Season two has recently dropped and they’re stronger than ever. They’ve graduated into story form, taking our archetypes and fleshing them out a bit while still keeping the center that makes them so damn relatable.
This season the theme of looking back to understand the now was still very present, but this time instead of it being about the individual black person it was about our history in a collective form. This concept of an elite black society is hopeful and beautiful and I hope they go good places with it, they’ve set up the work to go good places with it.
I could speak on the genius of the soundtrack, the ridiculous awesomeness of that directing and camera work but we all know about that good shit. So instead I wanna focus on something I don’t think everyone understands. The messages.
To understand the main message of this season, I think its imperative to understand season one. When the show first came out the characters were archetypes of black people. Those people we become in America because of the race relations, how those things affect who we are, how they are heavily leading in our make up.
- The mixed woman that over compensates for her white genetics.
- The unappreciated/overlooked black woman
- The black woman who hates living the black struggle
- The outlier black (woman)
- The carefree light skinned boy
- The black (boy) who does not understand surface black culture
- The moldable black (boy) who seems to fit in both worlds but finds himself comfortable in neither
- The African (male) who has not lived the African American experience
- The strong headed black man
- The white (man) who means well
The first season presented us with this group and then put them in a position where they had to not only interact with white but with one another as well. The former is important because the interactions with the white is to show the everyday, on ever level, shit blacks have to put up with when it comes to race relations. The latter is important because its where the message hides. We watch these black students maneuver, all wanting a bit of the same thing but they hack away at one another constantly at ends with each other. Judging one another and always finding the other not worthy. We’re at constant stage of eliminating who gets to be apart of our black circle - even when it comes to other blacks (terms like Revoked and Cancelled) (we also have ‘you’re uninvited to the cookout’ for all other none blacks). But season one is not about mending fences with the non blacks, thats not the imagery they leave you with. No, season one presents us with this concept that we pick one another apart and instead of using our differences to get to where we’re trying to go we often let it distance us, causing distinction between us as a whole. It highlights how we don’t give our people enough empathy while giving them this perspective lens that allows their story to be told from their view, showing them in their rawest most vulnerable moments. Its through the honest moments that the characters themselves start to understand one another.
So season one had two jobs - highlight our separation which is a problem for our people, and also frame them in a way that leads us to empathize and understand the character the best. Now the genius in this last part is they didn’t only do this by giving characters perspective views…but in also not giving them one. For example Joelle presents the unappreciated/overlooked black woman. In season one we get the close up moments of her in other peoples story. We see her overlooked but we really feel it when she doesn’t get her own episode. When she gets her episode this season, its everything. We’ve already built this bond of understanding and empathy with her, there is no outcry of - she’s just low-key jealous, because we’ve been there with her, we know for a fact that she has been overlooked. So again first seasons job is to get us to see our separation and open black people u so we can start to understand one another. The ending leaves us with a taste of seasons two’s mission as Sam sits beside Coco - our two characters that has had the greatest distinction and who knew each other the most but lacked empathy and understanding for each other the most - and she ask “how did the two of us get pitted against one another?”
So season two took on the path to presenting unity (its necessity for our people from one another) and also reenforcing that we as black people actively choose to be for our people, we can all be an asset for our people, no matter what archetype we fit into.
- Sam with her light skinned privilege can us that privilege for her own selfish rise or be a voice for blacks in avenues they can’t obtain.
- Joelle can let the bitterness of being unappreciated consume her and leave her stagnant or she can push on and keep fighting for her people.
- Coco can dream of the white reality or she can look at her own path and realize her obstacles and use all the means necessary to get through or over those obstacles. People like that are the ones to see the obstacles and if they have the drive and the ambition they usually end up being the pocket runner for the culture.
- A black man like Lionel can use his lack of education on black culture as an excuse of how he’s not tied to its people or he can listen, learn, and still do right by his people (in this case its printing the truth and searching for the truth despite others telling him not to)
- A black man like Reggie is seen as a threat and therefore expendable by other races because he’s unapologetically black (and educated) and so he bares a brunt of being mistreated. He could let that turn him into what they consider him (a violent animal with no control) or he can stick to the guys of who he really is and excels to be and reach heights for himself and our people (which is the real threat he presents).
- A man as moldable and as transitional as Troy can be the black best weapon or their biggest let down (because they can be molded into something for the opposing side). They have to find out who they are, what they want, and learn to use that skill to the best of their ability.
- A white person can be well meaning…and problematic. Their job is to continue to question how or why they do or don’t do something without assuming or speaking for the black community.
This season showed us their fears - being another dead black man, using her privilege against her people, not understanding and therefore not fitting into either world, being damage and trash to everyone around him, not being chosen always being second string, not achieving being just another marker in the world, being racist. And all these fears correlates to their identities as black people and at least for now none of them have given into or allowed themselves to be overcome with that fear. We see them try to push through and work together on small individual levels as well as the big scheme.
Oh course we are not insta friends. Of course theres still irks, but theres also the reminder to be mindful. When we sit amongst one another trying to come to a solution, don’t cross lines. Coco and Sam aren’t besties…but then what they have is deeper than that. They understand their roles in each others life and how they challenge one another for good instead of bad. Scenes with Coco and Sam feel very different than ones with Coco and Muffy. But Coco & puffy is a pairing that rarely ever work as a success - something else that was shown this season where in Muffy got the invite into the group and Coco of course didn’t. But they presented us with teams that did work - on individual and a mass levels…
Joelle & Coco trying to make Sam feel better and support her: Both admit their form of loving her is different but both can be good for her.
Joelle and Sam radio partners: I love seeing Joelle in this light once she got to actually work instead of the friction of not being able to get a point in. Such an amazing concept because this is already how they communicate.
Reggie and the Dean - booooy didn’t see that one coming til it did, and it was brilliant. The Dean and reggie have different perspective of how to get to the end game, you never expect for their shit to be this damn powerful, but it was. If his treatment of his son and his give in nature to white people made me dislike the Dean, his treatment of Reggie made me question my view of him.
Kelsey and Coco: They spent all season letting you down play Kelsey and then showed you just how shitty of a thing that was by showing how giving and great and at peace she is with who she is.
Reggie and Troy: I really like the concept of Reggie and Troy being friends. They’re that different line again because the belief that someone like Reggie can respect someone like Troy.
Everyone helping Troy realize how horrible of a person he can be: This sounds bad, but the raw honest truth he got in this episode from his old friends…is blessing. They were willing to give it to him in a time when he needed, a time he came in search of it, ready to actually take it in. Which led him to being able to be honest with himself and his own father.
Brooke and Lionel: The great thing behind the Brooke and Lionel pair is there highlight on ‘crab in a barrel’ mentality. We’ve all grown up hearing it. This concept that we as black will try to get ahead stepping on, climbing ver, or shutting other blacks out because the opening is so narrow and theres only room enough for one of us. Tho here you have them admitting that they’re getting caught up, but they don’t have to. They can both reap success by working together.
Lionel and Sam: I love Lionel and Sam together because the association of them being able to understand one another because of their shared experience of once feeling on the outside of black community/culture. Her because she’s mixed, and him because his lack of shared cultured knowledge and experiences. Theres this primal part of them that understands one another, this need and desire to belong. There is a lack of judgment and fake between them.
And of course the main core scheme that took just about all the black faculty: What I loved about this twist - of coming in and sitting instead outside and rallying - is that it faces Rikki with all the blacks she’s hurting. It forces her into a place of having to face that while also not letting her voice get to the other side. She doesn’t have to face the entire of their ire with them outside, they’d just be a jumble of sounds she would us as an example of why they’re unacceptable. This group of black people coming together, its not derogatory, its not shady. They sit there in silence and allow their faces to show how unimpressed they are.
And of course the secret black society which is a unity in itself
This season did a great job of pushing the theme throughout the plot, intertwining it into the plot and the characters themselves. They tease us again with the possible message of next season, which I cant wait to see.
Highlights/Moments I loved:
Kelsey’s entire flourish. I was genuinely disgusted by how I thought of her last season compared to this season. They did a wonderful job of presented who she was without giving her her own episode and I’m hoping they elevate her up to main core. I liked her and Coco together - it was another pair that seem to have nothing in common but mixed so well.
The reality of Al. Everyone sits around and talk about how they hate Sam for this reason or that, but the shows us how biased we are in the terms of men and women, def light skinned blacks. Because the show is very frank and raw with Sam and her behaviors, but they’ll allow Al to do something reproachable and the audience doesn’t reproach him at all. No complaints about his apparent colorism - I don’t ya’ll didn’t think oh boy out Joelle in small print at the bottom of the page with half of her face covered with bacon because she was ‘new’ to the team. Its not just the problematic its this aspect of freedom of just being a standard we have for the girls but not the boys. Its the same with the dark skinned counterparts.
Rikki: She was just so formidable. So unapologetic and fearfully the shit she said made sense. She exemplified the concept that we black people can view things in so many ways and use that thing to allow us to be who we choose to be. We’re so use to the rhetoric of those blacks that choose that side are lost, ill-informed and know-no-better. Thats in part in think because we as black people don’t want to settle into the reality of our own rejecting us. Look at the thing we Kanye West - he’s in the sunken place we say, he knows nothing of politics we say, those around him has influenced him, he’s lost his way. We don’t take it well when our own reject us, which is understandable - we want there to be a great reason for the chaos. But with Rikki thats not the case. She is well educated, well informed on both sides, she is calm and deliberate. Sam doesn’t know what to do with her at all. Tessa does a great job with Rikki.
I always love in part what they do with Troy - last season they presented a black man conformable in his own sexuality - he is unbothered and unthreatened by Lionel’s. This season they give this black man a journey of self discovery. I don’t think blacks get presented with that imagery enough, def not black men. Getting in touch with yourself, waddling through your own shit, and the shit you’ve out others through. Letting them tell you what was wrong and processing that. Troy is a lost black male and it is imperative that he finds himself, that someone with his gift finds themselves.
The line: “Yes! Slaves being clever and shit!” I love this line because I’ve always felt that we forget how brilliant a mind slaves had to have We get so boggled on the aspect of the cruelty the were in - understandably, but we forget that they had to create secret ways to communicate and exist. They literally had to be creative and shit and they get no shine for that.
Two young black people being on an adventure.
Blacks being passionate about whatever they’re doing - Sam with the radio, Lionel with writing, Joelle with anatomy, Troy with comedy
The aspect of black female friendship and supporting another woman having the moment be uncontested and just about another woman needs. We support everyone but enough medias don’t show that.
The view of understanding ones own past, and then also understand the past of our people, which is often hidden, erased, or retold to better someone else - Listen pay attention and watch closely
This aspect that we are human, we laugh, we shade, we’re flawed, we try, we fail and succeed, and the things others do hurt us and we should not have to pour that shit out there to the ones who want to see us hurt for people to be able to establish that we have these traits.
The concept that it is understandable to be any of these kind of black people, that there is greatness to be found in our brokenness and our lost. The presentation that we should have empathy for one another, to seek understanding instead of being so easily moved to hate because at the core we all want the same thing, fight individually for the same thing - to alleviate ourself of the reality of the black struggle, of being hated, and that feeling of being in quicksand with not enough people caring to help us get out. We have us - and in the end that can get us hella far.
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