The 7 Best Moments From Black-ish’s Most Woke Episode Yet

Bringing to a close what’s turned out to be the most lit Black History Month in a long time, the February 24 episode of Black-ish showed us again just how woke and unapologetically Black that cast and crew is. (If you missed it, watch it now, and then come back here and discuss).

Called “Hope,” this episode is framed around a fictional, but all-too-familiar police brutality case. Like the majority of cases we’ve witnessed in the past several years (not to mention decades upon decades), the one on the show also ends with the officers not being indicted. There were many important moments throughout the episode but here are 7 of our faves:

Screenshot/ABC
Screenshot/ABC

1) When Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” plays throughout the opening sequence. Lyrics like “Trigger happy policing” can be heard in the background as images of police in riot gear and protesters flash across the TV screen.

 

Gifty
Gifty

2) When Dre said what we all were thinking and feeling when President Obama got out of the protection of his armored car to walk among the people on that very first Inauguration Day.

 

Photo: Screenshot/ABC |Editing: sesimag
Photo: Screenshot/ABC |Editing: sesimag

3) When they kept it all the way 100 about just how many times police brutality has happened in recent years by going over 6 or 7 (fictional) cases, as Zoey tries to remember what the current one was all about.

 

Screenshot/ABC
Screenshot/ABC

4) When they were still able to make us laugh a little through our tears. Jack: “What?! The police are shooting people with no arms? Why am I just now hearing about this?” Junior: “No, Jack. ‘Unarmed’ means he didn’t have a weapon.” Jack: “Of course he didn’t have a weapon. He had no arms!”

 

Gifty
Gifty

5) How they flawlessly lived up to the episode’s title “Hope” by bringing several forms of it all up and through the scenes: Hope being stolen from us throughout history, people still having hope that things like the justice system will finally work well for all someday, and how hopeless we feel each time it doesn’t. (But, still, we never give up — hope.) Just keeping things so real.

 

Screenshot/ABC
Screenshot/ABC

6) When the family ultimately goes out to march with the protesters together.

 

Screenshot/ABC
Screenshot/ABC

7) When the episode ends with images of hope (Obama’s swearing in, an image of the new 1 World Trade Center, a photo of a little Black boy high-fiving a group of policemen …) — and John Legend’s “If you’re out there.”

 

How did you feel about this episode of Black-ish? Tell us in the comments below!

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sesimag

Quarterly print teen magazine for Black girls ages 13 to 19. Covering The Black Girl's Mainstream™

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