'Grey’s Anatomy' showrunner shares Twitter thread about white privilege

Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff heads a medical drama that has been applauded for the diversity in its casting. As one of the few primetime shows to feature several Black main cast members, Grey’s Anatomy has spent 16 seasons depicting Black people as successful surgeons and layered, complicated and fully realized characters, a stark and infrequent reprieve from the typical ‘thugs and criminals’ or single token character on a major TV show. Now Vernoff is using her platform to show how she as a white person has been treated differently throughout her life because of the colour of her skin.In a thread posted to Twitter on June 15, Vernoff shares several instances from her youth when her actions could have landed her in jail or dead had she not been white. Starting when she was 15-years-old and was caught shop lifting, Vernoff runs through her list of crimes, or ‘mistakes,’ that never amounted to more than a few months of probation.

When I was 15, I was chased through a mall by police who were yelling “Stop thief!” I had thousands of dollars of stolen merchandise on me. I was caught, booked, sentenced to 6 months of probation, required to see a parole officer weekly. I was never even handcuffed.

THREAD:— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020

The officer laughed then asked my friends to blow and when one of them came up sober enough to drive, he let me move to the passenger seat of my car and go home with just a verbal warning.

— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020

Vernoff shares several stories about instances that occurred in her late teens and early 20s, including a time when she assaulted a man in front of police officers. The writer could have been tried as an adult and faced major repercussions but did not.[video_embed id='1977788']RELATED: Sasha Exeter, Jessica Mulroney and white privilege[/video_embed]

When I was 19, I got angry at a girl for flirting with my sister’s boyfriend and drunkenly attacked her in the middle of a party. I swung a gallon jug of water, full force, at her head. The police were never called.

— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020

The cop pulled me aside and said, “You don’t punch people in front of cops,” then laughed and said that if I ever joined the police force he’d like to have me as a partner. I was sent into my apartment and told to stay there.

— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020

Noting that she has no criminal record, Vernoff poses the question to her followers of whether they think she would have deserved to have been shot for any of her crimes. Touching on the recent death of Rayshard Brooks, the 27-year-old Atlanta man who was shot in the back and killed by police after falling asleep drunk in his car at a Wendy’s parking lot, Vernoff writes, “I’m asking the white people reading this to think about the crimes you’ve committed. (Note: You don't call them crimes. You and your parents call them mistakes.) Think of all the mistakes you’ve made that you were allowed to survive.”

The system that lets me live and murders Rayshard Brooks is a broken system that must change. Stop defending it. Demand the change. #BlackLivesMatter #WhitePrivilege #DefundPolice

— Krista Vernoff (@KristaVernoff) June 15, 2020

Many fans began sharing their own stories of times they committed crimes and were released with no mark on their record and no threat to the life. Director Ava DuVernay shared Vernoff’s tweet, calling it “one of the best threads on the criminalization of Black people that I’ve read lately.”

This is a white woman talking honestly about her experiences and its one of the best threads on the criminalization of Black people that I’ve read lately. https://t.co/l2AQJbB7I1

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) June 16, 2020

Filmmaker Qasim Basir shared his own thread, recalling all the times that he was harassed, arrested and fined for simply being Black or for petty crimes, like having an expired license.

At 13 I rode my bike to the store, came outside where there was a white man with a cop, said the bike was his son's. Cop put me in the back of his car while they checked. It wasn't his.

— Qasim Basir (@qasimabasir) June 4, 2020

Terri Kopp, a writer and producer on The Chi, creator of In Contempt and executive producer on Black Mafia Family, responded to Vernoff’s tweet with her own story. Koop acknowledges her own racist ideas, noting that oppression can even come from ‘well-meaning liberals.’

THREAD #2 – this one is for SHOWRUNNERS and UPPER LEVELS. A couple of years ago I was the #2 on a show. There was a Black female, staff writer, from L.A.. She didn’t talk like she went to an Ivy League school. She wasn’t code switching.

So I COULDN’T HEAR HER. 1/— Terri Kopp (@TerriKopp2it) June 12, 2020

And I realized what I was doing. And I started to ***listen to her.*** And she was fantastic. She had been the whole time.

**** THIS IS WHAT RACISM FROM WELL-MEANING LIBERALS IN THE WRITERS’ ROOM SOMETIMES LOOKS LIKE. ****— Terri Kopp (@TerriKopp2it) June 12, 2020

On Wednesday, it was announced that Garrett Rolfe, the officer who shot and killed Brooks, has been charged with felony murder and 10 additional charges. Prosecutors laid charges against Rolfe after reviewing eight videos taken of Brooks’ interaction with the police and his death. Second officer Devin Brosman also faces three charges, including aggravated assault, which he is being charged with for standing on Brooks’ shoulder after he was shot.[video_embed id='1978851']BEFORE YOU GO: Body Break’s Hal Johnson reveals racism he experienced in Canada’s media industry[/video_embed]