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This month on The Middle Geeks, we’re joined by our friend and fellow DCTV fan Andy Behbakht to discuss why we love the character Zari Tomaz/Tarazi on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow so much. This character brings such wonderful representation, for which we’re very grateful. What does Tala Ashe bring to the role in her excellent performance […]
Written By: Megan Maher
Black Lightning Season 3 has been stellar!
The storyline has taken on an institutionalized genre feel, and it has caused some serious issues for our favorite family, the Pierces.
This season we find Freeland under martial law by the government. The secretive government organization ASA has illegally experimented on the citizens of Freeland for over thirty years, which resulted in the creation of several meta-humans, including Black Lightning. In Season 2, the show planted all the necessary seeds that have the Pierce family in the Season 3 conundrum:
- A metahuman army would be the most powerful army, and whoever is able to capture and sell the metahuman army will be extremely powerful and rich.
- The Markovians are evil, and ASA is here to stop them.
- Freeland is ground zero for the “inevitable” war.
At the top of Season 3, the ASA has planted the seed that they are the “institution” that Freeland must trust to fight the threat of the Markovians by any means necessary. The ASA believes in putting the group ahead of the most basic of human values (i.e., putting metahumans, including children into cages). The Pierce family wants to save the city, and they are fully aware that the ASA is sketchy and corrupt, but there’s one problem. The big bad Agent Odell (head of the ASA) has done an exquisite job of isolating the members of the Pierce family from one another. I would like to further examine the initial actions that Lynn, Jefferson, and Anissa individually took to fight the institution.
Lynn Stewart’s approach is to work within the system to achieve the acquired change that she desires. Due to the evil nature of the ASA and Lynn’s constant work with them, it is easy to write her off as a sellout not only to her community, but to her family full of metahumans. However, that judgment is an overly simplified way of viewing her character choices (or this is an overly complicated way of examining it, either way). Lynn’s idealistic nature ultimately gets the better of her, and she finds herself on the common trope of “the road to hell is full of good intentions.” However, it can be easily argued that if Lynn were not working with the ASA, many more metahuman lives would have been taken and the conditions for the people of Freeland would have been worse.
Lynn’s approach of infiltrating the system to spark change is akin to historical and current political figures, who have joined forces with organizations and systems that have negatively impacted people in hopes of sparking change or, at the very least, making the world a better place.
Jefferson Pierce trades his freedom to the ASA for the “guaranteed” protection of his family. His approach is very much the approach often heard: “conform or be crushed.” He stays within the ASA’s care and he uses his powers to fight alongside the ASA as he helps discover intel for them. However, this is a choice that is made purely for the protection of his girls. When he leaves the ASA’s care, he takes a strong stance against the injustice plaguing Freeland. Jefferson adopts a bit of the “turn the other cheek” mentality and gets pummeled by the ASA guards in the process, thus further separating him from the ASA. It took Jefferson a while to join the rebellion, but after the death of a Garfield student, Jefferson can no longer straddle the fence.
Jefferson’s approach involves a lot of critical thinking and patience that can sometimes be annoying and misrepresented in society. In real life, when events happen that can seem so obvious about what is right or what is wrong, we tend to quickly hear some version of the sentiment, “if you don’t stand for something, you fall for anything.” However, the reality is, individuals do sometimes need time to grasp and understand what is happening before deciding what is best for them.
Anissa’s approach is much more impulsive and showcases her youth compared to her parents. She creates a dual secret identity as Blackbird and begins to lead the metas through the ASA perimeter. Due to her secret identity and extremely dangerous activities with freeing the metas of Freeland, she and Jefferson’s relationship goes through a rough patch. The strife in their relationship is pushed even further after Anissa loses her powers during an escape run gone wrong. However, after Jefferson helps Anissa by helping Grace escape to safety, they seem to patch things up rather quickly.
Anissa is the easiest person to root for out of the three; she sided with what the audience views as right from the beginning. However, Anissa has the least amount of factors and “things” to lose when it comes to making choices about how to stand up to such a macro entity, such as the ASA in times like that.
Ultimately, I have really appreciated all the nuance that Season 3 has shown when dealing with an institutionalized problem. It mirrors our current political and social state at the moment. Black Lightning does a great job this season of character examination and exploring the complications that people and society often have without placing too much judgment on the beloved characters.
The post Season 3 of ‘Black Lightning’ Has Taken on an Institutionalized Feel appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
Sterling K. Brown — the man we’ve grown to love, making history and collecting awards.
While I remember him back in the day from Supernatural, he has lent his talents to popular films like Black Panther, Hotel Artemis, Frozen 2, and most recently Waves. He is also blessed to have been recognized for his roles on TV in series like Army Wives, American Crime Story, and currently everyone’s favorite cryfest, This Is Us.
Speaking on his current role as Randall Pearson on This Is Us, BGN got to chat with Sterling for a special conversation about this week’s hot-topic episode: mental health and the stigma surrounding it in the Black community. Randall is battling with anxiety this season and has pursued professional help. It’s a topic that needs to be discussed, as African Americans may be reluctant to discuss mental health and treatment. There is a shame associated with such conditions that Black people, especially Black men, still find holding them back from seeking help. Many of us would hear the phrases, “Snap out of it…” or “Pull it together,” or we’d ignore it altogether with the help of drugs or alcohol. So often young men find asking for help synonymous with words like “weak” or “sissy.” So often our people experience more severe forms of mental health conditions because of unmet needs or barriers like exclusion from healthcare, education, and resources.
Sterling approaches the topic with a more personal touch having dealt with mental health issues in his own world. “So, I have a few members in my family, who are living with different mental illnesses ranging from schizophrenia to bipolar to anxiety. And I know what it’s like with them to navigate a world in which on the outside, they seem normal, like the wounds aren’t readily visible.”
Sterling continues by talking about how people expect certain things from them. When those expectations aren’t met, there are feelings being pushed on them of being outside or weird. There is a quote that comes to mind from the film Joker: “The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t.” As Sterling notes, “There needs to be a degree of reach for us as a society to meet them where they are, instead of expecting everyone to meet you where you are.”
Sterling relayed how important it is to him to show people who are living with mental illness while still having productive lives. He wants to be able to be an example for someone who may not think it possible for themselves. “While Randall falls outside of this point of view of being socialized by the Black community, there’s this idea of you take care of your stuff. You deal with your own. And in a way, that gets it done, because yes, the world is hard. You are Black in this country.” There are certain things that Black people have to deal with that “mainstream counterparts,” as Sterling put it, do not. “But it doesn’t mean that you have to soldier that thing by yourself. Communication is a big part of where so many of us get wrong. Being able to talk to someone is soul mending. We have all heard that we shouldn’t keep things bottled inside, yet no one wants to hear it when it comes out.”
While Randall is a character that Sterling plays, the idea of therapy or just the act of talking to someone is something that he is familiar with. The goal of talking to someone is a way to deescalate things just enough that you can go about your day. Sterling has a best friend who he’s known since kindergarten. “We talk to each other almost every day. And I know I’ve saved on my own therapy bills because I have my boy to talk to.”
Finding that person who loves and supports you while giving that constructive criticism can make a difference, but a professional view is also important. For some, even when the resources are available, there is still that stigma that hangs around. “At Stanford,” says Sterling on his alma mater, “we had this thing called CAPS, which was counseling on campus and you had to reach out for it. But there was the stigma just to go. If somebody went to CAPS, you never told anybody that you went.”
Sterling was not afraid to tell us firsthand about his experience with therapy. “I found it to be beyond beneficial as an individual, as a married person, even when things are good within marriage. Sometimes you need an objective person to be like, ‘Y’all just missing each other, just a little bit.’”
There is helpfulness that comes from an objective third party. We all have a tendency to give advice. This is especially true for those who grew up in a religious household. The end-all is to pray, talk to the minister, repent, and we will be told what do or the best way to fix it. “I feel like so many people feel dismissed or unheard because they’re like, ‘Yeah, you’ll be fine,’ or something like that,” says Sterling.
Sterling is proud of his character on This is Us and proud of the writers who thought to put a character like this out for people to see. The show not only showcases Randall dealing with his mental illness, but also showcases how the people around him handle it. “I felt like Jack [Randall’s father] did the best that he knew how, because Jack is not a big open human being himself. So Jack was like, ‘Get out and run and it’s going to be okay.’” Sterling continues, “I love that I get a chance to raise a son who has no sort of stigma attached to the idea of going to therapy.”
This Is Us is a beautiful show that is structured so well, paralleling the real-life with the art. “You get to see these people now getting to the same parts of life and recognizing that they’re figuring it out,” says Sterling. Telling stories with these universal can help people see themselves in these stories.
You can catch Sterling in Frozen 2, now available on DVD/Blu-ray, and on This is Us airing Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. on NBC.
The post Interview: Sterling K. Brown on Mental Health in the Black Community appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
Rihanna is never one to hold her tongue on important issues. On Saturday, during the 51st NAACP Awards held at the Pasadena Convention Center in California, the Fenty beauty mogul, clad in a regal purple tulle ensemble, accepted the prestigious President’s Award for her philanthropic contributions
NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement that Rihanna received the award for her work as a “stellar public servant” in addition to her accomplished career as chart-topping artist. “From her business achievements through Fenty, to her tremendous record as an activist and philanthropist, Rihanna epitomizes the type of character, grace, and devotion to justice that we seek to highlight in our President’s Award,” he said.
“I’m lucky I was able to start the Clara Lionel Foundation in 2012,” Rihanna said during her speech about the nonprofit organization she founded in honor of her grandparents. The organization helps fund education and emergency response programs.
“We can’t do it divided. I cannot emphasize that enough. We can’t let the de-sensitivity seep in. The, ‘If it’s your problem, then it’s not mine; it’s a woman’s problem; it’s a black people problem; it’s a poor people problem,'” said Rihanna, who was named Harvard’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2017.
During her acceptance speech, she made a call to action for allies, pushing them to champion so-called black issues. “Well then, they want to break bread with you, right? They like you? Well then, this is their problem, too. So when we’re marching and protesting and posting about the Michael Brown Jr.s and the Atatiana Jeffersons of the world, tell your friends to pull up,” she said to thunderous applause.