Ill. Police Handout Criticized As Racist
On one page, comedian Dave Chappelle appears as Tyrone Biggums, the stumbling junkie with crack residue around his mouth. On other pages of an official North Chicago Police handout, a smiling African American man is handcuffed in an orange prison jumpsuit and another is portrayed as bug-eyed and slack-jawed in a mugshot.
Dave Chappelle's Tyrone Biggums character. Screenshot via YouTube.
On one page, comedian Dave Chappelle appears as Tyrone Biggums, the stumbling junkie with crack residue around his mouth.
On other pages of an official North Chicago Police handout, a smiling African American man is handcuffed in an orange prison jumpsuit and another is portrayed as bug-eyed and slack-jawed in a mugshot. The handout—given to participants of the new North Chicago Citizen Police Academy last week—was intended to illustrate trial procedures. It had a much different effect.
Waukegan activist Ralph Peterson called the handout "outrageous." Jennifer Witherspoon, president of the NAACP's Lake County branch, said the handout reinforces "every negative stereotype blacks as a people have been fighting against."
Read the full Chicago Sun-Times story.
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