Maybe it's just that I'm overly enthusiastic at this moment, but I think this show on ABC about two heinous murders is the best dissection of race and class I've seen since Do the Right Thing. Every character is precisely drawn. Each defies and transcends their stereotype. And the scenes are emotionally wrenching.
The character I like the most--and I'm not saying I agree with her--is the mother of the slain boy, Barb Hanlon (played by Felicity Huffman). She represents a type you rarely see or at least you rarely see drawn sympathetically with their flaws intact--the middle-class or working-class white person who feels "put upon" by blacks. It's not that she's an out and out, vicious racist, but programs like affirmative action and all the attention to racism on the media have given her the impression that blacks have exaggerated the discrimination they face.
Polls show that more Americans think racism against whites is a bigger problem than it is against blacks. This boggles the mind. No matter how many studies come out, no matter how many African Americans are shot by white cops--nothing can convince these people that blacks face rampant racism in our society.
It's a vicious cycle. Every time a news story comes out about racism against blacks, the person thinks, "there go those black people again, complaining about everything" and it further affirms her conviction that it's whites who are the real victims. I have no idea what you could do to break this cycle since the more evidence you present that African Americans face discrimination, the more the person feels whites are under attack.
And yet, I have a certain sympathy for Barb. Not because of her beliefs, but because of what she's been through. She's raised two kids on her own after her ex-husband gambled away all her money and abandoned them. That's bound to make even the most magnanimous person a little jaded. Barb is a hard-headed survivalist, which is what she had to become to raise her kids.
Please no spoilers in the comments! I'm only four episodes into the show.