The writers of Shots Fired have created a world where racism is lurking under every rock. The third episode of Fox’s race-obsessed drama, “Hour Three: Somebody’s Son,” which aired April 5, was completely transparent in its attempts to persuade us that everything is about race.
DOJ Special Prosecutor Preston Terry (Stephan James) sets the tone for the episode when, while discussing Jesse Carr, the white, unarmed teenager shot by police, Terry remarks, “Let's just say Jesse's your typical kid today. Right, doesn't see color, or at least, that's what he thinks.” Because, of course, white people are all racist even if they don’t think they are.
The episode pointed out racism at every absurd turn. When the discovery is made that Jesse got into a physical altercation with a black student some time before his death, Prosecutor Terry learns that Jesse’s fraternity retaliated against him for making the whole frat “look like bitches” for “getting his ass kicked by a black guy.”
Frat guy: After he got beat, they started to target him.
Terry: Why?
Frat guy: Because Ted was pissed. He said he embarrassed the whole frat, made us look like bitches. That's why they sent him to the hood.
Terry: So getting barbecue in the hood was punishment for getting his ass kicked?
Frat guy: Not just getting his ass kicked, man.
Terry: For getting his ass kicked by a black guy.
Frat guy: Yeah.
There will always be bigots, but one would be hard pressed today to find an entire fraternity that is openly racist.
Earlier, when Officer Beck’s (the black police officer who shot Jesse) white policeman friend is at a bar, he meets a retired police officer who drunkenly complains that after he retired, the police station filled his spot “with one of them,” “them” of course referring to a black person, before calling the white police officer a “disgrace” along with his “black cop boyfriend” for not signing a petition to have the black officer fired.
While the show certainly views itself as exposing unaddressed issues, perhaps all it’s doing is attempting to reignite flames of racism that have long since burned out.
