Current Events
Black Hollywood actress 'detained,' cuffed as a prostitute for kissing white husband in public
Comes now from the “kissing while black” department, Hollywood star Daniele Watts (Django Unchained and the TV show Partners) was recently “detained,” handcuffed and thrown into the back of an L.A. police cruiser for publicly kissing her white husband.
Unfortunately for Watts, L.A.'s finest only know one way to react when an interracial couple displays affection for each other – assume that he is a “trick” and she is a prostitute. At least, that was the rationale given by the police for accosting Watts and her husband, as reported by Mic.com.
This high-profile case of racial profiling occurred not in the deep dark ghettoes of New York or Chicago, but in the middle of the glitter of tinsel town – Los Angeles' hallowed enclave known as Studio City. According to Watts and her husband, Brian James Lucas, two police officers mistook them for a prostitute and client as they lip-locked on the street.
It didn't help matters, though, that Watts refused to produce identification when the cops began questioning her. She was then promptly handcuffed and placed in the back of their car as they tried to find out exactly who she was. She was released shortly thereafter.
Watts describes her ordeal much better than I can on her Facebook page. I reproduce it in its entirety below:
When the officer arrived, I was standing on the sidewalk by a tree. I was talking to my father on my cell phone. I knew that I had done nothing wrong, that I wasn’t harming anyone, so I walked away.
A few minutes later, I was still talking to my dad when 2 different police officers accosted me and forced me into handcuffs.
As I was sitting in the back of the police car, I remembered the countless times my father came home frustrated or humiliated by the cops when he had done nothing wrong. I felt his shame, his anger, and my own feelings of frustration for existing in a world where I have allowed myself to believe that “authority figures” could control my BEING … my ability to BE!!!!!!!
I was sitting in that back of this cop car, filled with adrenaline, my wrist bleeding in pain, and it occurred to me, that even there, I STILL HAD POWER OVER MY OWN SPIRIT.
Those cops could not stop me from expressing myself. They could not stop the cathartic tears and rage from flowing out of me. They could not force me to feel bad about myself. Yes, they had control over my physical body, but not my emotions. My feelings. My spirit was, and still is FREE.
I will continue to look any “authority figure” in the eye without fear. NO POLICE OFFICER OR GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL IS MORE POWERFUL THAN ME. WE ARE EQUALS. I KNOW THAT I WILL ALWAYS BE FREE BECAUSE THAT IS THE NATURE OF MY SPIRIT.
Watts played CoCo in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained and currently co-stars with Martin Lawrence in Partners.
Watts' husband, Lucas, had this to say on Facebook. “Today, Daniele Watts & I were accosted by police officers after showing our affection publicly. From the questions that he asked me as D was already on her phone with her dad, I could tell that whoever called on us (including the officers), saw a tatted RAWKer white boy and a hot bootie shorted black girl and thought we were a HO (prostitute) & a TRICK (client).”
Think about this ladies. Being accused of prostitution because you kissed your husband in public. The expression on this woman's face says it all. Utter humiliation and degredation...the final realization that she really is not considered fully human by whole segments -- millions upon millions of people -- in this nation-state.
Opinion
As the personal property of white men for hundreds of years, it has taken an almost equal amount of time for these rulers of the world to adjust to the ever-changing dispensation – that women (white, black and otherwise) are no longer their personal possessions.
With very few but spectacular exceptions, it was not until the late '60s when the minuscule number of black actresses in Hollywood were allowed to play any roles other than:
These cops probably figured that if he wasn't a trick, he was probably her pimp. In the cops' minds, the absolute last two things these people could be were a possible "legitmate" boyfriend/girlfriend duo, -- and certainly not a married couple.
But the point here is not these two peoples' relationship. It is the assumptions about and the “liberties” taken with black women's bodies:
The rape.
The working-them-like-a-mule.
The rape.
The forcing them to deny their own children in favor of yours.
The rape.
Making her man ... her black man,
And sometimes ... her children
watch.
The rape.
References
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/09/lapd_confuses_black_actress_for_prostitute.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr%3Acontent%26
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/daniele-watts-arrested-django-unchained-actress-detained-in-los-angeles-after-being-mistaken-for-a-prostitute-9731871.html
http://reason.com/blog/2014/09/13/black-actress-daniele-watts-handcuffed-d
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/django-unchained-actress-daniele-watts-handcuffed-by-police-after-kissing-white-husband-1465388
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2755113/Django-Unchained-actress-claims-handcuffed-detained-police-mistaken-prostitute-kissed-husband.html
Unfortunately for Watts, L.A.'s finest only know one way to react when an interracial couple displays affection for each other – assume that he is a “trick” and she is a prostitute. At least, that was the rationale given by the police for accosting Watts and her husband, as reported by Mic.com.
This high-profile case of racial profiling occurred not in the deep dark ghettoes of New York or Chicago, but in the middle of the glitter of tinsel town – Los Angeles' hallowed enclave known as Studio City. According to Watts and her husband, Brian James Lucas, two police officers mistook them for a prostitute and client as they lip-locked on the street.
It didn't help matters, though, that Watts refused to produce identification when the cops began questioning her. She was then promptly handcuffed and placed in the back of their car as they tried to find out exactly who she was. She was released shortly thereafter.
Watts describes her ordeal much better than I can on her Facebook page. I reproduce it in its entirety below:
When the officer arrived, I was standing on the sidewalk by a tree. I was talking to my father on my cell phone. I knew that I had done nothing wrong, that I wasn’t harming anyone, so I walked away.
A few minutes later, I was still talking to my dad when 2 different police officers accosted me and forced me into handcuffs.
As I was sitting in the back of the police car, I remembered the countless times my father came home frustrated or humiliated by the cops when he had done nothing wrong. I felt his shame, his anger, and my own feelings of frustration for existing in a world where I have allowed myself to believe that “authority figures” could control my BEING … my ability to BE!!!!!!!
I was sitting in that back of this cop car, filled with adrenaline, my wrist bleeding in pain, and it occurred to me, that even there, I STILL HAD POWER OVER MY OWN SPIRIT.
Those cops could not stop me from expressing myself. They could not stop the cathartic tears and rage from flowing out of me. They could not force me to feel bad about myself. Yes, they had control over my physical body, but not my emotions. My feelings. My spirit was, and still is FREE.
I will continue to look any “authority figure” in the eye without fear. NO POLICE OFFICER OR GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL IS MORE POWERFUL THAN ME. WE ARE EQUALS. I KNOW THAT I WILL ALWAYS BE FREE BECAUSE THAT IS THE NATURE OF MY SPIRIT.
Watts played CoCo in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained and currently co-stars with Martin Lawrence in Partners.
Watts' husband, Lucas, had this to say on Facebook. “Today, Daniele Watts & I were accosted by police officers after showing our affection publicly. From the questions that he asked me as D was already on her phone with her dad, I could tell that whoever called on us (including the officers), saw a tatted RAWKer white boy and a hot bootie shorted black girl and thought we were a HO (prostitute) & a TRICK (client).”
Think about this ladies. Being accused of prostitution because you kissed your husband in public. The expression on this woman's face says it all. Utter humiliation and degredation...the final realization that she really is not considered fully human by whole segments -- millions upon millions of people -- in this nation-state.
Opinion
As the personal property of white men for hundreds of years, it has taken an almost equal amount of time for these rulers of the world to adjust to the ever-changing dispensation – that women (white, black and otherwise) are no longer their personal possessions.
With very few but spectacular exceptions, it was not until the late '60s when the minuscule number of black actresses in Hollywood were allowed to play any roles other than:
- • Loyal maids to white women,
- • Buxom “mammies” and nannies to white children,
- • Conniving, loud and devious Jezebels,
- • Incessant brow beaters of their depressed black husbands (“Amos & Andy's 'Sapphire'), or
- • The default role of the ubiquitous, sex-obsessed and promiscuous prostitute.
These cops probably figured that if he wasn't a trick, he was probably her pimp. In the cops' minds, the absolute last two things these people could be were a possible "legitmate" boyfriend/girlfriend duo, -- and certainly not a married couple.
But the point here is not these two peoples' relationship. It is the assumptions about and the “liberties” taken with black women's bodies:
The rape.
The working-them-like-a-mule.
The rape.
The forcing them to deny their own children in favor of yours.
The rape.
Making her man ... her black man,
And sometimes ... her children
watch.
The rape.
References
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/09/lapd_confuses_black_actress_for_prostitute.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr%3Acontent%26
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/daniele-watts-arrested-django-unchained-actress-detained-in-los-angeles-after-being-mistaken-for-a-prostitute-9731871.html
http://reason.com/blog/2014/09/13/black-actress-daniele-watts-handcuffed-d
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/django-unchained-actress-daniele-watts-handcuffed-by-police-after-kissing-white-husband-1465388
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2755113/Django-Unchained-actress-claims-handcuffed-detained-police-mistaken-prostitute-kissed-husband.html
