Black-ish is taking on big things and breaking down cultural barriers nationwide. The second season of the show premieres tonight, and one of the younger members of the family commits the ultimate taboo of uttering the N-word in public.
Jack, portrayed by Miles Brown, is in the middle of displaying amazing rhyme skills in his performance of ‘Gold Digger’ when he uses the socially prohibited term in front of the masses who were enjoying his rendition of the song up until that point.
Although many entertainers and producers would be afraid to address race on prime time television, Tracee Ellis Ross is excited about the new venture. “I’m like ‘let’s go,'” exclaims the actress. “If an episode like this on a mainstream network could give them an opportunity to even just question something and go, ‘wait a minute. I didn’t even know that word was an issue?’ and start to do their own research or if a family can all of a sudden start to have their own dialogue on this word to see where they land and how they feel about it and explore the history around it, then we’ve done our job.”
The show’s creator, Kenya Barris, also weighs in on the episode that is likely to be the talk of the night. “As much as we’re supposed to be this evolved, changing culture, every day there is something where racism will show its face,” says Barris. “When Obama used the word to make a point about racism, we felt like it was a really good time to speak on it and one of the things we tried to get on the show, because of the make-up of the family and both those different generational conflicts, we really tried to explore through a lot of different points of view, and that felt like a good time.”
See how Jack and the Johnson family handle the N-word tonight when season two of Black-ish premieres tonight at 9:30/8:30c on ABC. Watch the teaser below!
https://youtu.be/crjRa8Kp3Ok
