Joyner Lucas " i'm not racist " divides opinion about racism

Music is a good way of expressing yourself, which is what the American rapper Joyner Lucas has done by examining the gap between white and black people in America. Joyner Lucas argues for both sides by playing the role of a white man at the beggining of the video and then playing the role of a black man until the end of the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43gm3CJePn0

Description of the video

 

 At the beggining of the video you can see a white man wearing a cap which says « make America great again » and his first phrase is « With all due respect, I don't have pity for you black n*ggas, that's the way I feel ». During the whole verse, he expresses the frustation of his white family, by confronting a young African-American who himself is marked by the suffering of a community oppressed for no reason. He uses the word « n*ggas » and then tries to justify his reactions by saying « I’m not racist, my sister’s boyfriend is black ». 

Until the end of this verse, tensions are growing. The white man continues with his racist phrases « Maybe we should build a wall to keep the Mexicans out », « Bunch of class clowns, n*ggas kneelin' on the field, that's a flag down, how dare you try to make demands for this money ? You gon' show us some respect, you gon' stand for this country, n*gger !» and with all these phrases you think the video is going to end with a fight but, fortunately, at the end of his verse he says « I'm not racist, but there's two sides to every story, I wish that I knew yours », and then giving a chance for the Afro-American to express himself.

The beginning of the second verse starts with « With all disrespect, I don't really like you white motherf*ckers, that's just where I'm at », he explains the meaning of the « n*gger » word for black people : « when we use it, we know that's just how we greet each other », then he explains why white people shouldn’t say it : « when you use it, we know there's a double meaning under ». He talks about slavery and how it affects him « And even if I wasn't picking cotton physically, that don't mean I'm not affected by the history, my grandmama was a slave, that sh*t gets to me ». Slavery was abolished in 1865, which was not that long ago and we can understand why people still talk about it because they had family members who were slaves. Most of the time they are talking about grandmothers and grandfathers.

He denounces police officers being racist « I can't even drive without the cops tryna start sh*t », « get stopped by the cops and not know if you about to die or not », this phrase is a reference to « the shooting of Philando Castle ». On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black American, was killed by a police officer because he said he had a gun in his car. He was shot seven times and the family of the victim decided to prosecute the police officer but, during court the verdict was not guilty. Until the end of the second verse the black man defends himself by answering the remarks made by the white man and finishes his verse with « there's two sides to every story and now you know mine ».

 The discussion ends with a compassionate hug between the two people and a message appears  saying « we were all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us and wealth classified us ». This phrase is for me an excellent way to present misunderstandings and interculturalism in the world and gives us guidelines on how we could live in a more peaceful world.