this completely fails to set off any of mine. In fact, I'm having a hard time even seeing why they should be tripped for other people.

I will say, seeing a black man with guns in his hand surrounded by tense cops is -- alarming. I expected him to be shot basically on sight, not arrested peacefully. Just the staging of that scene seemed to undercut its own intent: we're supposed to go "yay, caught" because we like Sam & Dean, but the tableaux that was presented me did not result in a yay. I got caught up in that moment in the social significance of it, and sudden fear for Gordon, and forgot the narrative significance.

It also bugs me whenever people speak of the human race, because, it's confusing and anyway 'species' is my word-choice, but I'm aware that I canna dictate words for all peoples, and anyway hinterlands people-of-action would probably choose that word no matter what I told them.

I could not tell you what the races of the cops were beyond about the first one or two shown. When Gordon went down on his knees, I wasn't pinged enough to check.

Now, had this been a remotely socially edgy show, and/or one created/written/produced by black folk, my pump would more likely have been primed.

Perhaps I'm too Pollyanna, but the idea of a guilty black man merely arrested by law-abiding white cops isn't remote enough to me for me to be jolted just by that.

Gordon starting to talk shit, one of the cops being depicted as overly aggressive...yeah, Supernatural could take me down that path.

But they didn't.

It was clearly the non-lethal way to take him out of the picture that I didn't give it a second thought. Five years ago...I can't say. But I have had a huge amount more exposure to cops (including white ones) and in the same way a black guy ranting about "racial" purity doesn't do me any way, neither does the idea of cops actually doing their jobs.

Nutty, your first paragraph just nailed it for me.

Then how does he plan to survive? Self defense is okay, I wager.

Escape and evade? I think he's sure enough of his own abilities to stay out of Dean's way. And I also think, in Gordon's head, giving Dean a fair shot and time to come around and see sense this time makes taking him out in self defense more acceptable, should it come to that.

I can't believe I'm the law abiding can't we all get along person in this scenario.

However, I just worked out why Cecilia (Simon and Garfunkel, natch) was on loop through my head, so perhaps I don't deserve a voice.

However, I just worked out why Cecilia (Simon and Garfunkel, natch) was on loop through my head, so perhaps I don't deserve a voice.

Is that my fault?

oops

hey, does anyone know how long it takes for eps to show up on Itunes? I bought a season pass, and they still don't have the demonic possession ep up yet.

It's doubly Lee's fault!

I've been primed to look at everything on Supernatural through a socially-aware lens, since I started complaining last season about how it was an all-boy universe. The woman quotient (and more importantly, the woman neither screamy-helpless nor Evil quotient) has gone way up, but, it's hard for me to turn off my reality-meter now it's on.

Like, I watched Buffy for seven years able to ignore or hand-wave serious social-reality phenomena, but, it's harder for me to do that now. If only Supernatural were funnier!!

FWIW, I too noted there was a non-white cop in the background of the arrest scene.

it's hard for me to turn off my reality-meter now it's on.

As long as they keep battling demons in their own mythology, it's not something I have a problem with.

I'm just...I'm just not an apologist. I swear to god. I have no particular fondness for the people who produce the show. It's just that I, from a politically and racially charged background, would have to work to lay an offensive template over some of the things to which people are reacting viscerally. There's a little voice in the back of my head asking "I bet those coonin' minstrelsy performers were grateful for the money too," but that's the best I can do with skepticism.

Gordon, to me, was primarily just a guy. There are things the text could have done to raise my eyebrows, but he wasn't punished by the patriarchy for sleeping with a white woman, nor prevented from eating/sitting/drinking outside of where he was allowed, nor strung up by a group of white men. He wasn't portrayed as particularly stupid (just plot-required stupid), cowardly, or lazy. He was portrayed as a guy who wasn't even going to pay for all the crimes he'd committed, probably. Just a lawbreaker arrested. Just a guy.

And, fuck it, I'm glad the actor got the gig. Go him. It's a role written without much shading, but he's working the hell out of that bitch. And I can't imagine the role was written with race in mind.

::jubilation/I'm down on my knees/I'm begging you please..::

Yeah, need to get that out of my head.

eta:

I too noted there was a non-white cop in the background of the arrest scene.

Does this affect anyone's discomfort, those of you who were bothered?

I didn't see him/her. I saw COPS. (Not the TV show.) They were uniforms and weapons, not people at all. (Really, as befits a bunch of extras acting as a plot device.)

I agree, that Gordon has the potential to be a [non-racially-significant] Guy. We've got enough backstory on him to be tantalized and speculative about his emo pain; he wears a cowboy hat; he seems very interested in Dean's approval. He's nearly to that level of personhood that the vast majority of guest-stars don't even attempt. Just that one scene freaked me out, really. It's hard for me to watch that scene and not apply reality-context.