Blackish

Last week an episode of Blackish premiered that stirred a reaction out of a lot of viewers. The episode pointed out events surrounding Black America and the controversial cases about police brutality against African Americans that ended in death. It also presented different points of view on the situations and did not present the information one sided. For instance the dad and grandfather in the episode had felt very strongly about the cases and the mother was less intense, trying to avoid imposing ideas on the young twins at such an early age. Basically the episode was about a case that the whole family was watching to see the verdict. The case was similar to ones that occurred recently and was about an alleged police brutality against an African American teenager. The younger kids did not understand why so many people were so upset about it and the mother, Bow,wanted to leave the younger kids blind to the information to give them a more hopeful outlook on life. The rest of the family, the grandparents and father wanted them to know and understand the type of world they are growing up in. At the end of the episode they announce the verdict and the officers were found not guilty. Angry, the older son wants to go to the rally and protest but the daughter, who seemed disinterested the whole episode, breaks down and begs her brother not go. She explains she scared for his life and that if he goes down there he might not come back. In the midst of the episode the grandmother said “You should only know seven words when approached by an officer, ‘Yes sir’, ‘No sir’, and ‘Thank you sir.’” She was promoting the idea that one should respect and listen to an officer when confronted no matter how violent or rude they are toward you. When the grandmother, Ruby, said this she was referring to how blacks should respond to police officers because it seems that blacks are more likely to fall victim to police brutality than whites. I thought the episode was a big eye opener to viewers, especially for those who aren’t black. It shed a light on the issue without making it a white vs black debate. The episode was not heavily saturated with notions putting all the blame on the police, it showed both sides. For those of you who saw the episode what did you think about it? Do you think they took a risk making an episode that was so controversial? But for those who didn’t see the episode what do you think about think about bringing social and racial issues like these into media such as this episode of Blackish or Kendrick Lamar’s performance on the Grammys? Do you think it is beneficial or adding to the problem? What do you think cases like Trayvon Martin, Freddie Grey, Sandra Bland, and Mike Brown reveal about the type of world we live in and how does it change the black’s views on police? This creates trust issues and complications between the people and the law enforcement since they’re here to help us, but killing unarmed men and women who pose no threat to an armed officer, makes society feel more threatened than protected.