'That Was Us' podcast ponders on the way to discuss racism with youth
Black journalists — without babysitters — offer a necessary and introspective look at racism in the news
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I will forever have to thank Hot 97’s “Ebro in the Morning” for introducing me to “This Is Us.” Not only did I watch every episode, but I leaped at the chance to binge-watch it again on TUBI. However, I had no idea that the podcast “That Was Us” had been airing for a couple of years — recaps that instigated me into watching the entire series a third time.
There are moments on “That Was Us” that are fascinating and foreign to me when discussing race. One of those times is listening to singer-actor Mandy Moore talk about how delicately she wanted to handle the “Still There” episode about how Rebecca’s fictional mother treats Randall (interchangeably played by Sterling K. Brown, Niles Fitch and Lonnie Chavis) versus Kevin (interchangeably played by Justin Hartley, Logan Shroyer and Parker Bates) and Kate (interchangeably played by Chrissy Metz, Hannah Zeile and Mackenzie Hancsicsak).
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I should have been touched while listening to Moore discuss the way to do the racism scene with Young Randall (Chavis), but the cynical (and realistic) side of me kept thinking, “When this actually happens to Black kids in real life, these kid gloves come off. We’re not even viewed as children.” While Moore was focused on how Chavis would feel doing this fictional scene, I was thinking of how little thought goes into those who do treat Black children as if innocence is nonexistent.
I also pondered whether Chavis had already had one of those moments before the show. (My first unapologetically racist moments happened in high school and felt like a scene from the 1995 film “Higher Learning.” Colorism moments started popping up as a pre-teen, but I was too naive to comprehend how harmful they could be at the time.)
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However, hearing Moore discuss this moment made it more than clear that she’d never had “The Talk” with a child. At the age of Young Randall, I’d already seen “Roots” and read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” A fictional TV scene with a racist grandmother wouldn’t have phased me nearly as much as how Moore thought Black kids at that age should react. In fact, I was used to hearing the kind of matter-of-fact discussions on race that actress Susan Kelechi Watson (who played adult Beth Pearson on “This Is Us”) brought up on her own “That Was Us” podcast episode. While my mother shied away from discussing race and racism, a number of other adults in my family (especially instructors) had no qualms about bringing it up.
The group interview that should’ve been one journalist
Listening to Moore discuss how to handle this scene took me back to a contentious moment with an old boss, who wanted to sit in the conference room during a group interview I scheduled with the creator and stars of the independent film “Think Of Calvin.” My then-boss (a white woman) invited another marketing rep (another white woman) to sit in on the interview. Normally when multiple people sit in for an interview, it's a collaborative writing effort. However, they had no intention of transcribing, writing anything or even taking notes. They just wanted to be in the room as spectators.
Recommended Read: “To white parents, one size does not fit all ~ Five tips for white parents trying to raise non-racist children”
I shook my head, listening to her explain why she and this other lady were somehow necessary for me to speak with a Black woman and a Black man about a police altercation with their Black son. While my then-boss considered this a unique incident that should be treated with heightened sensitivity, I told this lady, “For Black people, this incident is just Tuesday. I don’t need anybody to babysit me talking to Black parents about racism and police altercations.” (I’d also completed more than 200 interviews before I got this job, so the babysitting felt especially condescending.)
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She disagreed. This six-person interview (including the “Think Of Calvin” creator, a delightful white woman who was noticeably introspective about discussing race and racism) happened anyway, filled with far too many moments of my two colleagues getting teary-eyed and the soft-spoken “I’m so sorry this happened to you” moments I would’ve rather avoided. The looks on their faces were as if they were somehow the victims of someone else's pain.
At one point, the boss quoted my “Tuesday” line as if she created the question. I closed my eyes, sighed and forced my legs not to stand up and walk out of the room. The only thing missing from this group interview was those two spectators (virtually) patting these two Black parents on the head like puppies.