Kal Penn Disappoints Legions Of Fans By Supporting Stop-And-Frisk

Penn's tweets in support of Stop-and-Frisk have confused and angered a multitude of his fans, including me. Here's what I think about the situation.

Credit: Robert Trachtenberg, CBS / Via imdb.com

You know, one thing I've learned with this whole Trayvon Martin issue is that when a watershed moment like this happens, the real sides of people come out. You might think you really know someone--even if they're a celebrity you've never met before--but once something momentous happens, then you get to see what really goes on in their heads. Case-in-point: Kal Penn.

If you talked to most people who are aware of Kal Penn and asked them if they thought he would support a discriminatory thing like stop-and-frisk, most people would say, "Of course he wouldn't." Reasons for thinking this would range from his being involved in stoner humor, working for President Obama of all people, and because he seems like a person who would see the deep and troubling social implications embedded in such a practice. We all thought wrong, then.

Penn took to Twitter recently to voice his displeasure at the Supreme Court finding New York's stop-and-frisk policy unconstitutional. One of his first tweets about it, "...It's a good policy. Sad to see such activist judges ruling against public safety," isn't what boils my blood. I've heard that sort of thing before from people. It's a standard statement to expect, irritatingly enough. What really gets me is when someone tweets him that black and brown youth are the main ones getting stopped-and-frisked, and his response was:

"and who, sadly, commits & are victims of the most crimes?"

WHAT?!

Look, if I went into explaining exactly why this response is HORRIBLE would take me years, so let me just put it in this short blurb:

The poverty that many black and brown people experience, which leads some to crime, is from a broken society and government that was developed by white landowners who didn't view such people as "people." Because the government and, frankly, the country, wasn't built to properly accommodate and support minorities, they have been thrown to the wayside, starting from slavery through sharecropping, living in the projects, and now not being able to find a job in a terrible economy. There are a lot of minorities who have upstanding jobs, are activists, and do good for their communities. But, there are just as many that have to take low-paying, menial jobs that are basically like modern-day sharecropping. There are tons of young people who feel like the country doesn't want them, so they decide to do something to get some kind of capital and respect. Sometimes this involves selling drugs or gang wars or something that then makes people who don't understand label everyone in that minority group as "savages." Some people say that education will solve some of these problems, but education is only the tippy-top of the iceberg when it comes to solving the various disparities between the races. Stop-and-frisk CERTAINLY doesn't stop anything because it only creates a greater rift between the police force and the people they are sworn to protect--too many times, the police end up stopping the wrong people based on personal biases.

And, at one point, Penn himself was against racial profiling when it came to him being profiled at the airport. Excuse me, Penn--YOU GETTING PROFILED IS THE SAME THING AS BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE GETTING PROFILED BY THE POLICE! So is it okay for Indians to not be profiled but for other minorities to be profiled?

Needless to say, Penn has gotten some serious flack from what he tweeted, especially from comedian/activist Hari Kondabolu, who tweeted Penn several times. One of his tweets read:

"@kalpenn, is Barack Obama your only black friend?"

Another read:

"@kalpenn read Du Bois' "Souls of Black Folk" & @vijayprashad's "Karma of Brown Folk" & let me know if you want me to draft an apology"

In any case, I'm hoping with the major magazine sites and outlets talking about Penn's crazy reversal of opinion (and his fear of possibly losing droves of fans), he'll come out and release a statement as to what he means (as if these tweets aren't clear enough).