Bun B did some calling out on his Instagram page this week, but his words weren’t aimed at a rap adversary or someone he wants to challenge musically. He outed a couple of Houston, Texas police officers who seemingly got a kick out of a racist meme they saw.
Bun spoke with TMZ about it on Tuesday, July 7, and said he was told that the two officers who commented on that meme will be quickly disciplined.
Bun shared a screenshot of the Facebook posts on his Instagram page Monday, June 29. It was created by former Houston Police Department officer David Nguyen, who compared Black people to monkeys.
The Houston-born rapper also named HPD officers Tee Truong, who posted four laughing emojis under the racist image and Vuong Vu who hit the like button. Bun was able to capture the screenshot of both reactions.
“Ok officers #TeeTruong #VuongVu and #DavidNguyen…you think it’s funny comparing Black people to monkeys?” Bun captioned his post. “We know you work in Houston at the Westside Command Station. Let’s see what your commanders think about this. And the other Asians on this group chat in the comments? Keep that same energy. No apologies will do. Black people are tired being treated like animals!”
HPD’s Chief, Art Acevedo, said that Nguyen left the department a few days before he shared the post, according to ABC 13. Meanwhile, the officers who left comments under it are still employed, but maybe not for long.
“I’ve been told by the assistant police chief, deputy police chief, that they’re going to be dealing with this expeditiously,” Bun told the TMZ hosts.
He then explained why memes and racists acts seem to be growing in the United States within recent years, which he says has everything to do with Donald Trump.
“I’ve noticed that a lot of people have compromised their well-being, the jobs that they have, the communities they live in in order to pronounce their racism, to be bold about it,” said Bun. “I think a lot of them, to be quite honest, are looking at the actions and the words coming from our current White House administration, and they’ve been emboldened by the behavior and the actions taken by our president currently.”
“So with this new, I guess co-sign or greenlighting or dog-whistling, whatever you want to call it, people have activated their racism on a much larger scale,” he added.
There have been other racist social media posts by other Houston-area criminal justice personnel in in recent weeks.
Harris County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant T. Kributr was terminated on Friday, June 26, after calling Black people “Freaking animals [that] need to be put down” in a social media post.
Kaylynn Williford, a trial bureau chief from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, resigned from her position three days later after comparing people protesting for racial justice to Nazis.
But Bun believes this current time of racial tension has a silver lining because it forces Black people to demand equality.
“I feel like this conversation has been uncomfortable for a lot of people for many years,” he said. “It’s good to talk about uncomfortable things. That’s the only way you get past them and I feel like now that this conversation is being had, that we can finally address the deep levels of systemic racism that have existed in this country for hundreds of years.”
“It’s time to lay all the cards out on the table,” added Bun. “It’s time for people of color to demand what it is that they want, they need, and they feel they deserve from this country. And for people who don’t believe that we deserve it, it’s time for them to stand up as well, so we can point them out and hold them accountable.”
