America has a police issue.
The police are massively overfunded compared to education, social work, and other projects of public benefit to the American populace. This results in militarized units of racist, violent, poorly trained cops who operate from positions of fear and have an uncanny knack for disproportionately killing black people.
All of which is to say, it’s time to defund the police, and when we finally do, a lot of cops will probably be out of work. Normally joblessness isn’t a cause for celebration, but when the jobs in question entail continually committing war crimes against peaceful protestors (and yes, tear gas really is banned by under the Geneva Convention and so constitutes a war crime), they can go f*ck themselves.
But this begs the question: What’s the best way to tell a no-good, dirty cop that his abhorrent behavior is going to cost him his job and that he can, in fact, go f*ck himself? Do you shout at him angrily like, “Hey, f*ck you, cop”? Or do you whisper it softly in his ear like, “Hey, you might think you got away with that thing you did, but your entire career is a ticking time bomb now, buster.”
If you’re Johnniqua Charles, you go with the third option—an impromptu song and dance.
After attempting to retrieve her forgotten purse from a gentlemen’s club that had just closed up for the night, Charles was detained by a security guard who seemingly misunderstood her intent. Her response instantly became a viral sensation.
“Why are you detaining me?” she shouts at the guard with a hint of musicality in her voice. And then, hands still held behind her back, Charles starts dancing.
“You about to lose yo job, get this dance,” she sings. “You about to lose yo job cuz you are detaining me for nothing.” Charles continues in this vein, singing and dancing and, amazingly, creating a really solid beat. The guard tries his best not to lose his composure, but he can’t stop the smirk from dawning on his face.
Apparently the cops came afterwards and let Charles go, and at least for her, the incident was almost forgotten.
But the security guard, Julius Locklear (who did not lose his job), retained his colleague’s camera footage of the encounter, and realizing that he was sitting on a pile of Internet gold, he released the video on Facebook.
“Okay IM NOT POSTING THIS TO BE FUNNY TOWARDS THIS SUBJECT!!!!” he wrote, “I’m posting it cause that rap was lit 😂😂😂😂😂 like I wish I could put a beat to it lol.”
Soon, Charles’ clapback had been picked up by Remix God Suede, who gave the video a proper beat. And just like that, “You About to Lose Yo Job” spread everywhere.
Honestly, it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time, both for Charles herself and for America.
Buzzfeed News caught up with Charles in a recent article detailing how she had been homeless, addicted to drugs, and estranged from her family prior to her video going viral. But after the video’s massive online success, Charles’s family tracked her down and took her back in with the aim of giving her the help she needed. The video also brought new financial opportunities for Charles, including “You About to Lose Yo Job” t-shirts and a Gofundme set up by her sister in order to help provide proper resources on her path to recovery.
“I’m just overwhelmed, and I’m such a humble person [that] to see that, it’s just amazing to me,” she said. “I’m just glad that it’s something so positive.”Charles’ sister, Andrea, added, “The only reason that the GoFundMe and those platforms were created were people were begging to donate to her. Once I made her Instagram, people were flooding in, saying, ‘How can I bless her? She just blessed my day so much. She just made my day.’ So the only reason it was created was so people could bless her life.”
Charles concluded, “Other people keep telling me I helped them so much, but they don’t understand — nobody understands — how much this video going viral like this is helping me, because it’s giving me the breakthrough I so badly needed for so long.”
For America, too, “You About to Lose Yo Job” strikes a deep chord. It’s hilarious, sure, but it also gives a succinct voice to the overwhelming desires of protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. For far too long, cops have abused their power while operating with immunity. Enough is enough. It’s time to dismantle the system, and there’s no reason that the system can’t be dismantled with a song in our hearts. So to all the corrupt cops out there, in the words of the great Johnniqua Charles: “You about to lose you job.”
