Context: This is said after a policeman attacks a student on a college campus.
COCO: As soon as you double down on your blackness, they will double down on their bullshit… Who cares if you’re woke or not if you’re dead? (Ep. 6).
It’s a very interesting line and I can’t stop thinking about it after the whole wokeness discussion across the political spectrum.
Comments
The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.
Context: This is said after a policeman attacks a student on a college campus.
COCO: As soon as you double down on your blackness, they will double down on their bullshit… Who cares if you’re woke or not if you’re dead? (Ep. 6)
It’s a very interesting line and I can’t stop thinking about it after the whole wokeness discussion across the political spectrum.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I’m not sure what I’m really expected to take away from this quote other than that police will use more force against people they disagree with ideologically.
What do YOU take away from that quote?
I think it’s accurate. I dunno what else to say other than that.
I think it’s getting at the struggle between being authentic and wanting justice vs conforming and having a better chance at surviving. I’m sure it’s a tough thing to balance for most people, not everyone is able to be an activist and shouldn’t be expected to be.
I don’t remember the context from that episode. Which season was it?
That said, I took Coco’s character and most characters in that show as vehicles to focus on the wide range of injustices caused by racism and the different ways to respond/react to them. I imagine many minorities often have to answer a non-rhetorical version of Coco’s question for themselves.
I may be full of crap since I’m white and don’t experience racism from a black perspective. However, as a gay guy, I can see the tension between taking actions that are for basic survival versus taking actions for the LGBTQ+ as a whole. I like to think I’m selfless, but I’m sure upon self-reflection I’m sure I can come up with examples when I prioritized my own benefit or survival.
I mean, it’s the sort of thing that I became a public defender for. Cops treat poor people poorly. My jurisdiction was mostly White, so I saw it with a different demographic. But, it’s the same idea. Cops can get away with practically anything in this country.
I haven’t seen the show so I can’t speak to the context of the quote, but the words resonate.
Despite the (often valid) criticism against “woke movement” for some of its more cringe and unhealthy crap, I believe the strong rejection of “wokeness” is, at its core, a reaction to a paradigm shift that challenges the foundational hierarchies that have shaped our societal identities.
Bell Hooks wrote a book on black people and self-esteem called Rock My Soul. One of the subjects she touches on how generational racism trauma and shame have led to the black community accepting and even reinforcing the racial hierarchy that came about during Reconstruction -seeking equality and justice within the constraints of that structure rather than dismantling it.
People today are generally comfortable with this kind of social change. Calls for equality feel good, but attention drawn to the foundational inequality can be very uncomfortable. For example, the ‘color blind’ approach to race of the late 20th century was a feel good way to “move past” racism by ignoring people’s non-whiteness while mostly turning a blind eye to societal racial hierarchies. On the other hand, when black people start to challenge and reject the premise of the hierarchy altogether? Now that’s decidedly uncozy. Hence the bullshit.