When They See Us

26 July 2019: I’ve been thinking a lot about When They See Us, which I actually finished watching a couple of days ago. Like with Pose, I am always grateful for a TV show (or, in this case, a mini-series) that helps me gain a better understanding of a time and a place when/where I was around/alive (and even geographically close) but really had no idea what was going on. And also just like Pose, so much of my ignorance came not just from youth, but from privilege.

I was 12 when the “Central Park Jogger” case hit the headlines and living in the NYC media market. Wall-to-wall coverage which was unavoidable even for a child. I have the clearest memory of sitting in my living room, reading a column in The Daily News where the writer eviscerated the accused. The bitterly sarcastic phrase “Little Antron went out to play” ran through it like enough of a refrain that even now, 30 years later, I remember it.

And because I was young and ignorant and privileged, I bought into it all. These kids were monsters. Abhorrent. And nothing like me. Lock them up. Throw them away. Irredeemable. These people—barely people—and why they were the way they were…who could explain it? I thought I saw them for what they were and I was disgusted.

Those paragraphs above were hard to write and are hard to read. I am not comfortable that that’s how I felt, even if I was young. It makes me cringe. What was clearly racism and ignorance fueled so much of my view. I am grateful to have grown since then, but that embarrassment and pain? I hope it can fuel me to keep trying to do even better.

But back to When They See Us: the five boys (now men) have been exonerated for years now and I knew factually how wrong and misinformed I and so many others had been. But seeing it? Seeing these boys and what they went through on the screen? It hits you like never before. You actually see them (thus the brilliant title).

Some images/insights I won’t soon forget:

• They were children. Little kids. Maybe because I am nearly 42 now, but man...they were kids.
• Raymond calling his dad from prison. All they can talk about is what they had for dinner. That makes a perfect, tragic kind of sense.
• Raymond’s meeting with his parole officer when he learns how hard it will be just to get a job. He might have served his time, but he keeps paying. As Sarah Bunting explained on her excellent podcast, we see here the creation of a permanent underclass. 
• Antron’s struggle to make peace with his father who told him to say whatever the cops wanted.
• Korey…everything about Korey. 

The whole series is beautiful, of course. Amazingly shot. Terrifically acted. It’s a gift.