“Your Black Friend”: An Animated Short

Written and narrated by Ben Passmore, and animated by Krystal Downs & Alex Krokus of Doggo; this animated short highlights the wounding results of silence as complicity.

In Passmore’s own words:

Your Black Friend was based off a real incident where a lady bragged about calling the police on a man who was walking out of the backyard of a house that seemed "too nice" to be his according to the lady. unlike the comic, I flashed out on her.

— Ben Passmore (@DAYGLOAYHOLE) January 24, 2018

and by "flashed out" I mean I calmly and politely suggested that if she was afraid of black people she should move away from New Orleans, a majority black city, instead of putting us in danger.

— Ben Passmore (@DAYGLOAYHOLE) January 24, 2018

some people have asked why You Black Friend in the comic doesn't just speak up about his various frustrations, even tho I explain why in the comic.

— Ben Passmore (@DAYGLOAYHOLE) January 24, 2018

Part of what I wanted to illustrate is the disparity of stakes for black people that appear "angry," the math equation we do in our heads. I'm probably notoriously out spoken when it comes to racism but it makes sense why people choose to chill on flashing out most of the time.

— Ben Passmore (@DAYGLOAYHOLE) January 24, 2018

Not acting out of fear of making things awkward is but one of the routes white people can take on the path to avoiding responsibility for their participation in racism. At whose expense is this false sense of equilibrium maintained?

What do you think? For me, it brought up reminders of the common occurrence of being mistaken for another Black person, and the potentially lethal consequences of that.

Now that this comic is out, it has me thinking of how other narratives like a “Your  Black  Woman Friend”, or “Your Queer Black Friend” or Your Black Undocumented Friend”, among others would be similar, or different to this one for both in-group and out-group perspectives.

Does the experience in the video sound familiar to you as a POC? Have you known, or been the barista as a white person?

Ubuntu,

From Aspiring Humanitarian, Relando Thompkins-Jones

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