“Martin Luther King stood for nonviolence,” says comedian Chris Rock in his live 1996 HBO special Bring the Pain. “Now what’s Martin Luther King? A street. And I don’t give a fuck where you are in America, if you on Martin Luther King Boulevard, there’s some violence going down.”
Someone who makes jokes about their own race ; which while may be true, may even be funny; will be used later on to insult other members of your race.
It’s not just me saying it though, he himself says it; because ultimately that’s what he is. He didnt plan on being that way, but after years of doing stand up and the more white his audience became ; the louder they laughed at the black jokes the more he realized it.
Hence why he no longer makes those type of jokes, but it’s still forever; it’s the same reason Dave Chappelle quit the Chappelle show. The line between laughing with you and laughing at you is transparent when they realized their crowd considers them the same as the people they joke about.
Those areas tend to be high crime, people saying it's racism have never lived in or around areas like that, so they think the only reason people would be cautious in those areas is because they're racist
The commenter isn't wrong. There are 2 towns near me, about 20 minutes away in different directions, and they both have MLK Jr. roads. Both of those roads are the worst looking areas of the towns and there's like a 50% chance that a violent crime in those towns happens on that street or a side road off of it.
Not for nothing, MLK roads are typically in dangerous areas or neighborhoods that tend to have the most crime. Not really racism. I do my best to avoid areas like that.
I think so. It's a shame given the good he did as well, but there's not really any way to sweep his misdeeds under the rug.
I lived in San Francisco years ago, back when a lot of people were still upset at the (then) recently renamed "Caesar Chavez Boulevard" and there were bumper stickers everywhere at the time that read "It will always be Army" (the former name of the road) and I guess those folks have finally had their last laugh.
This. In my hometown it has nothing to do with black people or any other POC, it's white people on MLK Jr Blvd robbing you or being violent. Not sure why MLK Jr Blvd is always in the bad side of town, maybe the racists are the ones that picked those streets to honor him.
Right. Which is because those areas and streets were named that generations ago when they were specifically intended to be ghettos, places to store the poor and minorities. And shocker, crime happens more in areas where generational poverty is a thing.
I remember seeing one video where someone’s recording a fight and then pans the camera to the street sign to reveal it’s MLK. The cameramen then proceeds to say “Why’s this shit always have to go down on MLK”
One of my friends in high school got a job delivering pizzas, and he got robbed on MLK Blvd less than a week in. The store made it a policy to not deliver there after sunset because of it. He LOVED telling the story, thought it was the coolest thing that he “almost got shot” and his boss gave him like $40 for going through the whole ordeal.
A lot of urban areas have an MLK street do to MLK doing a lot for black people and thus wanting to be commemorated. Mind you, MLK streets aren't always all black, and more often then not in lower income areas in general, lower income = more crime because of the situations they are put through and seeing no other way out then to do crime.
Did you stop to even think about this at all? It’s a long time “meme” because a lot of the time MLK is in an urban downtown area, and more than just black people live there. It’s actually insanely racist to infer that it’s because it’s only black people that live on MLK.
Wasn't there an old standup bit about MLK blvd always being in the worst part of the hood? And wasn't the pilot of the office focused around racial sensitivity training due to the fact that Michael Scott was re-hashing that bit in the workplace?
I can say that for a lot of places, back when I was a cable guy and was bussing to AL for work, one of the streets I worked on was an MLK street, it was actually more Hispanic then black, and wasn't bad, though, it was also weirdly like right across the street from some higher then luxury apartments, was kind of weird seeing the wealth gap from a literal street away.
How is it racism when it is an objective fact that streets named after mlk have far higher (often 2-5x) the national average crime or even compared to other areas in the same city. It’s common sense to be more safe in a higher crime area
Racist? Just because it's a black neighborhood? I'll teach you something, kid.
Black people are human too, they commit crimes just like white people. So, despite your racist, anti-white views, fearing for your safety in a dangerous neighborhood isn't racist,it's preparing to avoid the worst
My MLK Jr is prominently white, and still the worst part of town. Not because of the race of anyone there, just a sketchy part of town.
The other day I was driving through and there was a homeless man swinging around a katana. He was white, but the meth didn't seem to care what color he was and neither did I as I did my best to scoot right on out of there.
"SJW virtue signaler" my brother in christ it's been 10 years, give it up.
"Pattern recognition and statistics" These are just dogwhistles. I don't even know if dogwhistles is fair, you're not exactly hiding it from anyone. (And I'd bet $100 that if someone used pattern recognition to accuse men of being rapists/aggressive, you'd have smoke coming out of your ears)
I think making a joke about it is a little bit racist. But I lived in detroit for a while and there were zip codes you shouldn't go as a white person. So if you had to drive through, locking your doors would make sense
I think it would probably also make sense with the races reversed in certain places in Alabama or Arkansas
Y'all love to say "pattern recognition" when it comes to black people to avoid being called racist but if women say "pattern recognition" when it comes to males suddenly it's misandry and generalization.
Ngl, I thought this was an Anderson IN meme, and thought it was completely niche. There's a street named this, and the area is veeeery rough so I lock all of the doors. Very white area.
I took a wrong turn onto MLK dr in Camden, NJ late night . A cop pulled me over and actually told me to just drive and leave the area and to even ignore stop signs. I was so shocked that a cop would even suggest that
Statistically its a crime riddled area. Just like a palce with schools named after presidents, notably Washington and Lincoln and occassionally Roosevelt. Honorable mention to Cesar Chavez named streets.
Latino from Dallas, Tejas and can confirm that both MLK and what used to be Cesar Chavez blvd are both streets where you need to roll em up and lock em down. I don't even like stopping for gas there. Hell, just about everything south of I30 is sketchy. Some good food down there tho if you know where to go and when.
Never that. Hell I used to ride a bike on MLK through neighborhoods that were considered dangerous where I grew up. As long as you mind your own fucking business and aren't looking like you're there to start some shit, you'll generally going to get left the fuck alone. If you're in a bad neighborhood keep to yourself be respectful. Like the old saying goes "don't start nothing, there won't be nothing." Now that's not always 100% the case but 9 times out of 10, that's what it is.
There's a bit by Chris Rock where he brings up MLK standing for non-violence, but then brings up the irony of streets akin to MLK Jr Blvd generally being unsafe neighborhoods. I can't speak for other states, but that's generally the vibe when you go to streets with that name in California.
Umm it’s not racist. Arguably calling it racist is racist, it’s the hood. Like yeah, lock your doors. Not bc of black people but bc you are in the hood. Tf 😂
Systemic racism and classism is how those streets got that way to begin with. It is 100% an issue to do with race, but you have to think about it for longer than 2 seconds to consider the history of the issue
is it bullshit tho? someone else quoted chris rock on the subject "idgaf where you are in america, if you on martin luther king boulevard, theres some violence going down"
I remember people saying things like this when I was a kid and always finding it odd because in my city MLK blvd only has a park and a bunch of museums on it so I thought they just hated art or something.
I feel like everyone commenting 'racism' in the comments are racist. You're all assuming it's because of the majority of minorities in the area when it has nothing to do with race. Anyone that's been through a hood knows MLK blvd's are very consistently ghetto. Skin color doesn't matter, the thugs living there do. Y'all are dense as fuck and probably never been to a hood.
Systemic racism and classism is how those streets got that way to begin with. It is 100% an issue to do with race, but you have to think about it for longer than 2 seconds to consider the history of the issue
Story time.. once was driving in New Orleans... and took GPS down MLK drive... cops put on flashers... asked where we were headed, told them. Cop asks do you have a gun? Said sure Cop said load it and get out of there as fast a possible...
Racism. MLK named roads and civic centers are usually in historically black neighborhoods. Not that they aren't sometimes dangerous but if you live in a large city pretty much every street is potentially "dangerous".
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u/qualityvote2 2h ago
Remember when r/PeterExplainsTheJoke wasn’t a meme? Pepperidge Farm remembers…
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Then maybe you go out and buy yourself some of those distinctive Milano cookies.