that numerous psychiatric studies and experiments have proven that these types of "professions", tend to attract the worst and often times most prejudiced types of people yet when they get caught fucking up there are still simps who will scream about how "ItS jUsT oNe BaD aPpLe!"

Exactly. Like they think that because they are apathetic about police violence that PoC and Blk ppl should be as well as to not make them uncomfortable.

Family matters is different because they were a pure network assembly line production. The show itself was a spin off of Perfect Strangers, the mom on family matters was an elevator operator on perfect strangers.

@@caperknight Woah, didn't know that. That's pretty interesting actually!

I love Family Matters.

@@caperknight The entire ABC sitcom lineup eventually crossed over directly or indirectly. Steve on full house, boy meets world and Sabrina, etc. Some solid links in the whole Tommy Westfall theory.

I'm pretty sure Urkel was there from the beginning.

​@@MrSoopSA Maybe Trump's tantrum about mail-in voting being illegitimate will be remembered by the many conservatives who can't make it to the polls for whatever reason. Who knows, it might even offset the voter suppression. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm 72, boomer leftist, have noticed my conservative compatriots are far more likely to get fired up to vote while liberals get apathetic and lethargic. Had so much hope for change, quick change, 50 years ago; and hope again more recently with younger generations, but ... they vote. We outnumber them, we don't see the perfect candidate, we don't vote, they do vote, politics drifts right/authoritarian, next candidates are less perfect, I see/hear younger "voters" saying they'll not vote "in protest". And of course blaming Boomers while doing the same goddamn thing. Vote! Covid 19 risks and voter "fraud" hoops be jumped, please vote. please

🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

💯

Yeah bro

yeah, and sadly, racial profiling is a thing too fuego a la yuta 🔥

Family Matters was actually a pretty good show, when it focused on the Winslows. Then they dumbed it down and turned it into the Urkel show. It's the same thing that happened to "Good Times" as they shifted away from James (the father) to JJ (the son).

What exactly are you trying to say there Mr. Goblin. trying to re enforce a certain stereotype. yeh Urkel was bad but Sonic was cool.

@@lainiwakura1776 the show basically became wish fulfillment for multiple sectors of society. I've seen fanfic that was more realistic. Also life for black nerds like me in the 90s was so shit because of that show.

People don't talk about this enough. I absolutely hate Urkel's character for this very reason now.

Somsnosa I think it’s always sunny is mocking incels like Charlie who pesters the waitress.

No, it's just an expression.

If I had to guess I'd think the rise of reality tv was to blame; fewer sitcoms were produced in the 00s so executives were likely much more picky about what was being made.

@@seanhenderson5996 I think this is what made Black-ish so impactful. It was a bit of a wasteland for black sitcoms by this point and especially sitcoms on network TV which would talk about well...the black experience

@@seanhenderson5996 that is very true.

Thank the gods that it wasn’t *three*. Although being able to sing 5 or 6 by Rush would have worked as Make-up.

Same here. But I knew he would. He kept spamming that city skyline from the intro throughout.

Me too; as soon as he started talking about cop characters, I was like, "Oh he's DEFINITELY building up to Family Matters."

Share it on reddit!

I've been pulled over several times. Twice for speeding, once for driving without headlights, once in a roadblock. The time with my headlights, my license and inspection sticker were expired and I didn't have proof of insurance. During the roadblock, me and my friends had literally just thrown out a smoking blunt and had two ounces of weed and I had no license on me. My car HAD to smell. I only ever got one speeding ticket and never feared for my life. Three times out of four, the cops laughed cause I was panicking. One cop raised his voice because I was going twenty mph over the speed limit but he still let me off with a warning. Rather than recognize this as preferential treatment, I assumed black people were exaggerating to make white people feel guilty. 😬

@@scapegoatmiller9110 I think one of the reasons my husband wants to accompany me to doctor's appointments is to show that a WHITE man is MARRIED to me so that I am valued more as a patient.

YES!

True, but there were significantly more black sitcoms in the 90s than in the 70s, which means more potential exposure to non-black audiences.

I've been a black my whole life 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Can people stop being black ?

Agreed. This particular episode of Fresh Prince shaped my awareness for those issues just like the music of Public Enemy and N.W.A I listened to frequently that time. There is still a long way to go and a lot of things to do to reach justice and peace. Art can be a efficient weapon to reach that goals and it's the weapon of my choice.

Their defence is "white people get shot, too", which is them basically making your point for you... 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Once they say that, I know they're delusional...

@@chaospudding ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart - Manic Street Preachers, 1994

"That ain't no damn puppy. "

Different reasons. Remember that US police forces are partially self-funding: The fines go straight back to the police. So the incentive for the police is to focus their efforts on either the really high-profile crimes that make the news, or the crimes which are a quick-and-cheap conviction and a lucrative fine - traffic and drugs offenses. A speed trap is really just a money-farm to the police: You just pick a good spot to set it up, and wait for the fines to flow in. The best place is at the bottom of a hill, as drivers will pick up a bit of speed on the way down.

Prisons aren't privatized in my country, but the cops still have quotas to fill. A friend of mine's a cop and he sometimes warns me: "Don't do anything stupid the next few weeks, our quota deadline's coming up and everyone's making up for lost time" he also told me that they're specifically briefed to keep an eye out for "High Risk Demographics" (minorities, expensive cars) and "Demographical Anomalies" (minorities DRIVING expensive cars)

Yep I learned that in 8th grade and thought it was fishy then