Ice T explains sinister racial dog-whistling in 'Law & Order'

Ice T explains sinister racial dog-whistling in 'Law & Order'

*Dun Dun.*
July 30, 2020 10:40 a.m.
Latest Update August 4, 2020 8:16 a.m.
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Ice T knows how to have a long-lasting career. He was a pioneer in the early days of rap and hip hop with his solo rap career, he’s been the frontman of the heavy metal band Body Count for 30 years, and he’s been the star of Law & Order: SVU for 20 years. Talk about longevity. In that time, he’s seen it all, and going from “Cop Killer” (his song about police brutality that both President George HW Bush and VP Quayle denounced) to playing a cop on TV for two decades, he definitely has a unique perspective on systemic racism within the police force.Chatting with Jimmy Fallon for The Tonight Show on Wednesday night, Ice T, who just re-released his 2017 song “No Lives Matter,” explained that on Law & Order, and in real life, class and poverty play a huge role in how the police treat people.
“Let’s say Law & Order: we’ll say something like, ‘They’re from the Upper East Side, so tread lightly,’” he said via video-chat. “What we’re really saying is, ‘They have money and they can fight us.’ So if you go in the hood, treat them any kind of way because they can’t fight back.”Cue Law & Order *dun dun.*The coded language used in the show, he says, is informed by the way poverty and race compound in society, and points out that Jimmy himself probably will never understand that treatment. “So I think that if somebody pulls you over, Jimmy, they know who you are, they know you could cause issues and problems. They’re gonna treat you a little different than somebody who doesn’t have a dime. And they know that there’ll be no repercussions.”This inside look into the dog-whistling used in Law & Order comes on the heels of Ice T admitting that the show perhaps has “romanticized” the way cops are portrayed. Last month he told Page Six, “I am wearing Gucci. Mariska [Hargitay] is wearing designer clothes. Cops can’t afford to do that, so in a way, we romanticize that job when it’s not that romantic.”
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