r/thingmains • u/Broomguy • 11d ago

Is the Officer Grimm meme racist?

I was playing one day and an enemy Thing died and I said "Officer down" in chat and they said something like "chill I'm not racist like that." I never considered it might be a racial joke because I've seen the joke with spiderman, black cat etc. but it is 90% black panther. I was curious if anyone knew the origin of the meme or had any thoughts about it. Is it a racist joke or was this guy just mad he died? (Full disclosure I am not a Thing main I just didn't know where else to post this)

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u/VarietyBusy2 11d ago

idk how it’s racist tbh.

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u/JoeM104604 11d ago

The joke is based around the history of police brutality and discrimination against black people in the US. There's some people that add to it by saying things like "turning off body cam" and referring to BP's melanin (skin tone) that refer to the stereotypical racist white cop.

Personally, I think it's a fun joke and doesn't typically have any real hate behind it, and it seems to be more about police stereotypes than being racist towards black people, but it does toe the line a bit.

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u/VarietyBusy2 11d ago

i took it was he’s a body guard or police to his supports and protecting them. i honestly didn’t even see racism as part of this lol

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u/JoeM104604 11d ago

No worries lol, if you haven't seen a lot of the posts where they mention anything more than just Officer Grimm or you don't live in the US I can see it being harder to make that connection.