Kenya Barris is brilliant. Watching this shelved episode of 'Black-ish' that premiered on Hulu of all places after ABC refused to air it, and not on Netflix where 'Black AF' made its debut was a little odd. After watching the episode, I fully understand why ABC shelved it, and I believe Kenya is winning because he was ahead of his time. ABC isn't ready, and will never be ready for this level of truth, maybe this is why Kenya took his talents to Netflix in the first place. This episode was shot in November of 2017 and scheduled to air in February of 2018. ABC decided the episode was "too political for the network" and opted to air a repeat instead. I believe this episode is more impactful today than it would have been had it originally aired in February of 2018, because of where we are amid a pandemic equipped with further examples of police brutality. None of which 45 accepts responsibility for.
*SPOILER ALERT*
DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THIS EPISODE
What was meant to document the beginning of a regression now sums up what we've experienced over the past 4 years. Set over the guise of an intense thunderstorm preventing the entire Johnson family from sleeping, it's eventually revealed that the family has anxiety about the state of the world in the wake of 45's election. I paused the episode on average of every 3 minutes trying to capture some of the most poignant quotes, which turned out to be damn near the whole episode.
I was able to capture the following, and I'm sure I missed others:
Dre questions the fact that Ellen DeGeneres (a dancing talk show host) received a medal of freedom from President Obama. We are currently witnessing the fall of Ellen as she's now surrounded by accusations of creating a toxic work environment.
Bow laments: "Places that used to be safe aren't safe anymore. It seems that the only place you can feel safe is at home. We know that is not true as we have witnessed the murder of Botham Jean by (former) Police Officer (Amber Guyger) in his home while eating ice cream. Guyger recently filed an appeal stating that "she had the right to act in deadly force of self-defense". In someone else's apartment, of which she presented the only threat. Or, we can talk about the most recent case of Breonna Taylor, an essential worker who was murdered in her sleep by 3 police officers executing a fraudulent no-knock warrant. It's been 150 days since her murder and Kentucky's disgrace of an Attorney General has taken time away from celebrating his engagement to his white fiancé to now meet with Taylor's family. The officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankinson, and Myles Cosgrove have yet to be arrested.
Pops recalls the Civil Rights movement and says: "At least Klansmen were scared to show their faces, now these Bigots are marching with their own camera crews."
He and Dre discuss being Black and proud. Pops explains; " The word proud implies that you've overcome adversity". Dre responds: "After 8 years of having a Black President, a lot of these folks feel they have overcome adversity."
It's Jr's turn and he's unable to sleep because of a controversy at school where the administration is threatening to punish student-athletes that choose to kneel during events. Dre assumes because of Jr's past questionable behavior that he stood with the system, but much to his surprise; Jr says: "Even though I may not agree with what they're doing, I do know they have a right to peacefully protest their ideas." Of course, this is in regards to Colin Kaepernick's peaceful protest against police brutality, which has since become heavily politicized and continues to be misunderstood. The NFL has poorly acknowledged their ignorance in reference to Kaepernick's protest, and have privately settled a lawsuit in court because of his unofficial blackballing from the league.
*The twins; Jack and Diane also cannot sleep, but they DO attribute it to the storm. The underlying issue, of course, finds its way back to the negligence of 45. They ask: "Why didn't you guys elect him (Al Gore)? Dre responds: "To be fair, he did win the popular vote.". (Does this sound familiar? *cough* Hillary Clinton *cough*)The twins continue; " Instead you guys elected a guy that doesn't seem to care about climate change. Which refers to 45's rollback of climate change regulations.
Overall, I enjoyed the episode. I hate that it's only a 30-minute show because of the way they had to neatly wrap it up at the end. The episode was well executed and I think viewing it in today's climate makes me appreciate it more. "Black AF" has repeated themes of "Black-ish" episodes that are way more gritty because... Netflix. I hope to see this conversation continued in Season 2.Have you watched it yet? What did you think of it?
T.Nicole