Compton experiment: 2 white men try to get strangers to make them a home-cooked meal
Black churchgoers are still getting treated like science experiments even after Dylann Roof killed nine people
Sometimes Internet algorithms get my interests exactly right, and I end up thanking these stats for helping me to blow through my day by binge-watching a movie, a TV show, or buying or reserving a library book. Then there are other times that social media channels like YouTube will get it dead wrong. That would be the case of recommending that I watch a Discover Connection video (that I will not link) of two white men who showed up in Compton to try to get black people to invite them into their homes for a home-cooked meal.
From the comment section of this three-month-old video, it certainly sounds like these two entitled men thought it was cool to try to find someone to be Nell Carter from “Gimme a Break.” But after a solid five minutes, my blood was boiling — specifically when they showed up to a church.
Recommended Read: “Why are you rating black churches on Yelp? ~ Should churches receive travel reviews?”
While these two clapped like seals in T-shirts and shorts to the singing choir, I was picturing 21-year-old Dylann Roof, who showed up to Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2025. Claiming to be interested in a Bible study group, the parishioners welcomed him right in, handed him a Bible and a study sheet, and Roof was there for 45 minutes.
After closing prayer, he took out his gun, fired 74 rounds, told one praying parishioner to “shut up” and killed nine black people:
the Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton
Cynthia Hurd
Susie Jackson
Ethel Lee Lance
the Rev. Depayne Middleton-Doctor
the Rev. Clementa Pinckney
Tywanza Sanders
the Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr.
the Rev. Myra Thompson
In a separate incident in 2023, Jeffrey Harris, a 38-year-old white man from Ambridge, was blocked from entering Greater Dominion Church because it was at capacity. His response? He pointed his weapon at two women in the Pennsylvania church, trying to force his way in.
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With church hate crimes like this, I cannot for the life of me comprehend why these two desperate-for-click men thought it’d be fun to go to a church in Compton, California for their experiment. (Could they not get tickets to those ridiculous Compton guided tours to watch locals like museum exhibits?)
More importantly, was this same home-cooked meal experiment done with non-African-Americans? Would they have recorded a non-black waitress telling them how “dangerous” it is to go into those neighborhoods? And why did they not comprehend that they could’ve just paid for a meal at a black-owned restaurant that served food like someone in Compton may cook from home?