For the second summer in a row I’ve had to make a comedy video about the tragedy of a black teenager being shot in America. Last summer I directed a video called, “Black NRA,” in response to the NRA’s reaction to the murder of Trayvon Martin. When we made that video I think we thought as a group, this is one of those rare national moments where we can make a difference and progress can come from something terrible.
Then Mike Brown was shot. Murdered. A police officer, meant to serve and protect, fired 10 shots at an unarmed soon-to-be college freshman. At first we weren’t going to comment on it. We prefer to stick to the rule, “If someone died, we don’t make jokes.”
But then Ferguson, a town I’d never heard of, became FERGUSON, a town I’ll never forget.
Thank god for the people of Ferguson. They stood in the streets for almost two weeks. The 24 hour news cycle wanted to ignore Mike Brown. Then the 24 hour news cycle wanted to move on from Mike Brown. But the people of Ferguson would not let the world ignore them. They wouldn’t let the world ignore Mike Brown. All of the Mike Browns.
“Hands up, don’t shoot.” I get chills writing it. I’ve never seen anything like it in my lifetime. I wrote my college thesis about the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. We are living in history.
The way that Black Americans are treated in this country is disgusting. It’s 2014. What are people scared of? How many black role models and leaders do we need in this world to realize that we’re all people?
Why is a white teenager a goofball when a black teenager is a threat? Why does a white man get a warning when a black man gets a jail sentence? Why do the police think they can kill black men without consequence?
The answer to that last question is simple. Because they can. They do it all the time and the world let’s it go. Well not this time. This time the people of Ferguson (and the many who travelled to Ferguson) made sure that they were heard.
That’s why I made “COPS : Ferguson”. I didn’t want to. My first reaction was, “Why do I have to make this video? I don’t want to do this again.” But when I said that to myself I realized that that was why we had to make the video. Because for the second straight summer a video like this was necessary. Because this keeps happening. The future of America keeps getting shot to death and I’m tired of it.
Our video is just one of many voices speaking on the issue of racial profiling and police militarization. And that’s all it’s meant to be. Just one of many.
If you have a voice, you should use it. And at Funny Or Die we have a big voice, so that’s what we’re doing. And we’re not doing it anonymously. I won’t speak for my co-writers and collaborators on these projects, but their names are in the credits and their faces are on the screen. These are people I’m proud to work with and stand beside. I’m proud that we are making a statement with our work and I hope it makes a difference. I also hope I never have to make a video like this ever again.
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