On an ambitious Atlanta, a student’s Blackness is tested
Donald Glover writes and directs a monochrome-shot satire that pulls out all the stops
TV Reviews Lorraine
The penultimate episode of this Atlanta season tips more fully in a horror direction (which the last anthology episode leaned toward, but ultimately stayed mostly slice-of-life). The protagonist in this segment, shot in monochrome, is Aaron, a white-appearing teen with a Black father. On their car radio, we hear that yet another Black teen has been killed in a police shooting. The economic realities of Aaron’s household are different than those of his classmates: His father isn’t paying for the college he wants to attend with his white girlfriend and friends. Dad won’t even fill out the FAFSA (the government forms that determine every student’s eligibility for financial aid). And if Aaron still lives at home after high school, he’s going to pay rent. But, as his dad reminds him, he loves him.
At school (Stonewall Jackson High, pointedly), a millionaire alumnus announces that he’s bestowing a million-dollar gift and paying the college tuition…of all Black students. Will Aaron qualify?
A few scenes here rank among the series’ most satirically sharp, but the episode foils itself a bit. We’ve come to expect more from the show than broad satirical strokes, even from the anthological characters. And that’s the disadvantage of these standalone episodes—you need to imbue your characters with complete life from scratch for the episode to work; there’s no history to fall back on. In other anthological episodes this season, Atlanta has done it artfully, but here, it creates a character that’s too complicated for the script.
First, the positives. Like “The Big Payback,” the episode exposes the paranoid nightmares and ignorance of the anti-affirmative action contingent and the obliviousness of naive kids prone to false equivalence. (In this case, Aaron’s white friends believe, “It’s super-easy to go to school if you’re Black,” “they all go to school for free,” and they might be entitled to sue over the scholarships because it’s discrimination on the level of “what they did to Black people in the ‘50s, right?” Um, no.)
In a scene that revisits the theme of the appropriation of Black culture and who profits, at the high school, Aaron wanders before a panel where his Blackness is tested for scholarship eligibility by the benefactor and his friends. (Outside the auditorium, he’s counseled by a kid who advises that the benefactor’s true interest is “the culture of Black in America; it’s a nuanced discussion.”) Of course, there is no nuance to what follows: Aaron is required to provide trivia answers like “227 or Amen?” and “if you put your foot in it, it’s good,” and, ultimately, to dance. Ominously shot more like a darkened interrogation scene than an audition, it’s partly harrowing, partly hilarious, leaning heavily toward the former.
Ultimately, Aaron is judged to be white; he’s denied the money, and his girlfriend dumps him. Dad’s reaction is to shrug it off as “part of being Black. Sometimes you don’t get the things you know you deserve.” Dad comes in for critique here. Some fathers would have marched up to the school before Aaron did, but this one is too resigned to fatalism and tough love to fill out basic financial aid forms to help his son compete. Aaron is squeezed between two cultures, lacking the currency to fully join either one.
This tension explodes in one of the show’s sharpest moments. Aaron and a dark-skinned Nigerian classmate, both jilted for the scholarships, show up in front of the school in the middle of the night with flamethrowers, determined to burn down the building. But who deserves to go first? In a brilliantly written exchange, Aaron lectures the classmate about how he’s not really Black. The show has previously explored the question of what signifiers qualify as Black vs. white in today’s culture (see Lorraine’s final conversation with Al in “New Jazz”), and what is “Black enough” (see Al’s assessment of the diversity advisory committee in “White Fashion”), and this takes things to the ultimate absurdist extension.
The concluding scenes provide turnabout after turnabout upon turnabout. The Nigerian classmate is shot by police, thus earning the scholarship after all. It’s Aaron who ends up in the back of a police car, his post-high-school future set. And it’s here that the satire turns a bit ham-fisted, delivered with a blowtorch instead of the precision instrument behind this season’s “White Fashion,” “The Big Payback,” and even the euthanasia scene in “Sinterklaas Is Coming To Town.” Series creator Donald Glover wrote and directed the episode, and he pulled out all the stops, pocketing any pretense toward subtlety.
But this script may have hit harder with some blanks filled in. (The show has struggled with a tendency toward the elliptical this season, particularly in the anthology episodes, tucking some statements into Easter eggs instead of just making them.) Ultimately, Glover heavily focuses on a protagonist who comes off as a sketch; it would have been interesting to explore him a bit more.
Stray observations
- I legitimately LOL’d at the Logan Paul Comedy Tour T-shirt hanging on Aaron’s wall in the opening scene.
- Aaron himself doesn’t escape critique: In that opening scene, he uses racial slurs after gaming with a couple of other kids.
- Aaron’s sneakers, a preppy brand popularized on Instagram, also get subjected to roasting (both in front of the tribunal and literally, in the flamethrower scene). A tribunal member: “He has no Black friends! They would have told him not to come in here in those mocha-colored Allbirds!”
- A choice moment at the tribunal: “You don’t have to call him Clarence Thomas—he’s not that white.”
62 Comments
George Wallace was excellent in this.Also, those gaming scenes were dead on accurate and exactly why I stopped playing online games with randos.
Agreed. I occasionally play, but I never ever use a mic. Just mute that toxic chat.
friend of mine told me about that and he responded in the same way. They teach that words don’t hurt, can’t cause damage but if that were true, countless dictators wouldn’t have moved to control the media of the current day as quickly and completely as they always did
Man this one hit weirdly close to home for me. At least the tribunal stuff. I’m white passing but native. And I was certainly “raised white” I guess with the “benefits” of whiteness. Switched bands (tribes) a few years ago, along with my mum and sister. A bunch of sitting members had to hear our cases and decide to accept us or not. Mum, no problem. Unanimous. Sister, some hesitancy but about half. But me? hnnn nnn. They did noooot like me (still don’t, I can tell). Only reason I got accepted is by 2 close relatives who were sitting members pushed for it. Not a single vote from anyone else.And like, I GET it. 100% I get it. It hurts though, not gonna lie but hey it’s complicated. Was kind of hoping they’d delve a bit more seriously into that stuff, instead of some goofy-ass flame thrower shit. But whatever. Was mostly liking it in the first half, despite some painful cliches, but last half makes it maybe my least favourite of the season. Maybe I’ll like it more after some reflection and different expectations.
I hear you. I’m half Native American. My father is full blood. What tribes? (You don’t have to say; just know there’s someone who hears you.)
If you’re not the perfect shade of red, you’re not a native to some people. Thankfully, I’ve never had my status officially questioned, unlike you. But as an occasionally white passing native, I understand. I got shit when on the rez for being light-skinned, I got shit off the rez (from regular run-of-the-mill racists) for being too dark.And I got included on some of the fun little racist jokes white people felt comfortable making in front of me when they assumed I was one of them. It doesn’t end. Everybody, everywhere has something to say about whether or not I’m really native — especially white liberals, who, more and more frequently, seem to be authorities on the subject. I went through my teens and early twenties feeling estranged from my community and my family because one or two tribal elders didn’t like that my mom was white. I spent way too much time being performatively native just to impress them — always the first to volunteer my free time at celebrations and raffles. Always helping everybody negotiate government paperwork.In my early thirties, I’m done with that bullshit, dude. Life is too short to waste it caring about the opinions of people I don’t especially respect, elder or not.
.
I don’t have anything to say.
I feel you. I’m Métis but grew up outside Manitoba. I know who I am but it’s hard to have a sense of belonging anywhere.
I will never forget the time I was interviewing for a scholarship, and for some goddamn reasons, they had group interview sessions. A half dozen of us in a room, each taking a turn answering the same question. Of course, it came to “What is the greatest hardship you’ve had to overcome” and it turned into a gross exercise in who had the biggest tale of woe. I about walked out of the room after one said, “Probably my mom’s death last year from cancer.”
That’s such a terrible thing to put on applications in general. Maybe some people don’t want to tell deeply personal painful stories for cash. Or maybe people had a happy life and don’t feel comfortable making something up. I know quite a few people who applied to medical schools recently and their forms were full of this nonsense.
I’m glad my tribe doesn’t give a fuck about blood quantums or anything like that. I didn’t initially have my status because my grandma was native but my grandpa was white and according to Canada’s sexist ass laws that meant she lost her status but it was eventually overturned
heh, same. Granma native, grandpa white. I don’t recall anything about revoked status, but maybe I was too young. I know I couldn’t get status until about 15 years ago. Before then I was considered Metis.
The man who bought the school was none other than the recently departed Kevin Samuels.
I was surprised there was no mention of him
lol why are you surprised? this reviewer has fumbled the point of this assignment every single week.
This reminded me of a weirdly similar College Humor sketch
Reminded me of the Chapelle show racial draft skit.
What on earth is naivé?
The hot new fragrance from Paris.
How the heck did Trini 2 de Bone lean towards horror? Smdh some of the reviews I’ve been seeing for this season are really telling when it comes to how unsettled they are thinking about race as anything but a slightly inconvenient but comfortable status quo.
Trini 2 de Bone is basically about a ghost, so I think it applies. (The kid gave off Sixth Sense vibes, at times too.)
Good point, though I got more a vibe that the kid was influenced by the nanny in life than the nanny was following them in death. It was like these two parents ignored the fullness and vivacity of the person they hired to take care of their child, and they had no clue just how impactful she was to their son. I like the ghost story comparison especially in the sense that most ghost stories begin scary, then usually move towards catharsis as the living learn the true nature of the dead and try to set right whatever wrong is keeping the ghost from moving on. But overall, I didn’t find the episode scary or eerie beyond the story revolving around death.
the repeated delivery of the letter by someone/thing never shown suggests that a ghost was possibly involved. …and he also said good night to her in the chair when it was obvious that she wasn’t there physically.
It was a ghost story because the kid took family pictures with the nanny before the parents could even do it. That’s what shook the father when he opened the envelope.
Not even before they could, but rather because they didn’t. The school photo was illustrative of how they were so disconnected from their son and how the person (whom they treated more as one would a utility, if even an employee) they hired to care for him had more of a familial connection to him than they did. I found it to be incisive-yet-muted social commentary, and it’s so interesting that some found that so haunting.
I want a nanny ghost. We’d go to amusement parks, beaches, take pictures, dance, sing, and only one of us would get tired.
in another Earth variant: they would’ve said: I SEE BLACK PEOPLE
gothic horror was suggested by the implication that the pics were being left by the nanny. …even tho she was dead
“a student’s Blackness is tested”
Reverential capitalizationReverential capitalization is the practice of capitalizing religious words that refer to deities or divine beings in cases where the words would not otherwise have been capitalized
Are there any Black A/V club members here? Kevin Samuel’s died a villian (appropriately, considering his vilotrol), but I think this episode was suppose to rehabilitate his imagine toward a more positive rebrand. I applaud this episode for being in Black and White, while ignoring the governance of gray. It forces you to pick between the two dichotomies without nuisance.
im here but didn’t know anything about him (even tho i’m on the web 5+ hours every day). I’m from the generation where he’d be called ‘a mess’
Dont go digging for him. He was a mean, pandering griffter who got off on kicking and punching down (mostly on Black women) for views and clout.
Fuck this is some Masterclass level navel gazing right here.
I laughed at the “Name 6 things that go with Hennessy” question (which I guess you’d ask a teen?) but yea this one was uneven for me. I think the episode wants me to care about Aaron’s problems, but starting it off with the kid being insultingly racist, just made me not. I also thought it was weird that his Dad, who seems reasonably affable, wouldn’t even bother with FASFA, which gets 90% of students in need into college. (It sure helped out this Chimichanga!) And he’s not like, “I’m busy, I’ll get around to it.” He’s straight up, “I refuse to.” What??
he probably refused to fill out the FAFSA because he understands that no university degree is worth $200k and didn’t want to saddle himself and his son with crippling 6-figure debt before the age of 22. that’s how i read it, anyway.
Wouldn’t not having a degree just doom him to a life of poverty anyway?
lol wut? because community college doesn’t exist? because apprenticeships and work experience don’t exist or count for anything? because he wouldn’t ever think to start his own small business? these days having a Bachelor’s degree guarantees less and less for new grads. refusing to sign off on paperwork that will saddle his 18 year-old kid with 6-figures worth of debt just because all his white friends are doing it? (notice that nowhere in the episode does the kid discuss anything about his future plans/career goals, he clearly only wanted to attend the college that his gf and friends were going to) idk, that sounds like a smart parent to me. honestly, i wish mine had been more proactive about making sure i didn’t fall into that trap, because now we’re living in a nation full of people who will be shackled to student loan debt for the rest of their lives. by the way, tangentially-related, but did you know that 40% of people who take out student loans wind up never graduating with any degree at all? if that’s not the most damning statistic you’ve ever heard, whew…
How do you start a business with no knowledge of any field and no money? That sounds like a recipe for disaster. Why do we suddenly need everyone to become an entrepreneur? How is that even sustainable?
I mean, that was one of like four options the commenter mentioned, so not sure how that equals needing “everyone” to become an entrepreneur.
Besides, in an age with disinformation running rampant we need a MORE educated population, not less. We need to petitiknfor college to not shackle people with debt, not get rid of it entirely (until then it’s a necessary evil). Let’s stricer for a society in which a garbageman can have a philosophy degree and not judge him for it!
How the heck can you consider Student Debt to be a “necessary evil” when it’s inexistent in almost every country that’s not the US? The dad was surely a smart parent, and people having a hard time grasping that says a lot -if anything- on the short-sightedness of US citizens when it comes to the trappings of their highly privatized and predatory practices around university.
So financial success, it turns out, is not equal to a college degree. There are all manners of union/trade/blue collar jobs that pay rather well. I never finished college, but make better than decent money and own a house and can pay all my bills, as I have been able to do for the over fifteen years since I moved out. I also supported my partner for two years while he interned and looked for work without feeling the strain of paying all the bills and double for everything. There are plenty of jobs that have loads of room to grow in terms of pay the longer you stay as well, and at much as I’d sometimes much rather be getting paid to sit at a desk for 8 hours, I don’t have crippling debt that effects every financial decision I have to make.
Filling out a FAFSA is 100% free, no one is obligated to take any loans. However you do need it for Grants and they are basically free money if you meet the requirements. Is it good enough for four years at a University? No but Pell Grants paid all my nieces tuition for two years at a community college. From there she transferred to a University where she graduated with $7,000 in loans. How? She lived with her parents, had a part time job that paid for her transportation and went to school full time. All local. Parents need to be really honest about their finances with their children and the type of college experience they can afford. Not everyone can afford four years at a university. But my niece is better off with a degree from a public university than no degree at all.
I’m not black but I’ve definitely struggled with experiences similar to Aaron. It’s all super complicated, and it can definitely fuck with your head.
Yeah, I’m Afro-Latino, look black, and grew up around a bunch of white Jews. My identity is complicated.
Boy, nothing says “I want my audience to engage with my main characters and my show’s central narrative” then abandoning all of it every other week. I’m thinking The Sopranos is pretty safe from Donald Glover’s proclamation that his show is the only other series on that level.
Got that right. This show is getting tiring
(Note – i had another reply disappear -so if it ends up showing up afterall, please delete it)Considering Glover’s stated goal of ceating “Black fairy tales” i think this one out of the 4 anthology epis came closest to meeting that goal.I have no idea why they chose to go this route, and i do not have the critical/analytical chops to address the technical execution of this Season 3, but viwing it rhrough the presenting “Black faity tails” lens, and recognizing that these are extraordinary and difficult times to produce anything, I’m willing to suspend my expectations of having to see the core gamg every week. Dont get me wrong – i luv me some LaKeith Stanfield as much as the next guy – but i dont remember signing a contract stipulating that the gang has to be front and center in X epis every season. I am willing to engage this art as presented by the artist. I found, overall, that i enjoyed each epi and came away from each one with things to think about. I am absolutely willing to give Glover and Co an “A” for effort for going this route.
Respectfully, yes and no. Yes, I enjoy it as art but to me, it’s not Atlanta. IMHO, it would’ve been better to do a whole series like this, call it something else and not even tie it to Atlanta/the Atlanta characters. A one-off episode like this works in a “normal” season of Atlanta, but not every other episode.Again, it’s obviously a subjective take on my part…Glover can do whatever he wants. But I’m hoping there’s an episode that ties it all together because right now, it’s feeling really disjointed to me.
I can see your point about the disjointed feeling. But, I have really enjoyed it. I like that its nothing like anything else I can get right now (that I know of) and that he’s shooting his shot with playing with expectations and genre. (It reminds me how people used to argue about the value of the Sopranos episodes with Tony in the coma and living another life. And the one scary kidnapping episode in Six Feet under that totally upset the viewers’ expectations of what an episode “owes” to its viewers.)Plus, in my campaign to get friends who don’t watch the show to start, even with this season, I have realized that the four main characters are kind of ciphers. With some really minimal descriptions, I can bring newbies up to speed very quickly. They haven’t changed all that much in four seasons, have they? I think that lends them to being put in any situation and we can see that its as much (more?) about what is happening around them than the specific characters. With some definite exceptions, the characters are still exactly where they were emotionally and intellectually in season two.
But in the Sopranos episodes you’re talking about…the main characters were still part of the episode. It’s not like they had an episode about an Asian family living in California and then the next week, back to the Sopranos in Jersey.I’ve enjoyed it in an artistic sense, but I like the characters in Atlanta. I want to see more of them, not less. And if there was like one episode like the last one (ep 9), ok; you’re playing with the form. But there’s been like, what, 4 episodes (so far) out of 9 where it’s a whole different cast.
I’m riding it out but it’s definitely trying my patience, I can’t lie.
I like how the episode is in black and white. Get it. Black and white.
Honestly, I think it was shot that way to keep Aaron looking as racially ambiguous as possible. That NONE of his white friends seem to know he’s of mixed heritage demands that we keep from questioning their obliviousness even after the reveal of his father. I checked out the actor’s IG, and that (very, very handsome) man doesn’t appear to be as white passing as the episode portrays him. His name is Tyriq Withers if you wanna check out his profile.
It seems like the real theme of the season is shitty parents. All the anthology episodes have had shitty parents and Earn and Van have left their child with Van’s parents. I wonder if that is going to be brought to the front or just a background theme.
Why is the dad shitty here? Because he won’t co-sign a loan for out-of-state tuition at Arizona State, a school whose undergrad program doesn’t crack the top-100 in the nation? Because he wants his son to learn the value of money early? Because he’s passing on his own life lessons?Kids aren’t entitled to financial support after they turn 18 and I feel like many who do get it aren’t appreciative enough.
Because it’s a father’s duty!!!
The small thing about this episode that bugs me is that ASU is clearly out-of-state for the central character (based on the tuition he quotes) and it’s ridiculous to me that so many kids consider or go to schools out-of-state when they don’t have scholorships. You’re essentially paying 3-4x the tuition you would at an in-state school that is more than likely going to have an identical undergrad program.Like I didn’t see his dad refusing to cosign as a bad thing – I saw it as his dad helping his son avoid $150k extra in debt for no good reason. And no – wanting to go to same school as your friends is not a good reason.
what the fuck is this show even about anymore? Anytime i drop in its some weird arty bullshit with people i dont know. I liked it when it was just about the donald glover character, his gf, and his friends. Is it even about them anymore?
I’m getting tired of this show.
In general, I’m not a fan of
‘are you Black enough?’ conversations if they aren’t going to be nuanced, and
this really wasn’t. It almost gets there when he meets the Nigerian kid (‘sup!)
but it’s a missed opportunity because there is a conversation to be had between
African-Americans who know their decent and African Americans who don’t, and it probably shouldn’t be in the form of a lecture from
a white-looking boy about what we 1st generations here already know. Glover’s writing here bothered me alot.
Interesting review from a Black woman, regarding the casting choices amongst other things https://www.vulture.com/article/atlanta-season-3-episode-9-recap-rich-wigga-poor-wigga.html