S03.E09: Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

Black and White episode? Yawn. Emmy Bait. Why do they hate black women so much? 

Original air date 2022.05.12

[Marley]

I’ll give this another meh.

[AngieBee1]

Nice twist that Robert "Shea" Lee wasn't using being an ADOS or ethnically Black as the barometer for Blackness but culturally Black. It's incredibly funny in this medium, not so funny in real life where some people want to rely on stereotypes to gauge someone's Blackness (It's equally bad when infighting occurs within the Black diaspora as displayed by Aaron and Felix).

It's very telling that non-Black students were leaning into getting cornrows and waves and entertaining to prove their Blackness as if that's the main signifier (singing Shai's"If I Ever Fall In Love", Asian students copying Outkast's Stankonia cover), then you jump to the end with a very swaggy Aaron (who - real talk - looked REAL good post-prison) wearing that wave brush out and now finding his ex-girlfriend more attractive then ever (a play on the idea that Black men chase after white women).

Maybe this was Glover's gentle poke at the ridiculousness of the gatekeeping of Blackness. That the idea that being African - from the cradle of civilization - is disqualifying but suddenly getting shot by the police gives credence to your Blackness.

Deciding to do the episode in an old school cautionary tale type video/film was inspired. It helped diffuse the serious nature on the things the episode touched on.

I would have felt more sorry for Aaron if he wasn't such a self-hating racist. As soon as he told Felix it was too late or whatever he said, I knew he was cracking on his skin tone. Reminds me of the incel Elliott Rodgers who was biracial (white father, Chinese-Malaysian mother) and he had as much hate for himself, other Asian men and his mother as he did for women. He tried to dye his hair blond trying to fit in with his white classmates and felt white women should date him because he was half-white and more worthy of their affection than Black men.

Edited May 13, 2022 by AngieBee1

[AntFTW]

The episode had it's funny moments. Robert "Shea" Lee paying more the graduating senior college tuition "...who's Black", funny. The "auditions", funny. Everything else... meh.

[After7Only]

 

22 hours ago, AngieBee1 said:

Maybe this was Glover's gentle poke at the ridiculousness of the gatekeeping of Blackness. 

This might explain why he cast the late Kevin Samuels to play Robert S. Lee.   He is extremely polarizing especially to Black women.   
 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by After7Only

[aghst]

I don't know if this episode grew out of a story idea or a thought experiment.

How common are people like Aaron, who deny his mixed heritage, passes himself off as white, to the point of engaging in racist language?

I didn't know about Kevin Samuels, who sounds like a highly controversial figure.

The Ringer Prestige TV podcast has been breaking down each episode.  The podcasters in this case are two black men so they're familiar with Samuels and all the signifiers of blackness that the Robert S. Lee character demanded from the scholarship applicants.

They said this episode was abstract or even kind of like a Twilight Zone episode.  It discussed things about black culture and made some jokes, like now Aaron has leaned into his blackness by the end of the episode and he's a playa, pursing the white woman.

They thought not only was pitting Aaron vs. Felix heavy-handed, it was like using a sledgehammer.  Then the fact that Felix didn't meet the criteria for being black until he was shot by the police.

Also, how often are black people involved in wanting to (literally) burn things down out of anger?  That is what some racists use to justify their racism, that black people are angry and given the chance, they'd enact violent reprisals against white people.  They tried to portray groups like the Black Panthers as indicative of blacks wanting to wage a war of vengeance.

But black men aren't burning things down or perpetrating mass shootings against non blacks.

Today, there was an apparently racially-motivated mass shooting near Buffalo, where a guy dressed in tactical uniform went and shot up a store in a predominantly black area, live streaming it.  At least 10 fatalities.  The suspect is reportedly white.

 

Overall  the Prestige TV podcast guys say this season's episodes have been "surreal" and these standalone episodes don't let you connect emotionally to the characters like the episodes when the regular cast is featured.  They speculate that despite the brilliance and freshness of the first two seasons, Glover may have all along wanted to do this kind of show, with several anthology episodes, maybe to delve into some social issues.

It would be interesting to see which version of Aaron black people would connect to more, the one who denied his heritage and hung around with white friends who think black people can get into college much more easily because of affirmative action or the playa who's leaning into some stereotypes of young black men?

Or which version they'd find more offensive.

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by aghst

[xaxat]

On 5/13/2022 at 12:26 AM, AngieBee1 said:

Maybe this was Glover's gentle poke at the ridiculousness of the gatekeeping of Blackness. That the idea that being African - from the cradle of civilization - is disqualifying but suddenly getting shot by the police gives credence to your Blackness.

The idea of "Blackness" has been my favorite theme of the season. It was key this episode, obviously, but it also formed the core of the fashion episode. They've had Africans, African Americans, bi-racial, Europeans of African descent, all have conversations challenging each other about how 'Black" they are and what that phrase even means.

[luckyroll3]

On 5/14/2022 at 8:43 PM, aghst said:

How common are people like Aaron, who deny his mixed heritage, passes himself off as white, to the point of engaging in racist language?

It's very common. 

[tennisgurl]

They are really leaning into the Twilight Zone this season, and I feel like I just keep saying the same things during all of these one off episodes. They're all interesting, thought provoking, and clearly come from a writing staff that has had a lot of time to ruminate on what they want to talk about this season, but I end all of these wondering what the main characters are getting up to. We have had four of these episodes now out of ten, almost half of the season, its hard not to feel like Glover and company got bored of their own show. They were coming up with all of these concepts they wanted to explore this season, different aspects of the black experience, but they realized that a lot of those stories had nothing to do with Earn and the gang so they decided to do a bunch of these one off episodes to get to talk about all of the stuff they wanted to talk about, with the actual plot on the backburn. Granted, this show has never been plot heavy, more focused on mood and metaphor than creating a traditional plot structure, but I cant pretend it hasn't been a bit frustrating for me. I really like the shows main plot of the season, possibly more than the actual writers do, and while I really have liked all of these episodes in a vacuum, I often end up just wanting to get back to Earn, Van, and everyone. 

Anyway, this was certainly an interesting episode, while it obviously doesn't fit into the narrative of the season it does continue a lot of the seasons themes, in particular what defines blackness. The literal black auditions for the black tribunal was hilarious but also frustrating because, while in the real world there are probably not that many literal black auditions, there is a tendency towards gatekeeping when it comes to black culture, that you have to be a certain sort of person or know certain things to be considered "really" black, usually based on stereotypes. Stereotypes are bad enough when its not a community enforcing them on themselves, making up arbitrary rules on what it does or does not mean to be black, like all black people are exactly the same and have had the exact same experiences and that those things are what makes you black. 

Felix not getting the black scholarship was really the height of its ridiculousness, the kid is from an actual African country, a literal part of the diaspora, but because he doesn't know enough about Popeyes chicken, he isn't sufficiently black. But of course, the second he gets shot by the cops he immediately becomes black. On the other hand you have Aaron, who's more or less passing himself off as white despite being bi-racial himself, having a lot of internalized racism towards his own background that he has no apparent interest in until it benefits him. Which has been another theme of the season, people wanting to use black culture for their own means, only appreciating it when it benefits them. 

I also cant decide if their episode summaries are funny bits of self deprecation, irony, or are getting to be annoyingly self indulgent.

Edited May 17, 2022 by tennisgurl

[After7Only]

10 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Felix not getting the black scholarship was really the height of its ridiculousness, the kid is from an actual African country, a literal part of the diaspora, but because he doesn't know enough about Popeyes chicken, he isn't sufficiently black.

Not really.   The shows this season are seriously probing what is Black?   It is not just skin color and not just culture.    There are also very real divisions between African immigrants and Black American descendants of slavery.   They aren’t talked about often, but they are there.   

[wmdekooning]

On 5/17/2022 at 11:56 AM, tennisgurl said:

Anyway, this was certainly an interesting episode, while it obviously doesn't fit into the narrative of the season it does continue a lot of the seasons themes, in particular what defines blackness.

The price is on the can…

[JenE4]

On 5/18/2022 at 8:39 PM, wmdekooning said:

The price is on the can…

Throwback to BAN with the Arizona iced tea commercial. That episode featured an interview with a young black guy with racial dysphoria who identified as a middle-aged white man. Is the group you identify with based on the shade of your skin or who you are on the inside? Is race based on how you categorize yourself or how others categorize you by looking at you and mentally ticking off a culture checklist? (These are just rhetorical questions that I think these two episodes are posing.)

[DrSpaceman73]

I still would not generally call this show a comedy

However the scene of him being interviewed to determine if he is black is one of the funniest things I've seen on TV in a long time.