‘Atlanta’ gives us a confusing portrait of a black teenager overcoming white

Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in “crossover” stories with the 2021 film adaptation of Rebecca Hall by Nella Larsen. Pass and Brit Bennett’s best-selling novel half evanescent, which is currently being developed into a miniseries for HBO Max, for example. Mariah Carey’s revealing memoir Meaning of Mariah reignited a conversation about her racial uncertainty and how it manifested in her career as a pop and R&B singer. There was also a moment on Twitter at the start of the pandemic where users were confused about Rashida Jones starring in the Netflix sitcom Black #BlackAF and accused the actress of having two bloodlines that had passed throughout her career up to that point.

Clear, Atlanta The Writers’ Room, which has been a little too focused on Twitter discourse lately, noted social media’s growing fascination with the topic. In fact, tonight’s episode seems to have been partially inspired by a viral TikTok of a seemingly white gentleman, called @billybillynyc, in which he reveals his father is black, which was funny on the internet about a year ago. week.

In “Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga”, Donald Glover tells his own story, in the same black and white as Hall’s films. However, the 30-minute vignette feels less relevant to the genre’s classic features and stories, as it’s set in modern times and follows a white boy trying to be seen as black when it turns out to be in his favor. .

But before we get into the episode, we have to acknowledge the sheer absurdity of one of this week’s guest stars, Kevin Samuels, who recently passed away. Highlighting his appearance at the wrong time would indicate that the time had come for a personal stylist, who spent the latter part of his career giving fake relationship advice. openly on YouTube. But the fact that her behavior is now being discussed online is unfortunate given the show’s accusations of misogynousness — so much so that it’s unnecessarily touched upon in the episode’s description. Likewise, this season has been oddly preoccupied with introducing problematic famous men, perhaps for purposes of intentional trolling or what the show considers social commentary. deep assembly but no landing (possibly a combination of the two).

Early in the episode, we’re introduced to protagonist Aaron (Tyriq Withers) in his bedroom, where Logan Paul merchandise hangs on the wall to signal that we’re in a young man’s space. White skin. Aaron, who plays video games in his bed, also appears to be white, but the sound of his voice when talking into the headset speaks differently. Knowing Glover’s tendency to experiment on this show, I first thought his voice was being voiced by a black actor and we were about to go for an art version of the music video. Lil Dicky and Chris Brown for “Freaky Friday” or something. We were surprised after Aaron suddenly called his opponent the N-word and told him to “eat a fucking banana” after beating him.

After the title tag, it is revealed that Aaron, like TikTok’s Billy, has a black father as he is seen driving his son to school. When his father went to the local police station to shoot a black man and try to give him a warning, Aaron replied that it was no problem for him and defended the officer. . From their brief conversation, we learn that Aaron, who hates himself, identifies as openly white and, as we will see later, only hangs out with white people at school. His father joked that he “could fool his friends” but he knew “where that nose came from”. Aaron also dreams of attending Arizona State with his girlfriend, but his father refuses to complete the FAFSA so he can receive financial aid.

When he arrives at his high school, a wealthy black philanthropist named Robert S. Lee, played by Samuels, shows up to announce that he will pay all of his senior’s tuition. black in addition to renaming the school after his name. It was clearly a nod to Robert F. Smith paying off a debt owed to a Morehouse College graduate in 2019, and then a Robert E. Lee joke as we see how his name appears on the school board. Hoping to get the money he needed to attend Arizona State, Aaron snuck into the gymnasium after school, where Lee was hosting an audition to vet the students for blackness before handing them the check. .

The most interesting parts of this episode emphasize how much white people crave closeness to black people when it benefits them while rejecting all the ugly parts of that experience. But that idea gets lost in all the other black community concepts of race, performance, and access control that are encapsulated therein. Considering Glover has been at the center of subsequent conversations regarding his music, standout material, and romantic interests, it’s hard to imagine the polyphonic scene furiously slamming Google. Documented in a scene where Aaron is asked to “name six things associated with Hennessy” and “why The Five Heartbeats broke up” by a group of mocking, older black men like him in the spotlight. Knowing that these topics are covered by Glover and not a single writer we don’t know well, it can’t be said to be entertaining.

The audition, or more specifically, the test, for the amount of tuition is fun to watch in real time and eye-rolling in its broadest sense. The montage asks Aaron questions like “which soft drink is good for you?” and “mustard or mayonnaise?” as well as the questions mentioned above are provocative and provocative questions about the knowledge and opinions passed down in the black community. The panel ultimately concluded that he was not black, stating that he only had white friends and pointing out his “matcha-colored Allbirds”. Before Aaron stormed off, Lee even compared him to Clarence Thomas.

Along with feeling distressed that his pale skin cost him money to pay for college, Aaron noticed a black man named D’Andre leaving a comment on his girlfriend’s Instagram post. When he called her to tell her about it, she told him it didn’t matter because she knew he wasn’t going to Arizona State with her. With all of his dreams shattered in an instant, he does the stereotypical white man thing of building a flamethrower and goes to his high school at night to set it on fire.

When Aaron arrived, a Nigerian student named Felix was also there with a flamethrower after learning he was not black enough to receive tuition. Aaron agrees that he’s not really black because he has a “culture of withdrawing” and a “country to go back to”. After back and forth, the two end up chasing each other around the facility with their flamethrowers. Felix eventually reaches the top of the building to shoot Aaron below him, only to be shot by a police officer instead. Aaron, who was also holding a flamethrower, was asked to simply raise his hand and place it in the police cruiser.

Lee eventually arrives at school in a bathrobe and goes to Felix, who is still alive in the ambulance. Eventually, he wrote her a check, telling her that “getting shot by the police is the unluckiest thing a person can do.” Overall, this episode seems confused as to what it’s trying to say, but the statement feels like some kind of thesis – it’s possible that black people encouraged this type of Olympic repression in our community. and that we misrepresent black people from each other in terms of the amount of suffering we have endured. Whatever message Glover is aiming for, it’s confusing.

In the final scene, we see Aaron working at Best Buy a year later with a shaved head, a necklace around his neck, and a thicker voice, clearly showing his bad luck. When his ex-girlfriend shows up, things are awkward at first, but he eventually tells her that he’s never been so attracted to her in his life. Before the credits were recorded, he winked at the camera.

With all the ideas this volume tries to solve and mix in the process it looks like a standard set of Atlanta Introducing the show’s cast might be a safer bet. But fans, like me, may have to accept that this show is a racist anthology for now and wait for a sequel, or just wait. don’t look at him.