How ‘Black-ish’ hit a nerve

February 26, 2016

Now, I must admit, I had never watched the hit show Black•ish until this week. My father, who watches it quite regularly, had told me countless times to give it a chance, but it never peaked my interest. Then, yesterday he caught me in a rare moment of free time and practically forced me to sit down on the couch next to him to watch an episode of the ABC comedy. I sat there waiting for what I thought would be a goofy, generic episode of yet another middle-class family that somehow always ends up in ridiculous situations. I was dead wrong.

Perhaps I caught this series in a rare moment of profundity, but what I saw moved me to say the very least. This particular episode was centered around the current crisis America is facing regarding the unwarranted shooting of African Americans and the institutionalized racism that is becoming harder and harder to cover up. Throughout the episode the parents debate on how much they should expose their own black children to the horrific, pressing issues the black community is facing as a whole. While the mother, played by Tracee Ross, reasonably argues that she wants to shield her children from the harsh realities they will most likely face at some point in their lives in order to foster hope, the father, played by Anthony Anderson, rebuttals with a powerful speech.

This speech clearly and eloquently explains the situation African Americans across America face on a daily basis. Anderson’s monologue put everything in perspective and made me feel as though I had walked a mile in his shoes, all within less than two minutes. It reminded me how immediate this crisis is and how it we must fight it.