Foxx believes that we can’t begin to heal before one side of this equation comes to grips with its racism. Comparing the mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado, and Tucson, Arizona — both of which involved armed-and-dangerous White perpetrators who were not taken down with lethal force by police — to the cases of Garner and Brown, the actor feels that the truth is hiding in plain sight.
“What was the infraction?” he asks, rhetorically. “Guy selling cigarettes — he ends up dead. Guy was jaywalking — he ends up dead. Now, is it something going on with the way police are trained? Look at the kid who was in Aurora, Colorado, who came in and sprayed and killed 12 people. How many times did they shoot him? They didn’t shoot him — they just apprehended him. He just murdered 12 people. [It’s the] same with the other kid who was 23 years old, who murdered six people. They apprehended him.”
Foxx says that he would love to see some kind of honest town hall meeting, during which Black youth and White cops could sit face-to-face; but it would require that White cops be honest about their racism — and Jamie Foxx doesn’t seem to believe that they are ready to do that.
“What that tells me, is we have to have an uncomfortable conversation about race,” the star says. “I know I can say ‘when I see a police officer I get nervous.’ And I’m Jamie Foxx. As soon as they stop me, I tell ‘em, ‘You know I’m panicking. I’m nervous. Tell me what to do.’ But can a police officer say ‘I’m afraid of every Black person I see?’ Or ‘I don’t like that Black person?’ Can we really have that conversation?”
Story by Stereo Williams
Images by Sony/Columbia Pictures
