‘White people can get away with things that black people can’t.’
That’s the theory that comedian Jessie Kahnweiler set out to test anyway, wondering whether her race is an automatic ‘Get out of jail free’ card. .
Watch her attempt to get arrested as she tries to deal antidepressants to police officers, play basketball in a public fountain and strip naked in the street.
Having a one-woman pool party might not seem so terrible but this month a US officer was suspended for pulling a gun on black teenagers in their swimsuits, something many claimed was racially motivated.
Watch her video as she high-fives officers, hugs random sheriffs and propositions the mayor whether he would like to open up his relationship.
When she asks a sheriff if he’d like to buy some antidepressants, he’s unmoved. Instead of bundling her into a police van, he just remarks: ‘You know that’s illegal, right? Those are prescribed drugs.’
One older man she speaks to says of course white privilege exists, claiming police beat him up once just because they noticed him running.
The experiment may not be double blind tested to avoid bias in data collection, but Jessie’s still posting on YouTube and doesn’t seem to be in jail yet so draw your own conclusions.
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