ABC/Lou Rocco(NEW YORK) — D.L. Hughley is a man on a mission. In his new book, How Not to Get Shot, the comedian and radio host addresses racial profiling, police shootings and social injustices in America head-on, from a satirical perspective.
Hughley’s premise is that white people often give black people advice on how to assimilate into American society, lessons D.L. shares in his book in detail. For example, chapter one includes advice on how to deal with law enforcement. Hughley says society doesn’t hold police to the same standards that they do the average man — specifically, men and women of color.
“If me and you committed a crime together it was on video, the DA would point to a jury say, “Look at this video. That’s all you need to see. These are clear examples,'” he explains. “When they see a police officer, they go, ‘Well, we don’t know what happened before the tape.'”
Hughley says such examples help to illustrate the underlying message of his book, which is that everyone needs to be held accountable for their actions.
“Treating us like human beings. There should be accountability,” he says. “If you expect children to be accountable — what they say is, ‘You should teach your children to respect the police.’ So society’s reasonable explanation is that you teach children, who aren’t fully formed adults, to be more responsible than trained adults.”
Hughley continues, “Accountability. If I do something wrong my children are punished. I love them a lot, but they’re punished. When policemen do someone, they’re not.”
D.L. Hughley’s book How Not to Get Shot and Other Advice from White People is now available.
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