CW’s Roswell, New Mexico has been under the radar lately, if only because it could never quite top the low of claiming supporting legal immigration makes you a bigot. This week, however, pushed the bar even further thanks to the ramblings of a Native American character.
The March 19 episode “Songs About Texas” follows Max (Nathan Dean Parsons) attempting to learn about his alien origins. When he recognizes an alien symbol on a flier for a local healer, he, his love interest Liz (Jeanine Mason), and other friends take a trip to a traveling fair. There, they find the healer, an "indigenous woman" named Arizona (Sony Balmores). She preaches that she follows “the sky spirit” and proceeds to heal an ailing person in the crowd.
Of course, Arizona turns out to be a fake. Not only does she not have mystic powers, she also has no idea what the symbol means. Still, she has no problem with stealing the symbol or swindling people out of their money. Why? She claims the people in the crowds are “rednecks” who vote “every year” to strip her people of their land, rights and humanity.
Max: Hey.
Arizona: Sir, there's a line.
Max: I have a few questions.
Arizona: This is so not your jurisdiction.
Max: So call the cops. Is this a game to you, conning innocent people?
Arizona: I've committed no crime.
Liz: Except fraud.
Max: Sick people risk their health and travel hundreds of miles, and you, what, laugh it off? Spin some crap about spirits, and steal the hard-earned money of people with medical bills to pay? You're a hack. Just give me one honest answer. What is this?
Arizona: I don't know.
Max: You're gonna spend two nights in county and a year in court. That's gonna be bad for business.
Arizona: Why do you care about some clip art? It's just something I saw.
Liz: And stole. Hijacking important iconography for personal gain.
Arizona: You are not lecturing an indigenous woman about cultural appropriation. Those redneck idiots out there vote every year to strip my people away from our land, our rights and our humanity. So, yeah, I play into their magical nubile savage fantasy for money. It's not my fault they're too stupid to see through it.
In another world, this would be victim-blaming. In the world of Roswell, New Mexico, she’s just a woke minority sticking it to the man. The show doesn’t give any details about what these “rednecks” vote for yearly that specifically take her “rights” away, but we’re just supposed to take her word for it. It’s literally just a case of “white people bad.”
The show continues to drop casual jabs in support of the progressive agenda. The last couple of episodes included such delightful references as a racist character stating “blue lives matter” - because apparently only racists support the police. And Liz's friend Maria (Heather Hemmens), complaining about the “old, white, rich doctors” who won’t help her mother’s rapidly developing memory issues because they think “that she’s just faking all of this.” It’s like these lines are just bad tweets coming to life.
Another notable example from a past episode includes Alex (Tyler Blackburn), a military veteran, confronting his bigoted father on his decision to join the army: “When I was 17, I wanted to make music. You sent me to war. You are not trying to protect me. You think that I would compromise your mission. Because you think I'm weak. Because I'm gay.” At this point, we realize the show has to be about aliens since the writers clearly don't know how humans speak.
Honestly, there’s not much more to the story than those brief and painfully woke jabs. The only sweet release is that the season finale is on the horizon.
