Please See WHEN THEY SEE US

It's like hard punches to the gut. That's how WHEN THEY SEE US from director and co-writer Ava DuVernay hit me. I'm sure that you've heard it's about the 1989 case of the Black and Latino teens the press called The Central Park Five. They were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned as teens. Today, they are exonerated men.  WHEN THEY SEE US is on Netflix. I had planned to binge-watch the entire mini-series over the weekend. After Part 2, I needed to take a break for a day and let my soul settle. The first two chapters shook me that deeply.

DuVernay's strength as a filmmaker is at its peak here. She has said that her films are her children. Ava DuVernay treats the story of Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana -- the boys who were tagged The Central Park Five -- as if they were her children. She humanizes them in the beginning chapter, something several press reports did not do when the story broke. I remember it well. I lived in New York at the time and I was working on VH1. We see the boys with home lives in their neighborhoods. We see them with loving relatives. We see them just being kids -- which they were.  Then the arrests happened.

As a film, a work that has actors and a script, what I have seen so far is excellent and moving. I feel that, if it was a theatrical release, it would be getting Oscar buzz for a Best Picture nomination. The punches to the gut are the way Ava DuVernay lets the crime against the boys reveal itself. She is not heavy-handed about it. You're watching this intense, infuriating action and then you find yourself saying "Dear Lord. They're just boys and they've been ruthlessly interrogated by cops for hours. One has been slapped repeatedly. No lawyers present. They've been separated from their parents for hours."  Actor John Leguizamo plays one of the parents.

We saw that the boys wrongfully accused of rape were being raped themselves. Their spirits, lives and rights are being raped before our eyes in WHEN THEY SEE US.

I want to mention a couple of things that may not seem connected but they are.

My late partner was a white Southern Baptist. He was like a Son of the New South with his views on America's critical need for racial equality and other civil rights. When we met, he had a good job as a clerk in one of Manhattan's most famous department stores. A number of times, he mentioned to me something on the job that bothered him. During the school year, when classes were done for the day, nearby high school students would come into the store. He said that upscale white kids would be loud and bothersome. They'd pick up articles of clothing on display tables, look at them and drop them back down unfolded.  Black and Latino kids would come into the store and be courteous. However, a security guard would follow them around and make them feel so unwanted that they'd leave the store. The security officer never approached or scolded the unruly white kids.

This was in 1992. Richard, my late partner, got so irritated seeing this happen on a regular basis that he reported the security guard seen intimidating the Black and Latino kids to the head of personnel. Although Richard's work record was stellar, he was fired for being a whistleblower. Why? He learned later that the security guard and the head of store personnel were close friends. About five years later -- Richard had passed away by that time -- there was a local TV news story. An investigation piece. There were complaints similar to the ones Richard had raised. A news crew went into the store with a hidden camera and a concealed microphone. What Richard had complained about had still been going on and it had been caught on camera by a news crew. The store was forced to make personnel changes.

A couple of weeks before America's presidential election, I grabbed a bite with a longtime buddy in New York City. He's white and financially well off and has other white friends who are also financially secure. He considers himself to be liberal. I was stunned to hear him say that he was voting for Trump. He said he was doing so because he didn't like Hillary Clinton and all the business about her emails. I told him my choice was Hillary. He felt Trump would be harmless and good for the country financially. I was stunned again when he leaned over the cafe table and said, "I don't think Trump's racist. Do you?"

I didn't answer immediately. My face was frozen.

I replied, "Yes. I do. He called Mexicans rapists and murderers. His comments about Muslims. The birtherism. Demanding to see Obama's birth certificate. His statements years ago about The Central Park Five."

"What statements?"

My middle-aged buddy was completely unaware of Trump's statements and newspaper ads about The Central Park Five. I explained it all to him as seriously as if I was a doctor telling him he needed to have a tumor removed before it was too late. He listened to me and softly replied, "Oh."

Trump's expensive full-page 1989 newspaper ads calling for the execution of the teens are mentioned in the first 20 minutes of Part Two.  DuVernay lets Trump speak for himself.

My upscale white buddy, people like him and people like the former head of personnel at that famous mid-town Manhattan department store are exactly the ones who need to watch WHEN THEY SEE US.  The people who do not understand why football player Colin Kaepernick took a knee on the field need to see this. He was not out to disrespect the flag and war veterans. He wanted to call attention to a critical condition in America. Not all citizens are treated equally in the Land of the Free. Look at the corruption of power, the racism and injustice that broke lives in WHEN THEY SEE US years before a real killer/rapist confessed to the crime. Such injustice continues because the mere sight of another person's color can make that person a second class citizen not seen worthy of equal rights, equal opportunities or equal respect.

All Black youths need to see this feature. Even if you're so light-skinned that your suburban folks have beguiled you into thinking that you're so light you haven't got skin in the game -- you are still Black and have skin in the game. You need to go to Netflix and watch this.

I'll be watching the rest of WHEN THEY SEE US this week. Here's a trailer.

The story of  The Central Park Five has also inspired an opera. The new work of music premieres this month, June 15th, at the Long Beach Opera in South California. For more information, click onto this link:

www.LongBeachOpera.org.