After starting off the season failing at mocking police for brutality and later gun owners, CBS’s Superior Donuts really shouldn’t be discussing any more topics to do with the police. Or race. Yet here we are with an episode on both and so much more. Let’s get started because this one is a doozy.
On the March 13th episode “The Amazing Racists,” Franco (Jermaine Fowler) is frisked by Asian-American Officer Li (Nelson Lee) which leads to an episode-long discussion on racial bias. Since this episode is only thirty minutes long, the show doesn’t have time to mention the fact that stop-and-frisk is often credited as one of the policies that helped lower crime in New York (something even liberal Mayor Michael Bloomberg was hesitant to stop). No, the only argument presented for the policy is that “some cops do it,” without knowing the circumstances.
Keeping on this theme of literally everyone turning out to be racist, the show then follows the concept of “unconscious bias” where saying things like “I don’t see color” or “I don’t care” is cause for alarm. You know this is a real thing because it is introduced by Maya (Anna Baryshnikov) a white college graduate student majoring in gender studies. Well, there’s no better expert on microaggressions than that!
Things then take a turn for the worse when Arthur (Judd Hirsch) accuses Franco’s new friend Malcolm (Luke Youngblood) of stealing his signed baseball. Never mind that Malcolm did end up stealing the ball, Arthur is still accused of being racist after suspecting “the one young black guy [he] didn’t know.” That seems to be a common theme among all racial discussions: it doesn’t even matter if black people statistically commit more crime, you're a racist for even the suggestion.
But no matter - after Officer Li frisks Franco once again and shows his corruption, we’re treated to this off-putting and slightly confusing confrontation between Franco and Arthur.
Franco: Randy, James. Guess who I just ran into. Your little frat buddy, Officer Li. He just frisked me, again.
Randy: Are you kidding me?
Franco: Yeah. And I found Arthur's ball.
Arthur: Y-you found my ball?
Franco: Yeah. Only Li took it from me. He said I couldn't report it 'cause nobody'd believe me over him.
Randy: Ugh. Well, let's get to the bottom of this. Officer LI, this is Officer Deluca. Requesting assistance at Superior Donuts.
Arthur: So, wait-wait, where did you find my ball?
Franco: Man... Malcolm stole your ball, man.
Arthur: Ah! So I was right. See, I'm not a racist. You got a button on your phone for that?
Franco: No. You just so happened to be right. That doesn't mean you weren't prejudiced to suspect him in the first place.
Arthur: Yeah, well, you were prejudiced to assume that I was racist. That's bias.
Tush: This is all very confusing. I can't... I can't keep track of it. I-I wish I had a blackboard. I mean a whiteboard. No. I mean some colored markers. Oh, geez, I'm falling apart over here.
Arthur: Yeah, well, you were so quick to call me racist. Now, that wasn't right.
Franco: How do you think I felt when I told you I got frisked and you blamed me for wearing a hoodie? You have no idea what I deal with out there.
Arthur: All right. I get it.
Franco: No, you don't.
Arthur: I get it.
Franco: You don't get it. Arthur, have you ever had the talk with your dad?
Arthur: Which talk? Birds and the bees or shiksas are for practice?
Franco: Nah. The talk when you're eight years old, and your dad sits you down to tell you, "Hey, cops are there to stop bad guys, But sometimes 'cause you're black, they're gonna assume you're the bad guy. Or if you're hanging out with your white friends, and they're messing up, to get the hell out of there 'cause they might get a night in jail, but you'll get a lot worse."
To its credit, Superior Donuts does have moments of non-political correctness that can be funny. The show even has the foresight to have a black cop as a character, giving at least some perspective in this plot. But that only makes moments like these even more obnoxious in trying to give liberal stereotypes merit. The only conscious bias I really have is assuming sitcoms would rather be funny.
