This is a frustrating episode, but in a good way. A Black man (Courtney B. Vance) is accused of murder, but as the investigation and trial wear on, we understand the great amount of alienation and, yes, rage he felt at how he was treated by his White peers at every level, a constant reminder that he was Black. He was subjected to any number of insults, hazing, abuses, and condemnation -- anything he achieved was because he was Black and given a handicap; anything he failed at was because he was Black and inferior.
You don't have to be Black to understand how being a minority of any color in a White society requires minorities to both endure humiliations and to give up something of themselves in order to fit in. Many do. As the episode points out, the choices are to either give up one's identity on some level to fit in or go back to the limited prospects for minorities that racism has produced. And all the while, those benefitting from racism with tell the minority they're the problem.
There are some good moments, such as how it's a group of White district attorneys and psychologists who are putting the Black man on trial, a reminder of how the system replicates itself without the participations even knowing or acknowledging.
When Sam the Eagle -- I thought he was supposed to be superliberal, but then, maybe they're the most guilty -- accuses a Black psychologist of being the true racist by inflaming opinions about race with her writings, it's enough to make any thinking person scream and pull their hair out. In the 1990s, this would have been the prevailing thought. It would be a little harder to get away with it today.
The episode heaps on the indignities, from Vance being mistaken for a bus boy to being told he should go back to the jungle to collect coconuts to one of the partners in the firm refusing to socialize with him in any way.
It's all enough to make your blood boil if you or anyone you know has gone through these sorts of experiences. And that's what makes it such a good episode. The drama is so tight and the ideas so well composed, unless you're the one benefiting from racism, you will be appalled.
But then the end is a cop out. That's the reason it loses a star. It essentially delegitimizes every possibility that racism is as profound a problem in American society as it is and resets everything so the audience can go back to its prejudices. That's a shame. A more ambiguous ending would have been thoughtful.
You don't have to be Black to understand how being a minority of any color in a White society requires minorities to both endure humiliations and to give up something of themselves in order to fit in. Many do. As the episode points out, the choices are to either give up one's identity on some level to fit in or go back to the limited prospects for minorities that racism has produced. And all the while, those benefitting from racism with tell the minority they're the problem.
There are some good moments, such as how it's a group of White district attorneys and psychologists who are putting the Black man on trial, a reminder of how the system replicates itself without the participations even knowing or acknowledging.
When Sam the Eagle -- I thought he was supposed to be superliberal, but then, maybe they're the most guilty -- accuses a Black psychologist of being the true racist by inflaming opinions about race with her writings, it's enough to make any thinking person scream and pull their hair out. In the 1990s, this would have been the prevailing thought. It would be a little harder to get away with it today.
The episode heaps on the indignities, from Vance being mistaken for a bus boy to being told he should go back to the jungle to collect coconuts to one of the partners in the firm refusing to socialize with him in any way.
It's all enough to make your blood boil if you or anyone you know has gone through these sorts of experiences. And that's what makes it such a good episode. The drama is so tight and the ideas so well composed, unless you're the one benefiting from racism, you will be appalled.
But then the end is a cop out. That's the reason it loses a star. It essentially delegitimizes every possibility that racism is as profound a problem in American society as it is and resets everything so the audience can go back to its prejudices. That's a shame. A more ambiguous ending would have been thoughtful.
