Twilight Zone or Real Life?

If you are like me, the influx of time at home has led to you watching lots of streaming tv.  Some are gems that I’ve seen before, others are items that once piqued my interest but I never took the time to watch.  On another blog post I will share my thoughts on so many great shows and documentaries that I’ve watched, but in this moment I want to talk about Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone, specifically Season 1 Episode 3 “Replay”.  Sanaa Lathan does a marvelous job as Nina Harrison; an attorney traveling to drop off her son, Dorian, at college.  The episode features an often-visited Groundhog Day plot.  Basically, a story where the main character repeats the same day over and over again.  Like so many moms dropping their babies off at college, Nina is documenting everything with her camcorder however this camcorder has a Twilight Zone twist.  In Replay, Nina Harrison discovers that when she rewinds the camcorder, she can rewind time. 

But it wouldn’t be a Jordan Peele show without a bit of social commentary.  In this episode, Peele tackles police brutality and the murders of Black people at their hand.  But he doesn’t deal with the aftermath of the brutality/murder like so many in Hollywood.  Peele takes a new approach and shows the myriad of ways that Black mothers try to protect their children from tragic fates, specifically deaths at the hands of cops.  Sanaa Lathan’s acting is superb as she embodies Nina and the angst that comes when racists try to take your child in despite your best efforts.  Sanaa rewinds time over and over again, taking various routes to get her child to the collegiate promised land and is thwarted each time by the racist officer. 

One scene is particularly moving as Nina decides to befriend the cop earlier in the day.  She tries to interact with him, engage in neighborly dialogue in an attempt to protect her child.  When the interaction end, Nina believes that by forcing the officer to talk with her and see her son as more than a threat, that she has saved her baby’s life.  The heartbreak that she feels expertly splashes across Sanaa’s face when the officer still kills her son. How many times have you as a parent tried to do everything you can to make your child less of a target? We educate them at the best private schools. Enroll them in all of the appropriate extra-curricular activities. We teach our babies to not be loud in public and to watch the way they act at all times. We tell them to not dig into their purses when they are in the store. We talk to them about what to do if they are stopped by the police.  And none of that matters in the mind of a racist.

Of course, Dorian eventually makes it to the HBCU but not without the help of the community.  It is only then that Nina breathes a sigh of relief.  I’ve felt that sigh but I also know that that temporary respite is false hope.  HBCU ground is sacred in the Black community.  While sexism and classism still exist on the yard, the yoke of racism is able to be put aside for the first time in your life.   The sad reality is that while you are unburdened from the weight of racism during your time at an HBCU, that world is eagerly waiting to weigh you down again.  No degree can protect you from bigotry.  No advanced degree can protect you from racism.  And it didn’t protect Dorian either.