Essay 270

Friday facts, figures, funnyman and filmmakers with MultiCultClassics Minutes…

• Best Buy’s biased, according to a lawsuit filed by female and minority employees. The suit charges the retailer with enforcing “stereotypes that steer women, Latinos and African Americans into lower-paying jobs as cashiers and warehouse workers.” Best Buy’s slogan is “Get Yours.” Looks like the suing employees aim to do just that.

• A new Gallup poll shows 31 percent of Asians reported facing workplace discrimination. Blacks came in second place at 26 percent. The most frequent types of reported discrimination were sex bias (26 percent), racial bias (23 percent) and age bias (17 percent). The number of Whites who don’t give a shit about any of this remains steady at nearly 100 percent.

• Chris Rock’s sitcom is titled, “Everybody Hates Chris.” And now it appears the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doesn’t like him either, failing to extend an invitation to host the next Oscars telecast. Last year Rock joked, “You want Denzel [Washington] and all you can get is me? Wait.” Looks like the Academy voted to wait.

• A lawyer for the filmmaker cop who produced controversial videos (see Essay 269) is vigorously defending his client. Referring to a scene where a cop runs over a Black homeless woman with a squad car, the lawyer argued, “I think it’s anti-racist. I think it’s pro-understanding. First of all, I don’t know why that woman is homeless. I think some people are labeling her as homeless due to their own misconceptions that Black people who live in that area might be homeless. She is a nice, kind woman. That’s what I see when I watch that video.” Wonder what he saw while watching the Rodney King video.