There’s a scene in Geeta Gandbhir’s harrowing documentary The Perfect Neighbor , in which a Marion County police officer asks Susan Lorincz, a white Floridian, if she has ever called her Black neighbor’s children “the n-word.” Lorincz seems confused by the question and immediately denies it. But she eventually concedes, acknowledging that maybe the word had “slipped out.” She claims she was taught to use the word when referring to people who were being “unlawful, dirty and generally unpleasant.”
‘It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley’ Review: Amy Berg Crafts a Stirring if Circumscribed Tribute to the Troubadour With the Voice of an Angel
That moment is instructive for a couple of reasons: It reveals how Lorincz, one of the principal subjects of Gandbhir’s documentary, thinks; and it clarifies why Stand Your Ground laws are dangerous in a country plagued by racism…