Replacing smoke detector batteries is White Supremacy

[ChloeTzang]

I'm fairly certain everyone, regardless of race, have heard or dealt with that beeping.

I'd like to think so.

 

[glamorilla]

my dad used to change the batteries for us.

 

[ll74]

I'd like to think so.

So basically this is just going to be another meme thread..... As if we don't have enough of those already.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Apparently this was a meme back in the 90's and early 00's, too. Especially on Loveline, the radio show where teens and young people called in to discuss relationship problems. The callers often had smoke detectors with low batteries periodically going off in the background. It was so common, Loveline had a reoccurring bit where one of the hosts would make the caller shut up so they could time the beeps and predict them. The host would often joke that a lizard in a cage would try to kill itself if it was subjected to the beeping, but their callers somehow managed to ignore it.

It's a stereotype/meme people have noticed about black Americans, mostly due to recent technologies such as TikTok and Zoom encouraging them to film and show the conditions inside their own homes on livestreams. The black people in question do not seem to even notice the beep, which contrasts to many viewer's/listener's experiences of being driven mad by a smoke detector beep in their own lives. It's become one of those "once you see it you can't unsee it" things, though in this case it's more "hear it".

The stereotype picked up on right-wing Twitter a few months ago after some people noticed the connections in videos, but it's been around for a fair while.

Discourse in recent days has mostly derived from this tweet, which shows an interview with a black man who recently won an enormous amount of money due to disparate impact law and him failing a teacher's exam repeatedly:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1681112378606329856

The commentary on the tweet throws in "as he's interviewed, his smoke detector chirps 3 times".

RW commentary has begun to mock the smoke alarm beeps or chirps wherever they appear in general.

• Twitter posters will quote-tweet videos with black people in them, with the only commentary being the exact timestamps the smoke alarm chirp happens
• Some posters refer to the smoke alarm chirping as "ceiling birds", claiming that black people's homes have unique ecology that lends itself to a mysterious species nesting there
• There's been a joke Jordan Peele movie poster created
• 
  
• Smoke alarms chirping in black homes has been noticed in more mainstream press too - the move to remote learning in Washington DC was interrupted by incessant beeping from the student's video feeds. It was so bad a fire department program was launched to try and fix it.
• the funniest example was a rapper accidentally including smoke alarm beeps in the background of his vocal track he probably recorded at home. All that expensive equipment, no desire to pay a couple of dollars for a new smoke alarm battery.)

The KnowYourMeme article is fairly comprehensive.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/smoke-detector-beeping

 

[ChloeTzang]

my dad used to change the batteries for us.

The first time it happened to me and I was home by myself I just cut the wires

 

[ChloeTzang]

It takes an extremely RACIST amount of discipline and structure to change your batteries every year.

LOL. It's a toughie. I have to admit, I failed the first time. I couldn't figure it out and the beeping was driving me nuts so I cut the ceiling bird loose and let it fly.....my granddad just looked at me and shook his head and then showed me the batteries.....

 

[ChloeTzang]

I think I needed this course

 

[ChloeTzang]

When you hear the ceiling bird chirp....

 

[glamorilla]

Maybe if we stuck a few of these on store entrances it could prevent looting.

 

[Bn2f]

 

[glamorilla]

View attachment 2467276

I suck cocks for fun.

 

[Bn2f]

I suck cocks for fun.

Yes. I know. And you’re also black, remember?

 

[glamorilla]

Yes. I know. And you’re also black, remember?

do you?

 

[Wat_Tyler]

If you live in apartments and the maintenances can hear the chirps from your unit, they can legally let themselves in to fix it without your approval or knowledge. So if you don't want motherfuckers in your apartment because reasons, make sure the damned things are quiet.


If you take the damned things down and they still chirp, putting them in a container of water will drown them. It'll also kill them.

 

[glamorilla]

If you live in apartments and the maintenances can hear the chirps from your unit, they can legally let themselves in to fix it without your approval or knowledge. So if you don't want motherfuckers in your apartment because reasons, make sure the damned things are quiet.


If you take the damned things down and they still chirp, putting them in a container of water will drown them. It'll also kill them.

my downstairs neighbor has a pothead friend staying with him so they disabled the smoke alarm so it wouldn't go off...

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Hey Chloe, maybe you should do a thread on Fun Facts About Indoor Plumbing, too. I have stories.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

my downstairs neighbor has a pothead friend staying with him so they disabled the smoke alarm hoping so it wouldn't go off...

The newer ones seem to be more sensitive. Bad cooking (frying stuff) will upset the noisy little bastards, too.

 

[Bn2f]

If you live in apartments and the maintenances can hear the chirps from your unit, they can legally let themselves in to fix it without your approval or knowledge. So if you don't want motherfuckers in your apartment because reasons, make sure the damned things are quiet.


If you take the damned things down and they still chirp, putting them in a container of water will drown them. It'll also kill them.

FINALLY!!!

Something good from you that I can appreciate!

Yall here on the PB really need to listen to the advice this longtime tenant of a 1 room, 1 sink, 1 toilet apartment over the garage of an elderly lady feeling charitable to a homeless man has to say!

 

[glamorilla]

If you live in apartments and the maintenances can hear the chirps from your unit, they can legally let themselves in to fix it without your approval or knowledge. So if you don't want motherfuckers in your apartment because reasons, make sure the damned things are quiet.


If you take the damned things down and they still chirp, putting them in a container of water will drown them. It'll also kill them.

this also works for communists.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

this also works for communists.

Smoke detectors will sink on their own. Communists require ballast.

 

[Bn2f]

 

[glamorilla]

Smoke detectors will sink on their own. Communists require ballast.

he's a good kid but terribly naive. when he first moved in he asked me when the landlord will come by to change his light bulbs and I had to explain to him that was his responsibility. I get there's a learning curve when you're starting out on your own but this guy is like 25...

 

[Wat_Tyler]

he's a good kid but terribly naive. when he first moved in he asked me when the landlord will come by to change his light bulbs and I had to explain to him that was his responsibility. I get there's a learning curve when you're starting out on your own but this guy is like 25...

Yep, I get that. Then again, they don't know what they don't know until they know. Of course, I've seen/heard them in their 40s asking for light bulbs.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Next, I reckon we can "discuss" fire extinguishers.

 

[Rebel5soul]

I had to go to Home Depot this AM to pick up a few things. When I got to check out I whipped out my "White Supremacy" card and demanded a 50% discount...................................they called security.