I think they've watched too many "uplifting" movies about pre-Civil Rights racism...you know, that movie where the black character(s) always maintain their grace, dignity, and commitment to non-violence even when overtly racist white people shit on them every chance they get... https://twitter.com/LeaundraRoss/status/1302685580195659780

Then, after the black character(s) have spent 90-120 mins proving they deserve equality, the overtly racist white character(s) arbitrarily decides that the black person has "earned" their respect. And they often demonstrate this respect by (reluctantly) extending their hand...

Which the black character(s) never hesitate to shake. The music swells, subtitles which list the black character(s) subsequent achievements appear, the credits roll, and, if you're ripe for emotional manipulation, you wipe tears out of your eye...

I FUCKING HATE THAT!!!

One, it leads too many naive white people to buy into the "if black people just changed their ways" line of argument that puts the onus for American racism on its victims, not its perpetrators. Two, if black people see these films often enough, it might lead them to accept...

The rigid rules of "respectability politics" which in turn can lead them to victim-blame other black people who aren't so "respectable." Or, equally bad, lead them to lean into, rather than resist and dismantle, the systemic oppression that hurts them, too...

But what pisses me off most is that these (utterly inappropriate) happy endings is that they don't reflect reality AT ALL. The only ppl racist white ppl hate more than incompetent/lazy black people are highly competent hardworking black people. The best way, by far, to...

Get racist white people to hate black people is to destroy their carefully constructed justifications for their racism.

Hollywood needs to (1) hire black writers who know what's up or (2) stop telling these stories altogether.