An upcoming episode of ABC’s Black-ish will take on the issue of police brutality in the black community.
Titled “Hope,” the Feb. 24 episode will reportedly revolve around a fictional incident of police brutality involving a black teen. The show’s characters, including, Anthony Anderson’s “Dre” Johnson, will then discuss the incident.
The story will also focus on the reactions of other characters as they watch a news broadcast about the case of brutality.
Black-ish executive producer Kenya Barris told industry publication Variety he wrote the episode after making an attempt to talk to his children about similar highly publicized incidents of police brutality.
“It was this big division at my house, because I had my feelings that I wanted to spout out,” Barris said. “But my wife had her feelings and the biggest thing is, how do you talk about your frustrations and your angers, but at the same time not take away your kids’ hope and ability to still want to grow and thrive within a world that they have to live in?”
Making note of his fondness for veteran TV writer/producer Norman Lear (All in the Family), Barris added, “I really wanted to just do a conversation.”
“We decided to just see what happens when you turn on that television, and you have to have that conversation that you’re not ready to have, and there’s a lot of different opinions in the room and no one’s quite sure of how to talk to the kids,” he said. “We just went from there.”
Black-ish star Anthony Anderson, who hosted the NAACP Image Awards this past weekend, told Variety, “Unfortunately the things that we are dealing with in this episode are not new, especially to the black and brown community.”
Added Anderson, “It’s something that’s been going on for quite some time.”
The comedian made headlines over the weekend at the Image Awards for criticizing the Oscars over the Academy’s controversial slate of all-white acting nominees.
In his opening monologue, he said, “Look at all of these beautiful shades of people in the audience… Hollywood needs to know that this is what diversity is supposed to look like.”
Later, Anderson laid into black actress and Fox News contributor Stacey Dash, who recently called for an end to black awards shows, such as the Image Awards.
“Everybody give a round of applause for Stacey Dash,” Anderson said. “What the hell is she doing here? Doesn’t she know that the Fox network is using her? She’s just an Ann Coulter dipped in butterscotch. That’s all she is. Baby, don’t let them use you! Come back to the black people.”