Freeform's Grown-ish is significantly less political than its parent show (ABC's Black-ish) but when it goes there, it really goes there. In the February 28 episode "Who Gon Stop Me," a drug dealer at Cal U is killed leading to a crackdown on campus drug use. That's a definite disappointment for main character Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi), whose narration opened the episode calling drug use one of "three major components that make college a blast." The other two, to be a complete cliche, are sex and rock and roll. What a great message for the show's teen audience!
Since getting to college, Zoey has been known to buy Adderall from her friend Vivek (Jordan Buhat) from time to time to help her concentrate. We find out in this episode that she has escalated to taking them more often, but she also throws away her stash in this episode and decides never to take them again.
Originally, when Zoey and her friends hear that a drug dealer has been shot on campus, they believe that it is their friend Vivek. They're relieved to discover that it isn't, but concerned that he now plans to take up the business everyone else is leaving on the table by laying low as the school cracks down on drugs. There are now going to be random drug tests and room searches, and most of the students aren't happy about it. Zoey's friends take it to another level, though, by deciding that it's actually racist.
Dean: This is the same Cal U campus you know and love only with unexpected drug testing and room searches. It'll be like a surprise party only with grave consequences.
Jazz: Consequences? You think white students who pay full tuition are gonna be targeted?
Sky: Or those legacy fools?
Aaron: No, it's gonna be students who look like us.
Dean: Mr. Jackson, what are you doing?
Aaron: Let me see that really quick. Thank you so much. Everybody, wake up! All right? Zero tolerance means zero minorities.
This is one of those times when Grown-ish is just like Black-ish: obsessed with race. Zoey's latina roommate Ana (Francia Raisa) is actually supportive of the policy but she is quickly dismissed as some kind of a traitor. When she first walks up wearing a "No Drugs" shirt, their friend Nomi (Emily Arlook) mocks her, saying, "Please tell me you're wearing that to be funny, like when I wear my 'Lesbians for Ben Carson' shirt." Ben Carson did say that being gay is a choice which got him in hot water (including with a lesbian at a town hall event), but that seemed like an oddly outdated reference.
Zero tolerance doesn't mean zero minorities, it means zero tolerance. If, like Jazz and Sky said, the school would only protect students who pay full tuition or who were legacies, why do they assume that doesn't include any students of color? It's also insulting to minorities for him to imply that there would be none left if they expelled all of those who were caught doing drugs.
Grown-ish doesn't seem to have thought this one through.
