Last night, ABC re-aired a 2016 episode of black-ish which dealt specifically with police brutality and systemic racism in America, via Hollywood Reporter. The episode, entitled “Hope,” was re-aired due to the recent protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Black-ish surrounds Dre Johnson, played by Anthony Anderson (Scary Movie 3), a father of four who feels that his success in life has restricted his family’s own views of their ethnic identities. The show is particularly popular for their episodes that discuss social and political issues that are not-too-often talked about. The plot of “Hope” consists of the family’s feelings towards court case about an African American alleged victim of police brutality and how the parents want to address it to their children, via Hollywood Reporter.
When the episode initially aired in February of 2016, the show’s creator Kenya Barris (#blackAF) said in an interview, “I just hope that it’s received well and I hope that it actually starts a conversation, because I think that it’s a conversation we need to have.” Now that the episode is being re-aired, Barris wrote a post on Instagram regarding the inspiration for this episode and why it’s being aired again years later.
In addition to “Hope,” ABC also aired the show’s fourth-season premiere, “Juneteenth,” which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States with a musical episode. Black-ish has since been renewed for its seventh season and currently has two spin-offs: grown-ish, starring Yara Shahidi (The Sun is also a Star), which was just renewed for its fourth season, and mixed-ish, starring Arica Himmel (Before You Know It), which was just renewed for its second season.